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What makes Micro CHP green?

Started by allegrif, December 03, 2015, 03:32:32 PM

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allegrif

If the system explicitly burns methane and releases CO2 as part of its core process, why do people say it's green? Aren't those the very two gases we're looking to avoid releasing into the atmosphere?

Jemappelle

Burning methane is good, because co2 is less harmful, and you're getting energy from it. Also MicroCHP systems are more efficient and generate more energy for the amount of fuel burned.

allegrif

[quote author=Jemappelle link=topic=206.msg536#msg536 date=1449158843]
Burning methane is good, because co2 is less harmful, and you're getting energy from it. Also MicroCHP systems are more efficient and generate more energy for the amount of fuel burned.
[/quote]
But where does the methane come from? If we're essentially farming methane to use in this process - methane that normally would be trapped and dormant somewhere - then we're releasing excess greenhouse gases in the form of CO2 aren't we?

RuskinF

Micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP) is a technology that generates heat and electricity simultaneously, from the same energy source, in individual homes or buildings. The main output of a micro-CHP system is heat, with some electricity generation, at a typical ratio of about 6:1 for domestic appliances.

A typical domestic system will generate up to 1kW of electricity once warmed up: the amount of electricity generated over a year depends on how long the system is able to run.

kornelmiles

Just happy when I see so smart people!