Japan-headed biomass energy project developer and operator Forest Energy Corporation has revealed that it is going ahead with a new wood biomass combined heat and power (CHP) generation business in Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture. Shimonomi Forest Energy Gyosha Co., Ltd, the newly established entity for this project, is aiming for construction in the spring of 2018 and commencement of commercial operation in the summer of 2019.
According to a statement, the planned Shimonomi Forest Energy Gyosha plant will use approximately 20 000 tonnes of unutilized woody biomass resources annually from the Kinan area. The material will be chipped and used as fuel in the combined heat and power (CHP) facility with the heat used to dry the woodchips. In doing so it is possible to keep the drying cost low and use freshly cut wood as fuel. Other uses for the residual heat will also be explored.
Austrian gasification technology
The CHP plant is rated at 1.8 MWe and about 2.8 MWth. The project will use four gasification units supplied by Austria-based Syncraft Engineering GmbH with which Forest Energy entered into a partnership in July 2017. According to Forest Energy, Syncraft’s stable floating fixed layer gasification technology makes it possible to produce a consistently high-quality product gas.
The gasification unit has a high power generation efficiency of 29 percent and can use the bark and branches as fuel well as the chipped stemwood, an important feature of the project to minimise feedstock waste.
Assuming the project proceeds according to plan, it will be the first biomass power generation project to operate in Wakayama prefecture. For Syncraft that has installations in Austria and Italy, it will be the company’s first installation in Japan. Forest Energy also has a strategic partnership with Sweden-based biomass gasification technology developers Cortus Energy AB.
