Global warming has already had drastic consequences and it is set to continue unless we do something drastic about it. Bio-FlexGen is a European research project dedicated to generate energy from sustainable biomass. This will result in a circular and zero emissions energy supply. Bio-FlexGen is driven by technological innovation and a pan-European collaboration.
How does Bio-FlexGen make a difference?
Within the three year lifecycle of the project (2021-2024), the Bio-FlexGen engineers will develop a unique combined heat and power plant (CHP). The system will provide hourly, daily and seasonal flexibility. Hourly flexibility is provided by starting quickly on green hydrogen when power is needed. Daily flexibility is achieved by producing cost-effective heat and power from different types of sustainable biomass during winter. Lastly, seasonal flexibility is reached by producing hydrogen from biomass when there is low heat demand. With this secure and flexible approach, Bio-FlexGen will allow larger amounts of intermittent solar and wind energy to be integrated in the energy system.
For Bio-FlexGen coordinator Susanne Paulrud from the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, this novel approach makes a big difference: “Due to a higher level of flexibility and efficiency, the Bio-FlexGen CHP can use four different operation modes. This will optimise the production of different products such as heat, electricity, hydrogen and biogenic CO2 – depending on the market fluctuations”.
The EU has set out its Green Deal to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. Michael Bartlett is CTO of the Swedish technology company Phoenix BioPower and part of Bio-FlexGen. For him, “the Green Deal is all about having a secure and robust transition from fossil energies to renewable energies, and that’s really the heart of this project – to be able to convert renewable fuels like biomass and hydrogen into useful heat and electricity”. Since 2016, Phoenix BioPower has been developing and producing Biomass-fired TopCycle (BTC) plants to convert biomass to power.
Greenwashing?
But sure enough, the production of green hydrogen is a controversial topic. An article from Unearthed hits the nail on the head: “Why oil companies want you to love hydrogen”. Unearthed is the UK award-winning Greenpeace publishing project. Their journalists cover controversial topics in the field of energy and climate change. In the article on oil companies, the industry’s financial interest is clearly exposed: A hype which could “provide billions in subsidies to energy companies – but little benefit for the planet”. But how can the oil companies be outsmarted?
Better differentiate!
Greenpeace differentiates very clearly: “Definitions of different types of “low carbon” gases should be very explicit for a clear distinction. Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources and hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, with or without carbon capture storage. There are three types of hydrogen: 1. “Fossil-based hydrogen with carbon capture”, 2. “fossil-based hydrogen” and 3. hydrogen produced from nuclear power : “nuclear-based hydrogen” or “non-renewable hydrogen”.
So, there are major differences in how hydrogen is produced. However, Bio-FlexGen is REALLY green: the power plant will operate with up to 100% green hydrogen (from solar and/or wind) with an optimised combination of bioenergy. This will provide secure, sustainable and plannable sources for power and heat.
Taxo – what?
The European Green Taxonomy is another crucial topic. Naturally, the industry wants to invest in green technology. But Michael Bartlett points out, “what is labelled as green or not is partly political and partly technical. It is a risk for a company that biomass is considered non sustainable”. Nevertheless, Michael Bartlett is at ease with the sustainability issue: “What we always ensure is to target waste streams from, say, sustainable forestry. We use the parts of the tree left over after timber or other wood products have been created.” He is sure that timber will also be used in the building sector as it produces less CO2 emissions than concrete. And it even stores carbon. That will result in more forests, more timber and more waste streams that can be used to produce electricity.
Biomass vs. food production
One of the most controversial issues related to the use of biomass is the alleged competition for land space for food production. Gustav Melin, CEO of the Swedish environmental organisation Svebio clarifies: “A lot of people believe that we don’t have enough food, but it’s not true, and it hasn’t been true since 1980 at least. During the last 60 years, yield increase per hectare has been higher than the increase in the global population. Year by year, we use less and less land to produce the food we need. Everyone who can afford to pay gets food. But not everyone has money”. So, starvation (or lack of food) is much more a question of global wealth distribution than that of food production.
Towards a circular economy
Bio-FlexGen uses biomass to generate electricity from waste streams, such as timber residues. Those usually end up in the bin. But: “In Bio-FlexGen, we can use the waste streams to generate electricity at low cost, giving us the ability to use less fossil fuels”, says Michael Bartlett.
For Gustav Melin, former president of Bioenergy Europe and loosely associated with Bio-FlexGen, “this kind of energy is available everywhere, plants grow everywhere so everyone who has land is able to grow biomass for energy”.
Managing the forests could be another controversial topic. But as Melin explains, “when you cultivate crops you need to do so properly, in an environmentally sustainable way. There is nothing wrong with biomass – we are all biomass after all”. And Michael Bartlett knows from experience that “you can have an increase in forest stock and at the same time use it. That combination of having more forests every year and using biomass from them is very important for the transition from fossil fuel towards a circular economy.”
Let’s talk science
The Bio-FlexGen Project is developing a flexible and highly efficient renewable energy CHP technology with 25 MWe capacity. A novel gasification system, combustion chamber and gas turbine are being designed to extract biomass energy in an optimal way. This plant, with on-demand digital optimisation, can therefore flexibly and efficiently generate four different products for the broader energy system or industrial applications: electricity, heat, hydrogen and/or biogenic CO2. This biogenic CO2 is another key feature of the Bio-FlexGen plant: When stored, it permanently removes CO2 from the atmosphere, which effectively reverses our emissions from the past. Biopower is provided with a very high efficiency (55 percent), plus a wide range of loads (25 to 100 percent). This will be achieved by converting variable supplies of different low-cost biomass residues, while fast-dispatch peak power is provided off-season from green hydrogen.
Making the Green Deal real!
For Susanne Paulrud, the Bio-FlexGen coordinator, “Bio-FlexGen will make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the energy system.” Michael Bartlett complements: “Our ultimate goal is to provide a secure, renewable and low cost energy for society and industry”. And for Gustav Melin it is clear that “this project has a fantastic potential.” So, yes indeed: Bio-FlexGen is a real Green Deal!
Written by Esther Sánchez García, Regina Schwald and Michael Bartlett
Background info about Bio-FlexGen:
The Bio-FlexGen consortium consists of a balanced multidisciplinary team of 14 partners and 5 EU countries (Spain, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Hungary). It provides a multi-stakeholder approach and covers the whole value chain through a combination of scientific and technology developers (Research Centres and universities), technology providers (SMEs or large companies), case studies and stakeholders (chemical industry players, cement companies), experts in impact assessment, dissemination and policies (consultancies).
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