Tarpon’s Power & Leasing division is expanding its scope by distributing microturbine generators that use biogas to generate renewable power and heat to the Canadian market.
 
‘Biogas’ is a renewable fuel produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The microturbines that Tarpon is distributing are more than a biogas application. They can operate on a variety of fuel sources ranging from very low Btu fuels - including digestor gas such as manure from hog farms and cattle operations, human waste and landfill gas – to natural gas and sour gas with up to seven per cent H2S content.
  
In fall 2007, the Power & Leasing division signed a microturbine distributorship agreement with California-based Capstone to package, distribute and service their microturbine units in Western Canada. Tarpon packages the microturbines into the specified configuration required by the customer, providing all drafting, engineering, instrumentation, electrical, commissioning and maintenance services. The microturbine allows facilities to generate electricity or export it to the traditional power grid, while reducing or eliminating their dependence on the grid. In addition, the microturbines can be used for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer through the use of heat exchangers and absorption chillers.
 
 “It’s one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, it has huge potential and it’s beneficial to the environment,” says MicroTurbine Manager, Power & Leasing Division, Todd Taylor. “It’s some of the cleanest gas production in the world and is readily available to develop. It provides another benefit to our existing customers, while generating a new customer base.”
 
This microturbine provides many environmental benefits. “It does not require oil or lubricants for the bearings, so that’s one less thing people will need to worry about recycling or producing,” says Dan Boonstra, Tarpon’s MicroTurbine Service Coordinator. Maintenance is minimal: once every 8,000 hours, or about once every year. In comparison, the service span for a reciprocating generator is once every 750 to 1,000 hours. In addition, the microturbine’s exhaust gas emissions are extremely low: less than nine parts per million (ppm) nitrogen oxide and less than three ppm of carbon monoxide. “In that respect, we are greatly reducing the environmental impact from exhaust emissions,” Boonstra says.
 
This technology is highly economical in larger applications. Typical customers are municipalities, which operate landfills and sewage treatment plants, as well as the agricultural industry. Tarpon’s customers include a large community near Coutts in southern Alberta, which is using a microturbine to take advantage of the biogas produced from the local feedlot lagoons. Another customer is the City of Kelowna, which has set up three microturbines to capture biogas from the municipal landfill. In the next few months, Tarpon will automate these units to allow remote monitoring of the microturbine package from any location with an Internet link. Automation will give the client the ability to generate reports and capture more information from their microturbine units.
 
With increasing demand for this technology, more companies will realize savings by making use of a renewable resource which would otherwise go to waste, or have to be vented or flared. “With time, we hope to have many microturbine projects operating throughout Western Canada,” Taylor says.