center created a measurement and verification plan to study and quantify the performance of the CCHP Power Pallet and included analysis of:
- System performance, efficiency, and energy flow.
- Gas emission rates (greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants).
- Total electricity savings (from electricity output and avoided cooling from CCHP).
- Total natural gas savings (from heat output from CCHP).
- Operational and maintenance costs.
Researchers collected data for more than six months of operation and analyzed them to determine the benefits to the site host. The team identified numerous benefits including electricity savings (kWh), natural gas savings (therms), and emissions reductions (GHGs and criteria pollutants).
Project Results
The third-party verification team tested the CCHP Power Pallet in a controlled environment as well as in the field, with two units successfully designed, manufactured, installed, and operated for a total of over 750 hours. The project met the performance target of 80 percent total system efficiency (an increase from 25 percent efficiency once thermal energy was captured), and successfully used an innovative, small-scale renewable CCHP technology. Further, fuel efficiency improved from 1.2 kg/kWh to 1.0 kg/kWh, 22 kW continuous electrical output was produced, 48 kW of heat was captured, 25 kW heat was used for the adsorption chiller, producing 9 kW of cooling resulting in a coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.38. Independent analyses of the CCHP unit confirmed these goals were met, and that this technology can fill an actual market need with further refinement. The project team’s site host and operating partner are engaged to continue working together to improve the technology and demonstrate its value in different applications.
Conclusions and Recommendations
This project expanded the team’s knowledge of some of the most difficult challenges facing widespread deployment—technical issues, market readiness, and regulatory hurdles—and gave the involved parties a better understanding of how to overcome them and broaden the biomass market. Further, regulatory site challenges led All Power Labs to collaborate with new partners who were able to site and run the CCHP system in a disaster relief scenario in response to the Woolsey Fire in 2018 to provide, power, heat, cooling and water to a site hosting displaced families. The insights generated from this project helped the project team to understand how the CCHP Power Pallet can be scaled up and replicated in the future to meet new distributed and small-scale energy needs.
The project team gained and disseminated new knowledge about cogeneration technology and confirmed that the finished products were more efficient and generated more power than originally expected, while keeping a consistent price that is highly competitive. Additionally, the existing gasifier units were paired with novel complementary technologies—adsorption chillers and water extraction machines—that broaden the possible customer base for biomass processing. Future research will focus on extending the technical innovations of this work as well as expand the customer base.
