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2007-05-15 News Release

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MAN Diesel engine

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In contrast to HFO - which has to settle, then be heated to make it readily pumpable, then separated and finely filtered - waste cooking oil at Fritzens only has to be stored in a settling tank and heated. Callegari relates how the separating process is integral to the extremely favorable energy-efficiency of the waste disposal plant as a whole:

“Not only is the separated cooking oil fed into the MAN Diesel engine, but the sediment from the settling process is also fed into our sewage sludge digesters, where it is fermented with the sludge to provide biogas for our gas-engine cogeneration plant.”

MAN Diesel engine. Click Here for larger image. photo: MAN Diesel

Closing the Circle
Two further ingenious energy-recovery stages then follow, both employing the thermal output of the 21/31 engine and the smaller spark- ignited gas engines. As well as space heating for the works buildings, engine heat is used to accelerate the fermentation process in the digesters and to dry the sludge from the sewage sludge fermentation process. “The dried sludge is granulated or pelletized, and can then be used as fuel in fired boilers or process-heat furnaces,” Callegari explains. “Our main customer is a cement plant, which uses the dried sludge in its furnaces, thus saving many tons of fossil fuels.”

To ensure not only CO2-neutrality but also maximum emissions-neutrality, the plant features an exhaust after-treatment stage comprising a selective catalytic reduction system to remove oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and unburned fuel, and a subsequent oxidation catalyst system to remove any residual unburned fuel, carbon monoxide and any residual ammonia from the NOx reduction process. Both were supplied by Hug Engineering, of Räterschen, Switzerland.

“The emissions of the 21/31 engine are monitored regularly by the TÜV technical inspectorate and are well within the limits of the local clean-air legislation,” says Callegari.

Overall, the thermal output of the engines provides all the energy needed for the sludge-drying process, while the annual electrical output of the generator sets (9 GWh) covers both the plant’s consumption and a contribution to the local grid. “We estimate that we supply to the grid power equivalent to the consumption of 3,500 typical households,” Callegari says. But in many ways, he is not satisfied with even this excellent balance.

“We are looking at the possibility of producing combustible gas from the sludge in a pyrolysis process,” he states. “In this way we could produce more electricity from our gas engines. Currently they cover most of our own demand at the plant, but if we exploit this source, we would be able to contribute even more CO2-neutral electricity to the Austrian energy economy.”

Paradigm Shift
Callegari’s statements signal a subtle change in attitude. The Fritzens complex is no longer a tax-financed necessary evil, existing to dispose of something unmentionable. It’s now a business, and Callegari wants to expand it. “I’m looking for more used cooking oil and more industrial or domestic waste products,” he declares. “We already take industrial wastewater from a local glass factory to supplement the community’s ‘natural’ products. With more waste, I could produce even more energy, save even more fossil fuel and prevent even more CO2!”

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