The state-owned energy provider DONG Energy has decided to close down its 150 million kroner Pyroneer gasification plant in Kalundborg.
DONG hailed its Pyroneer technology for being its most promising new technology in 2011, but has been forced to stow it away due to a lack of demand.
”It has been demonstrated and documented that the technology works,” Henrik Maimann, the deputy head of DONG Energy's New Bio Solutions department, told Ingeniøren newspaper.
”But it has always been our strategy to find a global partner to co-operate with on a full-scale plant and the further development of the technology. That hasn't been possible.”
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Waiting for the right time
Maimann said that DONG has negotiated with a handful of interested companies over the past year and a half, but a deal could not be reached because the market for power plants converting from coal to biomass hasn't gained momentum as expected.
The plant hasn't been shut down permanently and DONG expects to open it again in the future when the technology is more in demand. Pyroneer-gasification allows low value and difficult biomass to be gasified.
The five employees working at the plant will either be transferred to other departments within DONG or let go.
