The production of biofuel in combination with the generation of heat and electricity, waste recycling, and a chemical factory-this is the proposal of a group of Wroc³aw chemists to improve Poland's energy security.

Energy produced in this way is not only environmentally friendly, but also cheap. The idea is worth its weight in gold because the European Union wants the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption in member states to reach 20 percent by the year 2020. At the same time, the share of biofuel in fuels used in transportation is expected to grow to 10 percent.

How to make money on biofuel
Chemists at the University of Wroc³aw have developed a model for a fuel-energy-chemical center (CPECH) that could produce 30,000-50,000 metric tons of biofuel-methyl and ethyl esters, to be more precise-out of plant and animal fats. Such a center would include a pressing plant, a distillery, a biogas generator, and a combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant. In an expanded version, the center could also be harnessed to process municipal waste.

The idea was born in 1998. "It's the outcome of one of our lively discussions on the need to restructure Polish agriculture," says Dr. Andrzej Vogt, a member of the team of University of Wroc³aw chemists working on biofuels. Vogt's closest aides include Prof. Hubert Ko³odziej and Stanis³aw Strzelecki, M. Sc. "We wanted to check why no operations that combine agricultural production, energy, and environmental protection are profitable. In fact, it is necessary to provide significant subsidies to produce biofuels. If that wasn't enough, the price of alcohol fell and the chemical industry was in a rut," says Vogt.

The chemists came to the conclusion that energy prices were responsible for this state of affairs. How can this hurdle be overcome? It's easy. First, by concentrating various types of production such as the production of biofuels, ethyl alcohol and methane, in a single company. Second, by utilizing the waste from this production as a source of energy so that it is not necessary to buy energy from third parties. "We carried out a detailed analysis and it turned out to be a phenomenal idea," says Vogt.

The Wroc³aw chemists are working as part of an international research team that is looking into the possibility of procuring energy from renewable sources. In the summer, the team, together with its partners in the Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Romania, received an 18-million-euro grant from the European Union for further research.

Billions for power
Vogt's team proposes that 40 such fuel-energy-chemical centers be established throughout Poland. This would improve energy security at a regional level, and the effects of the projects would also be felt on a national scale. The 40 centers would be capable of producing a total of 1 million tons of biofuel components-considering the amount of arable land growing oily plants. In the event of a shortage of raw material, the centers could also process animal fats. Thanks to this, Poland could significantly decrease its petroleum imports, which currently amount to 18 million tons a year.

The total output of the proposed 40 combined heat-and-power plants would be around 1,200 MW. That is equivalent to the capacity of a large power plant. For comparison, Poland's largest power plant, Be³chatów, has an output of 4,400 MW.

What is the cost of such a center? At first glance, it is substantial: zl.80-100 million in its basic version and zl.200-250 million when a waste recycling unit is included. This means that building 40 centers would consume up to zl.4 billion in the basic version, soaring to zl.10 billion with the option for processing municipal waste into energy.

However, this figure should be compared with the costs of building or modernizing power units in conventional power plants. As an example, the largest such project in the Polish power industry, the building of a new unit at the Be³chatów power plant, is valued at approximately 900 million euros. That works out to billions when converted into Polish zlotys. The modernization of three units at the Turów power plant was of the same scale a few years ago. When the BOT group, which includes the Be³chatów and Turów lignite mines and the Be³chatów, Opole and Turów power plants, was established in 2004, its first president put the investment needs of its constituent companies at zl.22.8 billion.

Energy from animal waste
The first plants that intend to use parts of the model proposed by the Wroc³aw chemists are already emerging. A company in Skoroszyce in the Opole region wants to use animal wastes produced by the meat industry to make fuel, electricity and heat. Some of this energy will be consumed to meet in-house needs, but a part will be sold. The thermal energy is to be used to heat an enormous greenhouse being built nearby. This will be the largest greenhouse in Poland, with an area of 100 hectares (247 acres). It will use carbon dioxide produced by the combined heat-and-power plant in burning animal wastes, as a fertilizer.

The Womarex-bio textile plant in Giebu³tów in Lower Silesia has also reached for the technology developed by the Wroc³aw chemists. The company decided to expand its operations to include the production of biofuels. In August 2006, Womarex-bio purchased a license from the University of Wroc³aw to use the technology developed by Dr. Vogt and his colleagues. This was the first such license sold by the school. Womarex-bio is starting up its first bio-ester production line with an output of 10,000 tons per annum. At the moment, it is still running on methyl alcohol.

In yet another project, a power plant with an output of 50 MW is expected to be built in one of the larger cities of the Opole region. It will burn esters that will be produced on the spot. Vogt says a bio-gas production plant will also open there. In Orzysz in northern Poland, an ester production plant will be built, with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year to begin with. In Stalowa Wola in the south, major efforts have been under way for two years to create a large center in line with the Wroc³aw model. The project will involve the processing of municipal waste. Other sites for such plants include Rzeszów and Lublin.

Powered by biomass
How does the center developed by the Wroc³aw chemists work? Its heart is a facility that produces esters, or biofuel. Oil and ethyl alcohol, or methyl alcohol if necessary, are essential to the project. An oil pressing plant and a distillery are therefore necessary.

Raw materials for the pressing plant are oily plants such as rape and sunflower. An annual production of 50,000 tons of esters requires 150,000 tons of rape seed, which means 60,000 hectares (more than 148,000 acres) of land to grow the plants. The distillery proposed by the Wroc³aw chemists would produce ethyl alcohol-rather than methyl alcohol, which is made from methane, or natural gas, not a renewable resource. "What is important in this case is that production would be solely based on biomass," says Vogt.

The Wroc³aw researchers have developed their own technology for making ethyl esters. It is the cheapest in the world and completely waste-free. Esters, as biofuel components, are created after combining ethyl alcohol and oil, using a catalyst. The whole process requires a small amount of energy. According to Vogt, it is only needed to evaporate excess alcohol.

The only byproduct generated in the production of esters is what is known as the glycerin fraction. Its volume is five times smaller than the volume of esters. In making 50,000 tons of esters a year, 10,000 tons of the glycerin fraction are left behind.

The glycerin fraction can be utilized, too. It can be used to produce free fatty acids that are found in the glycerin fraction in the form of soap, or 97-percent pure industrial glycerin, which can be distilled and used in the production of cosmetics, paint, enamel, pharmaceuticals, nitroglycerine and propylene. In its undistilled form, the glycerin fraction can be used to make feed yeast, which is both expensive and must be imported by Poland from the West; as well as citric acid, which is also imported; and oxalic acid, which is used in the chemical and cosmetics industries. Additionally, the glycerin fraction can be used in the production of potassium phosphate, or artificial fertilizer. "We have launched cooperation with the Morawica limestone quarry near Kielce. They have developed an artificial fertilizer called Kompleksor that will be made using our potassium phosphates," says Vogt.

The esters themselves can be used to produce a new line of hypoallergenic, nonionic detergents or even biodegradable lubricants and cleansers.

Gas from rape seed, electricity from garbage
The future fuel-energy-chemical center will also include a biogas generating plant, a combined heat-and-power plant, and a power plant fired with gas, liquid and solid fuels.

The basic raw material for the biogas plant will be waste from alcohol production in the distillery. "Polish distilleries don't know what to do with it," says Vogt. "They often dump it into drainage channels at night, thus polluting the environment." In order to receive biogas it is first necessary to enrich this distillery waste. Other wastes serve this purpose-oil cake from rape seed, for example, which is also used for other purposes, such as feed; as well as liquid manure, tree leaves, slaughterhouse waste, and the sediment from municipal sewage treatment plants. A mixture of distillery waste and other wastes goes through a fermentation process giving off methane.

"Poland has few biogas generating plants," says Vogt. In Germany, for example, farmers have their own biogas plants, individually or in groups. Vogt says the cost of such a plant is approximately zl.10-15 million. If the fuel-energy-chemical center produces 20,000-30,000 tons of ester a year, then a biogas generating plant could produce 15 million cubic meters of biogas per year. The combined heat-and-power plant could play a more prominent role. "Building it would account for half the cost of the entire center," says Vogt. Such a project is worthwhile, however, if the CHP plant is flexible in terms of raw material use. It can use biogas from the biogas generating plant, but also biomass, oil cake and straw purchased from farmers.

The liquid fuel power plant could use the ester itself, the flagship product of the center. "If, for some reason, the sale of biofuel should fail to work out, converting it into electricity and heat will be worthwhile," says Vogt.

The center would also process municipal waste to generate electricity and heat. "The cost of waste recycling itself is approximately zl.100 million for an average-sized city," says Vogt. "In our center, the waste would pay for itself."

Green energy
Building 40 fuel-energy-chemical centers spaced equally throughout the country would reduce energy transmission costs. It would also help reduce the consumption of traditional raw materials such as coal and lignite. Complete management of all wastes produced in the fuel-energy-chemical center and their conversion into energy or chemical raw materials would obviously be both economically and environmentally profitable. The project would also make it possible to save on finite mineral raw materials such as petroleum, gas and coal, which are among the basic raw materials used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and other industries. These raw materials are being irreversibly exploited, leading to negative climate changes.

The Wroc³aw chemists expect the greatest savings to come from combining all these production processes into a single project. In such a system, each end product would be less expensive than if it were produced separately. "Our economic analyses show that investing in such a center, without the waste recycling stage, should provide a return within three-and-a-half years," Vogt says.

£ukasz Medeksza