ECN, Royal Dahlman, sign gasification technology licence deal
By Energy Research Center of the Netherlands | May 24, 2013
The ECN gasification technology produces gas that can be converted to power through cogeneration stations or gas turbines, biodiesel and other transportation fuels, or biogas for the grid.
PHOTO: ECN.
A gasification technology developed by the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands will be applied on a global scale in the new few years, as ECN has signed a license agreement with Dutch company Royal Dahlman.
Royal Dahlman plans to implement the “MILENA” gasification technology in various countries and across many different projects. Using the technology, various kinds of waste and biomass can be converted into high energy gas. In ECN’s testing facility, wood and agricultural waste from soya or rice was used. The gas MILENA produces can be converted to electricity through combined heat and power stations or gas turbines, biodiesel and other transportation fuels, or biogas for the grid.
To remove tar from the gas ECN has developed “OLGA” technology, which Royal Dahlman will also use. In the Dutch city of Alkmaar, a testing plant has been constructed for the gasification of waste. In India, a testing facility has been built to generate electricity from agricultural waste, and in the U.K., the Energy Technologies Institute has selected Royal Dahlman to design the most cost effective waste-to-energy plant, combining MILENA and OLGA.
“MILENA is the missing link through which biomass may be converted into a usable gas. The problem of biomass gasification has always been its low efficiency. We have solved that with MILENA,” commented Ruud van den Brink of ECN. “Compared to other technologies it’s suitable for the gasification of various wastes and biomasses. The gas it produces can be used to make biogas, but also biodiesel.”
Royal Dahlman has many clients who want to use the gas in combined heat and power stations to generate electricity. In the future the company also hopes to turn the gas into transportation fuels or chemical products