FLUOROCARBON BASED HEAT ENGINE FACILITY TO SUPPORT LOCAL FARMING AND GENERATE ELECTRICITY

A Norwegian producer of HFCs or HFO based heat engines and heat pumps is to install a pilot facility in Barbados operating an ORC (organic rankine cycle) to convert king grass (a recently introduced rotation crop) fuel into electricity. Due to its high yield, fast growing properties and chemical composition, king grass is an excellent biomass fuel. The king grass will be pre-processed prior to thermal conversion into syngas or heat energy.

The pilot is to be installed at a site near the biomass fields, and the produced electricity which will be fed into the Barbados national grid, contributing to the national electricity company’s commitment to move to 100% renewable energy and the Government’s recently initiated plan to significantly reduce the dependence on fossil fuel generation.

Once successful, the process can be duplicated at several farms across the island, at small-to medium-scale, distributed biomass-to-power facilities around the island, and potentially across the Caribbean region. The social, environmental and economic impacts of this project are significant.

The heat engine organic rankine cycle system can operate on HFC-245fa/HFC-134a or HFO-1336mzz(Z) (used for high temperature heat pumps) and has been specially engineered to transform low-temperature waste heat (from 80°C and upwards) into electricity. The system can also produce usable heat (CHP) in cases where input temperatures are higher than 150°C. It automatically adjusts to changes in temperature and power input without compromising on performance and efficiency.

Source manufacturer’s information