SUPPLEMENT FEATURE PLCS & INDUSTRIAL PCS ENERGY FROM OIL
Powertron Engineering is providing turnkey solutions, using Movicon’s system architecture, for electric power stations powered by vegetable oil. The company is currently working together with Cambridge University in researching and developing technological solutions for increasing the performance of vegetable oil powered stations
O
ne of the main challenges that mankind will face in the third
millennium is the increasing demand for alternative energy solutions that do not pollute or harm the environment or health of its inhabitants. In this context the European Commission has issued a specific act targeted at encouraging energy saving and using renewable sources (non-fossil) to produce it, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydrothermal ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, gas waste from sewage treatment and biogas. EU state members have a ‘20/20/20 target’ as part of the European 2020 strategy, promoting incentives for sustainable energy produced from renewable sources.
WHY USE VEGETABLE OIL? Rapeseed oil is a vegetable product extracted from the rape plant. While the use of biofuel in cars has been complicated by technical and legal issues, in a power plant fueled by rapeseed oil, the situation is a different story and is extremely beneficial. Rapeseed oil costs less than half the price of diesel and petrol and creates 98% less pollution. These factors are particularly interesting when linked to cogeneration engines that produce electric and thermal energy, directly injected with this ‘ecofriendly’ fuel source. In fact as a burnt combustible byproduct, it is 100% renewable and therefore, completely compliant to the Kyoto protocol and qualified CO2 carbon dioxide emission limitations and reduction objectives.
VEGETABLE OIL POWER STATIONS A vegetable oil power station is a plant which generates electricity based on diesel reciprocating engines, designed to run on biomass liquid (vegetable oil). The vegetable oil power station, as any other cogeneration plant, produces electric and thermal energy simultaneously. Thermal energy is created by a recycled water process using heat dissipation exchangers (radiators) and therefore does not need additional costs. The electric
S8 NOVEMBER 2014 | PLCS & INDUSTRIAL PCS
Right and below: the operator has complete system access from a supervisor located on the main panel, allowing them to view and control how the whole system is running using easy to use video page graphics
energy produced, can be fed into the power grid to profit on the all inclusive 15 year incentive tariffs or alternatively using the green certificate scheme, based on plant size and biomass type used. The system set-up by Powertron has a group of electric thermal power generators equipped with all the characteristics needed to exploit the classifications of power stations run on renewable sources. The nominal power is 100kW continually working at an average of 650 hours per month. The reduced sizes of the containers united with super silent technology make this generator well suited for installing in residential areas as well as rural farming complexes, offices, homes, hotels, etc. A vegetable oil tank is included with the
power production generator’s service which provides 50 days of power autonomy with a calculated seven refuels a year. This tank can also be hidden underground to save space and improve visual impact. Complete with provisions for supervision and control room use, screen graphics representing the different working areas are used for user interfacing the plant system to control, monitoring all situations and obtaining reports on energy produced and consumed. Clients can access this interface using ADSL connections consenting to a full remote control service. This generator has been designed to work in parallel with the ENEL
power grid but can also be regulated to work in ‘island’ mode on request.
CONTROL SYSTEM ARCHITECURE The system architecture includes a PC station based on Windows XP or Windows 7, in which the Movicon 11 supervisor has been installed, to which control and monitoring subsystems have been connected - comprising of a Rockwell PLC and distributed IO-Point I/O systems, as well as PowerFlex inverters, connected by the Movicon native EtherNet IP driver. Other engine control peripherals and power production meters are connected to a sub-network Modbus along with the Coriolis effect sensors to control fuel
consumptions. The operator has complete system access from a supervisor located on the main panel, allowing them to view and control how the whole system is running using easy to use video page graphics. By navigating through the different screen pages, the operator and maintenance worker can display and control all system information and alarms both directly from the local Movicon supervision station and from remote control stations. The whole system has been provided
with security procedures (90 different alarm types) which intervene by turning off the generator if working parameters go out of range. A warning message is then immediately sent via GSM to preset recipients. The built-in Movicon alarm notification feature provides a function that sends an SMS to on-call duty staff. Moreover, in the event of
overheating the system autonomously reduces its power until it returns back to normal. The Movicon supervisor memorises all working parameters on the appropriate historical databases, for complete historical analysis using grids and reports. The generator can be monitored and
controlled remotely using the Movicon Web Client technology. The user can gain access with password authorisation to the system using any PC connected to the internet with a normal browser to view and interact with the system without any additional installations required on both server and client.
Products 4 Automation
www.products4automation.co.uk T: 0845 077 3858
Enter 222 /AUTOMATION
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