The private firm which commissioned this plant is located near Bolzano/Bozen, in Northern Italy, and has installed a micro thermolectric power plant on its premises to take advantage of incentives the Italian government offers for newly-built power generation plants fueled by biomass or renewable sources.
In this particular case, the supplied system is a ZE-50-ULH ORC module, having a 50-kWe power output, which operates using waste heat recovered from the cooling jackets and exhaust gases of a 420-kWE MAN 420 model 2842 LE 211 genset fueled by vegetable oil. The addition of the ORC module increases overall productivity by more than 10%
The MAN 420 genset is derived from a marine engine, optimized to burn biofuel (rapeseed oil) instead of the original heavy oil and connected to a generator to convert the developed mechanical energy into electricity. The rapeseed oil used comes from certified and tracked EU sources and is a sustainable and renewable energy source made very competitive for power production by state and regional incentive.
As all biomass-derived fuels, rapeseed oil has zero impact for what regards CO2 emissions, as the CO2 released during combustion was the same CO2 captured by the plants during their growth. Furthermore, the residue from rapeseed pressing can be used as a healthy, high-protein foodstuff for cattle.
