Swedish power plant successfully demos renewable diesel in gas turbine
Göteborg Energi and Siemens Energy have successfully operated a gas turbine in Göteborg Energi’s Rya combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant in Sweden with renewable diesel, opening up new opportunities for the plant and sustainable power production globally.
The CHP plant was run on renewable diesel for two days, demonstrating both start-up and stable operation of the plant with renewable diesel is possible. The Rya CHP facility produces both district heating and electricity.
“Our goal is to, by 2025, provide district heating that comes entirely from renewable or recycled sources and the conversion of Rya [CHP] is an important part of that work,” said Alf Engqvist, CEO of Göteborg Energi. “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.”
Hans Holmström, CEO of Siemens Energy, said the gas-turbine technology the company develops can be used both as base power and balancing power, depending on need.
“We can already burn renewable fuels such as biogas and high proportions of hydrogen in our gas turbines and the goal is to in the near future be able to offer several alternatives for running 100 percent renewable, including liquid fuels,” Holmström said. “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 [CHP], we have shown the possibility that exists for the transition to sustainable fuels.”
The next phase of the project is to evaluate and take lessons learned from the tests to further expand fuel flexibility. Among other aspects, the project is looking at the biofuels produced at refineries in Gothenburg, which would reduce the amount of transport for Rya CHP.