Swedish electricity provider Göteborg Energi and Siemens Energy have successfully run a gas turbine in the Rya CHP plant with liquid biofuel instead of natural gas.
The project began in 2019 and has now resulted in a successful operational test with biodiesel at the Rya KVV facility, producer of district heating and electricity in Gothenburg, Sweden.
For two days the plant was run on hydrogenated vegetable oil, HVO, a diesel fuel based on renewable raw materials.
According to Siemens Energy, this demonstrates that both start-up and stable operation with a renewable fuel in a power plant such as Rya KVV is possible.
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Alf Engqvist, CEO of Göteborg Energi, said: “Our goal is to, by 2025, provide district heating that comes entirely from renewable or recycled sources and the conversion of Rya KVV 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”.
The plant will use lessons from the test phase to further develop work on liquid biofuels in gas turbines with the aim of further expanding fuel flexibility.
Hans Holmström, MD of Siemens Energy in Sweden, said: “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% 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 in Rya KVV, we have shown the possibility that exists for the transition to sustainable fuels,” he added.
