Bio energy power plant Cuijk

A bird’s-eye view of the Cuijk bio-energy power plant

and production of artificial manure (a highly energy-intensive process) superfluous. The possibility of building a manure digester is also being examined, with the aim of using manure to produce biogas. The ambition is to eventually also build a bio-refinery in Cuijk so that we can create a small bio-based economy. This would involve the splitting of biomass into high-quality useful components so that the low-quality residue left could ultimately be used to fire the power plant.

Wood pelletsThe biomass that Essent already uses to generate electricity at its coal-fired power plants comes in the form of so-called wood pellets. These will increasingly be produced using the wood from fast-growing conifers from production forests managed by RWE in the US state of Georgia, for example. During their growth, these trees absorb CO2 that is released again during combustion at the power plant. The CO2 cycle is short as a result of which the whole chain is virtually CO2-neutral.

The installationThe way that the bio-energy power plant in Cuijk works is relatively simple. Biomass supplied to the power plant is stored in

two storage silos, each of which holds 5,000 cubic metres of fuel. That fuel is transported on a conveyor belt to the day silos from where it is loaded into the combustion chamber. Because the calorific value of the biomass materials varies, dosing and combustion are precisely controlled from a fully automatic control room. The combustion chamber has a fluidised bed of sand and air with a temperature of approximately 800 degrees Celsius. The high temperature causes the biomass to ignite and the heat released as a result heats water, turning it into steam. That steam sets a turbine in motion which in turn drives a generator within which the electricity is produced. Working at EssentWe are continuously looking for talented technical staff for posts on different levels, ranging from installers to project engineers and from environmental coordinators to project managers.

Want to find out more? Go to www.werkenbijessent.nl.

for example. This process is also called cascading. After all the high-quality components have been extracted from the biomass, a low-quality residue is left that is particularly suitable for co-firing (Essent’s) coal-fired power stations in Geertruidenberg and Eemshaven but also for enabling our power plant in Cuijk to produce Green Power, for example. So this process produces no waste. This new view of biomass has provided the basis for the so-called bio-based economy, an economy based on the use of renewable fuels. Essent is all for a bio-based economy in the Netherlands.

Cuijk bio-based economy parkAt the Cuijk site, there is space to carry out the cascading process described above. First of all, the possibility of connecting a heat network to the power plant to which nearby companies can be connected will be examined. That would increase the efficiency of the power plant considerably and the companies could be supplied with ‘green power and heat’. Another phase would involve the installation of an innovative manure drier. The manure supplied would be dried using heat from the power plant, crushed to form manure pellets and then distributed again. This would render the use Biomass

The fuel used at the Cuijk bio-energy power plant is biomass. Biomass is the collective name for organic materials such as vegetable, fruit and garden waste (VFG) and prunings. Each type of biomass is used for a different purpose. For example, used cooking oil and agricultural products such as rape seed and sugar cane can be used to make biofuels which cars can run on as a replacement for petrol and diesel. Another type we can mention is manure which is used as a raw material in the production of biogas. Various types of new

sustainable (and certified) biomass have already been tested at the bio-energy power plant during 2012. These include grass cuttings, paper sludge, sawdust, sweepings from the forestry industry and prunings. They have been found to be suitable for producing electricity but there are further possibilities for using biomass.

Bio-based economyOptimum segregation (refining) of biomass can be carried out in order to produce various high-quality raw materials for use in the production of cosmetics and medicines,

P 00

19Want to find out more? www.essent.eu

Cuijk bio-energy power plant

• New types of biomass are being used

at the bio-energy power plant as a

result of the Green Deal concluded

• Research will be used for the purpose

of creating a bio-based economy

• The bio-based economy is based on

the use of renewable fuels

• Our ambition is to build a bio-based

economy park at Cuijk

• The next phase will involve

researching the possibility of setting

up a heat network

In short

Imagine that you are a peregrine falcon in flight: look down at the ground and you will see villages, towns, woods, meadows, rivers and lakes go past. A bird’s-eye view of the Netherlands. Take a closer look and you will see Essent’s bio-energy power plant near to Cuijk in North Brabant at the point where the Maas-Waal canal flows into the Maas. Notice the boats on the river, the trucks carrying biomass, the storage silos, the production buildings and more. See how Essent carries out production… from a bird’s-eye view.

The Cuijk bio-energy power plant has been generating electricity for ten years using prunings taken from the forests managed by Staatsbosbeheer, amongst others, and using waste wood from the nearby wood-processing industry. When the government subsidy that it had been awarded came to an end, Essent could no longer operate the power plant at a profit. Because of that, Essent decided to change the way the plant was run and since the start of 2012, it has been used as a test site for different types of biomass. The idea behind this is to develop an innovative ‘alter ego’ for the power plant which fits in with the Green Deal, an agreement between the government, industry and organisations in order to make the Dutch economy more sustainable and greener. The ultimate goal: a bio-based economy.

1 Each truck carrying biomass is weighed using the weighbridge on arrival and departure. The purpose of this activity is to calculate the quantity of biomass processed and to record details of the supplier and where the biomass came from.

2 The truck deposits its load in the dumping building, a covered pit with a capacity of 200 cubic metres. Any pieces of iron are removed using a magnet in order to prevent them from causing any damage.

3 The fuel is transported from the dumping building to the storage silos. These hold enough fuel to enable production to continue at night and at the weekend when there are no supplies being brought in by truck.

4 The tallest buildings house the combustion boiler, the flue gas purification installation, the steam turbine and the generator. The day silos contain a small quantity of fuel which is used to feed the combustion boiler.

5 The steam emitted by the steam turbine is cooled down in the open air-cooled condenser and turned back into water with a temperature of approximately 45 degrees Celsius. It can then be reheated in the boiler in order to produce steam again.

6 The installation is operated and monitored from a control room.

1

2

3

4

6

5

Each silo can hold

5,000 m3 of fuel

Room for newbio-based initiatives

27 MWcapacity

Temporary outside storage facility

The power plant supplies the local network with

10,000 volts of electricity

An electrical filter removes dust from the flue gases

50 metrechimney stack

The power plant and its surroundings

Cuijk bio-energy power plant

• New types of biomass are being used

at the bio-energy power plant as a

result of the Green Deal concluded

• Research will be used for the purpose

of creating a bio-based economy

• The bio-based economy is based on

the use of renewable fuels

• Our ambition is to build a bio-based

economy park at Cuijk

• The next phase will involve

researching the possibility of setting

up a heat network

In short

Imagine that you are a peregrine falcon in flight: look down at the ground and you will see villages, towns, woods, meadows, rivers and lakes go past. A bird’s-eye view of the Netherlands. Take a closer look and you will see Essent’s bio-energy power plant near to Cuijk in North Brabant at the point where the Maas-Waal canal flows into the Maas. Notice the boats on the river, the trucks carrying biomass, the storage silos, the production buildings and more. See how Essent carries out production… from a bird’s-eye view.

The Cuijk bio-energy power plant has been generating electricity for ten years using prunings taken from the forests managed by Staatsbosbeheer, amongst others, and using waste wood from the nearby wood-processing industry. When the government subsidy that it had been awarded came to an end, Essent could no longer operate the power plant at a profit. Because of that, Essent decided to change the way the plant was run and since the start of 2012, it has been used as a test site for different types of biomass. The idea behind this is to develop an innovative ‘alter ego’ for the power plant which fits in with the Green Deal, an agreement between the government, industry and organisations in order to make the Dutch economy more sustainable and greener. The ultimate goal: a bio-based economy.

1 Each truck carrying biomass is weighed using the weighbridge on arrival and departure. The purpose of this activity is to calculate the quantity of biomass processed and to record details of the supplier and where the biomass came from.

2 The truck deposits its load in the dumping building, a covered pit with a capacity of 200 cubic metres. Any pieces of iron are removed using a magnet in order to prevent them from causing any damage.

3 The fuel is transported from the dumping building to the storage silos. These hold enough fuel to enable production to continue at night and at the weekend when there are no supplies being brought in by truck.

4 The tallest buildings house the combustion boiler, the flue gas purification installation, the steam turbine and the generator. The day silos contain a small quantity of fuel which is used to feed the combustion boiler.

5 The steam emitted by the steam turbine is cooled down in the open air-cooled condenser and turned back into water with a temperature of approximately 45 degrees Celsius. It can then be reheated in the boiler in order to produce steam again.

6 The installation is operated and monitored from a control room.

1

2

3

4

6

5

Each silo can hold

5,000 m3 of fuel

Room for newbio-based initiatives

27 MWcapacity

Temporary outside storage facility

The power plant supplies the local network with

10,000 volts of electricity

An electrical filter removes dust from the flue gases

50 metrechimney stack

The power plant and its surroundings

Cuijk bio-energy power plant

• New types of biomass are being used

at the bio-energy power plant as a

result of the Green Deal concluded

• Research will be used for the purpose

of creating a bio-based economy

• The bio-based economy is based on

the use of renewable fuels

• Our ambition is to build a bio-based

economy park at Cuijk

• The next phase will involve

researching the possibility of setting

up a heat network

In short

Imagine that you are a peregrine falcon in flight: look down at the ground and you will see villages, towns, woods, meadows, rivers and lakes go past. A bird’s-eye view of the Netherlands. Take a closer look and you will see Essent’s bio-energy power plant near to Cuijk in North Brabant at the point where the Maas-Waal canal flows into the Maas. Notice the boats on the river, the trucks carrying biomass, the storage silos, the production buildings and more. See how Essent carries out production… from a bird’s-eye view.

The Cuijk bio-energy power plant has been generating electricity for ten years using prunings taken from the forests managed by Staatsbosbeheer, amongst others, and using waste wood from the nearby wood-processing industry. When the government subsidy that it had been awarded came to an end, Essent could no longer operate the power plant at a profit. Because of that, Essent decided to change the way the plant was run and since the start of 2012, it has been used as a test site for different types of biomass. The idea behind this is to develop an innovative ‘alter ego’ for the power plant which fits in with the Green Deal, an agreement between the government, industry and organisations in order to make the Dutch economy more sustainable and greener. The ultimate goal: a bio-based economy.

1 Each truck carrying biomass is weighed using the weighbridge on arrival and departure. The purpose of this activity is to calculate the quantity of biomass processed and to record details of the supplier and where the biomass came from.

2 The truck deposits its load in the dumping building, a covered pit with a capacity of 200 cubic metres. Any pieces of iron are removed using a magnet in order to prevent them from causing any damage.

3 The fuel is transported from the dumping building to the storage silos. These hold enough fuel to enable production to continue at night and at the weekend when there are no supplies being brought in by truck.

4 The tallest buildings house the combustion boiler, the flue gas purification installation, the steam turbine and the generator. The day silos contain a small quantity of fuel which is used to feed the combustion boiler.

5 The steam emitted by the steam turbine is cooled down in the open air-cooled condenser and turned back into water with a temperature of approximately 45 degrees Celsius. It can then be reheated in the boiler in order to produce steam again.

6 The installation is operated and monitored from a control room.

1

2

3

4

6

5

Each silo can hold

5,000 m3 of fuel

Room for newbio-based initiatives

27 MWcapacity

Temporary outside storage facility

The power plant supplies the local network with

10,000 volts of electricity

An electrical filter removes dust from the flue gases

50 metrechimney stack

The power plant and its surroundings

A bird’s-eye view of the Cuijk bio-energy power plant

and production of artificial manure (a highly energy-intensive process) superfluous. The possibility of building a manure digester is also being examined, with the aim of using manure to produce biogas. The ambition is to eventually also build a bio-refinery in Cuijk so that we can create a small bio-based economy. This would involve the splitting of biomass into high-quality useful components so that the low-quality residue left could ultimately be used to fire the power plant.

Wood pelletsThe biomass that Essent already uses to generate electricity at its coal-fired power plants comes in the form of so-called wood pellets. These will increasingly be produced using the wood from fast-growing conifers from production forests managed by RWE in the US state of Georgia, for example. During their growth, these trees absorb CO2 that is released again during combustion at the power plant. The CO2 cycle is short as a result of which the whole chain is virtually CO2-neutral.

The installationThe way that the bio-energy power plant in Cuijk works is relatively simple. Biomass supplied to the power plant is stored in

two storage silos, each of which holds 5,000 cubic metres of fuel. That fuel is transported on a conveyor belt to the day silos from where it is loaded into the combustion chamber. Because the calorific value of the biomass materials varies, dosing and combustion are precisely controlled from a fully automatic control room. The combustion chamber has a fluidised bed of sand and air with a temperature of approximately 800 degrees Celsius. The high temperature causes the biomass to ignite and the heat released as a result heats water, turning it into steam. That steam sets a turbine in motion which in turn drives a generator within which the electricity is produced. Working at EssentWe are continuously looking for talented technical staff for posts on different levels, ranging from installers to project engineers and from environmental coordinators to project managers.

Want to find out more? Go to www.werkenbijessent.nl.

for example. This process is also called cascading. After all the high-quality components have been extracted from the biomass, a low-quality residue is left that is particularly suitable for co-firing (Essent’s) coal-fired power stations in Geertruidenberg and Eemshaven but also for enabling our power plant in Cuijk to produce Green Power, for example. So this process produces no waste. This new view of biomass has provided the basis for the so-called bio-based economy, an economy based on the use of renewable fuels. Essent is all for a bio-based economy in the Netherlands.

Cuijk bio-based economy parkAt the Cuijk site, there is space to carry out the cascading process described above. First of all, the possibility of connecting a heat network to the power plant to which nearby companies can be connected will be examined. That would increase the efficiency of the power plant considerably and the companies could be supplied with ‘green power and heat’. Another phase would involve the installation of an innovative manure drier. The manure supplied would be dried using heat from the power plant, crushed to form manure pellets and then distributed again. This would render the use Biomass

The fuel used at the Cuijk bio-energy power plant is biomass. Biomass is the collective name for organic materials such as vegetable, fruit and garden waste (VFG) and prunings. Each type of biomass is used for a different purpose. For example, used cooking oil and agricultural products such as rape seed and sugar cane can be used to make biofuels which cars can run on as a replacement for petrol and diesel. Another type we can mention is manure which is used as a raw material in the production of biogas. Various types of new

sustainable (and certified) biomass have already been tested at the bio-energy power plant during 2012. These include grass cuttings, paper sludge, sawdust, sweepings from the forestry industry and prunings. They have been found to be suitable for producing electricity but there are further possibilities for using biomass.

Bio-based economyOptimum segregation (refining) of biomass can be carried out in order to produce various high-quality raw materials for use in the production of cosmetics and medicines,

P 00

19Want to find out more? www.essent.eu

A bird’s-eye view of the Cuijk bio-energy power plant

and production of artificial manure (a highly energy-intensive process) superfluous. The possibility of building a manure digester is also being examined, with the aim of using manure to produce biogas. The ambition is to eventually also build a bio-refinery in Cuijk so that we can create a small bio-based economy. This would involve the splitting of biomass into high-quality useful components so that the low-quality residue left could ultimately be used to fire the power plant.

Wood pelletsThe biomass that Essent already uses to generate electricity at its coal-fired power plants comes in the form of so-called wood pellets. These will increasingly be produced using the wood from fast-growing conifers from production forests managed by RWE in the US state of Georgia, for example. During their growth, these trees absorb CO2 that is released again during combustion at the power plant. The CO2 cycle is short as a result of which the whole chain is virtually CO2-neutral.

The installationThe way that the bio-energy power plant in Cuijk works is relatively simple. Biomass supplied to the power plant is stored in

two storage silos, each of which holds 5,000 cubic metres of fuel. That fuel is transported on a conveyor belt to the day silos from where it is loaded into the combustion chamber. Because the calorific value of the biomass materials varies, dosing and combustion are precisely controlled from a fully automatic control room. The combustion chamber has a fluidised bed of sand and air with a temperature of approximately 800 degrees Celsius. The high temperature causes the biomass to ignite and the heat released as a result heats water, turning it into steam. That steam sets a turbine in motion which in turn drives a generator within which the electricity is produced. Working at EssentWe are continuously looking for talented technical staff for posts on different levels, ranging from installers to project engineers and from environmental coordinators to project managers.

Want to find out more? Go to www.werkenbijessent.nl.

for example. This process is also called cascading. After all the high-quality components have been extracted from the biomass, a low-quality residue is left that is particularly suitable for co-firing (Essent’s) coal-fired power stations in Geertruidenberg and Eemshaven but also for enabling our power plant in Cuijk to produce Green Power, for example. So this process produces no waste. This new view of biomass has provided the basis for the so-called bio-based economy, an economy based on the use of renewable fuels. Essent is all for a bio-based economy in the Netherlands.

Cuijk bio-based economy parkAt the Cuijk site, there is space to carry out the cascading process described above. First of all, the possibility of connecting a heat network to the power plant to which nearby companies can be connected will be examined. That would increase the efficiency of the power plant considerably and the companies could be supplied with ‘green power and heat’. Another phase would involve the installation of an innovative manure drier. The manure supplied would be dried using heat from the power plant, crushed to form manure pellets and then distributed again. This would render the use Biomass

The fuel used at the Cuijk bio-energy power plant is biomass. Biomass is the collective name for organic materials such as vegetable, fruit and garden waste (VFG) and prunings. Each type of biomass is used for a different purpose. For example, used cooking oil and agricultural products such as rape seed and sugar cane can be used to make biofuels which cars can run on as a replacement for petrol and diesel. Another type we can mention is manure which is used as a raw material in the production of biogas. Various types of new

sustainable (and certified) biomass have already been tested at the bio-energy power plant during 2012. These include grass cuttings, paper sludge, sawdust, sweepings from the forestry industry and prunings. They have been found to be suitable for producing electricity but there are further possibilities for using biomass.

Bio-based economyOptimum segregation (refining) of biomass can be carried out in order to produce various high-quality raw materials for use in the production of cosmetics and medicines,

P 00

19Want to find out more? www.essent.eu