Ener-Core delivers power oxidizers to Pacific Ethanol Stockton biorefinery in US
Ener-Core has delivered two of its 2MW sized Power Oxidizers to the Stockton Biorefinery site owned by Pacific Ethanol.
The shipment is a momentous occasion for Ener-Core, having deployed a commercial scale-up of the power capacity of the Power Oxidizer technology from 250kW to 2 MW over the last 18 months.
The Power Oxidizers, after delivery and installation with the Dresser-Rand KG2 turbine, are expected to provide up to 3.5 MW of electricity and over 26,000 pounds of steam/hr from the two Power Station units. The Power Stations will provide Pacific Ethanol (PEIX), a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels, with a first-of-its-kind solution that can reduce air pollution by converting by-product low-quality waste gases generated by the Stockton plant’s ethanol production into useful electricity and steam. The Power Stations are intended to significantly reduce the quantity of energy currently purchased by Pacific Ethanol’s Stockton plant and are expected to reduce their energy costs by an estimated $3 to $4 million per year, representing a significant reduction in operating expenses for the plant.
The Ener-Core Power Oxidizer is designed to provide an alternative to a traditional combustion chamber within gas turbines for purposes of power generation. The Power Oxidizer, when coupled with an integrated gas turbine, allows a wide range of industries to utilize previously unusable low-quality gases and certain volatile organic compounds as a low-cost fuel source to generate on-site heat, power and steam. Ener-Core’s delivery is the first step in the commissioning process and Ener-Core’s engineering team will continue to work with the engineering teams from Dresser-Rand toward the installation of these systems at Pacific Ethanol’s Stockton Biorefinery in next few months.
Alain Castro, CEO of Ener-Core, commented: “The enthusiasm within our team runs quite high at the moment, as this is an important milestone for all of us, especially the engineers and staff in our Irvine, California headquarters that have worked so hard on the scale-up of this technology over the last two years. The road to achieving utility-grade scale of our Power Oxidizer represents a significant engineering accomplishment with global repercussions in a growing market segment. We, as a management team, are humbled by everyone’s commitment to this common goal. We look forward to the installation of these systems at Pacific Ethanol’s industrial plant later this year and to building upon this success and expanding our technology and product portfolio in the near future.”