The outside of the heating station

Development

"Alternative methods of energy generation will help to stop climatic changes." (Bruno Scheiner, Mayor)

Rather than owning a fuel oil boiler each, the private households in the development area of the town of Greußenheim are being supplied with heat and electricity which is produced from vegetable oil in a central heating station.

The driving force behind the project was Mayor Bruno Scheiner, who as early as spring 1995 started thinking about supplying the area with heat produced from biomass. The future home-owners in the housing estate were then convinced of the idea of being supplied through a central combined heating and power station. Therefore, the town filed an application for a subsidy for such a station.

The hitherto unique project was realized through close cooperation with a range of partners, one of which was C.A.R.M.E.N. Several meetings were held to provide the citizens of Greußenheim with all the information they needed. In addition, everyone was invited along to an informational visit to the oil seed mill at Oberes Werntal.

Today it is clear that these efforts were successful - several home-owners from the older part of town now want their houses connected, too.

Time Schedule and Realization

The Technology

Vegetable-oil block-type heat and power station (open sound protection shield)

The drive unit of this heating and power station is a special purpose internal combustion machine which runs on vegetable oil gained through cold pressing.

Waste heat is recovered via heat regenerators, and a generator converts mechanical energy into electric energy.

The available heat produced by the internal combustion machine makes up 55 % of the total of the available energy, electricity accounts for a further 35 %.

Heat storage device

The entire station is regulated according to the particular heat demand and also has at its disposal a heat accumulator with a capacity of 8 000 litres.

In order to cover peak demand and as a back up, an additional fuel oil boiler is part of the plant.

Capacity

Peak demand boiler

The stations major advantage is its efficiency rate of up to 90 %. Traditional power stations for the generation of electricity only have an efficiency of 30 - 40 %, with the largest amount of energy being lost as waste heat or through line loss.

The Fuel

The energy source used in this new block-type heating and power station is oil seeds that are grown in the region. Per year the plant burns a total of approximately 65 000 litres of rape seed oil, which equals 65 ha of rape.

The cold pressing of the rape seed plants is carried out at the oil seed mill at Oberes Werntal; the oil can be used without further processing.

The Operating Authority

The operating authority of the block-type heating and power station in Greußenheim is a private company founded especially for this purpose; the mayor of Greußenheim, Bruno Scheiner, functions as managing director of the company.

Every customer becomes a member of the private company, so that the prices for the heat produced are comprehensible to everyone. This model also results in a high sense of identification and acceptance on the part of the customers, which is another positive effect of this kind of project.

The Customers

This project is the first of its kind to supply an entire housing estate with heat provided by the energetic utilization of vegetable oil in a block-type heating and power station.

The housing estate includes 22 detached and semi-detached houses suitable for one or two families each.

In addition, older buildings in the vicinity will also be given the opportunity to be connected to the new district heating system. Six home-owners have already given their consent to doing so, several others have announced their interest in further information.

The heating station is located at the north-eastern corner of the nearly square-shaped housing estate. The heat supply system was constructed as a close circular pipeline of 735 metres length and consists of steal pipes with plastic coating.

All of the generated electricity is transferred to the supply system of the regional energy supply company (Überlandwerk Unterfranken, ÜWU) before most of it flows back to the local supply system.

Costs

The overall costs of the heating station come to DM 1.31 mio. The Bavarian Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry subsidized the realization of this demonstration project with DM 560 546.

Analysis of Costs:

Today the price of rape seed oil is still twice as much as that for ordinary fuel oil. However, the production of surplus electricity, which is transferred to the electric network of the regional electricity company, guarantees annual profits of approximately DM 35 000. In addition, the houses that are being built in the estate will not need any furnace rooms, chimneys or fuel oil tanks; thus all in all the biomass heating station only costs a few hundred marks more than traditional heating systems.

The Environment

Unlike coal and natural gas, which are fossil energy carriers, rape seed is a renewable resource. After harvesting and pressing, rape seed oil can be used for the generation of energy without further processing, which would only increase energy consumption.

Chimneys

The oil is non-poisonous, free of sulphur and easy to store and transport, since its fire point lies over 200 °C. The risk through possible leakage etc. is rather low, since rape seed oil degrades quickly. Furthermore, all the parts of the plants that do not contain oil, e.g. the residue from the processing of rape seed, can easily be put back into the cycle of nature.

In addition, rape seed oil grown in the region also protects the environment as transportation is minimal.

Another advantage of using a locally grown energy carrier is that money which otherwise flows out of the region for the payment of fuel oil and natural gas, now stay in the region and open up new sources of income for local farmers.

Expo 2000

The heating and power station in Greußenheim has been chosen as a model station for the world exhibition Expo 2000.

The operating company and C.A.R.M.E.N. will be pleased to present their work to the international public.

For further information please contact:

Blockheizkraftwerksbetreiber GbR mbH
Bruno Scheiner
Kirchplatz 7
97259 Greußenheim
GERMANY

Phone ++ 49 9369-9068-0
Fax ++ 49 9369-906840