Danish firms embrace green economy with innovations

COPENHAGEN, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- With a distinct smell of fermentation in the air, and large twisted tubes sending processed grain into big silos all over the plant, one may pass it as an ordinary brewery.

Brewery it is, but no ordinary. In fact, the Inbicon biomass refinery in Kalundborg, Denmark, produces fuel for cars instead of anything for human consumption.

To be more specific, the plant uses wheat straw to produce bioethanol which is a replacement for traditional gasoline, and lignin pellets which could replace coal.

Turning wheat straw into energy is no feat because the material can be burnt. But producing car fuel from straw is more complicated.

You can directly burn wheat straw into energy, but that is costly. The material needs large storage space and risks rotting if improperly kept. Usually wheat straw is used as fuel for power plants, rather than cars.

Inbicon, a subsidiary of Denmark's largest energy producer DONG Energy, worked out a cost-efficient way of turning wheat straw into energy after decades of efforts.

"We have collected wheat straw for the last 15 years, setting up logistics and storage facilities," Inbicon Vice President of Corporate Affairs Michael Persson, told Xinhua.

Using core chemical knowledge, the Danish company then treats the wheat straw with special enzymes, which break straw into the basic components of ethanol, lignin pellets and C5 molasses. These components can then be used for gasoline, power plant fuel and animal feed.

HARNESSING SUN POWER AT HOME

Inbicon is not the only Danish environmental-friendly company that has come up with innovative green technologies in the past decade.

Danfoss, traditionally a Danish producer of refrigeration, heating and motion control components, has ventured into the market of solar power.

In Nordic countries, there is the so-called smart grid, which means that house owners can sell power directly on the electricity grid. Whether the house owner has solar panels, wind turbines or other power generation units, one can connect them to the central energy grid and sell power.

However, there are a number of appliances that need to be in place, before every home can be a power plant.

One is solar power inverter. Solar panels deliver power in direct current. In order to be used on the grid, the power has to be alternating current. Danfoss has heavily invested in this area with its Danfoss Solar Inverters division.

In the Danish city of Graasten, Danfoss has established the largest electronics factory in Denmark. One of its products is customized control boards for solar power inverters.

The main advantage of having a smart solar power inverter at home is to save money. Basically solar power is free, once you have solar panels and a power inverter.

According to Danfoss, a complete household solar solution in Denmark is around 8,000 euros. Each year, a house owner can typically expect free power for 700 euros.

In Germany, solar power is much more common. Today, Germany is one of the largest markets for not only Danfoss' solar inverters but also for Danfoss' many competitors in this field.

EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS

While the technology behind these businesses might not be as complex as rocket science, the application of these ideas into a viable business plan is rather unique.

The two green, innovative ways are just showing the Danish companies' commitment to the green growth agenda.

Niels B. Christiansen, CEO of the Danfoss Group, stressed the importance of finding out cheap and fast ways to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

"Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce CO2 emissions. However, there is still a huge untapped potential. To exploit this potential, more involvement of decision-makers is needed to secure an adequate framework for energy-efficient technologies," Christiansen has said.

"Based on our solid experiences with energy efficiency at Danfoss, we have also started to invest in new technologies for renewable energy such as solar inverters and heat pumps. In particular, our solar inverter business is growing very rapidly -- stimulated by political framing and legislation."

Big players on the energy market realize that they have to transform to more green companies. DONG Energy has set a goal to get 50 percent of its power fuel from green sources, such as biomass and wind power, by 2020.

"It is not easy to turn such a big company around, but it is necessary. The way we do it is through very rapidly going away from the usage of coal and turning to biomass," DONG Energy CEO Anders Eldrup told Xinhua.

"In our alternative energy department, we are investing heavily in offshore wind power generation," Eldrup said.

Source - Xinhuanet