In Sweden, a gas turbine in the Rya combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Gothenburg has been operated using a liquid biofuel instead of natural gas. According to a statement, this technology opens up new opportunities, not only for the conversion of the Rya CHP plant but also for sustainable power production nationally and globally.
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Municipal energy company Göteborg Energi AB and compatriot Siemens Energy AB (previously known as Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB) have announced that they have successfully run a gas turbine in Göteborg Energi’s Rya combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Gothenburg with a liquid biofuel instead of natural gas.
Successful operational testing
The project with renewable fuels has been ongoing since 2019 and has now resulted in a successful operational test using renewable diesel. For two days, the plant was run on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO), which is renewable diesel fuel.
The test has demonstrated that both the start-up of the plant and stable operation with renewable diesel fuel in a power plant such as Göteborg Energi’s Rya CHP plant is possible.
Our goal is to, by 2025, provide district heating that comes entirely from renewable or recycled sources and the conversion of Rya CHP is an important part of that work. That we have now, together with Siemens Energy, been able to concretely demonstrate the possibilities with renewable fuels in gas turbines is extremely gratifying and important for our continued work, said Alf Engqvist, CEO of Göteborg Energi.
Tremendous potential
The facility produces both district heating and electricity and has an important role, not least in Gothenburg’s electricity supply. This technology opens up new opportunities, not only for the conversion of Göteborg Energi’s Rya CHP plant but also for sustainable power production nationally and globally.
According to Hans Holmström, Managing Director of Siemens Energy in Sweden, the gas turbine technology that the company develops can be used both as baseload power and balancing power depending on the needs that exist.
We can already burn renewable fuels such as biogas and high proportions of hydrogen in our gas turbines and the goal is to soon be able to offer several alternatives for running on 100 percent renewables, including liquid fuels. Since many of our customers, today have gas turbines that provide balancing power, and we see that this will increase in the future, liquid renewable fuels that require relatively little storage space are a good alternative. Through our successful collaboration at Rya CHP plant, we have shown the possibility that exists for the transition to sustainable fuels, Hans Holmström said.
The next phase of the project is to evaluate and take the lessons learned from the tests carried out in the continued development work on liquid biofuels in gas turbines with the aim of further expanding fuel flexibility.
Amongst other things, the project will look at the biofuels produced at the refineries in Gothenburg. The use of locally produced biofuels at the Rya CHP plant would reduce the transport distance.
