Sustainability within our natural environment
In the context of the necessary energy transition, which is still in its early stages, our innovative technology offers an ecological opportunity to ensure a secure base load supply for the power sector in the renewable energy portfolio. The LiPRO CHP offers an answer to the missing renewable base load links in the wind and photovoltaic power generation portfolio and can replace fossil power plants in a decentralized way, which are primarily responsible for climate damages. A larger environmental opportunity is the renewable heat provided to society by the LiPRO CHP. This is because most greenhouse gases are emitted by conventional heating.
It is possible to generate heat and electricity using various renewable energy systems. However, only a few technologies generate heat and electricity at the same time. The central environmental advantage of gasification of solid biomass is that it is almost greenhouse gas neutral in a direct comparison of the GEMIS factors (Global Emission Model of Integrated Systems) of a natural gas cogeneration plant with 241 g/kWh to a wood cogeneration plant with 14 g/kWh of electrical energy. Since 70% of the heat is generated by the LiPRO CHP, the bottom line is a greenhouse gas sink of -358 g/kWh compared to a conventional oil-fired heating system, which emits 372 g/kWh of GHG for heat energy.
Since the fuels used in the LiPRO CHP plant are natural and renewable raw materials and we also have the largest ecologically responseble degradable wood potential in Germany in Europe, it is only logical to use the regionally available resources and thus take an important step in the energy transition and thus also for climate protection. There will never be resource depletion in the solid biomass sector if it is managed sustainably. The possible fuel resources are forest wood as well as short rotation plantations, which can also be reasonably implemented with agroforestry systems. In addition, a variety of dry biogenic industrial residues can be utilized.
Society & Regional
By using regional wood resources, long transport routes can be avoided. Thus, the use of the wood gasification plant contributes to the prevention of climate change. Furthermore, the region of the plant is strengthened by the resulting added value in terms of wood fuels. Due to the amount of renewable energy produced by the LiPRO CHP in the region, there is no need to import e.g. natural gas or fuel oil from abroad. The LiPRO CHP is a predestined joint investment for energy cooperatives due to its high heat supply, constant availability, and high economic efficiency. The energy cooperatives can become their heat and power suppliers in an organized community.
Economic efficiency
The amortization amounts to about 5 to 7 years, depending on the general conditions. This is based on wood chips as fuel and an annual operating performance of about 6000 operating hours. The operator of the LiPRO CHP achieves a profit of about 5 to 10%, depending on the existing infrastructure with fuel bunker and local heating network. However, the payback can be significantly accelerated by the use of cheaper lignocellulosic fuels, if these are a by-product of the production of agricultural and forestry products, such as Nutshells, cherry stones, grain husks, sawdust, or similar. We are currently working with initial success on the utilization of biogas digestate and sewage sludge from agriculture and the waste and recycling industry. This can reduce operating costs by up to 50%.
