Burning Bio News

Siemens Energy has successfully completed the first firing of PetroAlgae Inc.’s biocrude fuel, a plant-based, micro-crop biomass material that is processed into a solid residue. The biocrude fuel was combined with pulverized coal in a pilot-scale burner with a thermal capacity of approximately 4 MMBtu/hr. The testing was performed at a test bed installed at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and results show that the biocrude/coal fuel mixture burned well, and produced 20 percent lower nitric oxide (NOx) emissions than coal alone.

The University of Minnesota, Morris is nearly ready to utilize its biomass gasification system to heat and cool a large portion of its campus buildings. Experiments with fuel densities, which had occupied plant researchers efforts for months have paid off. Lowell Rasmussen, UMM’s Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities, said that test burns last week using wood chips and corn stover have proved successful. – mj: This operation has been years in the making. Well done UMM!

Green Mountain College (GMC), Poultney, VT, has established its $5.8-million novel combined heat and power (CHP) biomass facility, which is likely to generate 85% of the heat energy required by GMC and produce 20% of its electrical energy. Expected to commence operation on April 22, Earth Day, the biomass facility will use locally harvested woodchips of around 4,000 to 5,000 tons per year as its primary fuel.

General Mills has used oats for its high-energy cereal Cheerios for nearly 70 years, but the food giant is now preparing to put the grain to work as a source of energy for itself. Construction is under way this spring on a biomass steam boiler at the Golden Valley-based company’s milling plant in Fridley, MN, where it produces oat flour for Cheerios, Lucky Charms and other cereals. The boiler, scheduled to go online early next year, will burn oat hulls left over from the milling process. It replaces natural-gas boilers, making the mill partially self-sustaining, said John Hellwig, the project’s manager. It will also cut the mill’s carbon footprint by 21 percent, he added.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced today a $1.6 M investment in clean energy economic development and job creation, marking another step forward in Maryland’s goal of building a vibrant clean energy sector. These awards mark the first round of the Clean Energy Economic Development Initiative (CEEDI), with applications for the second round of funding being accepted until April 30, 2010.

A recent report from the North American Wood Fiber Review confirms what many livestock producers already know. The market for wood fuel pellets is smoking hot. It has dramatically reduced local availability of sawdust and wood chips and fueled the market for one-time cheap bedding. Average sawdust prices in the U.S. Northwest were $28 per oven-dry metric ton (ODMT) in 2004, peaked at $74 per ODMT in late 2008, then declined to $64 during third-quarter 2009. Prices in other U.S. regions have followed a similar pattern.

Sunflower hulls are made into pellets at Dove Creek (CO) at San Juan Bioenergy. San Juan is extruding food-grade oil from the more than 10,000 acres of sunflowers and safflowers grown in that corner of the state. Some of the sunflower hulls and other green waste from the plants power San Juan’s own gasification plant. The rest of the pellets are trucked to Silverton for the first large-scale use of sunflower hull pellets for heat in the state.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Heating Plant will conduct test burns to replace a portion of the coal it burns with wood pellets. The test burn — replacing 10-15 percent of the coal with the wood pellets — will help the university determine if the wood pellet mix is a viable biofuel option that may help UW-Eau Claire reduce the amount of coal it burns.

Hartford Central School District (Hartford, NY) and CSArch Architecture|Construction Management have installed a wood-chip gasifier. The gas is burned in a standard boiler to produce hot water which is distributed throughout the school’s hot water heating system. The system can operate at part or full capacity depending on heating demand. The district estimates that the plant will burn 1,600 tons of locally sourced wood chips in its first year of operation.

The San Francisco, CA, Bay Area’s run of bad air days continues, with officials declaring a third consecutive Spare the Air Day for today. The declaration by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District means indoor and outdoor burning is prohibited until at least midnight. The ban covers all open fires that burn wood, manufactured fire logs or other solid fuel. It applies to fireplaces, woodstoves, pellet stoves and outdoor fire pits.

Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. (CVEC) in Benson (MN) is using about 70 tons of corn cobs, wood and glycerin per day in its gasifier. The company burns it to create steam, which is used as a heat source to make ethanol.CVEC hopes to eventually reach 300 tons of biomass per day, which would replace 90 percent of the natural gas they use with renewable sources. Currently, they’re replacing 20 percent. So far, selling corn cobs is profitable for farmers. The co-op can pay $90 to $100 per ton while CVEC estimates it costs a farmer $66 per ton, or $33 per acre, to harvest and deliver them. CVEC’s cob price is supported by a USDA Farm Service Agency initiative to help biomass markets get established.

John Zimmerman and his mother, Northfield, MN, raise 150,000 turkeys. They have just installed a gasifier on the farm to burn the turkey litter (manure + bedding) as a fuel for heat through out the winter. Xcel Energy is providing most of the money to get this experiment going. They are going to run the gasifier for a year to see if it makes sense to adapt it as a practice.

An innovative deal between East Baton Rouge Parish government and Baton Rouge Renewable Energy LLC will turn landfill gas into power for two local industrial plants, while generating $33 million in revenue for the city-parish over 20 years. The gas will be sold to Novolyte Technologies, which makes electrolytes used in lithium ion batteries, and ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Polyolefins Plant. Brad Ives, chief executive officer of Illumination Renewables LLC, the parent company of Baton Rouge Renewable, said the north landfill will produce somewhere in the ballpark of 70 million to 80 million British thermal units per hour (roughly the equivalent of 70,000 to 80,000 cubic feet) of gas.

CN (Canadian National) - North America’s largest mover of forest products - is on track to haul more than 800,000 tons of wood pellets (http://www.cn.ca/woodpellets) this year and sees more opportunities in the future for this “green” source of heating energy. “Since 2005, we have experienced a 16 per cent compounded annual growth in our wood pellet traffic, and we see growing potential for this business in domestic and international markets,” said James Foote, executive vice-president, Sales and Marketing.

Jim Lanoue of Jungle Jim’s Landscaping said he’s selling cord wood for about $265. That’s down about $25 from last year. The price is down a little, Lanoue said, because more people are getting into the business because of either job loss or the down economy. Heating fuel prices are also down across the board in New Hampshire.

A Howard City (MI) grain feed mill is now converting turkey litter into steam, electricity and fertilizer with a $3 million alternative commercially based biomass energy plant developed by a small Kentwood company, Heat Transfer International. Sietsema Farms Feeds LLC is roasting 70,000 pounds of turkey waste a day to generate 206,400 pounds of steam and 500 KWh of electricity to power a grain mill that prepares feed for the birds. The turkey waste is gathered from several West Michigan turkey facilities.

A plan to move away from oil-fired burners by the US Coast Guard in Southeast Alaska could provide a spark for the region’s foundering timber industry. The projects in Ketchikan and Sitka would convert building heating systems to biomass boilers that burn wood chips, providing a local market for processed wood. Southeast Alaska is the first place the Coast Guard has considered using biomass energy, said Robert Deering, environmental and energy branch chief for the Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Juneau.

Four Indiana prisons will be powered partially by biomass by the end of the year, as part of an Indiana Department of Correction green initiative. The conversion to biomass power at the four locations will save the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) about $36 million over the next 10 years, plus minor operational savings associated with the boilers, according to the IDOC.

Biochar was discussed at the Texas Animal Manure Management Issues Conference Sept. 29-30 in Round Rock, north of Austin. – mj: The jury is still out biochar, but this article is a pretty good overview of general biomass gasification as it relates to manure. Mike McGolden, Coaltec, mentions using biochar to filter water. Some landmark research by USDA-ARS in 2005 showed that charcoal made from chicken litter was a superior filter element to charcoal made from wood.

As homeowners plan for winter heating, they may qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $1,500 if they purchase and install a 75-percent efficient wood- or pellet-burning (biomass) stove in 2009 or 2010. Thirty-percent of the total cost, including the appliance, installation and piping, can be claimed.