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23 September 2004 - An olive oil mill in the southern Spanish city of Seville is using a GE Jenbacher cogeneration plant to dry tons of sludge byproducts from the olive-milling process into a cake-like material used for fuel.
With about 190 million olive trees, Spain is the world's leading olive-oil producing nation. Seville is located in Spain's largest autonomous region, Andalucía, which produces 80 per cent of the country's olive oil.
The Compañía Energética de La Roda is utilizing GE Jenbacher's cogeneration plant to dry an estimated 50,000 tons of alperujo, or olive-milling waste (OMW), per year, at the milling operation of Aceitera del Guadalquivir, S.A.. The olive mill is located in La Roda de Andalucía, Seville. GE Jenbacher, a business within GE Energy, is based in Jenbach, Austria.
After the engines dry the OMW into the cake-like material, the dried biomass can later be used as fuel source to generate electricity.
Three GE Jenbacher JMS 620 GS-N.L engines are being used to dry the sludge. Electricity produced by the engines is used to supply the mill's own power requirements, and any excess output is sold to the national power grid.
The natural gas-powered engines each have an electrical output of 2.73 megawatts and utilize their exhaust-thermal output to dry up to eight tons of OMW an hour.
The electrical efficiency of the engines is 42.8 per cent. The entire cogeneration plant is equipped with the DI.ANE engine management system designed by GE Jenbacher, incorporating a colour monitor that displays graphic information on the engines (including warnings, limits, trend diagrams, and parameters) so that the equipment performs at an optimum level. The system is linked to GE Jenbacher's remote monitoring and data transmission system, known as HERMES.
The engines began operating at the olive mill in January 2004.
The initial drying of OMW produces "orujo, " a fibrous, cake-like material. In a second step and using solvents, "orujo oil" is extracted from the orujo, resulting in "orujillo. " The orujillo cake, which is considered a renewable source of energy, has a high thermal value when burned due to its high fat content.
Presently, OMW and other forms of biomass provide three per cent of Spain's energy needs.
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