In addi­tion to produc­tion of premium biochar, PYREG plants offer the advan­tage of multiple uses of the heat gene­rated in the carbo­niza­tion process. Thus, our custo­mers can use this heat for drying feedstock (e.g. sewage sludge), supp­lying the heat as green heat to local and district heating systems (e.g. muni­ci­pa­li­ties or muni­cipal utili­ties) or to  gene­rate process steam (e.g. indus­trial plants or manu­fac­tu­ring industry).

With the inte­gra­tion of a Cyplan® ORC module (Organic Rankine Cycle), PYREG is now going one step further: the ORC module gene­rates elec­trical power from decen­tra­lized waste heat sources. The possi­bi­lity of directly utili­zing thermal energy in waste gases up to 500 °C is a unique selling point of Cyplan® tech­no­logy by Dürr Systems AG and is thus the ideal comple­ment to PYREG’s carbo­niza­tion technology.

“By coope­ra­ting with PYREG, two German tech­no­logy market leaders are demons­t­ra­ting a true win-win situa­tion, setting new stan­dards in their markets,” says Sven Jensen, who is coor­di­na­ting the coope­ra­tion as sales manager on the Dürr Systems AG side. “Espe­ci­ally in the small to medium power range, many ORC plants lack effi­ci­ency. Here, the fully inte­grated Cyplan® ORC tech­no­logy is unsur­passed in terms of flexi­bi­lity and elec­trical efficiency.”

PYREG provides largely dust-free exhaust gas due to the built-in hot gas filter in the pyro­lysis process. With Dürr’s direct evapo­ra­tion tech­no­logy, the hot exhaust gases can be taken directly into the primary heat exch­anger (evapo­rator) of the ORC system. An inter­me­diate circuit, e.g. thermal oil, is not neces­sary, which mini­mizes costs and trans­mis­sion losses.

Since the thermal energy is coupled into the ORC system at higher tempe­ra­tures, the elec­trical effi­ci­ency is more than twice as high compared to an ORC solu­tion with hot water inter­face, where the thermal energy is trans­ferred to hot water and then fed to the ORC system.

In addi­tion, the Cyplan® ORC offers the possi­bi­lity of coge­nera­tion. Here, the conden­sa­tion heat from the ORC process is provided at a tempe­ra­ture level of up to 95 °C, while elec­tri­city is gene­rated in parallel. This repres­ents a valuable heat flow which can be used for pre-drying the feedstock. For biomass with lower water content, the throughput of the pyro­lysis plant is thus higher. Alter­na­tively, this low-tempe­ra­ture heat can be used for process purposes or for feeding into a heat network.

With the inte­gra­tion of the Cyplan® ORC module into the PYREG plant, the majo­rity of the heat produced is still available to the customer for further use. The elec­tri­city produced is higher than the total plant’s energy consump­tion, offe­ring attrac­tive addi­tional income from elec­tri­city marketing.

In total, Dürr’s high tempe­ra­ture ORC offers an overall effi­ci­ency of about 95% (16% elec­trical power (gross) plus about 79% heat) compared to about 8% elec­tri­city gene­ra­tion (gross) by low tempe­ra­ture ORC plants.