Greece’s Largest & Newest Biomass Power Plant

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The renewable electricity sector in Greece has expanded greatly in the last decade, with the major focus being on wind and solar energy. Biopower has lagged behind but, since 2020, the inauguration of the 5 MWe plant of VIOPAR ENERGY offers a new paradigm for Greek bioenergy.

Established in 2010, VIOPAR ENERGY had from the start the goal of constructing the largest and most modern biomass power plant in Greece. Major landmarks in the company history were the completion of the licensing procedure in 2016, its merger into the Ravago Group and in 2017 and the start of plant construction in 2018. With construction finished in 2019, full operation has initiated in 2020.

VIOPAR’s biomass plant is strategically located in the 2nd Industrial Zone of Volos, which offers relevant infrastructure and synergies with other industrial activities. It is located 17 km away from the port of Volos and 30 km away from the agricultural plain of Thessaly, the largest agricultural area of Greece. Thus, VIOPAR is in an ideal position to exploit both domestic and imported alternative biomass fuels: exhausted olive cake, cotton ginning residues and sunflower husk pellets.

With an installed capacity of 5 MWe, the plant can produce 39,920 MWh of electricity on an annual basis, equivalent to the energy consumption of about 10,650 households. VIOPAR employs the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology, which provides multiple benefits (minimization of water consumption, avoidance of visual disturbances), and is fully equipped with antipollution measures (electrostatic precipitator, anti-SOx and anti-NOx measures), bringing its emissions within the limits established by the EU Directives.

The plant operation also provides multiple benefits for the local economy: 7 permanent job positions for the plant operation, 120 persons employed during construction, 200,000 € per year of contributions to the local municipality, more than 230,000 € per year of revenue to the Port of Volos and at least 200,000 € per year to local suppliers (transporters, maintenance teams, providers of consumables, etc.).

VIOPAR is also actively involved in RTD activities, looking for ways to provide waste heat from its production to local district heating networks or for valorising the combustion ash residues.

VIOPAR’s example highlights how modern bioenergy has a positive role to play in the energy transition, even in sunny and windy Greece!

More information can be found here.

About the campaign

The campaign is powered by Bioenergy Europe and relayed across Europe by both national and international partners supporting the belief that bioenergy is more than a renewable energy source, it is also a reliable path that will lead Europe to achieve its renewable energy transition in the shortest span of time.

Solid Biomass Conversion Processes

Logging, grinding, screening and drying operations are mechanical processes for enhancing solid biomass fuels. These operations help transform biomass into homogeneous fuel that is easy to handle, with a higher energy recovery (eg. woodchips, wood logs, agrofuel). In general, moisture content in woodchips used for energy generation in municipal or industrial plants ranges between 20-30%.

Densification is another popular way to transform woody material into an advanced fuel with high calorific value. This process involves compressing biomass and lowering moisture levels to a range of 8-10%, allowing for an homogenous fuel – either in the form of pellets or briquettes. The heat during compression fuses the lignin in the biomass, naturally binding the biomass together in a new, enhanced shape. Thanks to densification, the homogenous biomass fuel is easier to transport and can be used in automated biomass installations, such as pellet stoves and boilers.

Thermo-chemical conversions are now used to produce fuel with even higher calorific value, utilising torrefaction or steam explosion technologies. During the torrefaction process, wood is subjected to temperatures of 230°C-300°C at atmospheric pressure without oxygen. Comparable to some extent to coffee torrefaction, this method creates a fuel with unique characteristics. As compared to conventional wood, torrefied wood has very low (>5%) moisture content, is easily grindable and is relatively hydrophobic.

Thanks to advanced technologies, woody biomass can also produce liquid and gaseous fuels. Pyrolysis, for instance, is a thermal-chemical conversion that requires a high temperature (>400°C) and little oxygen to convert solid biomass into gas, liquid fuels (pyrolysis oil) and/or biochar. Gasification is another thermo-chemical conversion that takes place at high temperatures (>800°C), with limited oxygen and/or steam, and converts solid biomass into synthesis gas, known as syngas – which contains carbon and hydrogen and can be used to produce liquid fuels such as biodiesel.

Wet Biomass Conversion Processes

Wet biomass is present in high volume across Europe (manure, agricultural waste and by-products). As it contains too much moisture to be converted efficiently into energy via a direct combustion process, other conversion pathways and energy outputs have been developed by the biogas (eg. anaerobic digestion) and biofuel sectors (eg. fermentation). Anaerobic digestion and fermentation are the two main conversion pathways used for converting wet biomass feedstock into advanced fuel.

Anaerobic digestion is the microbiological process of decomposition of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen, and is common to many natural environments; it is largely applied today in order to produce biogas in airproof reactor tanks, commonly referred to as digesters. A wide range of micro-organisms are involved in the anaerobic process which has two main end products: biogas and digestate. Biogas is a combustible gas consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases and trace elements. Biogas can be used in direct combustion to produce heat, but also power if converted within a cogeneration plant or in adapted gas motors. Biogas can also be upgraded via purification processes to a biomethane that can be injected into the existing natural gas networks, used as a chemical product and/or vehicle fuel. Digestate is the decomposed substrate, rich in macro- and micro-nutrients and therefore suitable for use as plant fertiliser.

Fermentation is a biochemical conversion whereby microorganisms, including yeast and bacteria, convert matter into products such as ethanol and liquid transport fuel (biodiesel). This process is done in several stages. First, sugary and starchy feedstock such as corn must be crushed and combined with water, allowing enzymes to convert this starch into sugar. This ferments along with the addition of yeast and is distilled into bioethanol. Bioethanol can also be produced from cellulosic biomass, such as grass, wood and stalks, via fermentation; however, this process is more complex and involves a mechanical pre-treatment and the addition of enzymes, or the breakdown of the lignocellulose into sugar through hydrolysis, followed by the same procedure.

Solid bioenergy feedstock

Renewables represent 8,0% of EU-27 total energy consumption (22.473 kilotonnes of oil equivalent) in transportation, of which 68% is provided by biofuels in 2018. It is rather challenging to foresee how biofuels (in particular first-generation biofuels) will continue to develop, since recent EU legislation established a quota for these biofuels. EU statistics on renewables in transportation can also be misleading regarding the actual level of production, because multiple counting rules are applied in accordance with the EU renewable energy directive. Looking at it in more detail, the biofuel market is driven by biodiesel and bioethanol. Biodiesel was the first biofuel developed and used in the EU in the transport sector in the 1990s. EU-27 remains the world’s largest biodiesel producer and it consumed 13,303 Ktoe in 2018. By comparison, bioethanol consumption in 2018 reached 2,620 Ktoe for an actual production of 2,365 Ktoe (Biofuels Report, 2020).

Bioenergy comes in all shapes and sizes

Within our close environment, a great source of organic materials such as plants, algae, or organic wastes, can be valuable fuels as soon as a technology makes it possible to efficiently extract all of its energy potential. Bioenergy players traditionally refer to biomass to describe those usable feedstocks. Biomass currently used in Europe includes wood from forests, agricultural crops and residues, by-products from the wood and agricultural industry, herbaceous and woody energy crops, municipal organic wastes and manure, and could potentially integrate algae and marine biomass in the future.

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