The Karlovo plant in the Bulgarian province of Plovdiv will turn synthetic gas made from straw and wood chips into clean, reliable and affordable electricity that will help Bulgaria reduce its dependence on imported natural gas.

By the end of this year the Bulgarian province of Plovdiv will be home to a 5 MW biomass-to-energy plant. The facility will rely on Spanish technology from Eqtec Iberia, a unit of the Spanish-Bulgarian holding company Ebioss Energy AD.

The plant will use three General Electric Jenbacher engines which are fuel-flexible, robust and highly efficient. They will run on syngas derived from straw and wood chips, producing enough electricity to satisfy the energy needs of 2,000 homes. The new plant will offer 28% electrical efficiency and almost 70% total combined heat and power efficiency.

The type of waste used at the plant is difficult to convert into gas effectively, although the excellent integration of Eqtec Iberia technology with GE’s gas engines will provide a high performance level in terms of efficiency, energy use and emissions.

This plant is a reflection of Ebioss’ strategy to promote its IBGPP technology (Integrated Biomass Gasification Cogeneration Power Plant) in Europe, towards helping countries reduce their dependence on foreign energy and increase the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources.

With Eqtec Gasifier technology steam and hot water can be generated with no reduction in output power, so overall plant efficiency is much higher when the plant is used for district heating or other cogeneration applications in addition to power production.