Biomass boilers are getting more and more common in greenhouses, the trend is that growers have to be increasingly focused on the sustainability of their companies.
Companies must balance multiple pressures; the environment, sustainability, competition and cost to the consumer. Wood and biomass are available in large quantities, providing an economical and sustainable replacement for natural gas. However, the lack of affordable carbon dioxide (CO2) has prevented successful implementation of these projects.
CO2 has to be supplied in bottles or truckloads; this CO2 is expensive compared to other technologies. To produce this liquid CO2 high amounts of natural gas and electricity is needed.
CATO, CarbonOrO and Energy4Growth have developed an attractive alternative that is capable of extracting the CO2 from the flue gas of a biomass oven.
The CO2 is >99% pure and storable. The system is capable of extracting up to 1,8 kg CO2 from 1kilo of wood.
The principle is based on amine washing which is a technology that is robust and proven and has been used in the petro- chemical industry for a long time.
“Over the last few years we gained a lot of experience in using amine scrubbers, currently we have an installation in operation that produces CO2 for a greenhouse in the Netherlands.” said Immanuel Jurg Managing director of CATO Engineering. “The patented amine technology delivers CO2 in a sustainable way and at extremely low costs,” according to Pieter Verberne, Managing Director of CarbonOrO. “We are currently developing several projects of 4ha and larger with this technology, the system earns itself back in just a few years,” explains Robert Heikens Managing Director Energy4Growth.
For more information:
Energy4Growth Ltd
Robert Heikens
T: +31 631 974159
Cato Engineering BV
Immanuël Jurg
T: +31 621 193367
Carbon Oro BV
Pieter Verberne
T: +31 (629) 074823