Clean, Versatile and Cost-effective Waste-to-Energy Solution

Project Information

COSYNAT

Grant agreement ID: 674065

DOI

10.3030/674065

Project closed

EC signature date 8 May 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 31 August 2015

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

INDEMESA SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COSYNAT (Clean, Versatile and Cost-effective Waste-to-Energy Solution)

Reporting period: 2015-05-01 to 2015-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Indemesa and Dobra, two companies that share an extensive experience in the design, manufacturing, and assembly of industrial equipment and the developing of solid biomass gasification technologies, have joined forces to exploit a 25.4 M€ (by 2020) business opportunity unlocked by a breakthrough standalone 0.3MWe waste-to-energy technology, named COSYNAT. They have designed and built a more efficient, versatile, and stand-alone solid biomass to heat and power gasification system for small power ranges. COSYNAT solution can be described as a “resource-efficient” (uses waste as an energy source), “cost-effective” (electricity produced 8-10x times cheaper than other off grid technologies) and “affordable” (IRR of 15-20% and payback time less than 5 years) renewable based technology which makes the energy system “more efficient in a sustainable way” by producing energy from waste. For off grid installations COSYNAT will offer up much lower electricity production costs when biomass is readily available. Moreover, for waste intensive industries it will offer a key reduction in the use of fossil fuels and electricity respectively from the grid and a very large reduction of the costs associated to waste disposal. COSYNAT is at a technology readiness level (TRL) 6 stage of development. The overall aim of the project is to take the technology to TRL9 and to commercialize it. When fully developed COSYNAT will have the following advantages: (1) Small scale, covering an identified market gap: waste intensive industries (particularly vegetable waste) and organic waste disposal centers both, that continuously demand power and with ready access to biomass residue. (2) Variable feedstock operation: more than 10 types of waste with no significant loss of performance. (3) Environmentally friendly: produces syngas with significantly less sustained tar and ash content versus comparable systems, besides the lower environmental impact than incineration. (4) Low CAPEX: estimated ca. 1 -1.2M€ for a full 0.3MWe system. (5) Low OPEX: ca. 10-15% reduction is estimated vs. comparable plants since biomass drying cost is lowered due to the use of exhaust gases heat. (6) High durability with an expected lifetime of 30 years and 7000h of continuous operation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work performed during the reporting period has been carried out from May 2015 to August 2015, covering the following tasks to assess the technical, commercial, and financial viability of our COSYNAT solution proposal.
Task 1: Determination of the detailed scope of the project, by estimating the timing, budget, and specific activities required for the design, manufacturing, testing, optimization, and commercialization of the COSYNAT solution.
Task 2: A cost estimation of the COSYNAT reactor as well as the CHP operating with COSYNAT gasification technology for an initial 0.3MWe power capacity has been carried out. Production costs have also been estimated when scaled up to 0.6 0.8 and 2.4MWe.
Task 3: A deep intellectual property and regulations analysis (IPR) have been carried out in order to assess the COSYNAT solution freedom-to-operate status. The patent of others have been analysed to determine whether the COSYNAT solution infringed any other patent claim.
Task 4: A thorough research of the COSYNAT target market has been done: supply vs demand, future trends, financial benefits, government support, and funding opportunities are included.
Task 5: The Market Study also refines the analysis of the potential competitors, showing evidences of the COSYNAT project profitability in the market “niche” and the target markets while emphasizing the competitive advantages of the COSYNAT solution.
Task 6: A commercialization strategy of the COSYNAT solution has been elaborated. To get into direct contact with potential clients various channels will be used: trade fairs, conferences, flagship projects, and OEMs to easily reach European countries. Other communication ways such as a web page and publications will be also used.
Task 7: The financial assessment of the COSYNAT solution set the business margins for entering the market of small-scale WtE plants via gasification, considering the first sales activity in 2018 and a prediction of sales and benefits until 2022.
In addition, a business plan has been done to complete the COSYNAT marketing strategy in line with the current state and future commercial plans of the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The COSYNAT project will boost the commercialization of a WtE technology of renewable generation through:
 Development of a WtE technologyfor a small-scale market gap of 100-300kWe by 2018, enabling self-generation when biomass waste is readily available and reducing waste up to 90%.
 The integration of the GVAS reactor into a cogeneration plant (CHP) of 0.3MWe power output in continuous operation to optimize the process efficiency, increasing 10-20% its performance vs comparable plants. Once cleaned, the producer gas or “syngas” enters the dual combustion engine to get electrical efficiencies >60% and thermal up to 93%.
 The development of a system that continuously feed the biomass from the feeder store to the drying body.
 Up-scale the design of the COSYNAT solution to300 and 800kWe once the 100kWe prototype reactor has reached objectives after being tested, thus supplying the demand of our target markets (ES, FR, DE by 2018).
 Monitoring the 100kWe COSYNAT proto, discontinuously fed, so as to measure the input “biomass” and output “syngas” properties.
 The development and validation of the new air ring by a 3-months testing in order to analyze results and define continuous improvements.
 The validation of the 100kWe COSYNAT proto performance and “syngas” properties by a 6-month ongoing testing (4000 h) to estimate its durability (up to 30 years expected lifetime), maintenance time and associated costs.
 The use of more than 10 types of waste streams as feedstock for the gasifier with no significant loss of performance has been successfully tested.COSYNAT can be used with a multitude of biomass inputs including waste streams from forestry, agricultural, farming and industrial sectors, such as agro-food (e.g. coffee production, tobacco, paper pulp, sugar), and wet biomass up to 20% moisture content.

We expect to have over 11M€ net profit by 2022. With an additional 2.55M€ being necessary to go on with the development of COSYNAT, a market introduction in 2018 and over 50 units sold by 2022 we estimate our break‐even point to be reached in the third year after market introduction.

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