Amer Power Plant - half a million tonnes of biomass in 2007

In 2007 energy company Essent burnt half a million tonnes of biomass in the Amer Power Plant in Geertruidenberg. Essent has generated approximately 935,000 MWh of Green Energy in the process, sufficient for more than 265,000 households. The majority of this biomass consisted of compressed wood chips and sawdust.

In previous years, Essent had already utilised 1.55 million tonnes of biomass (1,000 inland vessels) for the production of Green Energy at the Amer Power Plant. The fact that the company has been able to use this great amount of sustainable fuel is both due to continuous improvements in the production process, as well as technological research. Essent is also working on developing and implementing new sustainable fuels such as algae and coffee husks. In addition, the company is developing methods for increased efficiency improvement in the use of bio fuels. By processing these fuels before burning, even more sustainable biomass can be used in a more efficient way at the Amer Power Plant.

Essent is the world's first energy company to use coffee husks as sustainable fuel in its power plant. The coffee husks are a residual product of coffee cultivation in Brazil. On 11 February a ship bearing coffee husks will receive a festive welcome at the Amer Power Plant in Geertruidenberg in Brabant. The use of coffee husks at the Amer Power Plant shows that Essent, which introduced Green Energy (Groene Stroom ®) as early as 1995, is working on new opportunities for the production of sustainable energy.

Published: 30 January 2008