Turboden S.p.A has entered into a contract to supply the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC), one of the indigenous nations in Saskatchewan, Canada, with an 8,000 kW ORC system that uses residual woody biomass from sawmills as fuel.
The zero-emission energy project, operating under the name MLTC Bioenergy Centre, will be located near Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, in the territory of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC). The green energy generation plant, with major equipment provided by Turboden, is a project of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and is supported by funding from the Government of Canada. The plant will generate electricity through an ORC system using Turboden technologies, with biomass fuel as the heating fuel derived from wood residues from the adjacent sawmill owned by MLTC NorSask Forest Products LP (NorSask).

The new system is expected to produce 6,600kW (net) of low-carbon electricity and power about 5,000 homes. The project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than one million tons over 25 years (equivalent to the CO2 emission of more than 50,000 vehicles per year), as well as significantly reduce smoke and other harmful particles, thereby improving local air quality . In addition to the electricity generated, the cogeneration plant will provide process heat to the NorSask sawmill and a new high-efficiency wood-fired kiln, which will reduce natural gas consumption and also improve the economics of Canada's largest 100% indigenously owned sawmill facility.

Turboden's binary cycle system has as its main component an ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) turbine, which uses low boiling point organic material such as a fluorocarbon or hydrocarbon based material. This allows the use of relatively low-temperature heat sources such as biomass, waste heat and geothermal energy. The system can generate up to 40,000 kW of electricity and can be easily installed in regions with low fuel production or in areas without water resources, such as hinterlands, deserts and islands. The new system can also provide stable power generation without being subject to weather conditions.

Turboden S.p.A., a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is an Italian company that designs, manufactures, and maintains ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) systems, which are highly suitable for distributed generation, producing electric and thermal power using multiple sources.

Source: Turbomachinery International