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Wärtsilä, a leading supplier of flexible power
plants for the decentralized power generation
market, has successfully performed a number of
tests that demonstrate the ability of its
engines to run on a range of vegetable and
animal-based oils. This enables a wider range of
renewable fuel options for the Wärtsilä engines,
while at the same time enabling further CO2
emission reductions.
In the tests, conducted between February and
April of this year at the VTT technical research
centre in Espoo, Finland, a Wärtsilä Vasa 4R32
engine successfully operated on jatropha oil,
fish oil and chicken oil.
The first tests with engines running on a liquid
biofuel were carried out in 1995, when Wärtsilä
began testing with rapeseed oil. Since 2003,
Wärtsilä engine power plants have been in
commercial operation using palm oil as the fuel
source. Wärtsilä has, as an example, a market
share of more than 95% in Italy for power
generation from liquid biofuels. The aim of
these recent tests has been to assess the
capability of engines to operate on renewable
fuels that do not compete with agricultural
uses.
Commenting on the future market for power plants
running on liquid biofuels, Vesa Riihimäki, Vice
President, Power Plant Technology said: “Liquid
biofuels represent an emerging market. We see
that fuel supply infrastructures for crude
vegetable oils are being developed at an
increasing pace, suggesting that the
availability of such fuels will be vastly
extended during the next 5 to 10 years.
We provide technology that can use these new
fuels, and we have demonstrated that the chain
from fuel to electricity exists. In addition to
commodity fuels, we see a significant potential
in industry process side streams, such as, fish
and chicken oils, which can used for generating
renewable energy.”
The first engine test with straight jatropha oil
was performed in January 2009, with the engine
being operated successfully on a batch of oil
delivered from India. Jatropha oil is extracted
from the seeds of the jatropha plant. The seeds
are a non-edible, high-energy fruit grown on
semi-arid or marginal land in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. The fact that jatropha oil cannot
be used in the food industry, makes it extremely
promising as a future fuel source.
An additional test will be conducted later this
summer on a further batch of jatropha oil
imported from Tanzania.
In April last year, Wärtsilä secured an order
for an engine-based power plant that will run on
jatropha oil at the Koekhoven combined heat and
power plant in Merksplas, Belgium. This plant,
which is expected to start operation this
autumn, will be the first commercial
installation of an engine running on the fuel.
Fish oil has been tested in February 2009. Fish
contains 10-30% oil or fat, depending on the
species. The global production of fish oil in
2007 was 1.1 million tonnes, exceeding the
amount needed for food supplements.
Tests showed that the engine performed in much
the same way as when running on vegetable-based
oils, and no further testing will be necessary
for evaluation purposes at this stage.
Chicken oil, a by-product of the rendering
process of chicken, was tested in April 2009.
During the test, the engine performed as
expected.
From these tests, it can be concluded that most
animal fats are similar to conventional diesel
fuels in terms of energy content, and ignition
and combustion properties. The main differences
are the melting point, the level of impurities,
and the degree of acidity.
The main aim of the tests was to gain some
experience with alternative fuels, and to verify
that the engines would behave as expected in
terms of performance and exhaust gas emissions.
Niklas Haga, Chief Development Engineer,
Wärtsilä Power Plants commented: “We have
successfully tested and operated our engines
using various vegetable-based oils in the past,
now we are in the process of looking at
animal-based oils. As a result of these tests,
we are confident that we can operate our current
engines on these renewables.”
Mr Riihimäki continues: “In the future, we will
pursue further opportunities in the fuels arena,
with a target to provide even more fuel
flexibility to our customers.”
Source: Wartsila
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