by Rebecca Walker — September 6, 2010—The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota, in partnership with Cummins Power Generation, Inc., has begun a project to demonstrate the production of heat and power from high-moisture biomass.
Cummins Power Generation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of power generation equipment, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has provided the electrical generator for the project, a key component in producing 35 to 40 kilowatts of power a day, enough for one home.
The EERC’s gasification unit can convert a range of fuels, such as forestry, agricultural, and industrial biomass waste; animal waste; waste plastics; and railroad ties or cable poles as well as a range of coals, into clean syngas. Together, the Cummins and EERC technologies will work in harmony as a gasification-based combined heat and power technology, with a variety of applications.
One advantage of a combined heat and power system compared to a typical internal combustion generator operating on fossil fuel is its improved emission profiles. The physical properties of the biomass feedstocks, such as their origin, storage, and aging, can often vary. That variation can affect the performance and, ultimately, impact stack emissions when used in a typical internal combustion generator. The synergistic and seamless integration of an advanced gasifier and the engine generator will overcome this limitation and achieve environmentally acceptable emissions. The project aims to demonstrate this fact.
The outcome of the project will lead to the development and demonstration of engine performance on syngas, producing data for environmental permitting and providing strategies for achieving emission levels that meet current and future environmental regulations, which are critical for successful commercialization of combined heat and power technologies.
