German Minister unveils new fuel cell at brewery

The German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has unveiled a new cogeneration fuel cell system from the Tognum brand MTU Onsite Energy at Erdinger Weißbräu brewery.

The HotModule HM300 distributed energy system generates electrical power and heat from biogas. The electrical power output is about 240 kW while the thermal output is more than 200 kW. The Erdinger Weißbräu brewery uses the
thermal energy to heat the brewery buildings and to heat water for the brewing process.

Erdinger uses vast quantities of water at various temperatures for the brewing process and to clean the brewing
equipment. Before being flushed into the public sewage system, the waste water is pre-conditioned via an in-house anaerobic pre-sewage treatment system. A by-product of this process is biogas with an 85 percent methane content, making it an excellent energy source for the fuel cell - a regenerative and almost cost-free waste product, facilitating annual CO2 reductions of up to 1,200 tons. A gas cleansing system also developed by Tognum subsidiary MTU Onsite Energy Fuel Cell Systems in Ottobrunn near Munich removes possible sulphur residues from the biogas which would otherwise be detrimental to the fuel cell stack.

At a temperature of approximately 650°C, the biogas is then converted into hydrogen which reacts electrochemically with the airborne oxygen. Almost 50 percent of the biogas energy content is converted into electrical power, while more than 40 percent translates into waste heat, which has a temperature of roughly 400°C. Taken together, the result is an exceptionally streamlined overall efficiency of more than 90 percent.

Source: Fuel Cell Today