ETW Energietechnik, Moers, Germany, developed a new equipment that blends two gas streams of different qualities to fuel combined heat and power plants (CHPs).

This equipment precisely blends the two gases to a homogeneous fuel mixture and is made for landfills that struggle with shrinking heating values and volumes of biogas in their lifetime. This shrinking heating value can be compensated by gradually enriching biogas with natural gas (NG). The blending is completely automatized and designed to consume the lowest possible amounts of NG. Almost any CHP can easily be upgraded.

There are several advantages for the operator. At its start, the CHP receives the perfectly balanced fuel, preventing startup problems caused by low methane (CH4) concentration. This is designed to enable the operation of CHPs with CH4 concentration lower than 30 percent, increasing its lifetime and availability, thus its economic feasibility. The CHP can be operated independently from the landfill gas supply.