New combustion equipment that will use “unconventional” biomass

LSolé, a specialist in clean energy solutions for industrial use—steam, hot and cold water, and hot gases—is promoting its new "Emerging Biomass Fireplace" combustion system for 2017. This system operates using biomass from emerging markets, primarily in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, as well as in Spain and the rest of Eur . It will be used in both industrial settings and large heating networks and can be integrated with various types of boilers with thermal outputs between 2 and 20 MW. Using its maximum thermal capacity of 20 MW in a district (DH) network, LSolé estimates that one Emerging Biomass Fireplace could meet the thermal energy needs—heating and hot water—of more than 3,400 homes.

LSolé acts as leader of the R&D&I project called “New Home for the Efficient Conversion of Non-Conventional Biomass (Emerging Markets)” and whose acronym is HBE for “Emerging Biomass Home” in which it also participates together with the Research Center for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE) which contributes its experience and research and innovation capacity.

The project will investigate the properties of these "unconventional" fuels, their potential effects, develop a specific fuel and heating system, and construct a demonstration plant. The total duration is expected to be three years, from its start in October 2014 to its planned completion in December 2017.

Valorization:
The valorization of these biofuels presents potential for the development of local economies by providing access to a renewable energy source. However, complex biomasses require the proper management of a series of technical challenges during combustion, as they often exhibit highly variable moisture content, very high fines content, and/or very high ash content and percentages of critical elements (K, Si, Cl, S, etc.) that must be managed.

The availability of biomass is primarily geographical since its supply depends on logistics when transport is done by truck.

This circumstance establishes a limit of approximately 100 kilometers (although in Spain it is exported by ship over greater distances). Furthermore, the objective conditions of the biomass, such as moisture content, determine its cost-effectiveness (excessive moisture requires drying in designated areas, handling, etc.). On the other hand, both of these circumstances present challenges that become opportunities. Biomass, being a local fuel, is not subject to the fluctuations of fossil fuels, which are often affected by geopolitical or speculative factors. This allows customers to significantly increase their savings year after year, and the same applies to complex biofuels.

LSolé's current technology already allows for the differentiated energy valorization of renewable biomass such as bagasse, rice husks, wood chips, African palm, and King grass in countries like Honduras, where it operates more than 20 plants with 200 MW of thermal capacity in industries such as textiles and food processing for the generation of energy—process steam. This distinctive LSolé furnace technology was developed from 2007 to 2009 in the CDTI project “High-performance machinery for the combustion of complex biomasses.”