A gasified wood biomass co-generation pilot plant started operation in April 2004 in Tachikawa Town, Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan. The five-year project is being carried out by the Tachikawa CS Center Co., and was approved by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as one of its joint research programs for 2003. The company built a pilot plant during the first year of the project, and plans to collect data over the next four years.

The pilot plant, built on the site of the Tachikawa CS Center, consists of three facilities, one each for pre-treatment, gasification and co-generation. The fuel used is wood waste from a lumber mill located one kilometer away from the plant. The wood is reduced to sawdust, and put into the gasifier to produce biogas. After foreign particles and moisture are removed, the biogas is fed into the power generation and co-generation systems, in which electricity and heat are recovered. The plant will generate 50 kWh of electricity with a power-generation efficiency of 15 percent, and is expected to achieve 75 percent total energy efficiency.

The biogas is used as supplementary fuel in equipment used to carbonize sludge, the electricity is used to power the plant itself, and the waste heat is used to heat the plant's buildings and for drying a soil enhancer produced using micro-organisms, called "TCS Bakutan," manufactured at the Tachikawa CS Center.

Based on the results of the test, the company aims to use the system to make optimal use of geographically dispersed biomass energy and sell it locally. Tachikawa Town has been making efforts to create a complete recycling-based society under its "eco-friendly Tachikawa" initiative, and is enthusiastic about the future of the project.



Posted: 2004/08/21 11:25:22 AM
Japanese version

TAG Ecosystem , Energy , Government , Material reduction , Non-manufacturing industry , Technology , University/Research institute