China’s first chicken manure-biogas plant

The plant is the first of its type in China and could pave the way for similar applications in the future.

The Beijing Deqingyuan Chicken Farm Waste Utilisation plant comes as the country seeks innovative ways to meet its energy and environmental requirements. Providing 14,600 MWh of electricity per year, the project is designed to help reduce sub-urban electricity shortages.

By using the biogas for power generation in place of previously used coal-fired power, the new project is expected to reduce the equivalent of about 95,000 t of CO2 per year.

The Beijing Deqingyuan project is also reducing the farm’s dust levels, further enhancing the area’s air and water quality by controlling odours and improving the work environment for the farm’s employees.

Located in YanQing District, about 50 km north of Beijing, the farm owns 3 mln chickens, producing 220 t of manure and 170 t of wastewater each day. The farm’s new cogeneration system features an anaerobic digester system to treat the waste material, producing enough biogas to fuel two GE’s Jenbacher JMS 320 GS-B.L gas engines. The plant has an installed electric capacity of more than 2 MW for use at the chicken farm.

Additionally, the plant’s thermal output is used to support the chicken waste fermentation process and also heat the chicken farm in the winter.

“We estimate that the customer will save more than US$1.2 mln a year in electricity costs alone,” said Jack Wen, President and CEO of GE Energy China.