GE is supplying its ecomagination-approved Jenbacher biogas engine technology to power China’s largest ethanol production plant under construction in the city of NanYang, Henan Province. Owned by Henan Tianguan Group, China, the new ethanol production plant will produce 500,000 cubic meters of biogas per day, based on organic material from cassava1 plants.

A 36-megawatt (MW) onsite power plant featuring GE’s Jenbacher engines is being built in multiple phases to support the ethanol plant’s operations. Both new facilities are being built adjacent to the company’s existing ethanol production facility, which uses a biomass digester system to convert cassava— instead of grain 2—into ethanol in China.

For the 11-MW first phase of the new onsite power plant, GE is supplying four of its J620-biogas engine units. The gas engines will utilize the ethanol production facility’s waste methane biogas to generate renewable electricity, which Henan Tianguan Group plans to sell to the regional grid. GE’s biogas engines also will use methane gas created by the anaerobic digestion of cassava biomass to produce renewable electricity for the site.