Providing 14,600MWh of electricity per year, the project is designed to help reduce sub-urban electricity shortages.
By generating electricity from biogas in place of previously used coal, the project is expected to reduce the equivalent of about 95,000 tons of CO2 per year, qualifying the project for the United Nations-sanctioned Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program.
The Beijing Deqingyuan project is reportedly reducing the farm’s dust levels, further enhancing the area’s air and water quality by controlling odors and improving the work environment for the farm’s employees. The improvements support the guidelines of several Chinese government initiatives including the Underground Water Conservation Law, the New Rural Construction Plan and the Distributed Energy Solution Policy.
The farm owns three million chickens, producing 220 tons of manure and 170 tons of wastewater each day. The farm’s new cogeneration system features an anaerobic digester system to treat the waste material, producing enough biogas to fuel two GE Jenbacher JMS 320 GS-B.L gas engines. The plant has an installed electric capacity of more than 2MW for use at the chicken farm. Additionally, the plant’s thermal output is used to support the chicken waste fermentation process and also heat the farm in winter.
Jack Wen, president and CEO of GE Energy China, said: This biogas project will quickly pay for itself by meeting the customer’s demand for cost-effective electricity and heat. We estimate that the customer will save more than $1.2 million a year in electricity costs alone.
