Original Date: 10/18/1999
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

There has been an increased worldwide emphasis on fossil fuel usage reductions. As a result, Orenda Turbines is developing technologies for a gas turbine engine/generator/steam plant that runs on liquid BioFuel. BioFuel can be made from wood, wood residues, straw, grasses, bagasse, cane trash, lignin, cellulose, agricultural residues, palm shells, and/or waste paper. Orenda Turbines produces BioFuel with a third-party, proprietary system based on a fast pyrolysis process. The liquid fuel is made at a central processing site and then transported via conventional means to the point of use.

Waste products are ground and heated under vacuum, and the resulting vapors from the heating are condensed to heavy and light oils. The non-condensable vapors are burned to provide the heat input to the process. Vast quantities of agricultural and other wastes are available in many parts of the world, and provide the raw input material for the process. Orenda Turbines developed the system to run a 2.5 Megawatt gas turbine engine (Mashproekt GT2500) at full power on BioFuel. Obstacles in using BioFuel included high viscosity, corrosiveness, and ash content; lower heating value; and difficulty in igniting the fuel. High viscosity was resolved by preheating the fuel. The corrosive nature of the fuel was mitigated by using protective coatings and fuel additives. The ash content was lowered by changing the fuel processing parameters. The difficulty in igniting was resolved by starting the engine on conventional fuels, and then switching back to conventional fuels before shutting down the engine. As for the lower heating value, no resolution currently exists.

By using the BioFuel engine, Orenda Turbines demonstrated a reduction in NOx and SOx levels compared to diesel fueled engines. The company projects a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 17,000 tons per engine per year.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.