Göteborg Energi and Siemens Energy have announced that they have successfully run a gas turbine in the Rya CHP plant using liquid biofuel instead of natural gas. This opens up opportunities for the conversion of Rya KVV and also for sustainable power production.
The project with renewable fuels has been ongoing since 2019 and has now resulted in a successful operational test with biodiesel. The plant was run for two daus on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO).
Alf Engqvist, CEO of Göteborg Energi, said: “Our goal is to, by 2025, provide district heating that comes entirely from renewable or recycled sources. The conversion of Rya KVV is an important part of that work. That we have now, together with Siemens Energy, been able to concretely demonstrate the possibilities with renewable fuels in gas turbines is extremely gratifying and important for our continued work.”
The next phase of the project is to evaluate and take the lessons learned from the tests carried out in the continued development work on liquid fuels in gas turbines with the aim of further expanding fuel flexibility. The project looks at, among other things, the biofuels produced at the refineries in Gothenburg, which would reduce the amount of fuel transportation required for Rya KVV.
Hans Holmström, MD of Siemens Energy in Sweden, said that the gas turbine technology being developed can be used as both baseload power and balancing power depending on need. He said: “We can already burn renewable fuels such as biogas and high proportions of hydrogen in our gas turbines and the goal is to soon be able to offer several alternatives for running on 100 per cent renewables, including liquid fuels.”