Guascor Power Enamora and Vitoria Plants
PABLO OSÉS, Guascor Power, November 2009

Enamora Gasifier and Engine

Enamora Plant: fluidized bed gasification technology

Project
Enamora plant started its industrial operation in October 1997, and it has been running for more than 26.000 hours since then. Enamora’s technologists studied various gasification solutions to use almond shells as a fuel. In 1994, their research concluded in a fluidized gasification system that allows operating with a small-sized reactor;

Plant’s description
Once shells are grounded to about 4x4 mm, they are forwarded to the hoppers, which feed the gasifier directly. The reactor was furnished with a balanced-pressure fluidized system, which integrates tar reduction and through an inert catalyst. The gasifying agent used is non enriched ambient air, which is preheated before it is reintroduced in the reactor
The resulting lean gas in cleaned and cooled down so that it reaches the engine in optimal conditions.
Filtering lean gas implies eliminating solid fractions, tar remains and water excess, so that polluting emissions are largely minimized.

Results
The power generation and gasification facility concluded its testing period in October 1997. Regular industrial exploitation has not stopped since then.
The system has been proving to be extremely flexible since it allows unattended and uninterrupted 16-hour daily operation, 5 days a week.

Commercial plants
The success of this installation is the reason for Guascor to commercialize gasification plants in the range 1 – 2 MWe.

Vitoria Multistep Gasifier and Engine

Vitoria’s Plant: multi step gasification technology

Project
This 670 KW modular plant is based on a multi-step modular technology and has been supported by the IDAE (Spanish Institute for Energy Saving and Diversification).

Plant’s description

• Pre treatment system
The plant has a pre-treatment system that consists of a shredder and a rotary dryer and has been designed for the conditioning of lignocellulosic biomass. The exhaust gasses from the engines are used to dry the biomass.

• Multi step gasifier
The gasifier consists of three modules in which the gasification process is divided:

a. Reactor of volatilisation
In this reactor is where the drying and pyrolisis process of the fresh biomass take place. At the same time as the gas rich in hydrocarbons is generated, a stream of char is generated and conveyed downwards.

b. Thermal Cracking Reactors
In these reactors the syngas generated in the volatilisation reactor is cleaned at high temperature, which involves the addition of added.

c. Reactor of Reduction
The char coming from the volatilisation reactor forms a bed in which endothermic reactions are promoted. The gas stream passes through the char bed and is diverted to
the bottom part of the reactor.

• Syngas cleaning system.
It is based on a ceramic filter and an organic solvent scrubber

Results
The plant has been operating with lignocellulosic biomass since 2008. During 2009 long lasting tests have been performed (24 hours a day 5 days a week)

PABLO OSÉS

Parque Tecnológico de Alava
C/ Leonardo da Vinci, 12
01510 Miñano (Alava)
Tel: (34) 945 29 87 64
Fax: (34) 945 29 87 82
Guascor Power (www.guascorpower.com)

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