Aided by cost-share funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Biomass Power Program, Community Power Corporation (CPC) of Aurora, CO is developing a modular down-draft biomass gasifier coupled with an internal combustion engine. The units will be designed to generate power in the 5 to 25 kW range by gasifying biomass fuels such as coconut shells and husks, bagasse, rice hulls, wood residues, rubber wood, and palm nut shells.

CPC has built a small (7 kW) prototype unit for laboratory evaluation in Colorado, and will install and evaluate field prototypes in the Philippines and Alaska.

Click here for the Executive Summary of the Phase I Feasibility Study for this modular BioPower project.

Phase 2 Activities

CPC will 1) develop and test the performance of three prototype SMB systems, 2) complete a detailed business plan, and 3) establish partnerships with commercial distribution/service entities.

The basic SMB design uses a fixed-bed downdraft gasifier feeding producer gas to an SI engine coupled to a generator. This design includes operation such that no liquid effluent will be produced from the system. The gasifier design also incorporates features that promise to produce a low tar and ash gas stream that will be filtered.

Field surveys in the Philippines, conducted by CPC, have identified capacity requirements for these types for systems in the range of 12 kW to 25 kW. During these field surveys, conducted under Phase 1 of this project, site locations for the first commissioned unit were identified. Regional and local support has been obtained from the appropriate agencies for deploying the first SMB system. The schedule calls for having the first unit shipped to the Philippines in September 2000.

Conceptual and preliminary designs have been completed for all major components and sub-assemblies. The preliminary gasifier design has been fabricated and plans call for parametric testing during March-April. These tests are intended to demonstrate and develop the control strategy for maintaining stable operation of the gasifier in addition to establishing scaling factors for the final design. Vendor selection for fabrication of other system sub-assemblies is underway.

CPC Phase II Project

NREL is providing technical support to this effort by assigning an engineer part time to help CPC design and operate its system. Much of what DOE and NREL have learned about gasification, solids handling, gas measurement, and high temperature filtration is being made available to this project.