New Energy Source Is The Pits
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) Israeli biomass energy start-up Genova, which is now setting up its first pilot plant, uses olive pits to make energy. The company, which was founded in September 2004, has its headquarters in the town of Karmiel, in the Galilee, reports Israel21c.
Biomass, or organic waste, is a by-product of various industries worldwide, including forestry, agriculture and livestock farming. The biomass is generally transported to a landfill to decompose, or it is burned. Decomposition and burning both create methane, a greenhouse gas which, if harnessed properly, can be a valuable source of energy.
An engineer named Dr Yuri Wladislawsky, who immigrated to Israel from Tbilisi, Georgia in 1996, came up with a new way of burning the biomass. He decided to use it on olive waste, from the presses which produce olive oil. The thinking was this: if the company could succeed in harnessing olive waste, which is difficult to use because of the pits, it would be able to handle all other kinds of biomass successfully. Wladislawsky founded Genova with this aim in mind, initially setting it up within the Misgav Technology Center incubator in the Galilee.
Genova's technology employs a new, secret technique to maintain the high temperatures needed f
Genova's technology employs a new, secret technique to maintain the high temperatures needed.
or the conversion process.
The olive waste is heated and dried and then introduced into the converter, where it undergoes two processes: pyrolysis and gasification. These involve heating the biomass to 800 degrees Celsius, the temperature at which its molecules break down. Several gases, including methane and carbon monoxide are produced which, because they are lighter than air, flow upwards through a pipe into a standard gas turbine to generate electricity. The other by-product, coke, can be sold for use to power air conditioners or as filters for various substances.
"Only ten percent of the electricity we produce is used to power the [olive waste conversion] process," said Yonat Grant, an industrial engineer who is the CEO of the company. "The process is 90% efficient. Our competitors are only 50% efficient, at best."
While the cost of producing a kilowatt with the competitors' systems is 9 cents, Genova's cost is only 2 cents per kilowatt, she says.
Genova's high efficiency and low cost has attracted much attention. The Israel Electric Company added a $60,000 investment to the NIS 1.4 million (about $300,000) that Genova received from the government-run Misgav incubator over the two years of its stay.
Genova has designed a pilot project in which olive waste from the village of Julis, in northern Israel, is fed into a converter in order to produce electricity which in turn powers the press in a self-sustaining system. The process is being carried out in a 200 kw/hour plant in the Druze village.
Besides energy, the experiment has also generated a great deal of interest. An investor in California, famous for its wine industry and high awareness of environmental issues, asked to try out the Genova reactor with vineyard waste products.
There is also interest coming from Australia, which has a flourishing olive oil industry. It is expected that other investors in the “green” industries won’t be far behind.
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