Genova was founded in September 2004, is
headquartered in the northern town of Karmiel.
Biomass - organic waste - is generated as a by-product
of many types of industry worldwide, such as forestry,
and crop and livestock farming.
The biomass is generally transported at great cost to
a landfill to rot, or it is burned; both rotting and burning
create methane, a greenhouse gas which plays a
major role in global warming. However, if harnessed
properly, methane can be a very valuable source of
energy.
With increasing concern over the supply of fossil
fuels for electricity generation, as well as the
environmental implications of burning coal and oil,
why not do something useful with biomass, thought Dr
Yuri Wladislawsky, an engineer and the founder of the
company, who emigrated to Israel from Tblisi, Georgia,
in 1996.
Wladislawsky decided to focus first on the biomass
produced from the olive presses that are a feature of
the Middle Eastern landscape, "because olive waste is
difficult waste to process because of the pits," explains
Yonat Grant, an industrial engineer who is the CEO of
the company, which has two other employees as well
as Wladislawsky and was set up within the Misgav
Technology Center incubator, where it will stay for
another year. If the company can succeed with olive
waste, she says, then any other biomass will be simple
in comparison.
First, the olive waste is heated and dried and then it
is introduced into the reactor. Here it undergoes two
processes, pyrolysis and gasification, which involve
the biomass being heated to 800 degrees centigrade,
at which temperature its molecules break down. A
combination of high-calorie gases including methane
and carbon monoxide are produced which, because
they are lighter than air, flow upwards through a pipe
into a standard gas turbine to generate electricity in the
usual way. The other by-product is coke, which can be
turned into the active type of coke that can be sold for
use to power air conditioners or as filters for various
substances.
Harnessing the power of biomass is not a new industry
and there are a number of companies around the
world who are attempting to show that biomass can
replace some of the fossil fuels we use, but Genova's
technology employs a novel technique, which the
company prefers not to disclose, for maintaining the
high temperatures needed for the process.
The company's high efficiency and low cost has
attracted much attention, piquing the interest of
the Israel Electric company, Israel's sole electricity
provider. "Israel Electric is looking for alternative
sources of energy, not for economic reasons but for
environmental ones, for society," says Granot. Israel
Electric has added a $60,000 investment to the
NIS 1.4 million (approx $300,000) that the company
receives from the government-run Misgav incubator
over the two years of its stay. Genova will be relocating
to Misgav shortly.
Genova already has a fully-working prototype to prove
that the patent-pending concept works, and is now
planning its first pilot project, a 200 kw/hour plant in
the Druze village of Julis in northern Israel. The plan
is that olive waste from Julis' olive oil press will be fed
into Genova's reactor and produce enough electricity
to power the press, so it will be self-sustaining.
"For 8000 hours, which is one year of production, we
need 1600 tons of waste," explains Granot. An olive
press usually produces waste which is one-third of the
weight of the olive oil produced, so 1600 tons of waste
would be produced from a press making 4800 tons of
olive oil. The press in Julis is a little smaller than this,
so some waste will be brought in from other presses.
"The plan is to build the pilot reactor for the next olive
season, which is September/October 2006," says
Granot. Genova is now looking to raise $1.25 million to
pay for the pilot project and for marketing and sales of
the reactor, which could be on the market in 2007.