Genesis' Report: Renewable Energy Systems Engineering

As it's a very important (and exciting) project for CFH, we've decided to include reports from Genesis Oyedotun who's heading up the Energy Self Sufficiency at CFH as part of his Masters Degree in Renewable Energy Systems Engineering at the University of the West of England (UWE).

So here's Genesis' opening report.

Increasing awareness regarding the environmental impact of Business processes producing materials using energy from fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil is driving a reappraisal of how best to produce these commodities with minimum impacts. Current worldwide consumption and demand for fossil fuels, particularly oil, is placing a massive strain on a finite resource, particularly when taken in the context of India and China’s rapidly expanding economies.

This distributed generation initiative was created by the partnership between CFH Ltd and The University of the West of England (UWE) to encourage the development of sustainable power generation and supply to support business processes in a green cautious industry like CFH. It is an exciting time for us at the University to work with the management group of CFH in order to create what we believed is going to be a pace setter for some other SMEs within the county of Somerset.

My primary research area is renewable energy systems engineering. I think this is a very monumental time in which our actions in the next decade will play a huge role with regards to the global climate in the future. Having an opportunity to participate in a project with a meaningful effect in the UK businesses by trying to tackle a piece of the energy challenge in CFH so we can have a sustainable supply of energy that does not harm future generations or the environment is brilliant.

In the last couple of months we have established and addressed energy use within the business with particular emphasis on the interaction between production needs, efficiency and wastage. We have also examined a range of sustainable technologies and narrow down what we believe is most appropriate for energy generation as Biomass CHP (Combined Heat & Power). At present, UWE working closely with CFH studying the production of different types of biomass (waste paper derived fuel, wood chips, etc.), investigating their behaviour in thermal conversion processes (direct combustion, gasification and pyrolysis) and their economic assessment which will enable us to make an informed decision on the best technological option.

Just some of the areas under review or to be reviewed:
• CHP sizing study through wood resource availability
• Economic assessment of CHP project
• Technology assessment / supplier selection
• Grid connection /site electrical capacity
• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) issues
• Planning and Environment Agency issues
• IPPC and Waste Incineration Directive
• Assessment of environmental benefits

We are very optimistic that the Knowledge Transfer Partnership result of this joint venture shall be a success, add more value to CFH Ltd and also generate some technical paper which could be used in academic arena.