CHP Small power plants with advanced renewable energy gasification technology

The story behind decentralized and integrated energy solutions.

The year was 1992.
I had left my paid work as a plant technician in local industry to become an entrepreneur on production technical grounds and had moved back to my home village from a neighboring municipality. The business activity turned from a side job into a full-time job. My mother still lived on the home farm and my common-law partner and my mother could not fit on the same plot of land. So we moved into a rented apartment in the old school in the village of Luopa. The rent was extremely low, but the premises were large and high. Direct electric heating was used as heating. Housing costs became unreasonable in the winter season due to electric heating.

At the same time, the local electricity company Jyllinkosken Sähkö Oy began to change owners all the time and the price of the electricity bill and the biller kept changing from Imatran Voima Oy to Fortum Oy. Corporate deals and changes in the energy company practically doubled the price of electricity in one year. Since most of the electricity we used was spent on heating energy, the situation required a quick solution.

At the same time, I assisted or filed a utility model application with the Patent- and Registration office to protect a tool invention. In return, I received the patent papers for an electrified wood gasifier that the acquaintance had inherited from his father. After reviewing the patent papers, I was surprised that automation had not been taken further than just turning the grate with an electric motor to prevent arching. Having been interested in electronics and information technology since I was nine years old, I understood that automation would have solved many other problems in the solid matter gasification process.

This led to a passionate invention process that resulted in three versions of different solid matter gasifiers. A used internal combustion engine was purchased as the engine and an old large iron induction motor from an old mill was harnessed as the generator. The solid fuel casifier had to be able to installed also in cars without a large tank or cart for the plant. When automated, this goal was achieved by questioning many of the industry's established limitations.

The result was a business idea and plan, as well as products with solutions from the distributed and integrated energy conversion solutions business.

In the same year, 1992, I approached a local invention agent and public funding with my plans. The invention agent at the time read the papers and stated that the idea was absolutely huge and there was an order for it, but in his opinion the invention was at least fifteen years ahead of schedule. An energy crisis is needed before the idea in question goes on sale. Similarly, at that time, vehicles were obsessively used to refueling with liquid fuel. Everything else felt foreign and was of course opposed.

When funding was sought with the same plans through public funding, the political stakes in the matter became apparent. The finance manager read the papers and stated that if I got my plan through, the market would be taken away from state-owned monopoly companies such as Neste and Fortum. The finance manager diplomatically asked me if I knew who was paying his salary? Public funding was of course owned and financed by the state. They could not make decisions about financing a competitor. The solution would have brought significant freedom to customers. That freedom was not wanted to be given to society. The state received a lot of money from the people while they were subordinated to the management.

Later, however, competition has entered the industry. Even top politicians have been founders. But the technology is still at the level of an improved carbon monoxide trap.

The industry needs to create an export-driven business that is free from politics. Contrary to the objection raised by the Minister of Trade and Industry to me recently, which was that “Finland does not have any relevant technology”, I claim that we do have that technology and potential. But the market for CHP plants is in the Nordic countries, where there are sparsely populated people and Arctic conditions. It is pointless to market solid fuel gasification plants to oil-producing countries in the Sahara. Furthermore, in a crisis situation, the solution is significant from the perspective of emergency preparedness. The idea itself was originally developed for the defence forces as a modernised carbon dioxide tank. Development has simply been left in the hands of politics, as the story described above shows.

What on earth are we waiting for?