august 2013 biomass magazine

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“This conference is at the forefront of the latest and most-up-and-coming industry. From exhibitors, to speakers, to attendees, the conference bridged the gap between the unknown and achievable.”

Erica Mason, M-E-C Company

“The ABS provided the right mix of industry, academia, and interested investors, committed to building and expanding the role of algae in biofuels, feeds, and products. Collaborations and partnerships developed at ABS will influence the field and industry for decades to come.”

Ryan Dorland, Ph.D., Cellana LLC

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AUGUST 2013 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3

INSIDE¦

AUGUST 2013 | VOLUME 7 | ISSUE 8

POWER

06 EDITOR’S NOTEWhere the Biomass Story Begins By Tim Portz

07 INDUSTRY EVENTS

08 BUSINESS BRIEFS

38 MARKETPLACE

ADVERTISER INDEX¦

2013 Algae BIomass Summit 2

2013 National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo 13

2014 International Biomass Conference & Expo 5

Biomass Industry Directory 30

Biomass Power Map 34

Bruks Rockwood 37

CPM Roskamp Champion 7

CPM Wolverine Proctor, LLC 20

Dieffenbacher 16

Fagen Inc. 8

Himark bioGas 10

Hurst Boiler & Welding Co. Inc. 35

Jeffrey Rader Corporation 9

McBurney Corp. 18

MEGTEC Systems Inc. 36

Pellet Mill Magazine 28

PHG Energy 40

RUD Chain 19

tcbiomass2013 4

Vecoplan LLC 17

West Salem Machinery Co. 26

Williams Crusher 39

14

10 NEWS

11 COLUMNPrime Time for Tax ParityBy Bob Cleaves

12 COLUMNMeeting the Multiple-Source Feedstock Challenge By Joshua J. Stanislowski

14 FEATURE Preparation ProtocolTo ensure it meets boiler specs, Koda Energy’s fuel is processed and refi ned at two sites before it reaches a cogeneration plant.By Anna Simet

PELLETS 20 NEWS

21 COLUMNMaine Follows New Hampshire’s Fuel-Switching LeadBy Bill Bell

22 FEATURE Keeping Pace with Pellet TradeGeorgia’s Port of Brunswick is one of many ports expanding and upgrading to meet explosive pellet export demands.By Tim Portz

Biomass Magazine: (USPS No. 5336) August 2013, Vol. 7, Issue 8. Biomass Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Offi ce: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biomass Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58203.

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Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts or samples before recycling

COPYRIGHT © 2013 by BBI International

22

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THERMOCHEMICAL CONVERSION SCIENCE

3


THERMAL

26 NEWS

27 COLUMNHow the BTU Act Will Change the Industry By Joseph Seymour

BIOGAS28 NEWS

29 COLUMNBiogas as a Transportation Fuel: A Strong StartBy Amanda Bilek

ADVANCED BIOFUELS & CHEMICALS

30 NEWS

31 COLUMNCooperation Drives the Algae Opportunity By By Mary Rosenthal

32 FEATURE The Cornerstones of Advanced BiofuelsRecent breakthroughs in biomass pretreatment may help lower biofuel production costs. By Chris Hanson

INSIDE¦

AUGUST 2013 | VOLUME 7 | ISSUE 8

866-746-8385 | [email protected]

#IBCE14 Follow Us: twitter.com/biomassmagazine

March 24-26, 2014Orlando, FLwww.biomassconference.com

At the 2013 event in Minneapolis …

96% of exhibitors made valuable contacts

100% of the exhibitors positively rated the quality of the entire conference

94% of exhibitors would recommend this conference

“This is a ‘must attend’ event if you are developing biomass to energy projects. All the burning issues were covered in the conference and the important equipment providers have an expo booth.” – Guillermina Perez del Castillo, Abengoa

“I will go again next year & I will get more sales directly from contacts made at this conference.” – Justin C. Miller, Scott Equipment

“Great show to attend. Excellent opportunity to network with industry execs and professionals as well as catch up on industry topics and developments.” – Matt Weidner, Weidcom

The Largest Biomass Conference in North America

Biomass Power & Thermal | Pellets | Biogas | Advanced Biofuels

32

On the Cover:Koda Energy's Mike Marsollek and Stacy Cook stand in front of the covered feedstock pile at the Shakopee, Minn., handling and preparation facility.

August 2013

Satisfying SpecsKoda Energy’s Proprietary Fuel Prep ProcessPage 14

Plus:Breakthroughs in Biomass

PretreatmentPage 32

And:The Port of Brunswick

Transforms for Pellet Trade Page 24

www.biomassmagazine.com

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2013

Where the Biomass Story Begins

In mid-June, a powerful summer storm tore through large swaths of Minneapolis, wreaking havoc on the city’s urban forests. Downed limbs and trees littered the city’s boulevards and interrupted power service for tens of thousands of homes. The echoes of the storm still reverberate at Ft. Snel-ling, where a wood waste-handling fa-cility accepts truck after truck of fallen trees. To almost anyone else, the accu-

mulated piles would seem to present the city with a massive disposal problem, but standing amidst the detritus with Mike Marsollek, Koda Energy’s director of supply chain, eyeing the front-end loaders and tub grinders working the pile, a carefully orchestrated process reveals itself. For him, the site holds only one thing: future Btus. The process to wring the energy from this tangle is a simple one.

The art and science of mechanically preparing wood residue streams for delivery to a boiler are well-developed, and as Anna Simet’s feature, “Preparation Protocol” (page 14) illustrates, are vital aspects to the profi table operation of any facility making heat and power from biomass. But what about the incredible potential for biomass streams to contribute to liquid fuel and chemical markets? If this industry is going to establish itself as a relevant contributor to these markets, grab real market share, and deliver on its promise as a source for environ-mentally benign fuels and chemicals, the processes that prepare bio-mass streams for later conversion must become as well-understood by industry pros as mechanical pretreatment is by Marsollek.

In a continuation of this issue’s focus on pretreatment and mate-rial preparation, Chris Hanson’s feature “The Cornerstones of Ad-vanced Biofuels” (page 32) catches up with a sampling of the indus-try’s research efforts in the pretreatment approaches being pursued to unlock the soluble sugars bound up in miscanthus, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover and other abundant biomass streams. His feature digs into the work researchers around the world are conducting to fi nd a path-way to the cost-effective pretreatment of these recalcitrant feedstocks, so their potential as fuel and chemical inputs can be realized.

This issue of Biomass Magazine provides evidence that the key to widespread deployment of biomass-to-energy production lies in the perfection of the very fi rst conversion step that a feedstock stream un-dergoes. The challenge now lies in bringing the commercial viability of pretreatment enjoyed by the heat-and-power sector to our industry’s fuel and chemical endeavors.

TIM PORTZVICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE [email protected]

¦EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITORIAL

PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEFTom Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Tim Portz [email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR Anna Simet [email protected]

NEWS EDITORErin Voegele [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann [email protected]

STAFF WRITERChris Hanson [email protected]

ARTART DIRECTOR

Jaci Satterlund [email protected]

GRAPHIC DESIGNERElizabeth Burslie [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALESCHAIRMAN

Mike Bryan [email protected]

CEOJoe Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT, SALES & MARKETINGMatthew Spoor [email protected]

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Howard Brockhouse [email protected]

ACCOUNT MANAGERSKelsi Brorby kbrorby@bbiinternational

Chip Shereck [email protected]

CIRCULATION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry [email protected]

ADVERTISING COORDINATORMarla DeFoe [email protected]

MARKETING DIRECTORJohn Nelson [email protected]

EXTERNAL EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSShane Chrapko, Himark Biogas

Stacy Cook, Koda EnergyBenjamin Anderson, University of Iowa

Gene Zebley, Hurst BoilerAndrew Held, Virent Inc.

Kyle Goerhing, Eisenmann Corp.

Subscriptions Biomass Magazine is free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for any country outside of the United States, Canada and Mexico. To subscribe, visit www.BiomassMagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and pay-ment (checks made out to BBI International) to Biomass Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 701-746-8385 or [email protected]. Advertising Biomass Magazine provides a specifi c topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To fi nd out more about Biomass Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 701-746-8385 or [email protected]. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Biomass Magazine Letters to the Contributions Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to [email protected]. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.


INDUSTRY EVENTS¦

National Advanced Biofuels Conference & ExpoSeptember 10-12, 2013CenturyLink Center OmahaOmaha, Neb.Proving Pathways. Building Capacity.Produced by BBI International, this national event will feature the world of advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals—technology scale-up, project fi nance, policy, na-tional markets and more—with a core focus on the industrial, petroleum and agri-business alliances defi ning the national advanced biofuels industry. Register by Au-gust 20th and save $200 on conference registration rates.866-746-8385 | www.advancedbiofuelsconference.com

Algae Biomass SummitSeptember 30-October 3, 2013Hilton OrlandoOrlando, Fla.This dynamic event unites industry professionals from all sectors of the world’s al-gae utilization industries including, but not limited to, fi nancing, algal ecology, ge-netic systems, carbon partitioning, engineering & analysis, biofuels, animal feeds, fertilizers, bioplastics, supplements and foods.866-746-8385 | www.algaebiomasssummit.org

International Biomass Conference & ExpoMarch 24-26, 2014Orlando Convention CenterOrlando, Fla.Organized by BBI International and coproduced by Biomass Magazine, the Interna-tional Biomass Conference & Expo program will include 30-plus panels and more than 100 speakers, including 90 technical presentations on topics ranging from an-aerobic digestion and gasifi cation to pyrolysis and combined heat and power. This dynamic event unites industry professionals from all sectors of the world’s intercon-nected biomass utilization industries—biobased power, thermal energy, fuels and chemicals. 866-746-8385 | www.biomassconference.com

International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & ExpoJune 9-12, 2014Indiana Convention CenterIndianapolis, Ind.Celebrating its 30th year, the FEW provides the global ethanol industry with cutting-edge content and unparalleled networking opportunities in a dynamic business-to-business environment. The FEW is the largest, longest running ethanol conference in the world—and the only event powered by Ethanol Producer Magazine. 866-746-8385 | www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPSBusiness BriefsProfessor recognized for biofuel work

Fengqi You, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, received the 2013 Northwestern-Argonne Early Career Investigator Award for Energy Research. You was selected for the honor due to his proposal to investigate the design and optimization processes and supply chains for advanced drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels. He will receive $100,000 over three years.

Wisconsin construction firm adds superintendent

Construction management fi rm CG Schmidt Inc. has added Tim Williamson to

its Madison, Wis., offi ce as superintendent. Williamson’s responsibilities will include maintaining the overall project schedule, overseeing project quality and safety, and supervising all work on-site. His fi rst project with the fi rm will be the Springfi eld Digester, the second community anaerobic digestion system in Dane County, Wis. Williamson has 11 years of onsite management experience as both a project manager and superintendent.

Engineer wins DuPont awardPaul Dauenhauer,

a University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineer, has been awarded with the 2013 DuPont Young Professors Program. He will receive $75,000 over

three years to advance progress on his discovery of a process for making biobased plastics and chemicals. Dauenhauer and his team will use inorganic catalysts, such as low-cost zeolites in high-temperature processes for converting wood, grasses and agricultural byproducts into monomers to make plastics and chemicals through rapid, nonbiological methods.

BioPower Operations adds executive

BioPower Operations Corp. has added Marco A Baez-Vasquez to its team as its fi rst chief scientist and chief technology offi cer. Baez-Vasquez joins the company after having tested and verifi ed for commercial purposes BioPower’s patented technology to convert biomass, farm and organic wastes into class A fertilizer, ethanol

You’s research has been widely published in academic journals.

Dauenhauer’s research is focused on biochemical and bioplastic production.

Mechanical Boiler Feed SystemsCustom-designed systems for feeding biomass or alternative fuels, including woody biomass, agricultural, or refuse derived fuels into boilers and kilns.

Pneumatic Boiler Feed SystemsRuggedly built high-pressure, low-pressure, and vacuum conveying components for use in pulp and paper mills or biomass systems and for boiler direct injection systems.

For additional information:

Handling a World of MaterialsThe brands comprising TerraSource™ Global (Gundlach Crushers, Jeffrey Rader, and Pennsylvania Crusher) are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) © 2013 TerraSource™ Global. All Rights Reserved.

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Boiler Fuel Feed SystemsBoiler Fuel Feed Systems

and other bio-based products. In his new position, Baez-Vasquez will be responsible for managing technology and technological innovation, transfer and sub-licensing, as well as directing partnerships and collaborations. He has operational technological management experience gleaned from various positions within the biotechnology, biopharma, life-sciences, chemical, renewable energy, and agrifood research sectors.

European Bioplastics elects board members

The General Assembly of European Bioplastics has elected new board members. Francois de Bie of Purac will serve

as the board’s chairman, while Mariagiovanna Vetere of Natureworks and Stefano Facco of Novamont will serve as vice-chairpersons. Additional members of the board include Jürgen Keck of BASF, Peter Brunk of Biotec, Rainer Schweda of Braskem and Johnny Pallot of Roquette.

Grant writer recognized Sarah Aubrey, principal and owner

of Indiana-based Prosperity Consulting LLC has been awarded the Indiana Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Award. Prosperity Consulting is a full-service funding

opportunities fi rm that aids corporations, communities and other groups with obtaining funds through the use of government or foundation programs. Aubrey is a certifi ed grant administrator and has written more than 400 successful grants in 38 states. The majority of her clients pursue projects related to renewable energy, energy effi ciency or energy technologies. Aubrey will also publish a book later this year that outlines her Five-Step Prosperity Process for grant writing for entrepreneurs and business owners.

BUSINESS BRIEFS¦

SHARE YOUR INDUSTRY NEWS: To be included in the Busi-ness Briefs, send information (including photos and logos, if available) to Business Briefs, Biomass Magazine, 308 Sec-ond Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You may also email information to [email protected]. Please include your name and telephone number in all cor-respondence.

Vetere Aubrey plans to publish a new book this year.

Facco

de Bie


PowerNewsThe International En-

ergy Agency has released its second annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report, predicting that renewable energy will increase by 40 percent over the next fi ve years and ac-count for nearly 25 percent of the global power mix by 2018. Biomass power will comprise a portion of this increase.

According to the report, bioenergy produc-tion in the U.S. increased last year, reaching 12.1 gigawatts (GW) of capac-ity and accounting for 1.5 percent of the power mix. The IEA predicts that bioenergy capacity will increase 12.4 GW this year, and increase steadily through 2018, when the U.S. will be home to an estimated 14.4 GW of bioenergy capacity.

Taken together, the IEA said it expects combined bionenergy production in the U.S.,

Canada, Mexico and Chile to reach 99 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2018. Production is also expected to increase in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries of Europe to increase, reaching 192 TWh by 2018.

ReEnergy Holding’s 60 MW Black River plant in Fort Drum, N.Y., has celebrated its grand opening. ReEnergy acquired the facility in 2011 and retrofi t-ted it to burn biomass as its primary fuel, rather than coal. The plant will sell renewable energy credits to the New York State Energy Research and Devel-opment Authority under New York’s renewable portfolio standard.

The company has also announced fi ve of its plants in Maine and New York, have achieved certifi cation under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. In addition to the Black River facility and the 22 MW ReEnergy Lyonsdale plant in Lyons Falls, N.Y., they are: the 37 MW Renewable Fort Fairfi eld plant, the 39 MW ReEnergy Livermore Falls plant, and the 48 MW ReEnergy Stratton plant, all in Maine. ReEnergy is the fi rst company solely devoted to electricity production to be certifi ed under the SFI Standard.

Report predicts growing bioenergy production ReEnergy retrofits, opens Ft. Drum plantWorld renewable and bioenergy power capacity

projection (GW)

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY


Tax reform, while still a long shot, is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill. In late June, the chair-man and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent a joint letter to their colleagues in the Senate announcing a new ap-proach to tax expenditures. Instead of the old way of doing things—assuming all incentives were “in” and arguing over which ones to cut—Baucus and Hatch were going to “zero out” the tax code. This approach assumes that all incentives are “out” and requires Senators to present a convincing case for the incentives that are most important.

While there are never any legislative guarantees, this may be a good opportunity for a renewable energy source with a compelling story, such as biomass.

While biomass qualifi es for some tax credits, our industry doesn’t come close to the status of the other renewable energy sources. In the case of Section 45 credits, biomass facilities qualify for only half the tax credit rate compared to other renew-able energy sources. And because of the long lead time in developing projects, the stop/start nature of extending Section 45 means that the technolo-gies with the shortest development timeline—e.g. wind—benefi t more than other technologies. A dramatic illustration of this disparity is the so-called 1603 Treasury grant, where, over the life of the program, biomass received a mere fraction of the funding awarded to other energy sources while supplying a disproportionately larger share of the power.

The lack of funding and ambiguous tax situ-ation makes it harder for us to build new facilities, attract outside investment for construction and, probably the most common challenge, update older or aging facilities with the latest effi cient technol-ogy. This is a perennial topic that we keep revisit-

ing, partly because the credits we’ve received so far are only temporary. Therefore, this is a battle we continue to fi ght every two years or so, dedicating valuable resources that could be better allocated elsewhere.

Biomass Power Association provided oral and written input to the Ways and Means Committee Working Group on Energy Tax Reform earlier this spring. We presented four simple suggestions for improving parity among renewable energy sources and giving biomass the credit it deserves.

Our suggestions included:• Renewable electricity tax incentives should be

made permanent.• The credit rate should be harmonized for all

technologies under Section 45.• Congress should recognize the value of

existing biomass facilities by extending their current credit period from fi ve to 10 years.

• The tax code should be modernized to promote the refurbishment of obsolescent facili-ties and to acknowledge the value of cofi ring of biomass with fossil fuels.

As we are all aware, biomass punches above its weight. It’s one of the only sources of renew-able energy that, in most cases, pays for its own fuel. Particularly as forest fi re season is upon us, the power of biomass is considerable as a forest fi re prevention method that can save millions of dol-lars, as well as lives.

The “zero out” approach being employed by Sens. Baucus and Hatch will certainly inspire the usual mad dash of lobbying, but in the end, it’s our hope that biomass will stand out as an energy source truly deserving of its tax incentives.

Author: Bob CleavesPresident and CEO, Biomass Power Association

www.biomasspowerassociation.com [email protected]

Prime Time for Tax Parity

POWER¦

BY BOB CLEAVES


It has long been understood that commercially available, large-scale gasifi ers are an imperfect fi t for biomass conversion. In the past, fuel sourcing, prepara-tion, and feed problems—combined with unique ash properties and tar production—made it very challeng-ing to reliably operate a large gasifi er on renewable sources. Is this still true today?

Researchers at the Energy & Environmental Re-search Center are not convinced, and they are gather-ing the data to make their case.

A multifaceted team of engineers and scientists at the EERC is performing tests to demonstrate that there are near-term opportunities for large-scale bio-mass gasifi cation. The team is focused on testing the performance of coal and biomass blends in systems that mimic commercially available gasifi ers. The testing at EERC is in support of the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology’s efforts to identify alternative sources of liquid fuels for military applications. To date, several pilot-scale test campaigns have been com-pleted at EERC that demonstrate the ability to gasify various sources of biomass blended with various ranks of coal. The testing is in support of CCAT’s work for the U.S. government to help identify potential alterna-tive sources of liquid fuels that have an equal or better carbon footprint than traditional liquids.

By developing systems that can produce alterna-tive liquid fuels and power, the U.S. military sees the potential for improved energy security, competitive fuel costs, increased effi ciency, and environmental sustain-ability. Cofeeding biomass with coal and utilizing CO2 capture technologies will allow CO2 emissions from these advanced energy technologies to be minimized.

When CCAT originally set out to develop this project, one of the main goals was to ensure that the technologies being considered were near-term and sup-ported commercially. To meet these goals, CCAT put together a highly qualifi ed team, in addition to EERC, that includes the U.S. DOE, Arcadis/Malcom Pirnie, Avetec Inc., and world-renowned experts in gasifi ca-tion technologies.

EERC is working with the CCAT team to develop the key data needed to prove reliability and

availability by performing coal and biomass gasifi cation test runs in the EERC’s pilot-scale transport reactor integrated gasifi er (TRIG) and a small, pilot-scale en-trained-fl ow gasifi er. The TRIG technology is currently being installed commercially as part of the Kemper County (Miss.) energy facility, a 582-megawatt inte-grated gasifi cation combined-cycle facility. Hundreds of entrained-fl ow gasifi ers are operating at commercial scale around the world today, and the technology is supported by large companies such as Shell, Siemens, and General Electric, to name a few. The team believes that the focus on commercially available systems is of critical importance.

Because commercial systems are very large and would require vast amounts of biomass, the team be-lieves that coal-biomass blends up to a maximum of 30 percent by weight represent the highest blend ratio that would be fed to the gasifi er. In addition, to ensure that the blending requirements could be met year round, the team is developing data on various sources of bio-mass that include wood, corn stover, switchgrass, and other opportunity feedstocks that could be sourced around the globe.

Each of these sources of fuel has unique chal-lenges and opportunities based on the basic proper-ties of the biomass. The pilot-scale testing has shown promise that these fuels can be operated reliably in commercial gasifi er designs if the physical and chemi-cal properties of the material are understood prior to injecting into the gasifi er.

This project, and the technical and economic information it generates, could help open doors for real-world conversion of coal and biomass to liquid fuels. This may help improve investor confi dence and bring advanced technologies one step closer to the commercial marketplace. The testing at the EERC is expected to continue through the end of the year.

Author: Joshua J. StanislowskiResearch Manager, EERC

[email protected]

Meeting the Multiple-Source Feedstock Challenge

¦POWER

BY JOSHUA J. STANISLOWSKI

The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing offi cial policies, endorsements, or approvals either expressed or implied, of the Defense Logistics Agency or the U.S. government.


Primed for Market Expansion Make your plans to attend the 2013 National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo in Omaha, Nebraska. With 70 first generation biofuels facilities within 250-miles of Omaha all capable of utilizing bolt on technology, and the largest cellulosic ethanol plants in the country currently under construction or about to go online, the region is primed to prove new technology and produce advanced biofuels.

Conference includes:• 65+ Comprehensive Presentations• 3 Program Tracks: - Pathways & Partnerships - Inputs & Supply Chains - Money & Markets• Important Industry Update• Educational Expo Hall• Networking Opportunities

Contact us: [email protected] or 866-746-8385

www.AdvancedBiofuelsConference.com

Learn More Visit: www.AdvancedBiofuelsConference.com

The Advanced Biofuels Event of the Year!

CO-LOCATED EVENTSeptember 10, 2013Omaha, NE

One FREE Producer Pass Per Biofuels FacilityEthanol | Biodiesel | Advanced Biofuels | Cellulosic

Deadline: August 20

August 20


¦POWER

IT ALL STARTS HERE: A backhoe and tub grinder work together on reducing the pile of urban wood waste at the Ft. Snelling wood handling site in Minneapolis. The site has received hundreds of truckloads of downed trees and limbs as the city continues to clean up after a destructive summer storm.PHOTO: TIM PORTZ


POWER¦

Biomass fuel used at Koda Energy must be dried, sized and ground according to specifi cations for a proprietary fuel blend recipe. BY ANNA SIMET

Preparation Protocol


¦POWER

In Shakopee, Minn., Koda Energy gen-erates heat and power on a 76-year-old campus of Rahr Malting Co. The

energy plant began operations in 2009 and is very new compared to Rahr, but the Shakopee Mdewakanton, the other project partner, have a rich history in the region and have called it home for hun-dreds of years.

In 2006, the Shakopee Mdewakan-ton Sioux Community and Rahr part-nered to develop Koda Energy, and the plant was built by Norcross, Ga.-based McBurney Corp. on the southwest edge of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropoli-tan area. It provides Rahr Malting with its thermal requirements, replacing natu-ral gas, and supplies an average of 12.5 MW of electricity to the grid, though its maximum capacity is 23.4 MW.

About 20 percent of the facility’s fuel comes from neighbor Rahr, and other sources include oat hulls from General Mills, wood, grass seed and corn cobs. The fuel mix burned at the plant is a specifi c blend of materials designed to

Dieffenbacher USA, Inc. 2000 McFarland 400 Blvd. | Alpahretta, GA 30004Phone: (770) 226-6394 | [email protected]

Biomass Pelletizing & Energy SystemsPellet Plants | Dryers | Furnaces | Steam Boilers | Thermal Oil Heaters | Cogeneration

Rotary Dryer Boiler Heat Energy System

www.dieffenbacher.com

MAINTENCE IS KEY: Work crews perform on-the-spot maintenance to the site's tub grinder, replacing the grinder's teeth as they wear down over time.

PH

OTO

: TIM

PO

RTZ


maintain a consistent heat output and limit emissions, and Koda Energy has deployed two satellite biomass preparation facilities that ensure it meets specifi cations upon de-livery to the boiler.

Points A and BThe Fort Snelling wood tipping and

processing facility is where whole tree mate-rial is received from the City of Minneapolis Parks and Recreation trimming crews, as well as private tree-trimming crews within Hen-nepin County. There, initial resizing is per-formed, according to Stacy Cook, Koda En-ergy general manager. He says resizing at this point is necessary for two reasons. “First, woody biomass collected within Hennepin County is under quarantine for the emerald ash borer, and cannot be removed from the county prior to an accepted treatment proto-col under an emerald ash borer compliance plan,” explains Cook.

One of the accepted treatment methods is reducing the size of the wood material to the point where the insects cannot survive. Once it meets specifi cation for size under

the compliance plan, it can be removed from the county.

The second reason for initial resizing is related to logistics, says Cook. A 100-cubic-yard semitrailer can haul 10 tons of whole tree and limb material. After it is resized, however, the same size trailer can haul 24 tons in the same space. “Fewer trips equals reduced transportation expense,” says Cook.

As product is chipped, wheel loaders pick up piles of material and place them in a self-unloading semi-trailers for transport to the second facility, the 7-acre Koda En-ergy biomass processing and storage facil-ity. “There, we process the material further by running it through our wood chip dryer, and we resize the chips to three-fourths of an inch,” Cook says. “Once it is dried and resized to meet our fuel specifi cation, we keep it in a covered storage building until it is scheduled to be delivered into the Koda Energy plant.

The Ft. Snelling site is open six days per week to receive waste tree material, and during that time product may be moving be-tween all sites. Once treated at the process-

ing and storage facility, it’s hauled to the CHP plant. “These deliveries occur every day of the week normally, and the number of loads can vary daily, depending on the specifi c volume fuel requirement that is required to supplement our other fuel sources,” Cook explains. “It undergoes pretty much the same process again—the dried fuel is under covered storage and loaded into the same type of trailer with a wheel loader, and then it’s sent into the CHP plant to be unloaded and fed into the process.”

What’s the reasoning for having the fa-cilities separate from the energy plant? “The entire footprint of our power plant is on a 2.5-acre site, so we don’t have the space avail-able for preprocessing large quantities of material,” says Cook. “The processing and storage facility is only 7 miles from the plant, and is also valuable as a surge facility where we can store enough fuel to run our plant for an additional week beyond the storage capa-bility at the power plant.

About 30 miles away from Koda En-ergy, the Fort Snelling site has been an es-tablished wood tipping site used by the City

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of Minneapolis for several years, and it’s close to the locations where the tree ma-terial is being removed. It’s also inside of the EAB quarantine area, Cook points out, reiterating that no whole tree material can leave the quarantine area without further processing.

The fact that the processing and stor-age facility, which is located at the 20-acre SMSC organics recycling facility, is only 7 miles away from the power plant keeps processed fuel transportation costs low.

Both facilities are key components in ensuring that the product delivered to the energy facility meets certain specifi cations for size and moisture content for the pro-prietary fuel blend used at the energy plant.

Meeting Specifi cationsFor the woody biomass component

of Koda’s fuel blend, chippers and grind-ers are used to reach the specifi cations of three-fourths of an inch for size, and an MEC wood dryer is used to achieve less than 14 percent moisture content by weight. “We use several other types of fuel too, hulls from various grains, aged seed corn, undersized whole grain products, sunfl ower seed material, corn screenings, other grain dusts, and many other dry ag-ricultural byproducts,” Cook says. “These grain-derived fuels are typically less than 10 percent moisture and the size of a kernel of wheat, and usually arrive meeting our specifi cations.”

Koda also contracts with several pallet manufacturing companies to receive recy-cled pallet board material, most of which, Cook says, use horizontal wood grinders for size reduction and can meet the mois-ture specifi cation without further process-ing.

When fuel arrives at the CHP plant, it’s segregated by material type and com-bustion characteristics, including ash con-tent, Btu value and alkali per million Btu. “The separate fuel types are then blended in a specifi c ratio so that the combined fuel recipe has favorable characteristics for our combustion process,” Cook explains. Drag conveyors move fuel from individual silos to four Bliss hammermills, which are com-monly found in fl our production facilities,

¦POWER

and they process the material into a bio-mass fl our. “We produce 20 to 25 tons per hour of biomass fl our on average to feed our combustion process,” says Cook.

The biomass fl our is pneumatically conveyed into a metering bin on the boiler house, and then metered into the stream of primary air that conveys the fuel mixture to the burners and into the boiler. “In our pro-cess, we use a controlled and sustained dust explosion inside the furnace,” Cook adds. “That converts the chemical energy in the fuel into heat energy.”

The resulting heat energy is used by Rahr Malting, and the power generated is distributed between Koda Energy and Rahr, with the balance supplied to Xcel En-ergy.

Though currently experiencing down-time due to a late-April explosion, Koda is currently salvaging existing equipment not damaged in the event and will reuse it to build bigger, better and safer. The company is currently working a redesign of the fuel receiving, storage, and blending system, and is in the planning and funding stage for reconstruction, Cook adds. “We have

performed a thorough safety assessment on all potential aspects of the design to im-prove the safety factor of the fuel side of the plant.”

In the meantime, Koda Energy is pro-cessing tree storm debris for the Minneap-olis Park and Recreation Board and provid-ing the resulting wood chips to Minneapolis residents. Since a June 21 storm, the MPRB has hauled away more than 1,000 semi truckloads of boulevard and residential tree debris that has ash trees intermingled with other tree debris. Koda Energy is grinding and double chipping the material to meet the Minnesota Department of Agricul-ture's compliance standards for preventing the spread of emerald ash borer.

“We try to be good neighbors in our community and provide service where it is feasible to do so,” Cook says.

After all, in the Dakota language, Koda means “friend.”

Author: Anna SimetManaging Editor, Biomass Magazine

[email protected]

POWER¦

THWARTING MOISTURE: At the Shakopee facility, moisture levels are reduced from nearly 50 percent to less than 10 percent in the site's rotary dryer. After drying, they are stored in a covered holding area until they are loaded for fi nal delivery.

PH

OTO

: TIM

PO

RTZ


PelletNews

Biomass Maga-zine launched a new webinar series in late June with a session focused on the growing European demand for American wood pellets. Executive Editor Tim Portz kicked off the event with an overview of his visits to the Georgia Power facility in Waycross, Ga., the Port of Brunswick in southeast Georgia, Port of Hull in the U.K., and the U.K.-based Drax Power Station.

Seth Ginther, executive director of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association, showcased policy drivers and updates in the European market. According to Gin-ther, sustainable forestry practices in the U.S. and Canada, large quantities of natural resources and a stable political climate are three things that have made North America a good source of biomass fuel.

Dave Tenny, CEO and president of the national Alliance of Forest Owners, spoke about the ability of U.S. forests to sequester carbon. “Our forests today are sequestering, on net, somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 million metric tons of CO2 every year,” Tenny said. That amount is roughly 12 per-cent of the U.S. total carbon emissions even, after harvesting wood for building material, energy use and paper production, he said.

The St. Joe Company has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Enova Energy Group that could lead to the development of a pellet export operation at the Port of Port St. Joe, Fla., approximately 100 miles southwest of Tallahassee. The LOI is contingent upon the Port of Port St. Joe receiving funding to complete maintenance dredging of the ship-ping channel, which is federally authorized to a maximum of 37 feet.

According to The St. Joe Company, Eno-va Energy has expressed interest in transport-ing a minimum of 1 million metric tons of wood pellets per year, using the AN Railway to the Port of Port St. Joe. The company has also shown interest in using or developing port site facilities, provided that the port is capable of accepting vessels of adequate size for the shipment of its commercial wood pellets.

The Port of Port St. Joe is well-posi-tioned for bulk cargo shipments, offering access of rail, the U.S. Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the state and U.S. highways.

Webinar focuses on pellet export potential LOI could result in Florida export operation

A BETTER FUEL: Conversion to biomass fuel is underway at the Drax Power Station in Selby, U.K.

PH

OTO

: TIM

PO

RTZ


The energy-related actions decisions made by Maine’s recently adjourned state legislature perhaps refl ect similar discussions in other states.

Prior to commencement of the legislative session, experienced lobbyists predicted a veto-driven standoff between Republican Gov. Paul LePage and the sizable Democrat majority in both houses. They predicted the exceptions would be the budget, where stalemate means a state shutdown, and perhaps a major environmental bill, for which suburban and coastal Republicans might join with Democrats to override a gubernatorial veto.

The observers were right about the budget, where a careful and diffi cult compromise between appropria-tions committee members was vetoed by an angry gov-ernor, but overridden. The other major veto override, however, came on what became known as the Omnibus Energy Bill. More than anything else, Maine’s legisla-tors felt that energy was the most important subject on which they needed to work out differences and show progress.

Equally signifi cant was the high priority within the energy bill—to lower heating costs for Maine citizens. Maine’s governor set a tough tone by pronouncing that Maine’s energy agency should “be more concerned about Mainers heating bills than about curlicue light bulbs.” To the dismay of the energy audit and insulating industrial complex, the governor and his energy director made a convincing political case for lowering heating costs by fuel-switching, particularly by providing more homeowners access to natural gas and pellet heat.

The successful energy bill compromise involved fi nding more funds for both effi ciency measures and fuel switching. The increased effi ciency funding will come primarily from a settlement surrounding the clos-ing of Maine’s nuclear plant years ago. The fuel-switch-ing fi nancing will be derived from revisions in Maine’s participation in the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

So, which sectors of the heating industry will ben-efi t from the new emphasis at the state energy agency? At its fi rst meeting after the new energy bill went into

law, the agency put solar, natural gas, electric heat pumps, and biomass (pellet stoves as well as boilers) on the table. In contrast to all of the other heating systems costing between $3,000 and $5,000, pellet boilers retail at a much higher price, therefore requiring a much higher consumer incentive if sales are to be effectively boosted. It’s up to the pellet boiler industry to make their case.

Part of this case will certainly be New Hampshire’s example, where the state public utilities commission has an ongoing pellet boiler incentive program provid-ing rebates of 30 percent or $6,000, whichever is lower, to homeowners. Another good example is the Berlin, N.H., Model Neighborhood Project, assisted by the Northern Forest Center, in which incentives have en-abled nearly 50 homeowners to generate huge cost and carbon emission savings by switching to pellet boilers. If political support counts, the 2 to 1 majority, by which both houses of the Maine legislature passed a measure supporting the pellet boiler industry, may be that indus-try’s best card.

While showing clear support for fuel switching, the Maine legislature took a rain check on the chance to make controversial choices between renewable energy systems. Programs relating to hydropower, onshore and offshore wind power, tidal and solar power, and biomass energy are all to be “studied” between now and December by a special legislative commission, particu-larly with regard to Maine’s renewable energy credit portfolio. Again following New Hampshire’s example, where thermal biomass last year was added to the re-newable energy credit program, thermal energy credits will be part of this “summer study.”

This stuff is getting complicated.

Author: Bill Bell Executive Director, Maine Pellet Fuels Association

[email protected]

Maine Follows New Hampshire’s Fuel-Switching Lead

PELLET¦

BY BILL BELL


¦PELLET

LOADING UP: The cargo vessel Koningsborg is loaded with wood pellets. Once full, it will pass under the Sidney Lanier Bridge and head east across the Atlantic to the Port of Hull, where its pellets will be unloaded and eventually moved by rail to the Drax Power Station.


PELLET¦

The Port of Brunswick is one of many upgrading and expanding to meet Europe’s surging pellet demands. STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIM PORTZ

Keeping Pace with Pellet Trade

U.S. Highway 82 follows a predominantly western course, away from the port complex at Brunswick, Ga., running fi rst slightly northwest and then doglegging to the southwest. It ambles

through Glynn, Brantley and Ware counties before arriving in Way-cross, Ga. This 60-mile stretch of highway traces a path through some of the densest stands of southern yellow pine in the country. To-gether, these three counties boast nearly .5 million forest acres, most of them privately owned and actively managed for delivery to the area’s forest products complex, including area pellet mills. East of the Port of Brunswick lies the Atlantic Ocean, and the world’s fastest-growing pellet market. Linking this incredible forest biomass resource to power generators in the United Kingdom and northern Europe, which seek a less carbon-dense fuel are port terminals like the East River Terminal at the Port of Brunswick.


¦PELLET

CURBING DUST: As pellet tonnage increases at the port, so must the efforts to control dust. The chute in the foreground delivers the fi rst tons of pellets directly to the bottom of the vessel's hold, minimizing dust generation.

ROAD, RAIL AND SEA: The East River Terminal is situated amidst robust road and rail arteries like U.S. Highway 82, facilitating the effi cient transport of wood pellets to the port’s storage facilities.

In August 2011, the Georgia Ports Authority and Logistec, a Montreal-based stevedoring and terminal operations company, announced a shared investment in the East River Terminal to fa-cilitate the rapidly growing export market for wood pellets. Com-menting on the project, Curtis Foltz, GPA executive director said, “The signifi cant expansion and installation of new infrastructure at East River Terminal will accommodate Georgia’s export for biomass fuels and create jobs throughout Georgia’s transporta-tion, logistics and forest industries.”

Investing in this critical piece of infrastructure has proven to be wise and timely, as the demand for wood pellets has increased as predicted, contributing to the highest cargo levels the GPA has ever experienced. In April, 2.4 million tons of cargo passed through Georgia’s ports, a new record. Tonnage moving through the East River Terminal increased 14 percent over the same time frame in the previous year, reaching nearly 670,000 tons. The growth in East River’s tonnage was led by biomass fuels, validat-ing the 2011 investments.

A critical component of the investments was a deepening of the shipping channel from 30 to 36 feet. Expounding on the ramifi cations of that improvement, David Proctor, Logistec ter-minal manager, says, “The GPA also dredged from 30 to 36 feet, which will increase our capability of bringing in larger vessels for pellet exports. With a 30-foot-depth, you can only get may-be 15,000 or 16,000 tons of any kind of cargo into the Port of Brunswick. With the expansion and the deepening of the channel


down to 36 feet, we are capable at this time of moving close to anywhere from 35,000 to 40,000 tons of wood pellets in a ves-sel. “There are economies of scale with the larger-size vessels, and this additional draft allows us to attract a new target market when serving the large-size utility companies overseas.”

Already a signifi cant piece of Georgia’s forest products in-dustry, pellet producers in the state manufacture over 1 million tons of pellets each year. Current production levels, however, pale in comparison to the nearly 3 million tons of production capacity currently planned or under construction. Virtually all of this new capacity is being developed to serve the growing European market. Georgia’s port operators are feeling the mo-mentum, too, and Proctor notes, “We continue to prospect for new opportunities, and there are many interested parties that we are pursuing.”

As production capacity in Georgia increases, its ports are keeping pace, ensuring the critical market access necessary to maximize the opportunity that fuels growth in both the state’s forest products and port sectors.

Author: Tim PortzExecutive Editor, Biomass Magazine

[email protected]

PELLET¦

UP AND AWAY: Powerful conveyors carry pellets out of covered storage to waiting vessels moored to the terminal’s berths.

PELLET REST STOP: Pellet inventory is kept dry and protected from the elements in storage barns at the East River Terminal until it is loaded onto vessels for the trans-Atlantic journey.


South Carolina regional biomass resources Economic development region Timberland acres

(in millions)Pine pulpwood (in million tons)

Hardwood pulpwood (in million tons)

AdvantageWest Economic Development Group 4.2 18.9 138.6

Charlotte Regional Partnership 2.6 26.5 77.4

Piedmont Triad Partnership 2.1 10 28

Research Triangle Regional Partnership 2.3 21.9 39.2

Eastern Region 2.3 23.2 38

Southeast Commission 3 29.5 50.1

Northeast Commission 2.5 11.8 25.3

The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has completed a statewide woody biomass assessment in cooperation with Gelbert, Fullbright & Randolph Forestry Consultants and North Carolina’s seven economic devel-opment regions.

The resulting report, titled the “State-wide Woody Biomass Project,” outlines three areas of analysis for each of the seven economic development regions. First, it quantifi es wood resources on a county-by-county basis, including price points, land use

changes and regional competition for woody biomass. Second, the analysis determines the best location for biofuels industrial sites and assesses the infrastructure available at each site. Finally, the report refi nes the wood resources to support bankable data for each location.

On a statewide basis, more than half of North Carolina’s land is forested, with approximately 90 percent of its 17.6 million forested acres under private ownership.

ThermalNews

The University of Maine at Fort Kent and the Maine School Admin-istrative District No. 27 have broken ground on a $4 million biomass heat-ing project located on the site of the former Fort Kent Armory.

The project will feature two multifuel boilers and consume 1,000 tons of wood pellets per year. The majority of the fuel will be sourced from various providers within a 20-mile radius of the campus.

Once complete, the project will generate heat and hot water for 12 buildings located on the UMFK and Fort Kent Community High School campuses. There is also the potential for two additional locations within the school district to be added to the system.

The installation is UMFK’s second biomass project. Last May, the university brought a $500,000 wood-to-energy system online. That system provides heat for the cam-pus’s largest residence hall and an athletic complex.

Report details NC forestry resources

District heat added to Maine campuses


The BioLite CampStove has captured the imagina-tion of the outdoor community, and for good reason. The small, compact camp stove (the size of a Nalgene water bottle) produces heat for cooking and power for charging USB-connected devices. Separately, the stove’s components are not groundbreaking: a combustion chamber, circulatory fan and thermocouple. Their integration and functionality, however, are changing the camping culture from packing up propane fuel and packing out empty canisters, to one that uses local fuels and also keeps one’s iPhone charged. Numerous testimonials praise the device’s convenience, though, oddly, many of those same stories express pleasant surprise that a wood-heating device could actually deliver on performance promises. A constant barrier to its broader use is the pervasive belief that using biomass (wood) for heat-ing is primitive. But thanks to Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., we have a solution.

On May 22, King and Collins introduced S. 1007, the Biomass Thermal Utilization Act, or BTU Act for short. Weeks later, Shaheen joined the bill, giving the measure increased legitimatecy and a tri-partisan appeal. Specifi cally, the BTU Act would recognize biomass thermal technolo-gies within the renewable energy provisions of the federal tax code, correcting years of inequity among the renew-ables. One provision of the BTU Act would include high-effi ciency biomass heating technology in Section 25D of the Internal Revenue Code, the residential renewable energy 30 percent investment tax credit. The second provision is a tiered tax credit for 15 or 30 percent of the installed cost of biomass-fueled heating (or cooling) systems for commer-cial or industrial applications in Section 48 of the tax code. Together, these measures would—pardon the cliché—level the playing fi eld for highly effi cient and advanced biomass thermal technologies.

Since that muggy spring Wednesday, I have made connecting with state and regional advocates and poten-tial champions a priority. My members, the Pellet Fuels Institute, and others under the broad biomass tent, are telling their colleagues and Congress the story that the BTU Act could write, and it is a compelling one at that. Accord-ing to an analysis from William Strauss of FutureMetrics consultancy, the BTU Act would actually generate substan-

tial income for the federal Treasury on top of reducing household and business energy bills. How, you ask, could a tax credit benefi t both groups? The answer is no secret to millions of homeowners and hundreds of businesses utilizing locally sourced, renewable, and affordable biomass fuel. After accounting for fuel savings from switching from oil, the benefi t of locally sourced fuels and its supporting supply chain, and also the savings circulating through one’s community, the Treasury could anticipate $40 million-plus in new revenue three years after its enactment. And that would be in addition to the more important benefi ts of several thousand new jobs, healthier forests, stronger rural communities, and an improved climate.

If the BTU Act were a baseball team, its list of win-win-win qualities would put it in clear contention for the playoffs. But we are nowhere near October, fi guratively or otherwise. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Bau-cus, D-Mont., and ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have, as the Washington newspaper The Hill described, “ad-opted a blank slate approach that requires all their colleagues to make the case for their favorite tax breaks” as part of the Senate’s focus on tax reform. The deadline for comments was July 26, and it will be a measure of our industry’s pas-sion to see if, fi nally, biomass thermal tax policy is included. An omission would come quite close to literally leaving money on the table.

Positive testimonials sell more effectively than any form of marketing. Today’s advanced biomass thermal and combined-heat-and-power technologies are making believers in places like Berlin, N.H., Kennebec, Maine, and Deschutes County, Ore. The BTU Act would accelerate that market transformation nationally, bringing high-effi ciency systems into the mainstream with a capital M. Consistent performance will yield additional sales and a growing market, countering the perception of biomass thermal as outdated or dirty. I have faith that this industry can respond to that pent-up market demand. If only I had as much faith in our legislators. But that, again, is what we are here for.

Author: Joseph SeymourExecutive Director, Biomass Thermal Energy Council

[email protected]

How the BTU Act Will Change the Industry

THERMAL¦

BY JOSEPH SEYMOUR


The World Bioenergy Association has published a fact sheet discussing the current and potential biogas sup-ply on a global basis for a variety of markets, including electricity, heat and transportation fuels.

The document emphasizes the great global potential for biogas, point-ing to estimates that predict biogas could consist of approximately 6 percent of the world’s primary energy supply, or one-third of the current use of fossil-based gas.

The WBA is advocating for coun-tries in both the developing and devel-oped world to establish biogas develop-ment plans, with the target to utilize at least 30 percent of biogas potential by 2030.

The fact sheet outlines the cost of select biogas products, gauging invest-ment at approximately €5,000 ($6,035) for a 150 KW installation. It also details the composition of biogas by compo-nent percentage and discusses biogas po-tential by country according to feedstock.

BiogasNews

Moose Creek Energy has opened a 4.2 MW landfi ll gas-to-energy plant at the Lafl èche Environ-mental Inc. facility in Moose Creek, Ontario. The facility is Energy Ottawa Inc.’s second joint venture with Integrated Gas Recovery Services Inc. The two entities also own the Trail Road landfi ll gas-to-energy plant in Ottawa.

“This partnership is a win-win scenario,” said Bryce Conrad, president and CEO of Hydro Ot-tawa. “We’re turning a negative into a positive by har-nessing landfi ll gas as a green energy source to power homes and businesses, while diverting greenhouse gas emissions in the process.”

Energy Ottawa, a subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa, is the largest municipally owned producer of renew-able power in Ontario. In addition to the two landfi ll gas plants, the power producer also operates six hydroelectric stations.

The new landfi ll gas facility at Moose Creek is expected to generate enough electricity to power 4,000 homes while diverting more than 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.

WBA advocates for biogas development

Landfill gas facility opens in Ontario

Agricultural biogas yields

Nm3 biogas

1 milking cow 20 m3 liquid manure/a 500

1 pig 1.5-6 m3 liquid manure/a 42-168

1 cattle (beef) 3-11 tons solid manure/a 240-880

100 chicken 1.8 m3 dry litter 242

Corn silage 40-60 green weight/ha 7,040-10,560

Grass 24-43 ton fresh matter/ha 4,118-6,811 SOURCE: WORLD BIOENERGY ASSOCIATION


In my last Biomass Magazine column, I wrote about the enormous potential of biogas in meeting our trans-portation needs and as a component of a diverse fuel mix. New projects and data are demonstrating that biogas as a transportation fuel is no longer a vision, but a market reality. Under both the federal renewable fuel standard 2 (RFS2) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, biogas is an emerging contributor to a diverse, low-carbon fuel mix.While progress is encouraging, there is still a large amount of untapped potential, leaving plenty of room for expan-sion and opportunity for innovative project models.

Starting with the RFS2, the fi rst several months of 2013 have been an impressive growth period for biogas transportation projects. According to U.S. EPA data, biogas has generated nearly 2.3 million gallons of advanced biofuels in the fi rst fi ve months. Nearly 70 percent of those gallons were produced in March, April and May. The total advanced biofuel pool was 194 million gallons, and while the 2.3 million gallons of biogas fuel represents a small portion, steady growth in March, April and May is defi nitely a positive sign. Furthermore, the majority of advanced bio-fuel gallons is attributed to imports of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, whereas biogas gallons are supplied by domestic projects, representing an important economic development for many U.S. states. Previous analysis concludes the poten-tial for using biogas as advanced biofuel is much larger than current use, demonstrating there is room for signifi cant growth.

In California, under the LCFS program, biogas is already helping to achieve program goals and is projected to make an even larger contribution in the future. In 2009, California established a policy to reduce the carbon intensity of the transportation fuel mix by 10 percent by 2020. Ac-cording to the most recent program status review by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis, California displaced approximately 1.06 billion gallons of gasoline and 45 million gasoline gallon equivalents (gge) of diesel with lower-carbon fuels in 2011 and 2012. During that same period, the program recorded a net excess of 1.285 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent LCFS credits. The net excess credits represent nearly half of the credit obligation needed to meet the 2013 standard (a system of credits and defi cits is used to ensure compliance with annual carbon reduction requirements).

Of the net excess credits, 12 percent were generated from conventional and biobased compressed natural gas or liquefi ed natural gas. Using biogas as a transportation fuel is even more attractive under the California LCFS program because of the lower-carbon intensity of biogas as compared to gasoline or diesel, which provides regulated parties the ability to generate a greater amount of LCFS credits.

So what is the future role of biogas under the LCFS? It could be signifi cant, according to a study commis-sioned by California Electric Transportation Coalition and conducted by ICF International. The study examined three different scenarios for program compliance until 2020. Since the LCFS was fi rst established, unanticipated changes in the energy market are having a larger impact on program implementation. Most notably, the increasing domestic supply of natural gas and low prices are making it economically attractive for heavy-duty diesel vehicles to convert to run on natural gas and/or purchase vehicles designed to run on natural gas. The report predicts that greater natural gas use in California’s vehicle market will pave the way for increased use of biogas.

Under each of the three scenarios, biogas is antici-pated to make up approximately 10 percent of the natural gas fuel pool. Depending on the scenario, biogas could supply as little as 7 million gge beginning in 2015 to as much as 111 million gge in 2020. Biogas is currently only a small sliver of total low-carbon fuel volumes produced in California, but given that different biogas pathways have been scored with some of the lowest carbon intensities, it is an attractive compliance option for regulated parties. Ad-ditional market development for natural gas transportation options could pave the way for increased biogas use.

While biogas as a transportation fuel is still in the early stages of market adoption, the future is very bright for this lower-carbon option. Both the RFS2 and California’s LCFS are paving the way for a diversifi ed fuel portfolio, and the potential of biogas as an emerging and valued component of that mix is becoming apparent. Early results are very encouraging. Stay tuned!

Author: Amanda BilekEnergy Policy Specialist, Great Plains Institute.

[email protected]

Biogas as Transportation Fuel: A Strong Start

BIOGAS¦

BY AMANDA BILEK


AdvancedBiofuelNews

The U.S. EPA has issued a supple-mental fi nal rule under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) pertaining to biofuels made from giant reed and napier grass feedstock. The rule contains a life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis of biofuels made from these feedstocks, along with a fi nal regula-tory determination that such fuels meet the 60 percent GHG reduction threshold needed to qualify as cellulosic under the renewable fuel standard (RFS).

The rule also establishes a system of registration, recordkeeping and reporting

requirements designed to address concerns over the invasive potential of the species. Biofuel producers utilizing the feedstocks are required to demonstrate the growth of giant reed or napier grass will not post a signifi cant likelihood of spreading beyond the planted area, or that the invasive risks are being managed and minimized through an EPA-approved risk management plan that includes means for early detection and rapid response to potential spread, among other provisions.

The U.S. DOE has announced a $13 million investment in four biofuel projects, with the goal of bringing next-generation biofuel production online faster, while driv-ing down the cost of drop-in renewable fuels.

Salt Lake City, Utah-based Ceramatic was awarded up to $3.3 million to support the development of an effi cient electrochem-ical deoxygenation process to cost-effectively separate oxygen from bio-oil.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive up to $2.1 to use a microbial elec-trolysis process to remove hydrogen in water found in bio-oil. The technology will reduce the corrosivity of bio-oil and improve the ef-fi ciency of converting hydrogen and biomass to biofuels.

The DOE will provide up to $4 million to the University of Oklahoma to investigate two methods to maximize the amount of renewable carbon and hydrogen that can be extracted from biomass and converted into a intermediate suitable for fi nal upgrading into transportation fuel.

Madison, Wis.-based Virent Inc. has been awarded up to $4 million to develop an innovative separation process using its BioForming technology to convert lignocel-lulosic biomass into hydrocarbon fuels.

EPA approves additional RFS fuel pathways

DOE to invest $13Min drop-in biofuels

directory.biomassmagazine.com

BROWSE CATEGORIES BROWSE COMPANIES

cleaning| FIND

find it online at

One FREE Listing per Company

GHG emissions (per mmBTu fuel)Giant reed (kgCO2e) Napier grass (kgCO2e)

Nitrogen fertilizer 1 2.4

N20 4.8 7.6

Phosphorus fertilizer 0.6 0.1

Potassium fertilizer 0.4 0.2

Herbicide 0.03 0.6

Insecticide 0 0

Lime 0 2.9

Diesel 1.4 2.2

Electricity (irrigation) 1 2.7SOURCE: U.S. EPA


How does a new technology become a market opportunity? There may be no “secret” to making an innovative idea a market success, but those of us in the algae industry know that dedication and team-work are common ingredients.

Cooperation is a driving force behind our indus-try’s strategy to make more technology demonstra-tions possible, bring new products to market, and provide the industrial base for sustainable and re-newable fuels, feeds and other products from algae.

The algae opportunity has grown so rapidly due to breakthroughs funded by agencies such as the US. DOE and USDA, the zeal of ambitious entre-preneurs, hundreds of millions of dollars in ven-ture capital, and the commercialization power of institutional customers like the U.S. Department of Defense, FedEx, United Airlines and many others. Outside of the U.S., the Algae Biomass Organiza-tion is working with a coalition in Japan, coordinat-ing meetings with their key energy and environment ministries and the USDA, DOE and U.S. Depart-ment of the Navy.

One opportunity to join this team is coming up this fall when we gather for the annual Algae Bio-mass Summit in Orlando, Fla. From Sept. 30-Oct. 3, more than 800 algae leaders, entrepreneurs, inves-tors, suppliers, researchers and government offi cials will be discussing the latest advances in algae com-mercialization, research and fi nance. New deals, con-tacts and breakthroughs are always expected at the industry’s largest conference.

We are currently putting the fi nishing touches on the agenda, which will cover every aspect of the industry’s products, from fuels to feeds, to fertilizers and food products. We’ll hear about the latest devel-

opments in algae-derived biofuels from Paul Woods, CEO of Florida-based Algenol Biofuels, and CJ Warner, CEO and chairman of Sapphire Energy.

Updates on companies commercializing high-value algae-based feeds, nutritional products and specialty chemicals will come from leaders like Tim Burns, president of BioProcess Algae, Dan Simon, president of Heliae, and Mike VanDrunen, CEO and founder of Algix LLC.

The summit comes at a time when the industry is seeing more laboratory breakthroughs move into the marketplace. Many companies are opening large-scale demonstration and precommercial facilities, with expectations for expansions in the future. State and national policymakers are also taking notice. Ari-zona, Ohio and Iowa have all recently passed legisla-tion to attract algae companies, and in January, Con-gress passed the fi rst-ever algae biofuel tax credit.

Algae is attracting more attention than ever be-cause for the fi rst time, we are seeing new production facilities come on line and a growing array of algae-derived products, including biofuels, being offered to consumers.

Our meeting in Orlando is the place to learn about the opportunities for algae entrepreneurs, re-searchers and investors around the globe. If you are not already on the team bringing these new innova-tions to life, I urge you to take a look at the agenda and join us at the summit.

We will see you there.

Author: Mary RosenthalExecutive Director, Algae Biomass Organization

[email protected]

Cooperation Drives the Algae OpportunityBY MARY ROSENTHAL

ADVANCED BIOFUELS & CHEMICALS¦


¦ADVANCED BIOFUEL

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Miscanthus, after undergoing the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's ionic pretreatment process.

PHOTO: LEAF ENERGY


ADVANCED BIOFUEL¦

Novel pretreatment technologies are paving the way for the advanced biofuel industry.BY CHRIS HANSON

The Cornerstones of Advanced Biofuels


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Effi ciently breaking down biomass feedstocks into useable materials for biofuels and chemicals is a crucial step

any developer needs to consider when se-lecting the best pretreatment method. Jose Atilio de Frias, researcher at the University of Illinois’ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, emphasizes that the importance of pretreatment is to remove or alter lignin, which acts as a type of glue that holds the biomass together but also inhibits the action of enzymes to release the sugars from cellulose. “So, if you introduce en-zymes to the biomass without pretreatment, you will get little release of sugars,” he says. “Unless you do pretreatment, the whole bio-chemical scheme toward biofuels will not be accomplished.”

Currently, one of the most common pretreatment methods is accomplished us-ing steam explosion, but further advances and innovations in other pretreatment meth-ods could diversify pretreatment options. In recent months, several breakthroughs and new approaches have been announced, one

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BETTING ON BAGASSE: Australia’s Leaf Energy used sugarcane bagasse to develop its pretreatment process.


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The next step in developing this pre-treatment method will focus on optimiza-tion experimentation. Researchers may also try different levels of solids loading, de Frias adds.

Halfway across America, the JBEI in California is also developing an ionic liquid pretreatment. Unlike the University of Illi-nois’ butadiene sulfone method, the institute is utilizing imidazolium chloride with mixed feedstocks. With its pretreatment technology, the institute is able to liberate 95 percent sug-

ar yields from biomass in less than 24 hours, recovering roughly 95 percent of the ionic liquid.

Blake Simmons, vice president of the deconstruction division at JBEI, says using these “molten salts” may provide additional benefi ts. He explains ionic liquids can pro-duce high sugars yields from any feedstocks. “We’ve actually asked for feedstocks from folks that they think are really recalcitrant , including pine, and we can still effi ciently lib-erate sugars from those,” says Simmons.

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of which is ionic liquid pretreatments with butadiene sulfone.

Salty Solutions Some of the newest pretreatment in-

novations involve the use of ionic liquids to break apart biomass into cellulose, hemicel-lulose and lignin. Ionic liquids, or liquid salts, are being researched at both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the U.S. DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute.

Initially, the university’s research using the ionic liquid butadiene sulfone to pretreat miscanthus began for a different purpose. In the beginning, the lab was using the liq-uid to solubilize pure cellulose. What the researchers discovered was the biomass did not solubilize, but instead developed similar physical characteristics of pretreated materi-al. “It actually looked very similar to what we used to do in our lab—two-stage, alkali-acid pretreatments—but in this case, one step,” de Frias explains.

“Initially, we wanted to fi nd a solvent to actively separate lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose,” adds Hao Feng, associate profes-sor at the University of Illinois. “However, we also found it is probably better to use this as a pretreatment because we can recover it, we can recycle it, and that way we can have that green, sustainable production.”

Using butadiene sulfone as a pretreat-ment offers several benefi ts. De Frias says the most important advantage of this meth-od is that the solvent’s recovery process is industrially available at mild to higher tem-peratures. During pretreatment, he explains, the solvent decomposes into 1,3-butadiene and sulfur dioxide at 90 to 110 degrees Cel-sius (194 to 230 degrees Fahrenheit). In the presence of water, the sulfur dioxide chang-es to sulfurous acid. Together, the sulfurous acid and butadiene sulfone provide a “dual attack” to the plant cell walls, freeing over 90 percent of the hemicellulose, releasing 90 to 99 percent of the cellulose and almost 60 percent of the lignin.

Once pretreatment is complete, the temperature is increased, and the heat breaks down the solvent, forming butadiene and sulfur dioxide. The two gases are then recombined to form the original butadiene sulfone.


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Working with Idaho National Labora-tory’s feedstock development unit, JBEI tested what Simmons refers to as a “witch’s brew” of feedstocks, comprised of corn stover, switchgrass, eucalyptus and pine bio-mass. What the researchers unexpectedly discovered was the mixtures performed bet-ter in pretreatment than single feedstocks. “Imagine if you had a biorefi nery operating with ionic liquid technology that could han-dle any mixture that’s available regionally, be it yard trimmings, ag residues, tree resi-

dues, municipal solid waste,” says Simmons. “That’s pretty remarkable.”

Another benefi t of using ionic liquids, he explains, is it allows the opportunity to “dial in the chemistry” to match biomass pretreatment characteristics by correctly choosing the appropriate anion or cation, which may come from renewable sources and have low environmental and human toxicity. “So, even in the case of a spill, they won’t pose a threat to the environment or to the humans working at a biorefi nery,”

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says Simmons. “There are some other pretreatment chemicals that you certainly don’t want to have released into the envi-ronment or expose humans to.”

Currently, JBEI is working with the industry to commercialize the technology. Simmons hopes sugars produced from ionic liquids will be marketable within three to fi ve years. The biggest steps that need to be taken, he says, are more pro-cess engineering and scaling to minimize risks. “We are working with user facili-ties within the national lab complex, post start-ups and big industry to do that,” he adds. “We are very excited about the fu-ture of the process.”

While work is being done to improve and research ionic liquid pretreatments, Leaf Energy Ltd. in western Australia is developing a glycerol-based pretreatment method.

Emerging Glycerol Pretreatment Formed from the merger of Aqua-

Carotene Ltd. and Farmacule Bio-indus-

GUNNING FOR GLYCEROL: Ken Richards, Leaf Energy managing director, explains the company’s glycerol pretreatment was developed with bagasse and works with other feedstocks, although effi ciency still needs improvement.

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tries in 2010, Leaf Energy collaborated with Queensland University of Technology and Syngenta to develop a glycerol pretreat-ment method. Alex Baker, chief operating offi cer, reports the pretreatment process can liberate over 90 percent of digestible cellulose in 24 hours. Ken Richards, man-aging director, explains the main benefi ts of using glycerol over acid pretreatments is that it delivers “more sugars faster” by dis-solving the lignin using a relatively inexpen-sive reagent at low temperatures with stan-dard atmospheric pressure. Compared to the standard steam explosion pretreatment process, the glycerol technology produces 30 percent more in enzymatic digestibility, says Richards.

Explaining how the pretreatment pro-cess works, Simmons says crushed bagasse from a sugar processor is churned with the glycerol in a chamber. Dissolved lignin and glycerol are then pressed out, leaving the cellulose and hemicellulose. “It’s a re-ally simple, easy process using a very cheap substance in glycerol,” he says.

Presently, the pretreatment process has been used with sugarcane bagasse but Leaf Energy is aiming to use other regional feed-stocks. When palm oil is processed, Rich-ards explains, there are massive amounts of biomass waste. Scientifi cally speaking, he adds, the process would work with other types of biomass, but challenges lie with the different proportions of lignin that can vary widely in feedstocks from sugarcane bagasse to woody biomass. “It will work, but we’ll need to do a little work to get it to maximum effi ciency.”

Other recent developments, Richards notes, include processes to purify the used glycerol for reuse and to maintain lower costs.

Moving ForwardLeaf Energy, JBEI and University of

Illinois are all using different approaches to create digestible sugars, but all take aim at the same goal. "I think pretreatment is still the most expensive unit operation in bio-mass-to-biofuel production,” says Feng. “If you could lower the cost, including capital

investment and operational costs, I think you could lower the overall cost of produc-tion. That’s why it is very important.”

Simmons believes the real challenge in biofuel production lies with inexpensive, sugar production from renewable, lignocel-lulosic feedstocks. He says if people are able to produce those sugars with a production cost lower or equal to corn and sugarcane-derived sugars, that “all things become pos-sible with those sugars in terms of fuels, chemicals and others.”

Advanced biofuel, such as cellulosic ethanol, could play a big role in the press-ing carbon debates, says Richards. He adds that with lower production costs, decreased enzyme costs and better technologies, cellu-losic ethanol “has a very, very big task going forward to help reduce carbon.”

Author: Chris HansonStaff Writer, Biomass [email protected]

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