bluegen: missing link to renewable energy gen

Translation from Dutch


BlueGen: MISSING LINK TO RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION | Here resurrected

11/12/2013 - BlueGen, the ceramic fuel cells for home and small businesses, won in 2012 as an exhibitor of Energy last year's Spirit of Innovation Award. The jury found the BlueGen an interesting product because it is ready for smart grid applications on (green) gas works and it is easy to fit into the existing infrastructure. In Germany, where the so-called Energy Wende though a lot further than in the Netherlands, are now several hundred Blue Gens at SMEs. Now it is the turn Netherlands.

The BlueGen, comparable in size to a washing machine, is a highly efficient, natural gas driven fuel cell which hydrogen electricity and hot water can be generated for homes, small businesses and offices.
The system achieves an electrical efficiency of up to 60 percent and an overall system efficiency to 85 percent as the production
hot water is included. The BlueGen saves on electricity bills, reduce CO2 emissions and provides the ability to power on the grid
supply. The BlueGen is a product of Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL), originally an Australian company whose European headquarters is in Heerlen. CFCL is listed in Melbourne and London. Production takes place in Germany, Heinsberg just across the border near Roermond. The current capacity is 2,500, but scaled up to 10,000 Blue Gens annually. In Germany, the device will already snapped up, including with the help of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Operation ceramic fuel cell
The highly insulated core of the device is formed by Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (ceramic fuel cells). These forms, stacked in a "stack", the heart of the BlueGen. In the BlueGen The natural gas is desulphurized, and the bit of ethane, propane and butane therein, cracked to methane. After that, highly pure water vapor is added. By "Steam reforming 'creates hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen then reacts with an operating temperature of about 750 degrees with oxygen ions from air supplied, so the electricity is generated. It is formed as a remainder of water vapor, along with a small amount of carbon dioxide. The waste heat (about 5,000 kWh) can be set, for example 200 liters of water (65-70 degrees). Using the built-in heat exchanger

Groundbreaking in cogeneration
With optimal use, the BlueGen delivers an electrical output of 1.5 kWel and a thermal capacity of 0.6 kWth. In this capacity, the fuel cell converts natural gas (average 2,200 m3 per year) or green gas to 13,000 KWh electricity. That's enough for three average households. In this way, energy can be converted from presently available methane. On the most efficient way BlueGen is pioneering in the field of small scale cogeneration. Conventional CHP technologies are usually 'heat sent. This means that the electric power depends on the heat demand of the building. If there is no heat demand, the unit turns off.
The fuel cell is designed primarily as a generator, and not as a heat generator. This difference determines the high electrical efficiency and low heat dissipation of BlueGen, making it all year round, even in summer
if there is hardly any heat, can be used as a 'base load' for user and operator reliably.

Saving and low CO2 emissions
On an annual basis will save an average household or small business with BlueGen, 1,200 euros on electricity bills and approximately 1,600 euros if the heat output is
included. The possible surplus of current can be used for charging an electric car or the driving of a heat pump. The strength of the almost noiseless BlueGen's all in addition to a large saving on electricity bills, even in a substantial reduction of CO2 emissions by 50% to 70% compared with the current power mix from our outlet. Green gas is the fuel cell even almost 100% CO2-neutral. On an annual basis can be up to 5 tonnes of CO2 savings. Due to the high efficiency of the BlueGen is more durable dealt with the still available reserves
natural gas.

Distributed generation's future
The concept of BlueGen fits perfectly into the necessary transition that at this time, especially in Germany, though, is going on, but clearly is emerging in the Netherlands. Decentralized renewable energy generation on the site
where the energy is actually used, for example, by sun and wind, but now also through the ceramic fuel cell technology. In the current centralized electricity generation, unfortunately still primarily through polluting coal plants, reached only about 22% to 30% of the original fuel energy the place of use. In the center is already lost between 50% to 70% as heat and during transport on the major nets another 5% to 8%.
When the fuel cell is only 10% to 15% of the original input will be lost. By the supply of energy from wind and sun, the bandwidth between supply and demand not only determined by demand, but also by offering a relatively 'unpredictable' source. The capriciousness in the supply of these renewable 'green' energy will be a system which efficiently, on demand, renewable energy can be produced. Therefore sought It is of importance that there is a sustained form of energy which is used to buffer, as soon green gas or methane from hydrogen, so as to be able to streamline supply and demand. The constantly producing fuel cell technology BlueGen may include a solution.

Virtual Power Plants
Meanwhile Ceramic Fuel Cells, represented by the Amsterdam Blue Generation, with a number of major players in the Dutch market Liander and IBM, the initiative of the Virtual Power Plants and Smart Grids
started. It will in the future a large number of Blue Gens are throughout the country virtually connected to each other via an intelligent computer network. All fuel cells are now running with BlueGen network monitoring performance and possible failures. All day and night over the internet It is therefore quite easy via an integrated "power manager" to link the fuel and hence when and where needed to deliver local networks electricity. They would contribute to the stability of the network at times of peak load. In this model, with the capriciousness of the supply of renewable energy from wind and sun is captured by a constant, controllable generation of (bio) gas, there is a 'smart grid'. The virtual power plant concept is developed in the Netherlands by Blue Generation also realized the BlueGen project in the green business complex Green Bay on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Kiwa Gastec at Apeldoorn is a test with three Blue Gens successfully completed at speed and modularity. Even with well-known players in the energy sector in Germany this kind of finding expensive tests in Smart Grids and Virtual Power Plants Instead, as with EWE, E.ON Ruhrgas, Rhein Energie, EnBW, Wingas Gasag and several municipalities including Bochum and Porta Westfalica. Alliander has recently announced the order of 600 BlueGen systems in Germany. Which will be installed by 2015. Alliander wishes to make a significant contribution to the promotion of decentralized energy and the introduction of fuel cell technology in the German market.

Unique trial in Groningen
Groningen is a pilot launched a series of Blue Gens end of 2012. The trial is a first and an initiative of the Energy Academy Europe. Recently established Installation and maintenance of the fuel CFC done by Eneco Installation. In total, nine Blue Gens placed with EnTranCe (Energy Transition Center) in Groningen. EnTranCe is the testing ground of the Energy Academy Europe, where market knowledge and setting come together and is an initiative of the Hanze University Groningen, construction company BAM, GasTerra, Gasunie and Imtech. In this environment for co-innovation research into energy systems of the future. In the short term, fuel cells will run on green gas, so the system is fully climate then. Each fuel cell produces an annual saving of about 5 tons of CO2. The total CO2 savings will by placing the fuel in Groningen around 45 tonnes per
amounts year. In early April 2013 Prince Willem Alexander visited the preparation and dropped about the possibilities of educating BlueGen.

By Jan Willem Tolkamp - Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd
This article originally appeared in the Energy Guide.


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