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Transitions in mobile generator supply

Bredenoord Aggregaten is a Dutch firm that is at the forefront of new developments in sustainable temporary energy systems. In the future Bredenoord wants to maintain and expand its position as market leader in North-West Europe. They recently exhibited their new hydrogen cell generators at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK and the Lowlands festival in Holland. Bredenoor are looking to develop a fully sustainable temporary mobile generator system and they are working on the development and application of completely different techniques than the current diesel units, including fuel cell technology (Purity and soon Uniflex)

Paul Schurink from Bredenoord gave a really interesting presentation at GREEN EVENTS GERMANY in early November in Bonn and explainend that to avoid having to wait for technological breakthroughs, Bredenoord are working on improving their existing diesel generators. Developments which have already been fully established include the integrated drip pan and super silent models. Recently “Clear Air” was added in this range so at the moment Bredenoord have efficient diesel generators which do not emit sulpher or soot particle, reducing pollution. The next move will be to move to sustainable fuels and and Bredenoord will start with the application of GTL diesel. Bredenoord have already started to replace conventional diesel generators with cleaner generators, with fuel firstly from gas and then from biomass, and this process means that Bredenoord is aiming to have over half of their capacity ‘clean’ by 2012. At the same time capacity from hydrogen fuel cells will be increased, so by 2030 Bredenoord expects that half their fleet will be clean diesel and half fuel cells, ultimately all moving towards 100% sustainable conversion technique fuel cells.

With the fuel cell power units Bredenoord, provides the most innovative ‘genset’ for the future. These gensets still have a very limited capacity and the costs of both the hardware (parts) and the hydrogen is still very high. This makes these applications well suited for demonstrations and exhibitions, but is currently not a real useful alternative for the diesel generator.

The application of Clear Air gensets, or in combination with the GTL diesel, are ideally suited for use in locations where there is a real commitment to care for the environment. These innovations by Bredenoord ensure that their customers feel comfortable in saying that they use the best possible, practicable and reliable temporary energy!

Bredenoord, together with partners such as Nedstack, is the first company to deploy hydrogen fuel cell technique for mobile energy generators. On the 15 August 2010 in the Netherlands an entire floating stage at Lowlands Festival was supplied by sustainable energy. The Llowlab-islands obtain their full energy supply from the hydrogen generator Purity and for this festival Bredenoord, together with its partners, developed a second Purity, that has over three times as much capacity as the earlier model. Alredy in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain there is a demand for sustainable energy during events and Earlier this Summer, Bredenoord used its sustainable technique for part of the energy supply at the Glastonbury Festival and at three smaller festivals in the London area.

The latest Purity model has a capacity of 17,5 kVA, more than sufficient to provide the entire Llowlab with energy. The smallest version of the Purity, with a capacity of 5kW, has been operational at Glastonbury 2010, with the specific task of functioning as a supplement for the solar power generators. Inside the extremely silent fuel cell generator an electro-chemical reaction takes place between hydrogen and oxygen from the air. This process only releases heat and clean water; so no emission of soot and particulate matter! This makes the Purity an important option for a sustainable future of events.

Bredenoord is a family concern that has been involved in the rental, sales and production of mobile energy for over 70 years. In addition to the Purity line, the company has, amongst others, also developed the Clear Air, a filter that reduces soot emission by 99%,and complete biogas CHP’s (combined heat and power) .Thus the customer has the choice of mobile energy from different fuel types and with different types of emission. In spring 2010 Bredenoord won the prestigious European Rental Award, a result of good management and its innovating initiatives.