Self-regulated asynchronous cogeneration to enable micro-scale waste-to-energy biogas utilisation

在厌氧消化器和微生物燃料电池中，作为有机废水处理的废物能源（WTE）副产品产生的富含甲烷的沼气具有产生30 TWh电力的潜力。然而，虽然基于专用工业发动机的热电联产装置（CHP）目前从大规模WTE和热电联产（CG）技术（250 KWhe）中回收能量，但目前的规模与大多数潜在用户的废物/能源需求不兼容，这意味着只有1.6%的可用原料被利用。微型WTE技术-这是唯一符合这些要求-因此，预计将通过广泛的公共和工业应用主导市场。然而，尽管微型AD/MFC的使用增长迅速，但由于同步发电机成本的可扩展性与CHP尺寸的减小存在根本性限制，因此没有用于沼气微型CG的商业技术。Lindhurst创新工程旨在通过证明自调节发电的技术可行性来实现交钥匙沼气微型CHP的启用技术，从而省略同步的关键昂贵组件。该项目基于高功率因数并网感应的新型框架、专用微型涡轮发动机和集成洗涤，目标是在发动机排量/发电能力、系统复杂性、成本、噪音和维护方面实现飞跃。

Methane-rich biogas produced as a waste-to-energy (WTE) by-product of organic effluenttreatment in anaerobic digesters and microbial fuel cells has potential to generate 30TWh ofelectricity. Yet, whilst combined heat/power units (CHP) based on dedicated industrial biogasengines currently recover energy from large-scale WTE and cogeneration (CG) technologies(250KWhe), the current size is not compatible with the waste/energy requirements of mostpotential users, meaning that only 1.6% of the available feedstock is being utilised.Micro-scale WTE technologies – which are uniquely aligned with these requirements – aretherefore predicted to dominate the market through widespread public and industrialapplication. However, despite uptake of micro-AD/MFC growing rapidly, there is nocommercial technology for biogas micro-CG due to a fundamental restriction on scalability ofsynchronous generator costs with reducing CHP size.Lindhurst Innovation Engineering aim to realise an enabling technology for a turn-key biogasmicro-CHP, by instead proving the technical feasibility of self-regulated asynchronousgeneration, allowing key expensive components for synchronisation to be omitted. Based on anovel framework for high power factor grid-linked induction, a dedicated micro-scale biogasengine and integrated scrubbing, the project targets a step change in enginedisplacement/electrical generation capacity, system complexity, cost, noise and maintenance.