Technical Excursion

Technical Excursion to Biomass Cogeneration Plant Ilmenau (BHI)

This week, our group organized a technical excursion with the students of the Master Course on "Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics", taught by our colleague Christian Karcher. Our destination was the biomass cogeneration plant (BHI) in Ilmenau. Here, the plant manager Marcus Vogeler guided us through the various engineering process steps for the sustainable and clean supply of both electricity and district heating. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of an experienced industrial practitioner, he explained to the students the principles of the thermodynamic cycles applied and regenerative measures implemented that result in both a high overall plant efficiency and low operational and maintenance costs.

The energy conversion process starts with the input of the properly prepared fuel (waste wood or damaged wood) and ends with the output of useful work and heat, along with heavily cleaned flue gases, gypsum-containing filter ashes (partly reused for instance in road construction) and heat rejection in the cooling tower. Especially instructive to the students was the stop at the steam generator, when Mr. Vogeler explained the cogeneration process with his firm voice and by drawing the block diagram and the T-s diagram into the layer of dust on a feedwater preheater with his bare index finger. By doing so, the students have learnt much more than from any textbook diagrams and the respective captions.

The next excursion to BHI will be organized in the end of March as part of the winter school program of the Erasmus+ partnership project SUSEE, an alliance of four smaller European universities that aims to strengthen sustainability in engineering education. Then, a group of about 20 international students coming from the partner universities in Italy, France, and Poland will join the tour and will listen attentively to the explaining words of Mr. Vogeler.

Technical excursions to industrial companies are important instruments to complement the higher academic education, especially in the field of Engineering Thermodynamics. Here, the students can see, feel, and smell how sustainable engineering action, taught theoretically in the course, is implemented in practice. It would certainly be beneficial if such excursions were not only voluntary but were firmly rooted in the curriculum.