Johann Huber's agricultural business is located to the north of Landshut in Germany. The wood chip heating system installed there was no longer able to cover the heat requirement from 2011 forward. As Johann Huber manages roadside greenery for the municipality and can therefore use this raw material free of charge, the decision was made in 2012 to install a wood gasifier from Re². In the meantime, the electric charger at the farm is also fueled with energy from roadside greenery!
Watch the video about Johann Huber's innovative energy concept
Wood gasifier runs 98.4 % per year
From the beginning, Johann Huber's CHP system performed excellently with running times of around 8,000 hours per year. In 2017, for example, the wood gasifier achieved over 8,620 operation hours. The annual load factor is thus 98.4%.
Especially clever: Wood gasifier is operated with wood chips from roadside greenery
Huber's wood gasifier runs completely with roadside greenery, which he obtains free of charge from the municipality and processes as a valuable energy source. A simple trommel screen is used to sieve the raw material, which was built in-house from slurry barrels. Fines and long pieces are sieved from the chopped roadside greenery and reused, meaning that 100% of the material is utilized. The wood chips are dried in a converted loader wagon. The biomass power plant produces the heat and electricity for drying the wood chips almost as a byproduct.
2018: Upgrade from 30 kWel to 55 kWel
Johann Huber's EEG contract allows a higher feed-in of 55 kW. In 2018, Huber replaced his old CHP unit with a new wood gas CHP unit from Spanner Re². The new CHP unit runs at 3,000 rpm and delivers an output of up to 55 kWel. Slight modifications to the HKA 30 wood gasifier enable an adapted gas supply to the CHP unit.
With his HKA 30 Johann Huber supplies his farm, house and guesthouse with electricity and heat.
Profitable contract drying by Upgrade
As part of the upgrade, Huber expanded its wood chip drying system and increased the previous drying capacity from 12 m³ to 15 m³. In the newly built hall, the dry and moist wood chips can be stored and processed more efficiently. Johann Huber can now pre-dry larger quantities of wood chips and achieve even more effective wood chip management.
