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REGATEC 2015 – a success

The 7-8 May 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy Gas Technology, REGATEC 2015, took place in Barcelona, Spain. The fundamental idea of the conference is to provide a common platform for biogas, gasification, and Power-to-gas players since there are strong synergies between these sectors.

In total 140 people from 26 countries registered for the conference which was opened by Dr. Nakada from the world organisation on renewable energy, IRENA.

The president of the European Biogas Association, Dr. Jan Stambasky, seized the opportunity to launch the association’s new ”EBA vision and mission”. Now the association takes a holistic approach to renewable energy gases, whether they are produced through anaerobic digestion or gasification, which is in line with the fundamental idea of REGATEC.

During the two day conference 64 presentations by leading experts were given, and 17 exhibitors showed the latest within anaerobic digestion, gasification and Power-to-gas.

SEAT and Iveco Spain displayed the new generation of environmentally friendly gas powered cars with superior fuel economy. SEAT Mii Ecofuel consumes merely 2.9 kg/100km which gives a fuel cost of approx.  5€/100km in Sweden and approx. 2.90-3.60€/100km in the rest of Europe.

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On the photo Dr. Jan Stambasky, the president of the European Biogas Association and Jörgen Held, CEO Renewtec and conference organizer, in front of one of the displayed NGVs, a SEAT Leon ST TGI.

REGATEC 2015 was sponsored by Cortus Energy AB, EQTEC Iberia, EBIOSS Energy, GDF Suez, JTI, Landvärme GmbH, and Schmack Carbotech GmbH.

REGATEC is organized by Renewable Energy Technology International AB (Renewtec AB) and Institute for Biogas, Waste Management & Energy

 

PSI visited by Renewtec

On the 1st of May Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland was visited by Jörgen Held. PSI works actively with the development of fluidised bed methanation which has potential to lower the production cost of bioSNG.

Serge_BiollazDr. Serge Biollaz, head of Thermal Process Engineering Group at PSI shows a ”cold flow” model of fluidised bed methanation. It’s important to obtain good contact between the syngas bubbles and the catalytic bed material and at the same time  keep the temperature on a constant level. Dr. Biollaz revealed that shortly a new lab for methanation of biogas and syngas as well as Power-to-gas will be built on the PSI premises.

The meeting finished with Renewtec informing about the market and competence platform for small scale bioSNG production that Renewtec and BioMil together with project partners from industry and academia is building up with financial support from the regional authority in Scania.

Renewtec visits KIT

The 30th of April Jörgen Held visited Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT, one of Europe´s largest energy research institutes. Dr. Siegfried Bajohr gave a presentation on KIT’s honeycomb methanation catalyst. The catalyst has potential to reduce the investment cost which is advantageous,  especially for small scale plants. The catalyst is under testing in pilot scale at the Cortus gasification plant in Köping.

Dr. Manuel Götz gave a much appreciated guided tour in the  KIT lab and told about  3-phase methanation which is another methanation technique suitable for small scale plants.

The meeting finished with Renewtec informing about the market and competence platform for small scale bioSNG production that Renewtec and BioMil together with project partners from industry and academia is building up with financial support from the regional authority in Scania.

Dr. Siegfried BajohrTo the right, Dr. Siegfried Bajohr, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and to the left Jörgen Held, Renewtec AB.

 

Honeycomb catalyst

 

 

Crosscuts of honeycomb catalysts. The catalyst length is normally several meters.

 

Dr. Manuel Götz

 

Dr. Manuel Götz, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology shows an experimental set-up for 3-phase methanation.

Renewtec appointed chairman of grading committee

On the 26th of February Fredrik Weiland, Luleå Technical University, will defend his doctoral thesis on entrained flow gasification of wood powder.

The opponent is Prof. Thomas Kolb, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The grading committe is made up by Prof. Klas Engvall, Royal Institute of Technology, Dr. Sylvia Larsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Dr. Jörgen Held, Renewtec AB (chairman).

Renewtec new EUBCE Industry Committee member

Renewtec has been invited to become a member of the EUBCE Industry Committee.

EUBCE is the Europe’s largest international conference focused on biomass combining a highly-respected international scientific conference with an industrial exhibition and gathers participants from research, industry, policy and business of biomass.

  • It highlights progress in research, technological development and production processes.
  • It brings together all key specialists to make it the most important international platform for dialogue between research, industry, research and industry, and policy in the biomass sector.

The 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, EUBCE 2015, takes place 1-4 June in Vienna.

EQTEC Iberia and IREC visted by Renewtec

The 21st of October EQTEC Iberia SL in Parets del Vallés outside  Barcelona was visited by Renewtec. EQTEC Iberia markets its proprietary fluidized bed gasifier adopted for agricultural feedstock and forest residues.

Renewtec besöker EQTEC Iberia

Luis Sanchez Angrill, CEO at EQTEC Iberia in discussion with Jörgen Held. EQTEC Iberia has together with EBIOSS Energy Group signed up as  Gold Sponsor of  REGATEC 2015.

 

The day after, the 22nd of October, Institut de Recerca en Energía de Catalunya, IREC, was visited. The mission of the Catalan Instutite for Energy Research is to contribute to the sustainable development of society and increase corporate competitivness via

  • innovation and development of new technological products
  • medium and long-term research
  • development of scientific and technological knowledge in the field of energy

Renewtec besöker IREC

Dr. Josep Carreras, Group Leader at IREC and Jörgen Held, Renewtec in discussion about R&D of renewable methane for grid injection and/or as vehicle fuel.

Renewtec visits ICAEN

On the 20th of October Renewtec visited Instituto Catalán de Energía (ICAEN) in Barcelona. The Catalan Institute of Energy aims at the promotion and realization of initiatives and action programs for research, development and application of energy technologies, including renewables, boosting savings and energy efficiency, promotion of rational use of energy and, in general, the optimal management of energy resources in the different economic sectors in Catalonia.
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Jörgen Held, Renewtec informs Francesc Vidal, ICAEN about the upcoming REGATEC conference that takes place on the 7th-8th May 2015 in Barcelona.

Renewtec visits TU Berlin

On the 10th of October Renewtec visited Dr. York Neubauer, head of the Thermochemical Conversion and Process Analysis group at the Department for Energy Technology at Technische Universität Berlin.

Dr. Neubauer’s research is directed towards analysis and cracking of tar components in product gas from biomass gasification plants.

Dr. Neubauer takes part in the BESTF project BioProGReSs where the aim is an industrial demonstration of a new tar reforming solution developed at Chalmers, Sweden. TU Berlin’s part in the project deals with control of the tar reformer through an innovative online tar monitoring tool developed in-house.

SDC12930Dr. York Neubauer gives Jörgen Held, Renewtec AB a private tour in the different laboratories. Besides equipment for analysis the department has an advanced laboratory for laser spectroscopy and it’s own fludized bed gasifier.

 

Swedish/German collaboration on syngas cleaning

A consortium of eight EU Member States and Associated Countries, including the UK, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, is implementing an ERANET Plus activity entitled Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF). This activity provides funding to collaborative bioenergy projects that demonstrate at least one innovative step and will result in demonstration at a pre-commercial stage.

The Swedish/German BioProGReSs project is one of out three projects supported by BESTF. The project partners are Gothenburg Energy (coordinator), Chalmers University of Technology, Technical University of Berlin and Renewtec AB.

The goal is to develop, implement and demonstrate advanced syngas cleaning based on chemical looping reforming in both a pilot and an industrial scale bioSNG plant. In addition a novel measuring technique developed at TU Berlin will be tested and implemented in order to monitor and control the gasification process.

BioProGReSs is a three year 5.3 Meuro project.