News

Friday 23 July 2010

Calor’s managing director Stephen Rennie told NewEnergyFocus.com that the company has an important role to play in the move to a low carbon economy. Image shows a Calor Hotspot heater

Calor Gas, traditionally known as an LPG supplier to rural communities and caravanners, is making a push into the low carbon energy sector.

The company has been involved in talks with the Department for Energy and Climate Change to explain the potential for Calor in the new energy landscape with the emphasis that liquid propane gas (LPG) is "the cleanest fossil fuel available to rural communities".

Calor's Managing Director Stephen Rennie told NewEnergyFocus.com that the company accepts that its product cannot be dubbed "renewable", but he argues strongly that the use of liquid propane gas (LPG) can help in the move to a low carbon economy because of its low carbon emissions and the fact that it is a by-product of oil production.

"We fit in with policies aimed at reducing emissions and greater efficiencies: renewables on their own won't do this. We believe that it would be beneficial to the environment if more of the two million homes off the gas grid were using LPG. At present about one million use oil, 400,000 electricity - which can be seen as a dirty fuel because of emissions caused in the generation process, 300,000 use solid fuel and just 120,000 use LPG.

"We have been saying to government that if they want the UK to clean up its act, then switch to LPG."
Mr Rennie also argues that this would give the UK an energy security advantage as currently LPG is exported because of insufficient domestic demand.

Rural advice

To boost awareness of the potential of LPG in the rural sector, Calor is setting up a rural advice network and is funding a team of advisers.

He reasons that communities need help and guidance and explains that the advisers will cover a range of energy options including groundsource heat pumps, photovoltaics and biomass, as well as financial mechanisms including Feed-in-Tariffs. "We do hope that Calor will find an increased place in the mix of technologies - it is the cleanest reliable fuel available and will provide a backup to other sources such as biomass."

The company is sponsoring eight regional advisors through the National Energy Advisory Group, specifically targeting rural poverty.

Fuel cell

Other activities Calor is involved in include development work with Ceres Power on an LPG fuel cell boiler and Baxi on its Ecogen Sterling engine boiler.

Ceres Power's fuel cell will strip hydrogen out of LPG to generate electricity and is aimed for use in the countryside where mains gas is not available. And, to encourage developments such as this, Calor is keen to see CHP included in the Feed-in-Tariffs regime.

Calor explains the process for the LPG fuel cell boiler, which will be available from 2012, as: "Each fuel cell starts life as a simple stainless steel plate perforated by thousands of tiny holes and coated with thin layers of ceramic ink. In use, air passes down one side of the plate, while fuel passes down the other. Both electricity and heat are generated through a quiet, efficient electro-chemical reaction. A number of fuel cells are combined into a fuel cell ‘stack', which can generate most of the power needed by a typical UK home in a year. The stack is integrated with a high-efficiency LPG boiler into a single wall-mountable unit which looks just like an ordinary boiler."

Condensing boiler

Available from this summer is the Baxi Ecogen unit which is a condensing boiler to meet domestic space heating and hot water requirements within the home. Again, Calor sees this as a low carbon solution for use in rural areas.

Using a Free Piston Sterling Engine, it generates 1kW of electricity per hour that can be used throughout the home, while providing up to 24kW of thermal output for heating and hot water.

The unit responds to the initial heat demand of up to 6kW by igniting the heat source for the Free Piston Sterling Engine. This generates 6kW of heat and 1kW of electricity by driving a magnetic piston up and down within a generator coil.

If the heat demand goes above 6kW, the supplementary burner will fire up and can offer an additional 18kW of heat. As heat demand falls within the home, the boiler modulates down to as low as 3kW, while still generating electricity.

Other Calor projects include supplying propane as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion plants where gas is to be supplied to the grid. Propane can be used to spike biomethane, such as from sewage AD plants to make it usable.