Wastewater energy project begins
A project that aims to establish Europe’s first industrial size plant able to produce high efficiency energy with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) using biogas from wastewater treatment has begun.
The €5.9m DEMOSOFC project, which is receiving €4.2m from the Horizon 2020’s Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, is focused on the installation of three fuel cell modules able to co-produce 175kW of electrical power and 90kW of thermal power, with an electrical efficiency of 53%. The system will be installed in the SMAT Collegno wastewater treatment plant in Turin, Italy, where biogas is currently produced from anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.
The DEMOSOFC plant will cover around 30% of the site needs (actually provided by the grid) and 100% of the thermal requirement. The plant will employ the SOFC technology that can directly use natural gas or biogas. SOFCs are currently the most efficient and fuel flexible devices among the different fuel cell types available.
The project is co-ordinated by the Energy Department of Politecnico di Torino and involves five European research institutes and companies. Speaking about the venture, project co-ordinator Massimo Santarelli said: “This project aims to be an emblematic case, at industrial level, to show to companies, experts and society the advantages of fuel cells systems: from the comparison with traditional internal combustion engines and gas turbines, in the sub-MW area, efficiencies higher than 53% are expected for the SOFC system, compared to values in the range of 25-38% for engines and turbines.
DEMOSOFC will leverage from the results of the recently ended SOFCOM project, which was concerned with the design and installation of a small-scale demonstration plants with biogas fed SOFC. This project was centred on the need to revamp waste water treatment plants.
