We turn classical gasification upside down. Conventional biogas plants turn the entire input material into a product gas typically by means of pyrolysing the biomass into char and gasyfying this by using air.
The Blue Tower consists of 3 main vessels or bed reactors. The pyrolyser at the bottom, the steam reformer in the middle and the pre-heater at the top.
2. PYROLYSER
In its first stage the Blue Tower separates the input material by pyrolysing it into approximately 20% char and 80% pyrogas.
The char is combusted into a flue gas in order to produce necessary process heat.
3. STEAM REFORMER
The remaining 80% moves up into the steam reformer. Here the pyrogas is cracked and reformed into a high quality product gas, consisting mainly of hydrogen and carbon.
Steam is generated by passing the hot product gas through a waste heat recovery boiler before it is then quenched and cleaned.
4. STAGED REFORMING
The steam reformer is a simple homogenous purely gas phased reaction.
It is spatially separated from the pyrolyser – therefore STAGED REFORMING –
5. HIGH QUALITY PRODUCT GAS
Unlike with common biomass gasification processes the product gas generated in the Blue Tower is very high in quality because it is unaffected from the flue gas from the char combustion.
Common biogas plants achieve a product gas with approximately 30-50 % calorific value, where as the Blue Tower’s product gas achieves around 80% efficiency.
6. HEAT CARRIER
A key feature of the Blue Tower is the use of a circulating bulk material as the heat carrying medium. This ensures that the heat carrying surfaces are always clean and that the input material such as sewage sludge maintains the required process heat.
This makes it easily possible to use biomass input material which in other systems causes slagging, fouling and corrosion.
7. HEAT PROCESS
The heat is transferred from the char combustion flue gas to the inert bulk heat carrier inside a simple moving bed reactor.
On the way through this process (circulating to the top) the heat carrier first gives off its heat to the reformer and then the pyrolyser.
The advantage of using a heat carrier circuit and a motor flue gas circuit is that the different waste heats can be collected and used to supply the collected heat where it is needed.
8. INTELLIGENT PROCESS – Only Simple Equipment Needed
The pyrolyser and the reformer occur in separate gravity driven moving bed reactors. No further equipment is mounted inside.
The heat carrying medium is moved by mechanical drive and gravity.
At the end the Blue Tower generates electricity out of garbage like a power station out of coal or natural gas.
9. INPUT TO OUTPUT EFFICIENCY RATIO
This highly depends on the input material. A very broad estimate for separated dried household waste is 1 ton of input generating 1.3MW - 1.9MW electric net output. The calorific value of the Blue Tower product gas is approx. 12 - 14 MJ/Nm3. The Blue Tower has a gross electric efficiency of 80%.
In order to determine the exact value a detailed analysis of the input material must be submitted. If you wish a more detailed answer please fill out our question catalogue or CONTACT US .
News
FMM in India
Together with our partners Concord Blue we are building a 8MW Blue Tower Waste to Energy plant expected to commence operating in March 09!
FMM in India - 15MW MSW in Mumbai
The Blue Tower has qualified for the tender process for a 15MW municipal solid waste to energy plant in Mumbai.
