Combined heat and power systems that consist of biomass fired fluidised bed combustors and modern steam engines

Biomass energy is widely used in many processing industries in the ASEAN region. The residue produced by agricultural and wood processing plant is either inefficiently combusted in simple furnaces or in the open, or disposed of in land fill sites or in rivers. Many of these industries are paying high prices for electricity in rural areas and/or supply is unreliable. An ASEAN/Australian cooperation program has been under way for the last ten years to introduce clean burning biomass fired heat and/or combined heat and power equipment. It aims to transfer Australian know how in the design and manufacture of fluidised bed CHP technology to the ASEAN region. The main participants involved in the program include SIRIM and UKM in Malaysia, PCIERD, FPRI and Asia Ratan in the Philippines, King Monkutt Institute of Technology (KMITT) in Thailand, LIPI and ITB in Indonesia, and the University of Singapore. In this paper an outline of the program will be given including results of market research and development undertaken into fluidised bed combustion, the proposed plant design and costings, and research and development undertaken into modem steam engine technology. It will be shown that all of the projects to be undertaken are financially viable.more » In particular the use of simple low cost high efficient steam engines ensures that the smaller CHP plant (50-100 kWe) can be viable.« less