News » October 2009
Czech BioEnergy Portfolio of BTG delivers 532,000 AAUs and ERUs to Dutch Government
Enschede (Netherlands) / Prague (Czech Republic), Wednesday October 14, 2009
Today, an amount of 432,000 AAUs and 100,000 ERUs will be transferred to the Dutch Government. These 532,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emission reductions result from BTG’s ‘Biomass Energy Portfolio for the Czech Republic’, a Joint Implementation project for the Dutch Emission Reduction Unit Procurement Tender (ERU-pt1, 2001).
The portfolio contains 14 biomass energy subprojects. These projects consist of replacement, renewal, extension or new construction of municipal or industrial heating and power systems, where clean biomass residues (wood and straw) fired boilers replace old coal or gas-based boiler systems. The owners of the systems are mainly municipalities, three of them are private companies. In two projects a cogeneration (CHP) system was installed. The thermal capacity of the installations ranges from 500 kWth to 9 MWth. The total thermal capacity of the portfolio amounts to 56 MWth (an equivalent to 2500 Dutch households). The first were implemented in 2001 and the last in 2004.
The portfolio was developed by BTG BioHeat International B.V. and BTG Central Europe s.r.o., both daughter companies of the Dutch based Biomass Technology Group BV (BTG). BTG is entirely focused on energy and fuels from biomass and has been active in Czech Republic since 1995. Building on the Czech-Dutch funded demonstration project in Hostetin (implementation of a wood fired boiler in a small village of 80 households), a jointly developed portfolio of 14 biomass energy projects has been realized.
The Dutch Government, represented by SenterNovem, is one of the early movers in the field of carbon emission reduction projects and has launched the ERU-PT programme in 2000. The Czech Portfolio of BTG was one of the first projects contracted under the ERU-PT program, which makes it the first contracted and operating Joint Implementation BioEnergy portfolio in the world.
Since 2003, the project generates emission reductions, which, generated between 2003 and 2007, are sold as ‘early credits’ (AAUs). The emission reductions contracted between 2008 and 2012 are sold as ERUs. Today all the AAUs and the ERUs generated in 2008 have been transferred to the Netherlands. Between 2009 and 2012 another 420,000 ERUs will follow. The Dutch Government uses the AAUs and ERUs to meet its international emission reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
Pyrolysis plant at AkzoNobel Hengelo site
BTG-BTL has plans to build a pyrolysis plant at Hengelo's AkzoNobel site. The letter of intent was signed at the end of September by AkzoNobel Industrial Chemicals, Empyro and BTG Bioliquids. In the new plant wood will be converted to oil. The plant will also deliver steam to AkzoNobel and generate electricity for delivery to the public grid.
Largest pyrolysis plant in Europe
The Empyro plant, owned by the shareholders Tree Power and BTG Bioliquids, will convert 5 metric tons of dry wood into oil, steam and electricity, per hour. This conversion takes place on a commercial scale and uses a technique, owned by BTG Bioliquids. This technique has already proven itself in Malaysia, where a plant uses residual products of a palm oil plant. The new pyrolysis installation will be the largest in Europe and building it will require an investment of approximately 13 million Euros. A substantial part of the investment will be covered by an European subsidy because it is a pilot project. The installation will be built on a piece of land of 1 hectare and will be 20 meters high. Next to the plant a number of smaller buildings will be established for amongst other things the storage of biomass, a steam turbine and tanks for oil. It is expected that the construction can start in the second quarter of 2010. The planning depends primarily on the license procedures and the overall funding of the plant. One year after the start of the construction the plant has to be operational.
Steam for salt production
AkzoNobel rents out the land and also supplies various utilities and possibly supporting staff when the plant operates on a stable level. The steam, which becomes available as a by product of the production of the oil, will also be used by the salt plant. We expect that in future 5% of the steam required for the salt production is supplied by the new installation, which further ‘greens’ the manufacturing process.
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