Best practise report on decentralized biomass fired CHP plants and status of biomass fired small- and micro scale CHP technologies

A combined heat and power (CHP) plant is a facility for the simultaneous production of thermal and electrical resp. mechanical energy in one process. As compared to power plants, the overall process efficiency is higher as the otherwise rejected heat is also transferred to consumers. Applications range from very small appliances for domestic use, so called “micro scale CHPs” in the range till 50 kWe via “small scale CHPs” for larger buildings and local heating grids to “medium-“ and “large scale CHPs” for industrial sites or district heating grids (ranging up to some 30 MWe).

This report, prepared by IEA Bioenergy Task 32, focuses on small- and micro scale CHP technologies. For the most relevant technologies (steam engines, ORC applications, Stirling engines, thermoelectric generators), the most important technical parameters together with operational results and experiences as well as boundary conditions for application are described and presented in form of fact sheets. Technology developments in the last 10 years are summarized and further R&D needs are specified. For each technology also selected monitoring data are presented and discussed.

Best practise reports on small scale CHP plants are presented, and possible optimization measures and recommendations for further applications have been derived.