In 2008, Germany-based biomass gasification plant manufacturer Spanner Re² GmbH put its first wood gasifier into operation. was put its first wood gasifier into operation in 2008. Since then, the company has installed more than 700 systems worldwide with more than 20 million operating hours of experience. To mark the occasion, the manufacturer is celebrating by offering an exclusive "all-inclusive" package.
Founded in 2004 as the “Renewable Energies” division of the Spanner Group, Spanner Re² started out manufacturing OEM biomass boilers for renowned boiler manufacturers. In 2006, the company began to work on the development of a production-ready wood gasifier. The basis for this was provided by Bernd Joos, who had been privately working on a functioning plant for more than 30 years.
Through creativity and commitment, Spanner Re², in cooperation with Bernd Joos, was able to develop a functioning, reliable biomass power plant. I have great respect for his performance. Bernd Joos has cracked the key to a fully functional system with very simple means – with scrap parts – namely to extract a motor-capable gas from the reactor, said Thomas Bleul, Managing Director of Spanner Re².
In 2008 Spanner Re² introduced their first wood gasifier to the market and later in the year the first wood gasifier with 45 kWe power output was commissioned on an agricultural farm in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
Our primary goal was to find a way to theoretically produce the raw material needed for energy production ourselves. Because the need is that fossil fuels are becoming scarcer and scarcer, and instead you have to resort to other, regenerative sources. I only consider photovoltaics to be a limited solution. We in our farm community therefore soon agreed to work with wood in the energy sector. Of course, this is a good idea, as we have a lot of marginal land such as forest edges and groves, said Thomas Schmid on whose farm Spanner Re²’s first wood gasifier was installed
According to Schmid, providing heat and electricity decentrally from domestic biomass means an enormous increase in regional added value, as ‘renewable’ energy is linked to a sustainable economic system. This means that dependence on energy exports is reduced, capital does not flow into importing countries and is therefore available to the national economy.
We have never regretted the decision to invest in a wood gasifier from Spanner Re², Schmid said.
Rapid repayment
Together with its customers, Spanner Re² has continuously developed its wood-power-technology in terms of performance, comfort, and efficiency and has established itself as one of the leading manufacturers of wood-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants worldwide. Spanner Re² offers solutions tailored to requirements in a power range from 9 kWe to 2 MWe for almost every area of application.
On the occasion of the anniversary, Spanner Re² has put together an exclusive “All-inclusive Celebratory package” and offers a limited, turnkey container solution with pre-installed wood gasifier (49 kWe / 111,2 kWth), including fine and coarse sieving in the conveyor unit and an automatic woodchip drying system.
According to Bleul, the company’s biomass CHP pays for itself. In Germany, a monthly income of EUR 4 300 can be achieved with a full electricity feed-in tariff (FIT) according to the current EEG with an annual running time of the plant of 8 000 hours. The heat income is additional. Calculated with Spanner Re²’s Jubilee package, a return on investment (ROI) of just 3.8 years with 8 000 operating hours per annum is achievable.
Experience has shown that around EUR 0.022 per kWh of electrical material costs and approximately ten hours of working time per month is required to operate the plant. Maintenance work can be carried out 100 percent in-house.
To this end, the manufacturer offers its customers free training courses at its Neufahrn plant. In addition, the wood gasifier requires around 30 tonnes of dry woodchips per month for a running time of 8 000 hours per annum.
