The Zilkha Biomass Unit offers many economic and environmental advantages and benefits compared to traditional turbine-based electricity generating systems.

Cogeneration power systems presently available in the marketplace are usually either combustion turbine-based systems utilizing oil, natural gas, or propane, or steam turbine-based systems, many of which require natural gas, fuel oil, coal, or various other solid fossil fuels to operate steam turbine generators for the production of electricity. Some steam turbine-based systems use wood fuel, but efficiencies are less than those of the Zilkha Biomass Unit because they do not use our proprietary pressurized combustion system.

A primary disadvantage of conventional gas-turbine systems is that they use fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, or propane). The larger of these systems are restricted to natural gas to be economical. At times natural gas is not readily available at a host facility, or it is subject to volatile price increases or delivery interruptions.

For a variety of reasons, including the high capital cost associated with boilers and other equipment necessary to operate steam turbines, conventional steam turbine-based systems are generally not considered economically attractive at sizes below 10 to 15 megawatts. This effectively limits the market for conventional steam turbine systems to larger industrial and commercial users and utilities.

Economic Advantages
Independence from Volatile Energy Markets: Zilkha Biomass Units use low-value wood byproduct material rather than hydrocarbons for fuel.

Installation Tailored to Host Facility: Zilkha Biomass Units are designed to match the electrical and thermal requirements of each specific site.

Increased Efficiencies: The units achieve high total system efficiencies by permitting use of both the electrical and thermal energy produced.

Lower-Cost Electric Power: The net cost of electricity produced by our units is less than if purchased from a utility company because of lower fuel costs and the elimination of distribution charges from a centralized power plant.

Lower-Cost Process Heat: Waste heat generated from our units using low-cost fuel will displace the use of higher-cost natural gas, propane, or fuel oil.

Proven Components with Modular Portability: The Zilkha Biomass Units are composed largely of commercially available components that can be pre-assembled into modules and skid-mounted for delivery to remote locations in a relatively short period of time.

Environmental Advantages
Cleaner Air Emissions: Gas turbine units are relatively sensitive to the quality of combustion gases being processed through the hot sections of their turbines. Our equipment design, coupled with proper fuel selection, minimizes polluting gases and particulate matter in the combustion gas stream. Consequently, the exhaust from these units contains very limited amounts of many environmentally controlled emissions—for example, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter.

Reduced Solid Waste Disposal: Because the Zilkha Biomass Unit operates on solid wood byproducts or residual materials, it eliminates problems associated with solid waste disposal, including limited availability of landfill space, polluted water runoff, and gaseous emissions.