China sees first chicken-manure biogas plant
GE's Jenbacher gas engines will use biogas produced from chicken manure to generate power and heat at a chicken farm north of Beijing. This is the first plant of its kind in China and will provide 14,600 MWh of electricity annually.Replacing coal-fired power with biogas will enable the Beijing Deqingyuan Chicken Farm Waste Utilization plant to reduce CO2 emissions by thousands of tonnes per year, and the project will qualify for the U.N.-sanctioned Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) programme.The farm houses three million chickens producing 220 tons (199 metric tones) of manure every day. The manure will be fed into an anaerobic digestion system which will produce enough fuel to run two GE Jenbacher JMS 320 GS-B.L gas engines.'This biogas project will quickly pay for itself by meeting the customer's demand for cost-effective electricity and heat,' says Jack Wen, President and CEO of GE Energy China. 'We estimate that the customer will save more than US$1.2 million a year in electricity costs alone.'