BSkyB and Heathrow airport go for biomass plants

British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (BSkyB) is a public satellite broadcasting company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the United Kingdom with over 10 million subscribers. BSkyB is developing a 1 MW CCHP plant as an integral part of its carbon cutting emissions plans for its new studio, editing and transmission and data facility.

The main BSkyB campus in Hounslow, West London, will receive 32 tons of wood chips per day from local businesses within 25 miles of the facility. The wood products are burned at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius to heat thermal oil systems, which drives  an 1 MW ORC turbine, which is part of Pratt & Whitney's Turboden system. Lower-grade heat is then recovered to create chilled water for cooling and the remaining heat is used for hot water.

One of the key initial objectives of the ORC plant was to offset at least 20 percent of the new facility’s C02 emissions, but the plant has doubled this to up to 40 percent since it was installed last December, according to Steve Holford, head of engineering projects and energy at BSkyB.

BAA Airports Limited, which operates six airports in the UK, including London Heathrow, is installing Turboden’s second ORC plant in the UK. London Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world, serving some 180 destinations in more than 90 countries. Turboden’s biomass-fuelled CCHP ORC unit at London Heathrow will use clean wood waste to produce 1.8 MW of electricity and 8MW of thermal heat and cooling to Terminals T2a and T2b, and heat only to Terminal T5. Construction of the Heathrow plant is almost complete and start-up is expected by summer.

Turboden, a Pratt & Whitney Power Systems company, is an Italian company and a global leader in the design, manufacture, and servicing of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators, which harness heat to generate electrical power from renewable sources, including solar energy, biomass, geothermal energy and waste heat. Turboden and Pratt & Whitney combined have over 250 ORC power plants sold in more than 20 countries and offers standard turbogenerators from 1 to 10 MW and up.