Renewable biomass power plants turn combustible materials, such as wood and agricultural waste, into energy, broadly via two methods: combustion and gasification.
Combustion is an age-old process of burning the biomass in a boiler to turn water into steam which then drives a turbine to generate power. Modern technology has greatly improved the efficiency of the process by utilising as much of the available energy as possible, typically by co- or tri-generation where the waste heat from the power plant is recovered for other uses.
Gasification is a process that converts biomass materials into various gases by reacting the materials at high temperatures without combustion (via controlled amounts of oxygen or steam). The resulting gas mixture is called syngas or producer gas. This can be similarly used as biogas, i.e. either burned in a boiler or combusted in a gas engine. Gasification technology is relatively new, particularly at the larger, commercial scale.
Nollen Group has experience with many different types of feedstock: wood (sustainable forestry and waste wood), agricultural waste (e.g. rice husk, palm waste, coconut shells) and municipal solid wastes (MSW). Each mix of feedstock requires specific technology for optimum efficiencies and Nollen Group has the network to source the best-available technology for each application.