biomass magazine - october 2008

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INSIDE: U.S. ARMY, PURDUE DEVELOP TRASH-POWERED GENERATOR October 2008 www.BiomassMagazine.com Power and Fuel From Waste Plastics An Estimated 200 Billion Pounds of Plastic is Produced Annually, Prompting Researchers to Develop Environmentally Friendly Disposal Processes

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October 2008 Biomass Magazine

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Page 1: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

INSIDE: U.S. ARMY, PURDUE DEVELOP TRASH-POWERED GENERATOR

October 2008

www.BiomassMagazine.com

Power and Fuel From Waste PlasticsAn Estimated 200 Billion Pounds of Plastic is Produced Annually, Prompting Researchers to Develop Environmentally Friendly Disposal Processes

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2 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

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10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3

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RiseAbove theRestFaster Construction.Sidewalls are built from the ground up with no needfor cranes.

SuperiorQuality.Factory engineered VitriumTM glass coating handlestemperatures and pressures.

EasyMaintenance.Minimal maintenance required over tank life.Will not corrode or rust.

Economical Cost.Glass-fused-to-steel tanks are cost effective interms of materials and construction time.

To learn howglass-fused-to-steel digester tankscanbeused in your operation, call 815-756-1551.

Engineered Storage Products Company I 345 Harvestore Drive I DeKalb, IL 60115815-756-1551 I www.aquastore.com

©2008 Engineered StorageProducts Company. Vitrium is a trademark of Engineered StorageProducts Company.

Glass-Fused-to-SteelDigesterTanks

Page 5: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT,IF YOU CAN MAKE IT,TT,,,,

ECLIPSE CAN BURN IT.ECLIPSE CAN BURN IT.

1665 Elmwood Rd. Rockford IL 61103 USA 815-877-3031

THE FIRST 100 YEARS

Greener, more effi cient manufacturing is not a trend; it’s

a new way of doing business. Interestingly, it’s a way of

doing business that family owned Eclipse has practiced

for 100 years. We’ve always been focused on fuel and

emissions reduction. Now, we’re bringing our innovative

engineering skills to bear on alternative fuel production

through our partnership with Dynamotive. We’re helping

this Canadian company break new ground with their

cutting-edge BioOil production technology fi red by an

Eclipse burner system. Our Vortometric system features

a specially engineered combustion chamber, valve train,

BMS panel, combustion air/dilution fan, Exothermic heat

exchangers and custom duct work. For more information

on this and other Eclipse biofuel case studies, visit

eclipsenet.com or call 800-800-3248. And hurry,

because green is good - and it’s getting better all the time.

Eclipse And Dynamotive Are Burning Our Way to a Greener Future.

Doug Perks, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Offi cer

BioOil_9x11.375.indd 1 2/18/08 11:04:29 AM

Page 6: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

renewables, refined

Ecofining™ from UOP and Eni integrates seamlessly with your operations to produce high-quality green diesel.

Together with Eni, UOP has developed a feedstock-flexible

hydroprocessing technology that converts a wide range of vegetable

oils and other biologically-derived feedstocks into green diesel fuel. With

cetane values in the 70 to 90 range and excellent cold flow properties,

green diesel fuel produced by our Ecofining process is superior to

both petrodiesel and biodiesel and an excellent blending component.

Ecofining blends right into your existing refinery infrastructure for a profitable processing option.

UOP continues to refine technology, providing real renewable solutions for today and tomorrow.

For more information about UOP Renewable Energy & Chemicals and Ecofining™, visit www.uop.com/ecofining ©2007 UOP. All Rights Reserved.

Page 7: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7

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8 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

© N

ovozymes A

/S · Custom

er Com

munications · N

o. 2007-35469-02

Novozymes North America, Inc.77 Perry Chapel Church Road · Franklinton, NC 27525 Tel. +1 919-494-3000 · Fax +1 [email protected] · www .novozymes.com

Transforming corn and other grains into biofuels is a major industry

today . But what about tomorrow? The future of biofuels will

also rely on the next generation of raw materials – biomass. At

Novozymes we’re taking a fresh look at all types of biomass, and

considering how we can turn it into something useful. And you

know what? Corn cobs and wheat straw are just the beginning.

Who knows what other types of waste we can transform into fuel?

The future of fuel

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation.

Together with customers across a broad array of

industries we create tomorrow’ s industrial bio-

solutions, improving our customers’ business and

the use of our planet’ s resources. Read more at

www .novozymes.com.

Page 9: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 9

INSIDE OCTOBER 2008 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 10

FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34 ENVIRONMENT Building Powerful Relationships—It’s the Talk of Tualco ValleyDairy farmers, environmentalists and local Indian tribes work together to develop an anaerobic digestion system that benefi ts all parties involved. By Ryan C. Christiansen

40 CELLULOSE Building Better Energy CropsCeres Inc. is preparing for the advent of the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol by developing high-yielding energy crop seeds. The company is concentrating its efforts on switchgrass, miscanthus and sorghum. By Kris Bevill

46 TECHNOLOGY Trash Tactics in Iraq The U.S. Army and Purdue University are developing a mobile biorefi nery unit to safely and effi ciently dispose of garbage by converting it into fuel for stoves and generators. By Anna Austin

52 INNOVATION Giving Back Manoj Sinha found a way to help poor villages in his native India, where there is limited or no electricity. He and his partners formed Husk Power Systems to provide those communities with rice-powered generators. By Bryan Sims

58 ANAEROBIC DIGESTION Waste Not, Want NotResearchers in California have developed an anaerobic digestion system that converts organic solid and liquid wastes into compost and biogas for the production of electricity, heat and transportation fuel. By Jessica Ebert

64 PLASTICS Power and Fuel From Waste PlasticsWhat can be done with the billions of pounds of waste plastic that don’t make it into the recycling bin? Biomass Magazine looks at a couple of different projects aimed at using waste plastic to produce power and fuel. By Ron Kotrba

72 LEGAL Determining the Ownership of Landfi ll GasMethane collection and utilization from landfi lls is growing throughout the country. But who owns the valuable byproduct?By James E. Goddard and Patrick Beaton

76 EMISSIONS Knocking Down the DustA primarily European biomass processing technology―electrostatic precipitators―is quickly gaining popularity in North America.By Petru Sangeorzan

CELLULOSE | PAGE 40

DEPARTMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10 Editor’s NoteCan We All Just Work Together?By Rona Johnson

13 Advertiser Index 14 CITIES Corner

Trash TalkBy Art Wiselogel

17 Industry Events

18 Business Briefs

22 Industry News

83 EERC UpdateSustainability of Biofuels: Future GenerationsBy Tera Buckley

Page 10: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

editor ’sNOTE

Can We All Just Work Together?

here was no shortage of feature ideas to choose from to address the waste-to-energy focus of this month’s magazine. Turning waste into something useful just makes good sense. However, as those of you in the

business probably know, it takes more than just good inten-tions.

Sometimes, as in the case of this month’s feature, “Building Powerful Relationships—It’s the Talk of Tualco Valley,” it takes people understanding each other’s needs and working togeth-er. This feature is about a dairy farmer who wanted to increase his herd size to remain competitive but was environmentally constrained. It’s not that people in the Pacifi c Northwest have anything against dairy farming. In fact, the local American In-dian tribes prefer having farmers as neighbors as opposed to dealing with urban sprawl. The problem is that dairy manure was being blamed for water-quality problems in salmon streams. Although some environmentalists wanted to ban farming in the area altogether, cooler heads prevailed. Farmers, an environmentalist who had worked with farmers on other salmon-friendly projects and local American Indian tribes got together, and decided that the manure could be put to good use as an environmentally friendly energy source.

I think that in a lot of cases, environmentalists and farmers paint each other with broad strokes. Environmentalists think farmers only care about the bottom line with no concern for their surroundings. I realize that not every farmer is an environmental steward, but I think it’s safe to say that a great deal of them care about the land they farm and want to leave it in great shape for their children. On the other hand, environmentalists are often viewed by farmers as extremists with no common sense. I believe this project—and there are probably several others—proves that this isn’t always the case.

The result in this instance is the building of an anaerobic digester with the capacity to process manure from 2,200 cows, allowing participating farmers to increase their herds, and produce 450 kilowatts of power. It’s anticipated that revenue from the digester will be used to fund more salmon protection projects, which pleases the environmentalists and American In-dian tribes. As you can see, it’s a win-win situation for all parties involved and could serve as a model for other projects.

T

Rona JohnsonFeatures Editor

[email protected]

Page 11: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 11

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITOR Jessica Sobolik [email protected]

CONTRIBUTIONS EDITOR Dave Nilles [email protected]

FEATURES EDITOR Rona Johnson [email protected]

SENIOR STAFF WRITER Ron Kotrba [email protected]

STAFF WRITERSJerry W. Kram [email protected] Retka Schill [email protected] Bevill [email protected] Voegele [email protected] Austin [email protected] C. Christiansen [email protected]

STAFF WRITER & PLANT LIST MANAGERBryan Sims [email protected]

ONLINE EDITOR Hope Deutscher [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann [email protected]

E-MEDIA COORDINATORAmber Armstrong [email protected]

ART

ART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund [email protected]

GRAPHIC DESIGNERSElizabeth Slavens [email protected] Melquist [email protected] Sitter [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALES

PUBLISHER & CEO Mike Bryan [email protected]

PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT Kathy Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF MEDIA & EVENTS Joe Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONSTom Bryan [email protected]

SALES DIRECTOR Matthew Spoor [email protected]

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Howard Brockhouse [email protected]

ACCOUNT MANAGERSClay Moore [email protected] Hanson [email protected] Ekanger [email protected] Shereck [email protected] Charles [email protected] Steen [email protected]

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Marla DeFoe [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry [email protected]

SUBSCRIBER ACQUISITON MANAGER Jason Smith [email protected]

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Erika Wishart [email protected]

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Christie Anderson [email protected]

RECEPTIONIST Nicole Zambo [email protected]

Subscriptions Subscriptions to Biomass Magazine are available for just $24.95 per year within the Unit-ed States, $39.95 for Canada and Mexico, and $49.95 for any country outside North America. Subscrip-tion forms are available online (www.BiomassMagazine.com), by mail or by fax. If you have questions, please contact Jessica Beaudry at (701) 746-8385 or [email protected].

Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. To place an order, con-tact Subscriptions at (701) 746-8385 or [email protected]. Article reprints are also avail-able for a fee. For more informa-tion, contact Christie Anderson at (701) 746-8385 or [email protected].

Advertising Biomass Magazine pro-vides 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 Maga-zine advertising opportunities or to receive our Editorial Calendar & Rate Card, please contact Matthew Spoor at (701) 746-8385 or [email protected].

Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Bio-mass Magazine Letters to the Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or e-mail to [email protected]. Please in-clude your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

Cert no. SCS-COC-00648

Page 12: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

Subscribe to Ethanol Producer Magazine and receive:

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1 FREE Ethanol Industry Directory (printed annually in the spring)

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Page 13: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 13

advertiserINDEX

ADI Systems Inc. 25

Advanced Recycling Equipment Inc. 54

Amandus Kahl GmbH & Co. KG 28

Aquatech International Corporation 57

Bandit Industries Inc. 42

Barr-Rosin 66

BBI International Community Initiative To Improve Energy Sustainability (CITIES) 21

BBI Project Development 16, 29, 69 & 81

www.biodiesel-jobs.com 63

Biofuels Canada Magazine 85

Canadian Renewable Energy Workshop 82

Christianson & Associates PLLP 36

Continental Biomass Industries 2

Davenport Dryer LLC 20

Detroit Stoker Company 43

Eclipse Inc. 5

Energy & Environmental Research Center 33

Energy from Biomass and Waste Exposition & Conference 51

Engineered Storage Products Co. 4

EPIC Ethanol Promotion & Information Council 87

www.ethanol-jobs.com 15

Ethanol Producer Magazine 12

Factory Sales and Engineering Inc. 44

FCStone LLC 37

Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Tradeshow 71

Geomembrane Technologies Inc. 56

HRS Process Technology Inc. 45

Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP 24

Hurst Boiler & Welding Co. Inc. 68

International Distillers Grains Conference & Trade Show 84

International Biomass Conference 70

Jansen Combustion & Boiler Technologies Inc. 61

Jeffrey Rader 30

KEITH Manufacturing Company 74

Laidig Systems Inc. 38

Larox Corp. 49

Maas Companies 50

Midwest Process Solutions 55

Morbark Inc. 62

Novozymes 8

Percival Scientifi c Inc. 32

Peterson 79

Price BIOstock Services 60

Process Barron 26

R.C. Costello & Associates Inc. 67

Rath, Young and Pignatelli PC 39

Robert-James Sales Inc. 88

Roskamp Champion 27

SD&G Community Futures Development Corporation 75

SSI Shredding Systems 7

Stoel Rives LLP 31

Supreme International Limited 86

The Teaford Co. Inc. 77

UOP 6

Vecoplan LLC 3

Vicam 48

Waste to Energy International Exhibition & Conference 23

Weis Environmental 80

West Salem Machinery Co. 78

Page 14: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

14 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

CITIESc o r n e r

y the time this column appears in Biomass Maga-zine we will all be tired of hearing the trash talk on countless political TV ads, but as I write, the Democratic National Convention is in ses-sion―just down the street from my offi ce―and the Republican National Convention will soon be held in St. Paul, Minn. Both events

were being touted as the greenest conventions each party has ever held. By all accounts, that would not be a diffi cult feat. It’s interesting, however, to see the publicity, number and types of greening efforts and how they were implemented. I would say that they fall pretty much along typical party approaches, but you decide. The information that will probably never be tabulated is just how successful the vastly different approach-es were in reducing fossil fuel use, carbon footprint and trash going to the landfi ll.

The Democratic Convention highly publicized its green-ing efforts. From having its own green Web pages, complete with an environmental starlet and videos, to trying innovative “green” products, the Democrats put their efforts out there for all to see and critique. Some were successful, such as del-egate participation in the carbon offset program for air travel, while others, such as the splintering hotel door key cards made from recycled wood, had less spectacular results.

Additional Democratic Convention greening efforts worth noting were the goal of reducing by 85 percent the amount of waste going to the landfi ll and promotion of low-carbon ground transportation. To meet the landfi ll reduction goal at the Pepsi Convention Center monitors were standing by waste bins to insure nothing went into the wrong con-tainer. Biodegradable utensils and balloons were purchased, and signs and banners were to be recycled. The effort even extended to the local hotels, restaurants and other venues.

For the low-carbon ground transpor-tation hybrid and biodiesel vehicles were to be used when possible. Also, ethanol derived from beer waste powered many of the large SUVs used to transport dignitar-ies. Interestingly, the ethanol was produced by Coors Brewing Co. The Coors family is well known in conservative political circles. In fact, Pete Coors unsuccessfully ran for the Senate as a Republican in 2004. Who would have fi gured that Republican-produced beer would be used to transport presidential hopeful Barack Obama around Denver.

The Republican National Convention was lower key in publicizing its greening efforts. While doing many of the same things as the Democrats—purchasing wind energy from Xcel Energy, providing bicycles for conventioneers to use, using hybrid vehicles, renting offi ce space in energy-effi cient build-ings, using recycled products when possible, printing only when necessary and turning out the lights—the Republican Convention’s approach was to rest more with the individual. Matt Burns of the Republican Convention Committee stated, “I think we need to focus on how we can be good stewards and do the little things that add up and change people’s habits, but we’re not going to shamelessly pander.”

At the end of the day, both parties made efforts to be greener. The real question is, will the greening of the conven-tions eventually refl ect change in government policy? Wheth-er it is showy or quiet, promoted from the top down or the bottom up, government mandated or socially conscious, it is progress and provides hope for the future.

Art Wiselogel is manager of BBI International’s Community Initiative to Improve Energy Sustainability. Reach him at [email protected] or (303) 526-5655.

BTrash Talk

Page 15: Biomass Magazine - October 2008
Page 16: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

Construction

BBI InternationalProject Development

Adding Value to the Biofuels Industry

300 Union Blvd, Suite 325 Lakewood, CO 80228, (303) 526-565530 Duke St.W., Suite 701, Kitchener, Ontario N2H 3W5 CANADA, (519) 576-4500

Why hire a project coordinator when you can hire a team of expertsto develop your ethanol or biodiesel project?

Let BBI guide you down the project development path:

Concept to

Feasibility study

Organize your business

Develop the business plan

Select the right design/builder for your project

Select the best site

Negotiate utility and product offtake agreements

Develop feedstock and risk management plans

Develop a project financing strategy

Develop prospectus and offering documents

Conduct an equity drive

Secure project debt financing

Financial close and begin construction!

Page 17: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

industry events

Bioenergy: From Words to Actions

October 6-8, 2008The Westin OttawaOttawa, OntarioThe aim of this annual conference, hosted by the Canadian Bioenergy Association, is to identify package solutions for communities exploiting biomass for energy and to examine policies needed to make this happen. It will feature sessions on developing biomass supply chains, and solid fuel development and utilization. It will include tours of the world’s longest-operating, fast-pyrolysis bio-oil plant; a biomass cogeneration unit at a pulp mill; and an ag waste operation.(647) 239-5899 www.canbio.ca/events.html

Clean Energy Asia

October 7-10, 2008Grand HyattSingaporeThis event is broken into four topics: ethanol and biofuels, carbon fi nance, waste to energy, and solar energy. The ethanol and biofuels segment will discuss new-generation biofuels, while the waste-to-energy segment will address the outlook of such projects in Asia, as well as ag waste, municipal waste, and energy from landfi ll gases and food waste, among other topics.+65 6322 2771 www.terrapinn.com/2008/clean

Energy from Biomass and Waste

October 14-16, 2008David L. Lawrence Convention CenterPittsburgh, Pennsylvania More than 1,000 people are expected to attend this event, which will ad-dress sustainable waste management, the commercial viability of waste-to-energy and biomass-to-energy technologies, positive effects of energy from biomass and waste programs, domestic and international markets, business opportunities, and legal and fi nancial issues. More than 100 ex-hibitors will showcase the latest in sustainable energy production and safe waste handling, as well. +49-2802-948484-0 www.ebw-expo.com

Global Biogas Congress

October 27-29, 2008Crowne Plaza Europa HotelBrussels, BelgiumThis event is designed to inform biogas industry executives how to optimize production in order to meet pipeline-quality-gas and transport-fuel require-ments. It will begin with a one-day seminar titled “Optimizing Production and Upgrading of Biogas.” Speakers will report on global biogas produc-tion in Europe, Asia and the United States, and also examine the use of biomethane in commercial diesel engines and gas recovery at landfi lls. +44 (0) 20 7017 7500 www.agra-net.com

World Ethanol 2008

November 3-6, 2008Le Méridien Montparnasse HotelParis, FranceThis 11th annual event, hosted by F.O. Licht, offers in-depth ethanol market analysis. The conference will open with an ethanol production workshop that will detail how to maximize ethanol production effi ciency for beverage, industrial and fuel uses, and an ethanol risk management seminar that will address how to manage price and margin risk for renewable fuels in a vola-tile and expanding market. +44 (0) 20 7017 7499 www.agra-net.com

Renewable Energy Technology Conference & Exhibition

February 25-27, 2009Las Vegas Convention CenterLas Vegas, NevadaThis event includes a business conference, a trade show and several side events. The business conference will address the status and outlook of renewable energy. Breakout sessions will focus on biomass and biofuels, among other sources. The biomass and biofuels sessions will address sus-tainability, feedstocks, fi nancing, ethanol production technology, biobased products, biopower and biorefi neries, among other topics.(805) 290-1338 www.retech2009.com

International Biomass Conference & Trade Show

April 28-30, 2009 Oregon Convention CenterPortland, OregonThis event, sponsored by BBI International Inc., will address the latest tech-nologies and business considerations for bioenergy projects. Breakout ses-sion topics will include cellulosic ethanol, biopower, ag and wood waste, next-generation biofuels, anaerobic digestion and biogas, biobased chemi-cals and coproducts, biomass gasifi cation, water issues, project fi nance, and permitting. Attendees will also be able to tour the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Cornelius Summit Foods ethanol plant and the Bea-verton Material Recovery Facility. (719) 539-0300 www.biomassconference.com

International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo

June 15-18, 2009Denver Convention CenterDenver, ColoradoThis will mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s largest ethanol conference, which was recently recognized by Trade Show Week magazine as one of the Fastest 50 events in the United States for the second consecutive year. This event will address conventional ethanol, and next-generation ethanol and biomass. More details will be available as the event approaches.(719) 539-0300 www.2009few.com

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 17

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18 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

business BRIEFS

USSE, founder face chargesIn August, U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp. Chairman and

Founder John Rivera was arrested on charges of felony grand theft between $1,500 and $20,000. He was released shortly thereafter. This was the latest incident in a string that included Rivera being arrested July 31 in Baytown, Texas, on charges of grand theft worth more than $20,000 stemming from a relationship with “a previous company at which [Rivera] was an offi cer in Palm Beach, Fla.,” according to Rivera’s attorney Richard Cutler. Rivera was released on bond that same day. Also, a civil complaint was fi led in the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Com-mission against U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp. and Rivera for allegedly making more than $721,000 on the company’s own stock. According to the fi ling, USSE used false and mislead-ing statements, press releases and oral statements to infl ate its share price between October 2006 and February 2007. BIO

Poet announces plans for cellulosic facility At the American Coalition for Ethanol’s conference and

trade show Aug. 13, Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Poet LLC an-nounced that construction of a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Scotland, S.D., is underway and slated for produc-tion by the end of 2008. The 9 MMgy plant will utilize corn cobs and corn fi ber as feedstocks. The facility will allow Poet to make fi nal improvements to its process technology before construction begins in 2009 on Project LIBERTY, the com-pany’s commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant to be located adjacent to its currently producing corn-based ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. BIO

NREL under new management The U.S. DOE has selected the Alliance for Sustainable

Energy LLC to be the next management contractor for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. The fi ve-year contract contains an option to extend the agreement an additional fi ve years, and included a 60-day transition period, which began July 29. The alliance took over full management responsibilities Sept. 30. The new management entity consists of two nonprofi t organizations: the Midwest Research Institute and Battelle. The Midwest Research Institute formerly managed NREL. BIO

Lignol sites demo facility in western ColoradoLignol Innovations Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Vancouver-

based Lignol Energy Corp., is moving forward with plans to locate a demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Grand Junction, Colo. Lignol and its project partner Suncor Energy USA Inc. chose Grand Junction for its proximity to ample woody biomass. Lignol will provide biomass process technol-ogy, while Suncor will operate the facility. The U.S. DOE issued a $30 million grant to the $88 million project and recently gave its approval. BIO

DSE receives Spanish monitoring contractDSE A/S in Horsens, Denmark, has agreed to provide in-

line moisture monitoring equipment to a Spanish combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant. According to DSE, the equipment uses microwave technology to continuously measure moisture in straw to be used for energy production. The company said its contract will be delivered and commissioned between this fall and the spring of 2009. DSE moisture measurement systems are installed in several other CHP plants worldwide. BIO

Helius Energy, Credit Suisse enter agreementHelius Energy PLC, a U.K.-based

company that specializes in biomass-fi red power plants, has entered into an equity subscription agreement worth £2 million (US$3.1 million) with Credit Su-isse, a Switzerland-based global fi nancial services company. Ac-cording to the agreement, Credit Suisse will obtain 14.8 million new ordinary shares in the company at 13.5 pence (26 cents) per share. Helius’ 65-megawatt power plant under construction in Stallingborough, North East Lincolnshire, will utilize much of the funds. BIO

Page 19: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 19

business BRIEFS

Mascoma expands leadership teamJim Schumacher has been promoted

to senior vice president for corporate de-velopment at Mascoma Corp. He will work on new production facility projects, capital raising and strategic partnerships with lead-ing companies across the cellulosic prod-uct value chain. After joining Mascoma in June 2007, he led the establishment of a strategic partnership with General Motors Corp.

Richard Forrest has joined Mascoma as vice president and corporate counsel. He has experience in representing emerging growth companies, most recently serving as lecturer at Harvard Law School to teach a course on legal issues relevant to venture-backed technology companies. BIO

Canadian biofuels fund solicits applicationsSustainable Development Technology Canada is seeking

applicants for its NextGen Biofuels Fund, established to sup-port groundbreaking cellulosic ethanol and next-generation biodiesel demonstration facilities. Applications are being ac-cepted year-round. Qualifi ed applicants must be located in Canada and have previously demonstrated their technology at a demonstration-scale, fi rst-of-its-kind facility that uses feed-stocks representative of Canadian biomass. The $500 million fund will fi nance up to 40 percent of recipients’ project costs. Applications and more information can be found at www.sdtc.ca. BIO

SunEthanol collaborates with MBISunEthanol Inc. has formed a partnership with MBI In-

ternational to scale up a fermentation method that utilizes Sun-Ethanol’s trademarked Q-Microbe to produce ethanol from nonfood agricultural feedstocks. Bobby Bringi, president and chief executive of MBI, said his company will minimize risk by demonstrating the technology’s commercial viability on a pilot scale. SunEthanol was recently awarded its fourth U.S. DOE grant this year. The $750,000 award will fund steps to-ward commercialization. BIO

Neste Oil’s renewable diesel earns healthy margins

Finland-based Neste Oil Corp. saw healthy margins in its renewable fuels division, reporting second-quarter 2008 profi ts of €13 million ($20 million). That compares with a €5 million ($7.8 million) loss over the same period a year ago when its fi rst NExBTL renewable diesel unit began production. Neste’s re-newable fuels division reported an 8 percent rolling 12-month return on net assets at the end of June. The six-month compa-rable operating profi t in renewable fuels was €15 million ($23.5 million). BIO

DuPont Danisco names presidentDuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC has named Jo-

seph Skurla as its new president. Skurla will help lead the company in commercializing cellulosic ethanol using nonfood feedstocks. He has 30 years of experience in the oil re-fi ning and chemical sectors, most recently leading the development of DuPont Clean Technologies. DuPont Danisco is a joint business venture between DuPont and Ge-nencor, a Division of Danisco A/S. BIO

BlueFire gains technology rights BlueFire Ethanol Fuels Inc. has signed an agreement with

Amalgamated Research Inc. for the exclusive right to its simu-lated moving-bed (SMB) chromatographic separation technol-ogy, wherein feed valve locations are occasionally switched in the same direction as the liquid fl ow to simulate resin move-ment. The SMB technology will aid BlueFire Ethanol’s acid hydrolysis process, which converts cellulose to ethanol, by re-covering 99 percent of the entrained sugars in the acid/sugar stream. BIO

Forrest

Schumacher

Page 20: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

Corn LP is a 55 MMgy coal-fired facility using Davenport steam tube dryers. Using clean coal technology or biomass as an energy source offers reduced energy costs and a stable supply of energy.

And steam tube dryers are safer and easier to operate.

Davenport Dryer, an independently owned company, is the leading supplier of steam tube dryers in the ethanol industry

with installed steam tube dryers in more plants than any other manufacturer. Call us to learn how your biomass

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Page 21: Biomass Magazine - October 2008
Page 22: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

22 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

industry NEWS

Biomass power plants to be built in EuropeLa Rochette, France-based Cascades

S.A., the European division of Canadian boxboard company Cascades Inc., and Den-mark-based Babcock and Wilcox Vølund A/S, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Babcock and Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc., have recently announced plans to construct separate biomass power plants in Europe.

Cascades will build France’s fi rst wood gasifi cation facility in La Rochette in the Savoie region of France. Cofathec, a subsid-iary of energy producer Gaz de France that specializes in energy management, installa-tion and maintenance services, will manage the plant. Gaz de France will cover the €30 million ($47 million) cost to build the facil-ity.

The plant will be operational in 2010 and is expected to reduce the annual carbon dioxide emissions of Cascades’ La Rochette division by 7,500 tons annually. It will also generate 40 million kilowatt-hours of elec-tricity.

The project was initiated as part of the

second call for cogeneration power plant bids that the French Energy Regulation Commission issued in an effort to meet the country’s renewable energy production ob-jectives.

Babcock and Wilcox Vølund reached

an agreement to supply Italy-based Ad-vanced Renewable Energy Ltd. with up to 25 small-scale biomass power plants over the next 10 years. Each of the facilities will have the capacity to produce four megawatts of electricity and fi ve megawatts of heat us-ing locally obtained wood chips. The fi rst facility is expected to be operational by the fi rst quarter of 2010.

The technology supplied by Babcock and Wilcox Vølund signifi cantly reduces heat loss and will allow the plants’ owners to achieve electrical effi ciency of approxi-mately 45 percent.

The contract agreement between Bab-cock and Wilcox Vølund, and Advanced Renewable Energy is valued up to $156 mil-lion (€300 million). Advanced Renewable Energy expects to generate a quick return on investment and plans to install the small-scale power plants in as many locations as possible.

-Erin Voegele

Thune holds forest waste hearingThe defi nition of “renewable biomass”

was the subject of a Senate Agriculture Com-mittee’s Energy Subcommittee hearing Aug. 18 in Rapid City, S.D. As ranking member of the subcommittee, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., held an open forum to discuss the defi nition of the term and how it applies to potential feedstock in the nearby Black Hills National Forest.

“Modifying the defi nition of ‘renewable biomass’ to include cellulosic ethanol manufactured from forest byproducts would provide a critical tool to better manage private lands and national forests, while also producing additional homegrown and sustainable sources of energy,” Thune said.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Tim Johnson, D-S.D., attended the hearing, as well as representa-tives from the Black Hills National Forest

and the Black Hills Forest Resource As-sociation, a private forest landowner, and KL Process Design Group LLC President Randy Kramer.

Thune told hearing attendees that the fi nal defi nition of “renewable bio-mass” as written in the 2008 farm bill failed to include material re-moved or harvested from federal lands, including national forests, because the U.S. House of Rep-resentatives changed the wording “behind closed doors” in the fi nal days of debate before the bill’s passage. Thune’s Senior Advisor

Jon Lauck said the defi nition was changed due to environmental concerns on behalf of some representatives.

Testimony given at the hearing proved that any environmental concerns are bogus, according to Lauck. “[Witnesses] said it’s actually worse for the forests to leave the waste there,” he said, adding that the current

removal method involves burning unusable piles of woody biomass, which emits carbon dioxide into the air.

Witnesses at the hearing testifi ed that approximately 200,000 tons of wood waste are available annually in the Black Hills Na-tional Forest. Thune noted that one ton of woody biomass could produce up to 105 gal-lons of renewable fuel. He has introduced a bill that would amend the “renewable bio-mass” defi nition to include woody biomass from national forests. According to Lauck, the bill has been referred to the Senate En-ergy and Natural Resources Committee for review. The senator’s defi nition has also been included in the recently formed Gang of 10’s energy bill, called the New Energy Reform Act. At press time, the senator was optimistic that the bill would begin making its way through the legislative process when Congress reconvened in the fall.

-Kris Bevill

Thune

Woody biomass will be used to generate electricity at a Cascades wood gasifi cation facility in France and 25 small-scale power plants in Italy owned by Advanced Renewable Energy.

Page 23: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 23

industry NEWS

Landfi ll gas powers U.S. ethanol plants, residential areasThe power of landfi ll gas is being dem-

onstrated in three U.S. locations. Ethanol plants in Nebraska and Missouri are us-ing landfi ll gas to replace natural gas, while a North Carolina project plans to generate electricity.

Mid-Missouri Energy Inc., a 40 MMgy ethanol plant in Malta Bend, Mo., plans to displace more than 90 percent of its natu-ral gas usage with landfi ll gas supplied by Johnson County Landfi ll in Shawnee Mis-sion, Kan. The deal signed in July requires the landfi ll to provide the ethanol plant with up to 3,300 million British thermal units per day of pipeline-quality biogas. The gas will be transported from the landfi ll through the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline to the ethanol plant 150 miles away. U.S. Energy Services Inc. developed the economic use impact analysis, negotiated the offtake agreement that was concluded in August and will pro-vide thermal value management.

Mid-Missouri Energy will be able to capitalize on a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that allows any ethanol plant that replaces 90 percent of its direct fossil fuel use with a waste-derived fuel source to be eligible to receive an extra 1.5 renewable identifi ca-tion numbers (RINs) per gallon of ethanol produced. Mid-Missouri Energy can then sell these additional RINs.

Siouxland Ethanol LLC, a 50 MMgy ethanol plant in Jackson, Neb., has used land-fi ll gas piped in from the L.P. Gill landfi ll a mile away since December, and U.S. Energy Services was assisting the landfi ll in selling six months worth of carbon credits at press time. “Without the sale of methane and car-bon credits, a collection system was simply too expensive for a medium-scale operation such as ours,” said Leonard Gill, owner and operator of the landfi ll. U.S. Energy Services is monitoring the plant’s landfi ll gas usage and dispatching just enough of the higher-

priced pipeline gas volumes required to meet pipeline balancing rules and avoid penalties. The energy company also coordinated the qualifi cation of the project as a “carbon off-set provider.”

In North Carolina, Duke Energy Caroli-nas announced in August that it had reached an agreement with Methane Power Inc. to purchase two megawatts of electricity gener-ated from the methane released at the landfi ll in Durham, N.C., which closed in the mid-1990s. Currently, landfi ll gas at the Durham site is being burned off. Under the agree-ment, Methane Power will install internal combustion engines and generators to burn the gas, produce power and deliver it to the Duke Energy Carolinas system. The project is slated to begin producing power by May 1 and will generate enough electricity to serve approximately 1,600 residential customers.

-Susanne Retka Schill

Page 24: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

industry NEWSIdle Hawaiian coal plant to be converted to biomass

Hū Honua Bioenergy LLC will be converting an idle coal plant in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, into the Hū Honua Bioenergy Fa-cility, which will produce 24 megawatts of electricity from locally grown biomass. It will be enough to power approximately 18,000 homes, or approximately 7 percent to 10 percent of the main island’s energy demand.

The facility will burn sustainable, local-ly grown crops and waste biomass, the com-pany said. Hū Honua Bioenergy expects the plant to stimulate the local forestry and agri-cultural industries, and also prevent tens of thousands of tons of biomass waste from being deposited into Hawaii County’s land-fi lls each year. The conversion is expected to be completed by 2010.

Hū Honua Bioenergy is co-owned by Ethanol Research Hawaii LLC in Oahu,

and MMA Renewable Ventures LLC in San Francisco, a subsidiary of Municipal Mort-gage & Equity LLC in Baltimore.

According to MMA Renewable Ven-tures, the state of Hawaii relies on import-ed fossil fuels for 90 percent of its energy

needs. Therefore, local support for the proj-ect has been overwhelming with more than 95 percent of the area’s residents having signed a petition in support of the facility.

“Like its name, which means ‘to come out of the earth,’ Hū Honua turns to the land to effectively and sustainably meet Ha-waii’s power needs,” said Dan KenKnight, director of Hū Honua Bioenergy. “Proj-ects like the Hū Honua Bioenergy Facility play an important role in shifting Hawaii’s energy mix away from imported petroleum toward renewable sources.”

The Hū Honua Bioenergy Facility is the fi rst bioenergy project in MMA Renew-able Ventures’ portfolio of solar power, wind power, bioenergy and energy effi cien-cy projects.

-Ryan C. Christiansen

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Hū Honua Bioenergy LLC will be converting this idle coal plant in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, into the Hū Honua Bioenergy Facility.

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Page 25: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

industry NEWS

Metabolix grows plastic (producing) plantsBacteria have been genetically engineered

to produce bioplastics for many years, but someday production may be as easy as watch-ing the grass grow. Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix Inc. has created a variety of switch-grass that produces signifi cant amounts of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) bioplastic in leaf tissues.

The company incorporated multiple genes into the switchgrass genome, resulting in a functional multi-gene pathway in switch-grass. This is signifi cant, the company said, because instead of adding one or two new genes to create a new compound, Metabolix inserted all of the genes necessary to create an entirely new metabolic pathway into the plant. To accomplish that feat, not only does each of the genes have to work properly, but they all have to work together to change sunlight and nutrients into bioplastic.

Metabolix put its new switchgrass va-rieties to the test in greenhouse trials, which demonstrated that the plants could create sig-

nifi cant amounts of PHB bioplastic in their leaves and stems. In fact, the plants produced as much as 3.7 percent of their weight in PHB. The company said it will have to get the plant to produce 5 percent or more to make com-mercial production viable. “Metabolix has been developing technology to produce PHB polymers in switchgrass for more than seven years,” said Oliver Peoples, chief scientifi c of-fi cer for Metabolix. “This result validates the prospect for economic production of PHB polymers in switchgrass and demonstrates for the fi rst time an important tool for enhancing switchgrass for value-added performance as a bioenergy crop.”

Metabolix President and Chief Execu-tive Offi cer Richard Eno said this technology could advance the development of cellulosic biofuels. Adding new products that can be made from cellulosic crops such as switch-grass could allow cellulosic biofuels producers to diversify their income streams, which could also make switchgrass a more lucrative crop

for producers to grow. Metabolix partnered with Archer Dan-

iels Midland Co. in 2007 to create a joint ven-ture called Telles that aims to produce PHB through fermentation marketed under the brand name Mirel. A facility in Clinton, Iowa, will produce 110 million pounds of Mirel PHB per year and is expected to be opera-tional in the second quarter of 2009. Accord-ing to the companies, Mirel bioplastics differ from other bioplastics in that they have excel-lent strength and toughness, and can resist heat and hot liquids. Mirel plastic resins can be used in standard plastic applications from lipstick tubes to disposable coffee containers and lids to agricultural mulch.

A detailed scientifi c paper on this tech-nology, titled “Production of Polyhydroxybu-tyrate in Switchgrass, a Value-Added Coprod-uct in an Important Lignocellulosic Biomass Crop,” was recently published in Plant Biotech-nology Journal.

-Jerry W. Kram

Page 26: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

26 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

industry NEWSCompany to produce chemicals from sugarcane-based ethanol

During a Renewable Energy Stocks Green Investor podcast on Aug. 18, Andy Badalato, chief executive offi cer of Florida-based Industrial Biotechnology Corp., de-tailed his company’s plan to manufacture biobased polymers and plastics from ethylene derived from hydrous sugarcane-based etha-nol. The project is being instigated through one of Industrial Biotechnology’s two oper-ating subsidies: Renewable Chemicals Corp.

According to Badalato, the company plans to use preexisting chemical infrastruc-ture to replace petroleum-based ethylene with hydrous-ethanol-based ethylene. To that end, Renewable Chemicals has formed a joint venture with Brazilian-based sugar and etha-nol producer Cosan S/A to solidify a feed-stock supply for the project. Badalato said his company is looking to use sugarcane-based ethanol because sugarcane is most affordable, but the company is open to using other etha-nol feedstocks such as corn and biomass if it makes fi nancial sense.

Renewable Chemicals is currently in the process of completing feasibility studies and identifying a site for a facility. The company is targeting U.S. locations but hasn’t ruled out Brazilian locations. “We believe we can pro-cure and fi nalize [the site location] within the next six months,” Badalato said.

The company has been working on this project for approximately 18 months. Ac-cording to Badalato, the biggest challenge right now is making sure the project can pro-

duce competitively priced materials. On Aug 26, Industrial Biotechnology

announced a partnership with The Plastics Exchange, a plastics trading organization that provides research and news coverage on the resin marketplace. “What the plastics exchange provides is the ability to look at his-torical data and future predicted data utilizing a combination of both physical and futures market hedging to mitigate risk,” Badalato said.

Industrial Biotechnology’s second sub-sidiary Renewable Fuels of America Inc. is working to import sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil. Because the Caribbean Basin Ini-tiative provides an exemption to the 54-cent-per-gallon U.S. tariff currently imposed on Brazilian ethanol imports, the company is currently seeking a Caribbean Basin country with dehydration capabilities.

-Erin Voegele

Industrial Biotechnology Corp. plans to manufacture biobased polymers and plastics from sugarcane-based ethanol.

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Page 27: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 27

industry NEWS

Verenium acquires oil partner, expands worldwide availabilityCambridge, Mass.-based Verenium

Corp., a cellulosic ethanol producer and en-zyme developer, has conducted a recent se-ries of deals that has brought the company much publicity and funding.

In August, petroleum giant BP Corp. agreed to invest $90 million in Verenium over the next 18 months in exchange for rights to current and future technology held within the partnership, production facilities and ag-ronomics expertise. Upon closing the deal, BP handed over an initial $24.5 million with three additional installments of $20.5 million to follow over the next year. Verenium will also be receiving monthly payments from BP at a rate of $2.5 million per month in order to fund the company’s ongoing initiatives.

A BP executive said Verenium’s demon-stration-scale cellulosic ethanol production plant in Jennings, La., which is projected be in the process optimization phase by year’s end, was a major factor in BP’s decision to

partner with the company. “Not all biofuels are created equal,” said Sue Ellerbusch, presi-dent of BP Biofuels North America. “This deal puts us at the front of the cellulosic bio-fuels game.” Ellerbusch added that BP sees

miscanthus, sugarcane bagasse and energy cane as ideal feedstocks for sustainable bio-fuel production. Verenium is experimenting will all three of those feedstocks at its Jen-nings facility.

Prior to the BP announcement, Vereni-um had expanded its global reach by collabo-rating with Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. to provide its proprietary cellulosic technology for a 790,000-gallon-per-year ethanol plant currently operating in Thailand. Marubeni had previously licensed Verenium’s technol-ogy for another small production facility in Osaka, Japan.

In New Zealand, Verenium and its re-search partner Scion received a three-year, $5.4 million grant from the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Tech-nology, which will be used for the continued development of a research collaboration.

-Kris Bevill

Verenium Corp.’s demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Jennings, La., was the driving force behind petroleum giant BP Corp.’s decision to invest $90 million into the company.

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Page 28: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

industry NEWSUniversity of Georgia studies biomass

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In July, the U.S. DOE and USDA award-ed 10 grants totaling more than $10 million to universities and research institutes to ac-celerate the fundamental development of cel-lulosic biofuels. Two of those grants, totaling nearly $2.5 million, will go to research proj-ects at the University of Georgia.

Steven Knapp, Jeff Dean and Joe Nairn of the University of Georgia, Mark Davis of the U.S. DOE, and Laura Marek of the USDA received $1.2 million to study the ge-nomics of sunfl owers. In addition, Knapp is working with Davis at the DOE National Re-newable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., to study the biofuel properties of sunfl owers. “Certain wild species of sunfl ower produce woody stems and high biomass yields, often reaching heights of 18 to 21 feet,” Knapp said.

Jeffrey Bennetzen, the Norman and Do-ris Giles/Georgia Research Alliance profes-

sor of molecular genetics at Franklin College, received the second grant for nearly $1.3 mil-lion. It will fund a cooperative project with Katrien Devos, a University of Georgia Col-lege of Agriculture and Environmental Sci-ences professor of crop and soil science, and plant biology. The project will create genetic and genomic tools to study foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass. “Ethanol from switchgrass is a very different story from ethanol from maize grain,” Bennetzen said. “Ethanol from maize grain requires large inputs and produces no net carbon capture to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Switchgrass captures carbon dioxide very effectively and won’t lead to increased food costs because it doesn’t take acreage away from food production.”

Researchers need to fi nd more effi cient ways to convert lignocellulose—the material that makes up wood, leaves and stems—into

ethanol. Learning more about foxtail millet, which is easier to study than switchgrass, will help, Bennetzen said. “Once the foxtail mil-let genome is sequenced, we will be able to quickly fi nd the genes involved in making lignocellulose in foxtail millet, and this will make them easy to fi nd in switchgrass, as well,” he said.

The foxtail millet, or Setaria italica, ge-nome will be sequenced this year by the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute. This sequence will enhance further study and understanding of the genetic basis of biomass production, according to the researchers.

For a complete list of grant recipients and more information on the DOE-USDA biomass genomics research program, visit http://genomicsgtl.energy.gov/research/DOEUSDA/index.shtml.

-Jerry W. Kram

Page 29: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

AgBioworks, an initiative of the Mem-phis Bioworks Foundation, has recruited a small group of farmers to participate in its new 25Farmer Network. The 25 chosen farmers will help to evaluate new opportuni-ties in novel oilseed crops and new bioenergy crops by growing new crops, participating in value-added processing, and partnering with companies producing biofuels and biobased products.

“We realized very early that to launch any of these new projects, bringing in the farmers very early is the best way,” explained Pete Nelson, director of AgBioworks. The organization held a series of public meet-ings this summer to explain the program and identify the “fi rst mover farmers,” he said. A total of 34 farmers applied, repre-senting 60,000 acres of land. Among the “fi rst movers” are farmers who have been involved in various value-added ventures in the past. “Our farmers are eager to see what will work with the land and equipment they have,” Nelson said.

In the fi rst year, the farmers will receive $500 per acre for up to fi ve acres per farm to experiment with new crops. Nelson said they will be exploring two categories of alterna-tive crops. The fi rst category includes crops that are new to the region such as canola, sunfl owers or switchgrass. “Typically, those crops already have companies backing them, and the barriers are transportation issues,” Nelson said. Overcoming those barriers

requires working out economical transpor-tation to oilseed crushers, for example, or building new crushing facilities. Crops new to the region with viable markets are likely to grow from a few hundred acres in pro-duction to thousands of acres within a few short years, he added. The second category includes crops new to agriculture such as miscanthus, lesquerella and camelina, among several others.

Along with the payment for acres dedi-cated to fi eld trials, the farmers will be asked to attend one national conference with Ag-Bioworks representatives and three, one-day workshops during the winter. AgBioworks, in turn, will support the network with busi-ness development and leadership training, facilitate the development of new farmer-based businesses, and introduce network members to companies seeking agricultural products that can be grown in West Tennes-see.

-Susanne Retka Schill

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 29

industry NEWS

Tennessee group launches 25Farmer Network

Hillary Spain of AgBioworks, left, explains the 25Farmer Network to a Benton County farmer at the Milan Field Day held in Milan, Tenn., this summer.

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Page 30: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

industry NEWS

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Maryland institute to contribute to biomass researchStemming from BP Corp.’s 10-year, $500 million research part-

nership with the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 aimed at developing new sources of energy and reducing the impact of energy consumption on the environment, the school has awarded a $575,000, three-year subcontract to the University of Maryland Biosciences Institute.

The contract, implemented in August, will fund the develop-ment of effi cient ways to convert lignocellulose to ethanol. Experi-ments at UMBI will utilize wood residues such as municipal paper waste, energy crops such as woody grasses and agricultural wastes such as corn stover.

In 2007, UC Berkeley joined forces with BP, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-paign to form the Energy Biosciences Institute, housed in dedicated facilities on each campus. “Through highly collaborative, intensely interactive research, we will strive to make the scientifi c and techni-cal breakthroughs that will lead to environmentally sustainable, eco-nomically viable transportation fuels to replace fossil-based fuel,” said Rob Kolb, communications manager for EBI.

Kolb said the initial thrust of EBI research is the development of commercially viable, highly productive and environmentally be-nign transportation fuels—including cellulosic biofuels—from bio-mass. “This involves identifying the most suitable species of plants for use as energy crops; improving methods of breeding, propa-gation, planting, harvesting and storage; and developing processing methodologies that ensure a sustainable fuel product,” he said.

To accomplish this, Kolb said research is divided into several ar-eas of inquiry such as feedstock development; biomass depolymer-ization (breaking down the plant cell walls into fermentable sugars); biofuels production; and the social, environmental and economic dimensions of biofuel development.

From an initial list of more than 250 pre-proposals from re-searchers at the three institutions, EBI management narrowed the fi eld to 49 high-priority research efforts, which received institute funding in 2008, the project’s fi rst year. Kolb said research is taking place in both California and Illinois, with most of the agricultural test fi elds in the Midwest.

-Anna Austin

Page 31: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 31

industry NEWS

Anaerobic digestion projects move forwardSeveral large- and small-scale anaero-

bic digestion projects are in the planning stages. Here’s a brief rundown of what Biomass Magazine has come across recently:

Tiru, a subsidiary of Electricité of France, plans to begin construction of a large-scale anaerobic digestion plant in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, in March, ac-cording to Belgium-based Organic Waste Systems NV, the company that will supply the technology for the plant. The facility will process 90,000 tons of mixed house-hold waste and 15,000 tons of green waste yearly, producing 15 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. The plant will use OWS’ Dranco thermophilic anaerobic fermen-tation, and its Sordisep sorting, digestion and separation technologies.

Environmental Power Corp. in Tarry-town, N.Y., along with its subsidiary Micr-ogy Inc., has received $26.1 million from the California Debt Limit Allocation Com-mittee to help fi nance its Bar 20 renewable natural gas project in Fresno, Calif., ac-cording to the company. The project will consist of large-scale anaerobic digesters that will process manure from two adja-cent dairies, and other food and agricultur-al waste materials, to produce 601 billion British thermal units of renewable natural gas per year to be conditioned and sold to Pacifi c Gas & Electric Co.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commis-sion has approved Idaho Power Co.’s ap-plication to purchase electricity from the Big Sky West Dairy Digester Generation Facility, which is being built at Big Sky Dairy near Gooding, Idaho, according to the commission. The facility will be owned and operated by a partnership between Dean Foods Co. and AgPower Partners LLC, and will supply 1.5 megawatts of electricity to the power company. Approxi-mately 4,700 dairy cows at the farm will supply manure for the digester, which is scheduled to begin operations Feb. 14.

Bach Digester LLC in Dorchester, Wis., will receive $800,000 in loans and grants from the USDA Rural Develop-ment’s Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Effi ciency Improvements Program

to build a 300 kilowatt-hour anaerobic di-gester. The facility would convert manure from 1,200 dairy cows into electricity to be sold to Dairyland Power Co-op in LaCrosse, Wis., according to the USDA. Bach Digester was awarded an $180,000 grant through the USDA program for this same project in 2004.

The city of Gaylord, Minn., has re-ceived a $7,550 grant from the West Cen-tral Region Clean Energy Resource Team to study the feasibility of building an anaer-obic digester to convert local and regional organic waste into methane biogas. Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., an engineering fi rm based in St. Paul, Minn., has been contracted to determine the availability of feedstock, as well as regional interest for the digester and biogas, according to Mark Broses, an engineer for the fi rm.

The South San Joaquin Irrigation District, which provides irrigation water for the agricultural areas surrounding the cities of Escalon, Ripon and Manteca, Calif., has begun a feasibility study to de-termine whether the district should build an anaerobic digester. The facility would assist area dairy farmers, and produce and sell electricity, according to district Gen-eral Manager Jeff Shields.

The Lake Champlain Restoration Association in Bridport, Vt., received $10,000 from Central Vermont Public Service to study the feasibility of harvest-ing and transporting the nuisance aquatic weed Eurasian watermilfoil from Lake Champlain, and putting it into an anaero-bic digester, according to Chip Morgan, president of the association.

-Ryan C. Christiansen

Page 32: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

32 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

Multitude of MSW projects underwaymillion in industrial development revenue bonds to complete the project, which is anticipated to create 40 new jobs. A target completion date is slated for 2010. The facility will incorporate technologies from Green Star Products, Pure Energy Corp., MKW Biogas and Biotech Research to produce oil, cattle feed, electricity, biodie-sel, cellulosic ethanol and steam. BioGold Fuels Corp. recently completed agree-ments with Harvey County, Kan., to con-vert the county’s waste into engineered fuel cubes, synthetic diesel fuel and organ-ic chemicals, according to BioGold Fuels Chief Executive Offi cer Steve Racoosin. The company plans to build a facility next to the county landfi ll that would process 33,500 tons of MSW yearly. The waste will be hauled to the plant using county equipment and vehicles for one dollar per year. The amount of waste added to the Harvey County landfi ll is estimated to be reduced by 85 percent to 90 percent.

In late July, W2 Energy Inc. entered into an agreement with Combustibles Alternativos Chile, also known as Co-bal Chile, to construct a waste-to-energy plant that will convert 80 tons of MSW into electricity and synthetic diesel using W2 Energy’s plasma and gas-to-liquid technologies. David Freund, W2 Energy director of marketing, said the best feed-stock to use—considering today’s eco-nomic conditions and shortages of com-modities worldwide—is something that nobody wants: waste. “I used to live in the Caribbean, and there is a landfi ll there that was scheduled to close 12 years ago, but it hasn’t,” he said. “There may be federal mandates, but there is just nowhere else to put the waste.”

-Anna Austin

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A large number of companies in the renewable fuels and energy industries have recently announced plans for new facili-ties that will convert municipal solid waste (MSW) into ethanol, electricity, synthetic diesel fuel, and organic chemicals and products.

On Aug. 20, Indianapolis-based Agresti Biofuels announced it would be-gin negotiations with offi cials in Pike County, Ky., for a 20 MMgy commercial-scale MSW-to-ethanol facility. Zig Resiak, program director of Agresti Biofuels, said that after fi ve months of signifi cant due diligence, including the commissioning of a technical evaluation of Agresti’s process by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pike County reached the decision to move

forward with this project. “We are fi rmly committed to building a state-of-the-art facility for their community and making Pike County a better place to live,” Resiak said. Wayne Rutherford, an advocate of the project, expects the Central Appala-chian Ethanol Plant to position the county as a leader in waste management technol-ogy, as well as enhance the local economy. “It’s a win-win situation for every party involved,” he said.

In early August, Green Star Products Inc.’s associated consortium of companies and EcoAlgae USA LLC announced a partnership to construct a combined algae-to-biodiesel and next-generation waste-to-energy complex in Saline County, Mo. County commissioners approved $141

industry NEWS

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34 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

environment

Page 35: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

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10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 35

environment

In the Pacifi c Northwest, a cooperative effort among environmentalists, dairy farmers and local Indian tribes to produce renewable energy is proving that we can all just get along.

By Ryan C. ChristiansenPhotos by Matt Hagen

Building

PowerfulRelationships―It’s the Talk of Tualco Valley

Crews build the Qualco Energy Corp. anaerobic digester on the 280-acre site of the former Washington State Reformatory Dairy Farm, which for 60 years was a prison farm. The farm closed in 2002.

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environment

he windward side of the Cascade Mountains in the state of Washington is awash with the names of the indigenous people. The Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Sk-agit, Sauk, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish rivers each make their way down the mountainsides against the salmon run into the Puget Sound; and each year, the native fi sh fi ght against the current to return to

their ancestral homes to spawn, and then collapse in death.As long as anyone can remember, these indigenous peoples—

now organized as the Tulalip Tribes—have fi shed for the Chinook, a Pacifi c Ocean salmon dubbed by modern tongues as King, Tyee, Columbia River, Black, Chub, Hook Bill, Winter, Spring, Quinnat, and Blackmouth salmon. The Tulalip culture is intertwined with the waters that they have lived upon: the marine waters, tidelands, wet-lands, forests, and freshwater creeks and lakes that make up their homeland—now reserved as 22,000 acres between the Puget Sound and the Snohomish River west of Marysville, Wash.

A landmark 1974 decision by U.S. District Judge George Boldt said the tribes’ 1854-1855 treaties with the federal government give them a 50 percent stake in the salmon harvest. However, the Chi-nook have been declining. In recent years, the number of tribal com-mercial fi shing permits has been reduced by more than 75 percent. Urban sprawl from Seattle has been deemed the culprit. In 2001, the tribes sued the state for mismanagement, citing that improperly built and maintained culverts block salmon from returning upstream to spawn. Environmentalists, too, pursued lawsuits to stop the harvest-ing of trees that provide shade to cool salmon streams.

Tualco ValleyThe North, Middle, and South Forks of the Snoqualmie River

drain the western side of the Cascades near North Bend, Wash. The forks join near the city of Snoqualmie just above Snoqualmie Falls to form the main waterway. The Snoqualmie joins the Skykomish

River to form the Snohomish River near Monroe, Wash., in Sno-homish County. Between the two tributaries is an area of relatively level farmland known as the Tualco Valley and is the center of the county’s rich agricultural heritage. For settlers, dairy farming has played an important role in the local economy.

However, some dairies in the county have fallen victim to ur-ban sprawl. Because of waste disposal limitations, the farmers are already at a competitive disadvantage with dairies elsewhere. Unable to increase their herds, many farmers sell out to developers.

T

Dairy farming has traditionally played an important role in the local economy of Snohomish County, Wash.

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environment

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Snohomish County has stepped in. Its Purchase of Develop-ment Rights program provides farmers with cash in exchange for development rights to their land, preserving the land for agriculture. The 42-acre Werkhoven Dairy near Monroe signed on. “It gives hope that there will be ground still left to farm,” says Andy Werk-hoven, who operates the dairy with his brother, Jim.

Dairy Waste and Salmon HabitatIn 1991, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Fisheries Service received a petition to list Pacifi c Northwest salmon under the Endangered Species Act. Since then, the organization has been working to determine which salmon populations might be en-dangered. A 1995 Washington State Department of Ecology report said the most common water quality problems in salmon streams were caused by an increase in fecal coliform levels and a decrease in dissolved oxygen levels, attributable to dairy wastes. Some environ-mentalists cried foul—but not all.

“You had a number of people jump on farmers, saying we want to turn the clock back 100 years,” says John Sayre, executive director of Northwest Chinook Recovery, a nonprofi t organization founded in 1997 to protect salmon habitat in the Puget Sound region. “That’s not realistic.” Sayre says he has worked with farmers on a number of salmon-friendly projects, including the Haskell Slough project where Dale Reiner, a local beef cattle farmer, sought help after being fl ooded in 1990 and again in 1995. Reiner, who lives and works on land that his great-grandfather homesteaded in 1873 in the Tualco Valley on a bend in the Skykomish River, worked with Sayre and also federal, state and tribal agencies to build a natural barrier that prevents fl ooding but also reconnects three miles of slough and 11 ponds with the river’s main channel, providing slow-water rearing habitat for salmon.

Werkhoven says it was through Reiner, his neighbor, that he met Sayre and also leaders of the Tulalip Tribes. “Dale was the one

who said, ‘Hey, you got to meet these guys. They would rather work with us than against us,’” he says.

“We started meeting with the Indian tribes and had clandestine meetings in people’s houses on the reservation or elsewhere,” Sayre says. “You’d have two or three farmers and two or three members of the tribal council and out of that developed a friendship, and then eventually partnership and trust.”

“We spent a lot of time with each other, getting to know each other, and talking,” Werkhoven says. “It’s a whole lot different to argue with somebody if it’s the same person that you have dinner with. You work with them.”

Werkhoven says it was at one of those meetings that someone from the tribes suggested that an anaerobic digester might be built to produce electricity using manure from dairy operations.

“They had a simple theory: cows are better than condos,” Werk-hoven says. “Not only do you have fewer landowners to deal with, but you have landowners who have a vested interest in protecting [the environment]. We have more in common, oftentimes, with the tribes than we have apart; and we have a tremendous amount in common with [environmentalists] like John [Sayre]. It’s a real bless-ing to be able to work with folks like that.”

“I have been involved in salmon protection and restoration for more years than I care to admit, probably about 35,” Sayre says. “In the process, I realized that you don’t save salmon or anything in a vacuum. Farmers and the farmlands along rivers have the best potential to restore salmon habitat. Farmers are not the enemy; they are potentially the best friend that salmon could have.”

Enter the Qualco Energy Corp.In 2003, the Sno/Sky Agricultural Alliance, Northwest Chi-

nook Recovery, and the Tulalip Tribes “put a little sweat into the game,” Werkhoven says. They agreed to work together on an an-aerobic digester project. The tribes received a $256,000 grant from

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environment

the U.S. DOE to conduct an environmental assessment for the project, which was com-pleted in September 2005. The partners then formed Qualco Energy Corp., a nonprofi t organization where the groups are equal partners. The tribes were awarded a $1.5 million loan in 2006 from the state’s Energy Freedom Loan fund for the project.

Werkhoven says the tribes have led the effort. “They have provided excellent proj-ect management,” he says. “They have very good people and they hire the best. It’s a real privilege to be working with them.”

Crews began building the anaerobic di-gester in July on the 280-acre site of the for-mer Washington State Reformatory Dairy Farm, which for 60 years was a prison farm. The farm closed in 2002.

The anaerobic digester will have enough capacity to digest feedstock from 2,200 cows. The Werkhoven Dairy with its 1,000 milking cows and two neighboring dairies will col-lect manure from approximately 1,500 cows to supply feedstock for the digester, which will take six weeks to fi ll and rise to the re-quired temperature for digestion.

Each of the farms involved currently fl ush manure into lagoons or scrape manure from stalls to manage the solids on-site. The manure is later applied to fi elds. The waste collection systems at the farms are being adapted to pump fresh manure from the farms to the digester where methane

gas will be produced. The methane will be burned by combustion engines to generate electricity. The remaining liquids and solids will then be separated. The digested liquid effl uent will be pumped back to the farms to be applied to fi elds as fertilizer. The digested solids will be dried and marketed as com-post or animal bedding. The digester was expected to be ready to accept feedstock by the end of October.

If all goes as planned, generators at the Qualco facility will begin producing electric-ity in January to be sold to the Snohomish County Public Utility District. The genera-

tors will produce 450 kilowatts of power, enough to power approximately 300 homes, says Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman for the PUD. He says the PUD and Qualco con-tinue to negotiate a power purchase agree-ment.

The PUD became involved in 2004 soon after the project was initially proposed, Neroutsos says. “We look at the project as an opportunity to educate the public about how this power source works,” he says, “and to conduct educational tours and increase overall understanding of biogas genera-tion.”

At the Werkhoven Dairy, manure is fl ushed into a lagoon and later applied to fi elds. The waste collection system at the farm is being adapted to pump fresh manure from the farm to the Qualco Energy Corp. anaerobic digester, where methane gas will be produced.

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environment

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Neroutsos says the biogas digester will help the PUD to meet a portion of the util-ity’s renewable portfolio standards require-ments.

Future PlansUsing the digester might eventually al-

low Werkhoven and the other farmers to be more competitive. “This project will allow participating dairies to grow their herds to the size that best fi ts their business plan, management style and future goals,” Reiner says, “without being restricted by the num-ber of cows allowed on a per-acre basis.”

“We hope to be able to continue to expand our dairy,” Werkhoven says. “We would love to have the opportunity to build additional digester capacity.”

Sayre says Qualco could build anaero-bic digesters at the site to serve more than just dairy farmers. “There are a whole bunch of other things that are now going into land-fi lls that can go in there to produce meth-ane,” he says. “Since we are close to Seattle, I think there is going to be a lot of other sources of feedstock that are going to come forward.” Sayre says examples include whey from cheese makers, waste eggs from chick-en farms and other food waste. “Look at all of the food that gets wasted in this country on an annual basis,” he says.

Revenue from the Qualco digesters might also help to fund more salmon habitat

protection projects, Sayre says, and will also serve as a demonstration site. “This project has turned into far more than an anaerobic digester,” he says. “This is a site that we want to use to demonstrate some of the answers that we have. It really is a demonstration site for, hopefully, a new way of thinking, and a new approach. It’s not just talking or producing another damned report. It’s a de-monstrable solution.”

Werkhoven says the group has been working to bring together other Indian tribes

and groups of dairy farmers. He says build-ing a working relationship is a lot like a long courtship that ends in marriage. “It’s kind of like the way old-fashioned people used to get married,” he says. “It’s a good thing, you know? It’s a very good thing.” BIO

Ryan C. Christiansen is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (701) 373-8042.

Pictured are, left to right, Dale Reiner, Jim Werkhoven, and Andy Werkhoven of Qualco Energy Corp., a nonprofi t organization that is an equal partnership between the Sno/Sky Agricultural Alliance, Northwest Chinook Recovery, and the Tulalip Tribes.

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cellulose

Building Better

Energy Crops

Seeds will play a vital role in the advancement of the crops needed to produce second-generation biofuels. Biomass Magazine talks to Ceres Inc., a seed plant genomics fi rm, about the switchgrass seed it is offering for the 2009 planting season.

By Kris Bevill

Page 42: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

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eferring to his slender 6-feet-6-inch frame, Ceres Inc. President and Chief Execu-tive Offi cer Richard Hamil-ton says that he personifi es two of the traits his research team would like to perfect in

switchgrass and other energy crops. The taller and skinnier each plant is, the more yield farmers will be able to coax out of ev-ery acre. So short plants beware—if Ham-ilton and his staff have their way those plants’ days are numbered.

That’s the gist of genetic engineering. Got fl oppy plants? Make them more rigid. Need them taller, shorter, greener, disease or drought-resistant? No problem. Well, it’s not quite that easy. However, when listening to Hamilton talk about the work of the 120 employees at Ceres’ laboratory in Thousand Oaks, Calif., it’s all in a day’s work. Researchers in the Los Angeles sub-urb spend their time examining specimens and altering genes with the goal of making signifi cant changes to the way crops grow and respond to environmental factors so that farmers can grow more productive crops—and in turn provide the world with more effi cient, cost-effective fuel.

During a tour of the laboratory, Ham-ilton explains that by applying the same technology used in the Human Genome Project, Ceres researchers have sequenced more than 70,000 plant genes since the company was founded in 1997. New tech-nology continues to speed the process of gene sequencing, allowing for ever-increas-ing numbers of genes to be sequenced on a daily basis. Gary Koppenjan, Ceres corporate communications manager, says there are machines available today that can sequence 1 million base pairs per day, com-pared with the 1,000 base pairs per week that Hamilton was able to sequence as a graduate student two decades ago. That means ethanol producers have a better chance of one day having a constant sup-ply of the perfect energy crop. Hamilton says that the perfect crop has optimized ar-chitecture (the tall and skinny part), and is a deep-rooted perennial that is easily propa-gated. He’s confi dent Ceres is close to pro-ducing seed for the perfect energy crop.

Ceres’ modifi ed Human Genome Project process begins when researchers sequence the plant DNA. After discover-ing the plant’s genes and their functions, scientists can then determine the gene’s

Rcellulose

Hamilton is pictured next to stand of mature switchgrass at the company’s greenhouse in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

PH

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: KR

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BB

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NAT

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AL.

continued on page 44

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cellulose

The advancement of the cellulosic ethanol industry will require the work of many organizations and researchers, as will the development of feedstock to produce the fuel. Ceres has a long list of collaborators, including the Chinese Academy of Ag Sci-ences, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the USDA. Below are details on two of Ceres’ most notable multiyear collaborations.

ICM Inc.: As part of this collaboration, announced in early February, Ceres will provide seed to area farmers who will then sow thousands of acres of switchgrass and other energy crops over the next three years at ICM’s St. Joseph, Mo., biorefi nery. The plant will be a demonstration-scale facility designed to test the crops’ conversion effi ciency, fuel yield and economic viability.

Samuel R. Noble Foundation Inc.: First established in 2006, this long-term collaboration was designed to develop and commercialize new biomass feedstock crops. As part of the agreement, Ceres has access to switchgrass varieties developed by breeders at the Noble Foundation.

Ceres is not the only company developing cellulosic feedstocks, other U.S. compa-nies are also involved in the advancement of energy crops nationwide.

Mendel Biotechnology Inc.: Mendel is Ceres’ closest competitor. The Hayward, Calif.-based company is also working toward the production of energy crops, but is focusing its efforts on miscanthus and sorghum. Company President Neal Gutter-son says he thinks the two crops will make an excellent package to offer for farmers and refi neries in the future. “We have identifi ed our fi rst seed and clone products of miscan-thus and those are in an experimental product development phase,” he tells Biomass Magazine. Product trials are being conducted on those specimens throughout the Midwest. Gutterson sees energy crop seed production as a long-term game and proj-ects the market for those products won’t really develop for the next three to fi ve years. “Early to the middle of the next decade we see an increased demand for the product and we’re preparing our miscanthus products to be able to deliver when the market begins to grow signifi cantly,” he says. Sorghum seeds could be available next year, but Gutterson doesn’t see the demand for it.

Mendel will market its seeds under the BioEnergy Seeds brand, and plans to begin making its products available early next decade. More information about Mendel Bio-technology can be found at www.mendelbio.com.

Monsanto Co.: The giant of the genetic agriculture world, Monsanto has for years produced cotton, corn, oilseed and vegetable seeds. According to the company, Monsanto is committed to broadly licensing its technology to other companies around the world and providing farmers with seeds that are genetically superior with unique biotechnology traits. More information about Monsanto can be found at www.monsanto.com.

Collaboration and Competition

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44 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

cellulose

potential use. Improvements can then be made to the plants genetic make-up—one gene at a time. It’s a painstaking process, but “we’re scientists,” Hamilton says. “We like to control everything.” Since 1997, Ceres re-searchers have discovered genes that boost biomass yields, reduce nitrogen applications and increase tolerance to drought, cold and salt. The company owns exclusive rights

to more than 40 U.S. and foreign patents and has applications pending for hundreds more patents.

Focus on EnergyA healthy international debate has been

waged for some time now concerning the use of genetically modifi ed crops. Hamil-ton is not bothered by skeptics because he

believes the public can draw a distinction between modifi ed plants that are grown for food and those that are grown for fuel. When confronted with that skepticism, Hamilton argues that gene modifi cation is necessary. No agriculture is natural, he says. It’s a uniquely human activity that has been under development for only the past 10,000 years. Considering that land plants fi rst ap-peared 400 million years ago, Hamilton makes his point that agriculture is a recent phenomenon that should be continually im-proved.

At Ceres the focus is on energy, but that’s not to say the company has never worked with traditional row crops. In the beginning, researchers at Ceres worked with more traditional crops such as corn and soy-beans and served as a gene and trait provid-er for traditional row crop seed companies. But Ceres’ specialty has always been devel-oping technology, Koppenjan says. The fo-cus of that work has shifted toward the de-velopment of seed for energy crops. “We’ve always been more of the technology devel-opment platform company,” Koppenjan says. “Now we’re taking that same technol-ogy and applying it to crops that historically haven’t received a lot of plant breeding and technology.” Switchgrass, miscanthus and sorghum are the energy crops that Ceres’ researchers believe have the most potential and are the focus of current studies.

Ceres stores tens of thousands of seeds for experimental plants.

PH

OTO

: CE

RE

S IN

C.

continued from page 42

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cellulose

The advancements made by Ceres’ researchers will contribute greatly to the advancement of energy crops and second-generation biofuels. Hamilton’s resolution and commitment to the matter is clear when he speaks about the future of biofu-els in the United States. He compares the establishment of cellulosic biorefi neries to the fl at-screen TV market. “The fi rst few are going to be very expensive, but the key is to get the fi rst few built so we can work to drive down the cost,” he says. If compar-ing biorefi neries to televisions, then a steady supply of feedstock would be the electricity needed to turn them on.

What Comes First?The balancing act between creating a

new feedstock supply and building a new biorefi nery poses the “chicken and egg” question. Which comes fi rst? Ceres employs the philosophy that “seed in the ground” and “steel in the ground” happen simulta-neously. According to its plan, identifying the location for a cellulosic ethanol produc-tion facility and feedstock should be done in conjunction. The fi rst year of a plant’s existence will consist of the construction of the facility, while the growers are establish-ing the perennial feedstock. Year two will be the start-up. The plant will run start-up phases while the growers harvest the fi rst year of feedstock, which will amount to ap-

proximately 50 percent of the crop’s poten-tial. By year three, the operation should be up and running on both ends. The biore-fi nery will be able to reach its full capacity and growers will be able to harvest the top yields available from their crops. That’s the plan anyway.

Questions remain on both sides of the cellulosic production chain. Biorefi neries want to be reassured that ample feedstock supplies will be available. Farmers want a signed contract to supply a business with the crop before they invest their efforts and bankroll into planting and harvesting.

One possible solution to the stand-off could be the Biomass Crop Assistance Program. This new program is part of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, more commonly referred to as the Farm Bill. The program aids in the estab-lishment and production of crops that will be used to produce energy. After the pro-ducer’s potential BCAP project area has been approved, funding will be provided to the producer on an annual basis and will cover up to 75 percent of the cost of estab-lishing a perennial crop, including the cost of seeds and planting. BCAP contracts will be valid for fi ve years for perennial and an-nual crops, and 15 years for woody biomass. However payments to the grower will be re-duced once the producer begins delivering crop to a biorefi nery, or uses the crop for

anything other than energy production.Koppenjan says BCAP could certain-

ly help Ceres’ business and the sale of its seeds. At press time, the company was pre-paring to debut its Blade Energy Crops seed business. Koppenjan says Ceres expects to sell its energy crop seeds to growers who “want to get ahead of the curve” as well as to biorefi neries interested in testing the product. The company is offering fi ve seed varietals of switchgrass this fall so that crops can be planted during the 2009 grow-ing season. The EG 1101 and EG 1102 va-rietals have been bred to prosper in lowland ranges, while the Blackwell and Trailblazer varietals are intended for the southern upland range. One varietal, Sunburst, is a winter hardy switchgrass seed that was de-signed for the northern Great Plains region. In addition to providing seed, Ceres plans to establish a grower’s guide to assist its cus-tomers as they establish these new crops. It will take two years for switchgrass stands to become fully mature, but Hamilton says they do expect some commercial harvest to occur in the fall of 2009. At press time, a selling price for the seed had not been es-tablished. BIO

Kris Bevill is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 373-8044.

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technology

As would be expected, the 140,000 U.S. troops stationed overseas generate a lot of trash. To help bases dispose of that trash, scientists from Purdue University teamed up with the U.S. Army to develop a generator that runs on packaging and food waste and produces fuel and power.

By Anna Austin

The tactical garbage to energy refi nery (TGER) uses trash to produce energy and fuel for troops stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.

PHOTO: U.S. ARMY

Page 47: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 47

technology

Tactics in Iraq

Page 48: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

48 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

technology

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ne of the biggest logistical problems the U.S. Army has to contend with is gar-bage, according to James Valdes, scientifi c adviser for biotechnology for the U.S. Army Research, De-

velopment and Engineering Command (RDECOM). Typically, local contractors are hired to come on base and haul trash away, which causes a security risk and requires military personnel to follow them around to ensure base safety. In some cases, the trash is burned in large incinerators, which use a considerable amount of fuel. Fortunately, a mobile biorefi nery unit has been devel-oped that can transform the waste into fuel for stoves and generators and help the U.S. Army get rid of the garbage safely and ef-fi ciently.

The tactical garbage-to-energy refi nery (TGER, pronounced tiger) was developed jointly by RDECOM, Defense Life Sciences LLC of McLean, Va., and a team of Purdue University researchers.

Purdue scientists were intimately in-volved in the inception, design and fabrica-tion of TGER, says Jerry Warner, founder

of Defense Life Sciences. “In particular, Purdue supported the biological aspects of the system addressing the biocatalysts, bio-reactor and systems integration with other elements.” The university conducted the majority of the basic and applied science with the development of the materials and energy balance modeling, which supported the design and fabrication, he says.

Nathan Mosier, Purdue professor of agricultural and biological engineering, says the original prototype was built in late 2006. “We tested it and made a number of design improvements—some upgrades to the initial prototype—and then did some more testing in fall of 2007,” he says. Based on additional

O‘The syngas produced is similar to low-grade propane and is blended with the ethanol, then aspirated into a 60 kilowatt generator, which produces the electrical power. The power is then used directly or is put into a power micro-grid.’

Warner mans the TGER at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.

PH

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: U.S

. AR

MY

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improvements and lessons learned, the second prototype was built in March during a two-week period, and has been undergoing testing since the TGER was transported to Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, in May.

Invention AnatomyThough much of the engineering and research was performed

at Purdue, a number of other companies were involved in the devel-opment process of TGER. Bowen Engineering Co. of Indianapo-lis supplied engineering and much of the equipment assembly for TGER, and Community Power Corp. of Littleton, Colo., provided the gasifi er.

The mobile TGER, often described as the size of a small mov-ing van, can handle nearly a ton of garbage daily and effectively run a 60 kilowatt (kW) generator. Valdes hopes as improvements continue, the output can be doubled.

The TGER system is a hybrid design that uses thermal gasifi ca-tion to produce synthetic gas, or syngas, from paper, ammunition wrappers, Styrofoam and plastic garbage, and a fermentation process to produce ethanol from a mixed waste stream of food slop and juice waste. Valdes says the troops consume a lot of high sugar and carbohydrate drinks and foods.

TGER takes six hours to reach full power, Valdes says. During that time, it runs on diesel. As it is brought to full power it uses less diesel fuel, until it is down to 5 percent—from 5 gallons hourly to 1 gallon. The other 95 percent of the energy it produces comes from the waste.

At a bloggers round table in June, Valdes described the wet waste as being “washed off,” and then taken into a tank where yeast and enzymes are added. “The other waste gets ground up, then pel-letized into little fuel pellets that are about an inch long and quarter-of-an-inch thick. Those pellets then go into the down-draft gasifi er and are heated up and broken down.”

technology

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“The syngas produced is similar to low-grade propane and is blended with the ethanol, then aspirated into a 60 kilowatt gen-erator, which produces the electrical power,” Valdes says. “The power is then used directly or is put into a power micro-grid.” TGER’s design has two main advantages over unitary designs that use only gasifi cation. “The sys-tem can convert a broader range of wastes into energy—gasifi cation doesn’t do well with liquid wastes, whereas fermentation loves them—and the ethanol, which is 15 percent water, adds power and reduces en-gine knock, allowing the generator to run at full power,” Valdes says. With only syngas, the TGER runs at approximately 75 percent power, and will top out at 40 kW and over-heat. “The ethanol adds a lot of power,” he says. “It’s also got water. It cools it down. So as it worked out, this blend of the syngas with the hydrous ethanol is a really nice fuel for generators.”

To test the TGER in extreme weather conditions it was sent to Iraq, where tem-peratures can swell to well-over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The gasifi er, distillation column and tanks have sensors that collect data and show how effectively TGER is operating. This data will be used to make further im-provements to the system.

Surprisingly, the top three consumers of fuel in the U.S. Army are stoves, generators and the trucks that carry the fuel, not tanks and helicopters. “If you look at fuel, about 50 percent is used to transport more fuel,” Valdes says. “That’s a big waste right there.” Unlike tanks and helicopters, which require high-quality fuel, stoves and generators will be the primary consumers of the fuel pro-duced by TGER.

Projecting the Possibilities

Prototype deployment, which ended Aug. 10, has generated positive results so far. “Despite some mechanical problems, TGER

The system may eventually be used in hospitals, at camp sites, and during and after disastrous events such as hurricanes where there is a lot of trash and little or no power.

Valdes at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.

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has demonstrated excellent waste processing throughput and a very high level of net power effi ciency,” Warner says. With improvements, he sees broad uses of the systems by the U.S. Army in the future. “We are in the process of designing a fi xed, on-grid system for large buildings and complexes that will provide on-site conversion of waste into energy for thermal utilities, rather than electrical power,” he says.

On the other side of the spectrum, TGER may also be economical for civilian

use. “The technology is easy to scale up,” Valdes tells Biomass Magazine. “The hard part was scaling down.” He says that the system may eventually be used in hospitals, at camp sites, and during and after disastrous events such as hurricanes where there is a lot of trash and little or no power. “We’ve also had some people from the U.S. Navy very interested be-cause you could put something like this on board a ship,” Valdes says. Another option is that it may be able to charge batteries.

“Economically, we like to say that we

measure the cost of fuel in blood, not dol-lars,” Valdes says. He adds, however, that data on the cost is currently being analyzed and isn’t presently available. “These have been prototypes … prototypes break, have problems, etc., which we have had to work through,” Valdes says. “They are hand built with parts that really were not primarily meant to do what those parts are doing now.” For example, one part on the TGER is an auger that grinds up waste. It’s an agricultural auger though, which wasn’t originally designed for that purpose. “I can say that we demonstrat-ed proof of scientifi c and engineering prin-ciples underpinning TGER, and identifi ed a host of mechanical issues which we will be addressing in the next phase, along with bet-ter automation,” Valdes says.

As the U.S. Army and Purdue Univer-sity scientists continue to tweak the TGER prototypes, this trash-to-treasure technology may be a key factor in solving some of today’s landfi ll, fuel production and environmental issues.

As for relatives sending care packages to their loved ones overseas, they’re providing more than just comfort to those soldiers as every bit of that package, even the materials typically thought of as garbage, can be uti-lized for a number of purposes. BIO

Anna Austin is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 738-4968.

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The TGER team poses for a photo at Purdue University.

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innovation

Manoj Sinha’s dream of providing power to areas of his native India where limited or no electricity is available has become a reality. He and his partners started Husk Power Systems to develop a process to convert rice husks into electricity to supply impoverished rural Indian villages.

By Bryan Sims

BackGiving

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hen Manoj Sinha arrived in the United States from his native Bihar, India, village fi ve years ago he had a plan. First, he wanted to further his college education in America, as that would have been diffi cult to do from the impover-ished Indian village where he spent the major-ity of his childhood and adolescent years.

After earning an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering at one of India’s Institute for Advanced Technology schools, Sinha received a master’s degree in electric and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He then went to work at several electronics com-panies making microprocessor chips. One of those companies was Intel Corp. where he currently holds 10 patents.

While attending Umass Amherst, Sinha rekindled a friendship with Gyanesh Pandey, whom he had known since 1995, as both grew up in Bihar. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, Pandey moved to Los Angeles to pursue a job. The two kept in touch and eventually came to the conclusion that they needed to devise a way to deliver affordable electricity to impover-ished villages in India that desperately need it. “Our relatives still don’t have electricity there,” Sinha says. “We started talking about how we can give back to the community where we grew up since we clearly knew that there is a tremendous need because most of the people there are extremely poor.”

Because they understood the situation in poor Indian communities, the fi rst ideas that

came to mind involved solar and wind power. Both technologies could easily convert the husks from the 100 million tons of rice harvested each year into a producer gas. That gas could eventually be turned into clean, readily available electricity for rural villagers. In 2006, during the heat of their brainstorming, Pandey left the United States and went back to India where he spent nine months researching technologies that would best suit that country. In the meantime, Sinha stayed in the United States.

Although the solar and wind technologies sounded good at the time, the two eventually decided on a different approach. In the spring

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Ransler, left, and Sinha met at the Darden School of Business and formed Husk Power Systems with another partner, Pandey, who is not pictured.

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of 2007, Sinha and Pandey began collaborating with several gasifi ca-tion manufacturing companies and even talked to an Indian diesel gen-erator maker about tweaking their generators so that they could run on producer gas, or syngas. Sinha says they decided to refi ne the generator concept and raise money to donate rice husk generators to two or three villages near where they grew up.

In the summer of 2007, using their own money, they installed two “mini power plants” in Bihar to provide 35 to 50 kilowatts of off-grid power. The electricity was offered to villagers as a pay-for-use service. Each unit can process about 110 pounds of rice husks per hour and supply electricity to about 300 to 500 rural Indian households. The

generators would operate eight to 10 hours per day. The generators would also offset about 200 tons of carbon emissions per village, per year in India.

“The reason we started looking at rice and rice husks was because the villages within the Bihar area have an abundance of rice production, grow-ing about 500 tons per annum,” Sinha says. About 5 percent of the rice husks are burned for cooking purposes and the rest is just burned or left in the fi eld to rot, he says.

A Foundation for ExpansionIn September 2007, Sinha attended the Darden

School of Business at the University of Virginia to pursue a master’s degree in business. While there, he met Charles “Chip” Ransler. Sinha, Ransler and Pandey formed Husk Power Systems to provide power to some 350 million rural villages in eastern India’s “Rice Belt” where the villagers are “rice rich and power poor”, according to Sinha.

“The way [Pandey] and I were thinking about it initially, was just to do maybe two or three [pro-

cessor units] with the money we made in the U.S. and give back to our community [in India] and be happy with it,” Sinha says. “But, when I went to school at Darden I talked to Chip and then we fi gured out that it actually could be initiated as a business; as it can be profi table and it can be expanded.”

India has been particularly fertile ground for experimentation with renewable energy initiatives. The latest edition of Ernst & Young’s re-newable energy country attractiveness indices ranks India as the third most attractive market for renewable energy investment. “India’s rise to third overall … has been precipitated by excellent national and re-gional government support for both foreign and local investment in

In May, Ransler, left, and Sinha were awarded $50,000 in prize money after winning the prestigious Social Innovation Competition at the University of Texas.

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renewable technologies. Consequently, rapid growth is expected to continue in this market,” the report states.

The report further notes that “installed renewables capacity in India—currently stand-ing at 8GW (gigawatts)—is now expected to double every fi ve years, and is forecast to reach 20 gigawatts by 2012, twice the government’s target.”

India is the world’s sixth-largest energy consumer, using about 3 percent of the world’s total energy per year. With a population of more than 1 billion people, it is the second

most populous country in the world behind China.

So, what can we expect in the future from Husk Power Systems? Currently, there are four rice husk processing units installed in India. According to Ransler, Husk Power Systems intends to install 15 to 20 more units in villages this year and the company plans on installing 100 in 2009 and 2,500 by 2013. The lack of reliable electricity is one of the big-gest obstacles to small business growth in ru-ral India, so providing villages with rice-husk power can enable dozens of other small busi-ness ventures, Ransler explains.

Taking on ChallengesAlthough Sinha and Pandey were able

to self-fund much of their business, Husk Power Systems must amass signifi cantly more capital to expand its business. “We have got-ten requests from different regions in India to expand [our business],” Sinha says. “We’re not limited by customer demand. We are mostly limited by the funds we have. Once we get suffi cient funds, we will be able to expand very quickly.”

To showcase their business to American academia, Ransler and Sinha entered several prestigious college-level business competi-tions this year. In April, the two picked up a $10,000 check for winning Darden’s annual business plan competition, and they were se-lected as one of 10 fi nalist teams among 245 entries from 23 countries in the Global Social Venture Competition hosted by the University of California, Berkeley. In May, Husk Power Systems won second prize at the 2008 Ignite Clean Energy competition at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, where Ransler and Sinha competed for the $125,000 grand prize. Later that month, they took home $50,000 in prize money after topping the prestigious Social Innovation Competition at the University of Texas.

According to Ransler, with more re-search and feedback from the competitions, the team learned that the silica byproduct produced by burning the rice husks could be converted into a valuable ingredient for cement production. “We’ve actually spoken with a number of U.S. companies that are do-ing business in India, to be able to provide that to them,” Ransler says. “Some of those things are already shored up, but we hope to

In addition to power generation and the silica byproduct produced by burning the rice husks, the processing units could potentially be paid for by reducing carbon emissions through a trading program established by the Kyoto Protocol.

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innovation

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get the rest of the supply chain aspects down these next few months.”

In addition to power generation and the silica byproduct produced by burning the rice husks, the processing units could potentially be paid for by reducing carbon emissions through a trading program established by the Kyoto Protocol. “One of the big steps is getting certifi ed, and we’ve already started that so we’re ahead of the game there,” he says. “It probably doesn’t make much sense until we’re in more villages, but we hope to have that done by the end of next year.” With conservative electricity consumption, revenue from the three sources—electricity generation, silica and carbon credits—each rice husk generator could be paid for in about two and a half years, Ransler says.

Finding funds hasn’t been the only chal-lenge the entrepreneurs have faced. They have had to address logistical issues, such as how to get the electricity to its various des-tinations, irrigation and water purifi cation issues and competing with other local busi-ness to name a few. “It’s tough doing this in India because it’s a completely different ball-game with regard to laws, restrictions and the politics associated with it,” Ransler says. “It’s defi nitely intimidating, but we’re fi gur-ing it out.”

Previous electrifi cation projects in In-dia have generally provided villages with intermittent power—often only an hour per day. The power comes from distant coal-fi red power plants and travels through miles of wire to reach small villages, where average personal incomes are less than $20 per month. In many cases, Indian villagers would illegally tap into the main power lines for free electricity, which is often referred to as defaulting, and sometimes large sections of power lines have been cut and sold as scrap metal.

Husk Power Systems has developed a strategy to circumvent those kinds of prob-lems by requiring pre-payment for all elec-tricity sold and using double-insulated wire that is more diffi cult to tap into than stan-dard wire.

The company has also tried to be a low-cost electricity supplier. Instead of paying $10 to $15 for an electrical meter for every household, Husk Power Systems uses a $1 circuit breaker to distribute electricity to a

branch line serving four or fi ve households. The company also uses locally-based employ-ees to operate and maintain the rice husk pro-cessing units, Sinha says.

“It takes a lot of convincing to change the mindset and charge them money for the services they are getting from us,” he says. “It’s not their fault. Politicians use the electricity for things to their advantage there. The only thing is they don’t get it. Even if there is a public grid, the power would only be available for a few hours every week, let alone every day.”

As for Sinha, supplying his homeland

with affordable electricity far outweighs the profi ts the company will reap.

“This was completely humanitarian,” Sinha stresses. “[The creation of Husk Power Systems] had nothing to do with profi t at the time. But, when we started we fi gured that actually many people need the same kind of services and we cannot do that all across India with limited funds so the only way we could accomplish that is to reap a profi t.” BIO

Bryan Sims is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (701) 738-4950.

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anaerobic digestion

California researchers and technology developers are commercializing a process that treats solid organic wastes such as grass clippings, food scraps, food processing byproducts, crop residues and animal wastes, and converts the materials into biogas that can be used to generate electricity, heat and transportation fuel.

By Jessica Ebert

WasteNOT,WantNot

ach year, Americans generate more than 200 million tons of solid wastes. Although commu-nities across the country are in-tensifying efforts to recycle ele-ments of household trash, these programs generally work with the

dry and easily separated materials like plastics, metals, glass and newsprint. More often than not, the wet, soggy and sometimes rotting or-ganic portions of garbage such as food scraps and animal wastes are left to be hauled away to the landfi ll. For the past eight years, however, researchers at the University of California, Davis have been developing and fi ne-tuning a method for the anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes and liquid wastes into compost and biogas for the generation of electricity, heat and transportation fuel.

“The new technology brings many ben-efi ts to the public, including improvement of environmental quality and public health and production of renewable energy,” says Ruihong Zhang, the inventor of the new sys-tem and a professor of biological and agri-cultural engineering at UC-Davis. This is “an effective method for solving organic waste dis-

posal problems through converting the waste into clean biogas fuel, compost and other valu-able products,” she adds.

Zhang, who has worked in the areas of animal waste treatment and wastewater treat-ment digesters for nearly 20 years, started thinking about anaerobic solid waste digestion after moving to UC-Davis in 1995. “I realized there was a lot of solid waste around like rice straw, for example, that had not been looked at much from a digestion and biogas conver-sion standpoint,” Zhang explains. But at that time, “There was no effi cient digester design available that would handle solid waste,” she says. Although researchers attempted to tackle the solid waste digestion problem throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Zhang explains that their approach required an extensive pretreatment of the solids that included separation, particle size reduction and the addition of a lot of wa-ter. This turned the solid waste into a kind of wastewater pulp that could be handled with di-gesters designed for wastewater treatment.

An energy intensive pretreatment is a sig-nifi cant drawback, however, so reducing this was one of the criteria that Zhang aimed to meet with the design of her digester system.

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Loads of food processing waste from a Campbell Soup Co. manufacturing facility is delivered to the UC-Davis Biogas Energy Project.PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

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anaerobic digestion

In addition to a low energy requirement for pretreatment, Zhang set out to conceive a process that could handle large particles of solid waste and process it more quickly and in smaller digesters than are used in typical wastewater systems. This process would re-duce capital costs and the physical footprint of the system as well as destroy any patho-gens associated with the waste, which would allow the digested residues to be used as or-ganic fertilizers.

The innovation that meets these criteria has been in development for the past several years and is dubbed the anaerobic phased solids (APS) digester technology. “The APS digester technology has overcome the defi -ciencies of existing anaerobic technologies and has proven to be a much more effi cient and versatile technology for treating a vari-ety of organic wastes including both wet and dry materials,” Zhang says.

The technology consists of two stages of digestion. In the fi rst stage, a hydraulic piston pump pushes the solid waste into tanks colonized by a mixture of anaerobic

bacteria that break down the solids to or-ganic acids and hydrogen-rich biogas. The biogas stream that is extracted at this point in the process is a fi rst for solid organic waste digestion. “There are no commercial systems right now that can produce hydrogen stably via biological reactions,” she says. “This is the fi rst commercial system to provide hydrogen production as well as methane production.” The latter is generated in the second step after the organic acids from the fi rst stage tanks are separated from the residual solids and transferred to a second-stage tank. Here the organic acids are transformed into meth-ane gas by a specifi c group of anaerobic, methane-producing bacteria. After digestion, the residual solids are separated from liquid and removed for composting material while the remaining liquid is recycled and reused in the digester system.

The bacteria characteristic of both stages in the process are naturally occurring microbes that were initially isolated from existing sewage digesters, Zhang explains. The environmental and process conditions

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The demonstration plant on the campus of UC-Davis is being used to test the anaerobic phase sol-ids digestion technology for the conversion of everything from food processing and animal wastes to grass clippings and crop residues to a biogas.

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anaerobic digestion

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The Biogas Energy Project located on the campus of the University of California, Davis processes 8 tons of food processing waste each day to produce biogas via an anaerobic digestion process.

within the digestion tanks have been tested, tweaked and fi ne-tuned to achieve optimum growth of the bacteria, which favors the fast and effi cient conversion of organic solid wastes.

The APS digester technology has been scaled up twice over the past eight years from its laboratory prototype. The latest it-eration in this scale-up, the fi rst commercial-size facility of its kind called the UC Davis Biogas Energy Project, has been operat-ing on the school’s campus since October 2006 with support from the California En-ergy Commission, the California Integrated Waste Management Board and UC-Davis, Onsite Power Systems Inc. and several other companies. “This plant has provided a plat-form for demonstrating the new technology and also to test larger quantities of organic waste,” Zhang explains. The facility is 28,000 times bigger than the laboratory-scale tech-nology with a materials handling system that can handle 60 tons of waste per day. The plant houses fi ve-digester tanks sized to treat 8 tons of solid waste per day, which is suffi -cient for producing enough biogas to power 80 homes. “It’s of a real size to show people who are interested in using the technology as well as giving us a research demonstration capability to test real materials and to get

data to support commercial development,” Zhang says.

This data, which are used to measure the technical performance of the technolo-gy, includes biogas production rate and yield, the composition of hydrogen and methane in the biogas, waste reduction, energy con-version effi ciency and economic and envi-ronmental impact analyses. “The research results have proven that the APS digester is a more energy-effi cient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly waste treatment technology, compared with existing waste conversion technologies,” Zhang says. This includes composting and combustion, which are conventional, alternative technologies for managing organic solid wastes. However, the signifi cant energy inputs required for com-posting and the air quality issues associated with the gases and particles emitted during combustion are drawbacks.

The Biogas Energy Project, on the oth-er hand, demonstrates the steps involved in the feeding of solid wastes into sealed, emis-sion-free tanks, the digestion of that waste and the collection of biogas generated in the two stages, the cleaning of the hydrogen and methane produced in the process and the use of that biogas in an engine generator to make electricity or a boiler for heat. “It’s a

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Awards and Interest:

On April 16, 2007, Zhang received an U.S. EPA Environmental Award

In July of 2003, Zhang received the Young Researcher Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

Since its inception in October of 2006, more than 1,000 people from more than 10 countries have visited the plant.

complete demonstration system for waste-to-energy conversion,” Zhang says.

Food scraps collected from cafeterias around campus and from several Bay Area restaurants were initially processed at the plant. After six months of testing, the facil-ity was shut down and improvements made including increasing effi ciency of the mate-rial handling equipment and insulation for the tanks. The goal of the biogas project is to show that the demonstration facility uses less than 20 percent of the energy it produc-es, which was an initial goal of the project, Zhang explains. The remaining energy can then be exported as a biogas energy product, she says. Currently, the plant is processing food waste from a Campbell Soup Co. man-ufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif. “The demonstration plant has been running very well and continuously for biogas produc-tion,” Zhang says.

Zhang and colleagues will continue to collect data on the processing of the soup waste, and plan to eventually test a mixture of corn waste and food waste and then green waste such as grass clippings. The researchers are also taking a closer look at the microbes involved in digesting the solid wastes and do-ing DNA sequence analyses to determine the major players in the process. The ultimate goal is to develop seed cultures of high per-forming microbes able to grow and maintain stable populations in commercial systems.

Meanwhile, Onsite Power Systems Inc., a privately held company that provided sig-nifi cant funding for the Biogas Energy Proj-ect and has licensed the technology from the university, is currently developing several commercial projects including a 250-ton-per-day system that would process a mixture of food and green waste for a local waste management company north of Los Ange-les and a 30-ton-per-day system to process chicken waste from a local farm. “These ex-citing projects are already in the development phase,” Zhang explains. “We’ve made excel-lent progress and we’re very happy with what we have so far.” BIO

Jessica Ebert is a freelance writer for Biomass Magazine. Reach her at [email protected].

anaerobic digestion

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plastics

Powerand Fuel

from Waste PlasticsAn extraordinary amount of plastic occupies landfi ll space worldwide. Like a time capsule this could tell future generations an awful lot about us. Work by a few creative and resourceful people may change the message we choose to leave.

By Ron Kotrba

PHOTO: ELIZABETH SLAVENS, BBI INTERNATIONAL

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plastics

stimates suggest 200 billion pounds of plastic is pro-duced every year. Due to the technical limitations or inconvenience of recycling, only a fraction of that material resurfaces in new plastic products. It takes no imagination whatsoever to throw away plastic and doom it to the fate of a thousand years in a landfi ll, but plastic waste doesn’t just threaten terra fi rma.

The Pacifi c Ocean is home of the world’s biggest landfi ll: the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch. Air and ocean currents form a huge, slow-moving spiral of debris—mostly plastic—accumulated from all corners of the globe through decades. And unlike biological material, plastic doesn’t biodegrade and decompose. Instead, plas-tic photodegrades, meaning it shatters infi nitely into smaller and smaller pieces without actually chemically breaking down. Because of this, the amount of plastic debris in the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch only grows.

The tiny plastic bits, called nurdles or “Mermaid tears,” are reported to outnumber plankton in the vast region six-to-one and are mistaken as food by bottom feeders and other fi lter feeders,

which poses a threat to the entire food chain. The water-bound garbage dump has gotten so large it has split into eastern and west-ern patches. Reports indicate the eastern patch, located between Hawaii and California, is twice as big as the state of Texas.

Plastic used specifi cally for agricultural purposes is called plas-ticulture (plastic and agriculture), much of which cannot be or is not recycled for various reasons. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo pro-fessor Sean Hurley compiled survey data from California farmers earlier this year, regarding their use of plastics in agricultural opera-tions. According to Hurley, 43 percent of California growers indi-cated that they use some form of plasticulture in their operations. Hurley estimates California growers dispose of more than 55,000 tons of plasticulture every year.

Earlier this year Biomass Magazine reported on work conducted by Pennsylvania State University professor James Garthe, who has developed a prototype machine to convert waste plasticulture into Plastofuel—the trademarked name for the dense, plastic nuggets intended eventually for cofi ring with coal at a power plant. Garthe, on extended leave until mid-October, was unavailable for a Plasto-

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fuel update but his PSU colleague, profes-sor William Lamont, says Garthe is work-ing on the fourth edition of the Plastofuel maker and when he returns from leave will complete that work and then testing will begin. “We hope to then take nonrecyclable waste plastics from the university and con-vert them into Plastofuel in quantities that can be burned in a small power-generating facility,” Lamont says. “We really need to convert all the plastic waste except for PVC which, at this point, cannot be recycled into fuel.” PVC, or poly vinyl chloride, is consid-ered by many experts to be the most toxic plastic of all because of its high chloride content. While Garthe strives to streamline the Plastofuel production process, a related PSU project nearing the commissioning phase is underway.

Gasifying Granulated Waste Plastics

In 1999, GR Technologies Co. Ltd. in Seoul, South Korea, invented a high-temperature burner designed to be fueled by plastics. A relationship with the Korean company and PSU developed. After years of working together in varying capacities, a subsidiary of GR Technologies Co. was formed earlier this year in Pennsylvania, Eco-Clean Burners LLC, with the purpose of deploying the plastic-burner technology in the United States. It’s not combustion-oriented like the Plastofuel nuggets, but rather this project involves gasifi cation of granulated waste plastics. Industrial mak-ers of plastic parts generate a lot of plastic wastes, which sometimes is granulated be-fore being dumped into a landfi ll so com-panies are not paying to dump airspace. The burner project is headed up by John Joseph Shea, a PSU economic and commu-nity development extension associate. “The Plastofuel project and this project are close-ly related but don’t really touch each other,” Shea says. While the burner was developed in South Korea, Shea has been working to turn the technology “into a user-friendly machine for the United States,” he says.

According to a PSU document, stack tests conforming to U.S. EPA standards were conducted on the burner unit by an

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Page 67: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 67

plastics

independent testing company based in the United States. The emissions testing evalu-ated the burner fueled with pelleted No. 4 low-density polyethylene (LDPE) from Korea; granulated No. 2 high-density poly-ethylene from discarded plastic barrels; and granulated, dirty No. 4 LDPE mulch-fi lm. Three main categories of pollutants were tested: particulate matter; gases (sul-fur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide); and dioxins/furans. “Test re-sults proved that this is an extremely clean-burning system,” the document states.

“It’s complete gasifi cation,” Shea tells Biomass Magazine. “There’s no melting or slagging. The burner takes the granulated plastic, sized in diameter between 2 and 10 millimeters, from a solid to a liquid to a gas immediately in the combustion chamber, Shea explains. “That gas is actually produc-ing the heat we need to transfer into the boiler system.” During the gasifi cation of the granulated waste plastic, temperatures are so high—1,850 degrees Fahrenheit—the studies indicate emissions profi les cleaner than that of natural gas. “It’s amaz-ing,” Shea says. “I’ve run this machine for

years—demos and such—and you could stand right next to it and there’s nothing coming out of that barrel but a fl ame and heat.”

In Pennsylvania, the department of environmental protection doesn’t regulate emissions from combustion units with a heat-input rating less than 2.5 million British thermal units an hour (MMBtu/hr) and, therefore, units sized less than 2.5 MMBtu/hr require no permits to begin burning, or gasifying, waste plastics.

Eco-Clean Burners and Shea are fi n-ishing installation of an 800,000-Btu/hr plastic-burner unit at a greenhouse called Iannetti’s Garden Center in Burgettstown, Pa. “Here at Iannetti’s is the fi rst place we’ve installed one of these burners,” Shea says. “We haven’t actually run it yet. We’ve been installing it all summer and now we’re waiting for some cold weather to try it out and do some heating. By next spring we should be able to tabulate the numbers and see how effective it will actually be.” He says the system is designed to gasify 30 to 33 pounds an hour of granulated waste plastic.

Shea is working to deploy the GR Technologies Co. Ltd. burner, which gasifi es granulated waste plastics, fi rst in Pennsylvania and then elsewhere in the United States. The fi rst U.S. system is being commissioned at a greenhouse in Burgettstown, Pa.

PHOT

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plastics

HURST

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Waste Plastics

While interest in combusting and gas-ifying plastic appears to be growing, there is another route to making practical use of all the waste plastics modern society pro-duces. Through what it calls catalytic py-rolysis, Polymer Energy LLC, a division of Northern Technologies International Corp., has developed a system to convert waste plastics into liquid hydrocarbons, coke and gas, which can then be used as boiler fuel for power generation. “The technol-

ogy uses lower temperatures than gasifi -cation—signifi cantly lower—so it’s more energy effi cient to produce,” says Kathy Radosevich, business development manager with Polymer Energy. Through “random depolymerization,” or selective breaking of carbon-to-carbon bonds, in addition to feeding in proprietary catalytic additives, the reactor melts and vaporizes waste plastic in one step at temperatures between 840 and 1,020 degrees F. The company reports that, on average, 78 percent of every pound of plastic fed into the Polymer Energy system

is converted to liquid hydrocarbons, coke and gas. The resultant coke can be further processed to produce additional fuel oil.

Polymer Energy’s catalytic pyrolysis system processes polyolefi ns like polyeth-ylene and polypropylene with up to 5 per-cent other plastic materials, plus up to 25 percent additional nonplastic waste, such as paper, glass, sand and water—making it ideal for processing municipal wastes.

Radosevich says the company has al-ready sold nearly 20 of these systems in Europe, India and Thailand. “The interest in the United States and Canada is huge but I expect that we won’t be marketing units in North America until next year some time,” she tells Biomass Magazine. Hitherto the markets for these units outside North America have been “more conducive” mainly because higher fuel prices in places such as Europe and India have increased the desire for such alternative-fuel produc-tion units. “In the United States I’m do-ing preliminary testing for EPA approval, although I don’t anticipate we’ll have any problems … The only item that would be of interest to EPA that I can think of would be any type of contaminants in the ash.” According to Polymer Energy, the output oil contains no chlorine, sulfur, nitrogen or heavy metals. Any of that material would remain in the ash, which Radosevich says would differ on an individual usage basis depending on the average makeup of the plastic-waste feedstock. “What we would do is sample the input plastic and the [post-processed] ash, and cross-check that with local requirements the community has for permit approvals,” she says.

Clearly there is growing interest in do-ing something different with waste plastic than dumping it in landfi lls or the oceans. The global community must force itself to change its present path and become truly concerned about the environment in which its descendents will be raised, for what people do today affects everyone tomor-row. BIO

Ron Kotrba is a Biomass Magazine senior writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (701) 738-4942.

Page 69: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

WE KNOW CELLULOSE TO ETHANOL

With over 40 years of combined “hands-on” experience in conversion of lignocellulosic

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chemical conversion technologies and downstream processing. Our direct experience

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to ethanol. Whether it’s a feasibility study, feedstock assessment, due diligence, process design

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Page 70: Biomass Magazine - October 2008
Page 71: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

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Page 72: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

legal

72 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

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Imagine the following situation: You have just completed the installation of dozens of methane collection wells and a state-of-the-art gas collection

and processing system on your landfi ll, and are now ready to sell landfi ll gas. Then you receive a “cease-and-desist” letter from an oil and gas company claiming to have an oil and gas lease on the property. The oil and gas company asserts that the oil and gas lease has granted it title to all of the gas in, on or under the landfi ll, and that which may be produced from wells on the landfi ll property. The company alleges it is entitled to all of the landfi ll gas produced from the landfi ll. This mineral les-see demands either a hefty roy-alty on all landfi ll gas produced or, worse yet, that it takes over opera-tions of the collection wells pursu-ant to its right to operate under the oil and gas lease.

It may surprise many that there is very little legal authority addressing the issue of who actually owns the methane gas produced from landfi lls. The purpose of this article is to discuss the scant authority on the topic and to address analogous situations that lead to the only logical conclusion on the issue: the owner/operator of the landfi ll, not the mineral owner or its lessee, has title to and the right to produce the landfi ll gas. Because Tex-as is the top-producing state of both oil and gas and a large number of landfi lls identifi ed by the U.S. EPA’s Landfi ll Methane Outreach Program are located in Texas, this article re-fers mainly to Texas legal principles, but many

of these principles are equally applicable to a number of states that recognize the “split es-tate” concept of the separate ownership of the surface estate and mineral estate.

A number of factors militate in favor of the conclusion that the landfi ll owner is the owner of the landfi ll gas. First, while the min-eral estate includes the “oil, gas and minerals in, on and under, or that may be produced from” the land, it should not be considered to include gases that were never part of a geological reservoir associated with the land,

but instead are the byproduct of a commercial use of the surface. Second, by way of analogy to cases determining the ownership of re-injected gases, the landfi ll gas is an “extraneous” rather than “native” gas, and thus its extraction should not be considered a diminution of the mineral estate. Finally, from an economic incentive viewpoint, the

policy concerns stated in certain legislation that encourage the capture and use of landfi ll gas can realistically only be realized by recog-nizing the owner of the landfi ll as the owner of the landfi ll gas.

Defi ning Landfi ll GasWhen organic-rich solid wastes are de-

posited in a landfi ll and left to decompose outside of the presence of oxygen, the mat-ter will be partially transformed by micro-organisms into a mixture of gases. One of which, methane, is also the chief component of natural gas. The organic material is segre-gated from the lower layers of the soil by a

liner, which helps prevent the migration of various contaminants. The gas, which would otherwise likely be vented or fl ared for safety reasons, is generally collected by a series of wells drilled into the landfi ll. It is then com-pressed, dried and fi ltered and either used in a low-Btu gas turbine electric generator or further processed and sold to third-party in-dustrial users and used to fuel furnaces and boilers.

Surface Estate Versus Mineral Estate

For the purposes of this article, we as-sume the landfi ll owner/operator is either the owner or lessee of the surface of the land on which the site is located, but not the owner of the minerals of such land. Purchasing or gaining control of the mineral estate would eliminate the problem, but this is not always an option for the operator of a landfi ll. Leav-ing aside for the moment who owns the land-fi ll gas, the owner of the minerals does have certain rights to access the surface in order to extract its minerals, which is another rea-son the landfi ll owner should seek to control the mineral estate as well as the surface. An in-depth discussion of the “dominance” of the mineral estate is beyond the scope of this article.

Many states recognize the mineral estate of a particular tract of land may be owned by someone other than the owner of the surface. In states such as Texas, the mineral estate is a corporeal, or possessory, interest in real prop-erty. Because a mineral estate is a corporeal interest in the real property of the minerals “in place” on the land, it should not include gases or any other minerals that are created

legal

Determining the Ownership of Landfill GasThe process of collecting methane from landfi lls is gaining momentum throughout the country. The question remains: Who really owns the gas?

By James E. Goddard and Patrick Beaton

The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily refl ect the views of Biomass Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

Beaton

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legal

as a byproduct of some use of the surface estate at some point after the severance of the es-tate. In the context of a bankruptcy case, one federal court in Illinois opined that is was “very unlikely” that a contract

for the extraction of landfi ll gas from a land-fi ll would be viewed as a mineral lease under Illinois law, in part because the gas was “a hazardous byproduct of a commercial activ-ity,” unlike the oil and natural gas contained in the land that is normally the subject of a lease.

The mineral estate owner or its lessee may argue that since landfi ll gas has a high concentration of methane (usually 45 percent to 55 percent), which is the primary compo-nent of natural gas, and since the landfi ll gas is “produced” from wells on the “land” (al-beit out of the lined portions of the landfi ll, segregated from the other layers of soil), it should be part of the mineral estate. How-ever, such an argument ignores an important difference between landfi ll gas and natural gas, in addition to the obvious fact that natu-ral gas contains approximately twice as much methane as landfi ll gas (In re: Resource Tech-nology Corp., 254 B.R. 215, 225 n.8 (N.D. Ill. 2000)).

Unlike “native” natural gas located in formations that are sometimes thousands of feet below the natural surface of the earth, landfi ll gas was never “in place” at the time of the mineral severance; it never existed in a geological reservoir of naturally-occurring hydrocarbons. In fact, landfi ll gas was never located under the surface of the earth. It is created above the landfi ll liner, which was placed on top of the then-existing surface of the land when the landfi ll was fi rst formed.

Instead landfi ll gas is created within the landfi ll as a “hazardous byproduct” of com-mercial activities carried out by the surface es-tate owner running the landfi ll. Carried to its logical conclusion, an argument that the land-fi ll gas belongs to the mineral estate would require that almost any product produced from an activity on the surface that created a “mineral” in the plain and ordinary meaning of the word, that had not already been found to belong to the surface estate, should belong to the mineral estate.

For example, if a waste disposal com-pany were to solve the alchemists’ puzzle and discover a way to produce gold out of gar-bage, the gold would, under this argument, belong to the mineral estate—clearly not the just and equitable result. Yet, except for a dif-ference in the value of the mineral at issue, the extraction of landfi ll gas is very much the same.

Additionally, allowing the mineral estate to own the landfi ll gas would essentially de-stroy the utility of the use of the surface as a landfi ll, which is not normally contemplated in the severance of a mineral estate. To allow the mineral owners access to the landfi ll to exploit the landfi ll gas would clearly destroy the utility of the surface for the landfi ll own-er, not just of a preexisting use of the surface, but for a use that in itself creates the very gas for which the mineral estate owner would be drilling.

Native Gas Versus Extracted GasBy way of analogy to case law inter-

preting the ownership interest of re-injected natural gas, landfi ll gas should not belong to the mineral estate because it was never part of the “native gas” in the reservoir. Case law in Texas has developed a distinction between “native” natural gas in the reservoir and “ex-traneous” natural gas produced elsewhere, then injected into a depleted reservoir or oth-er non-porous geological structure (Lone Star Gas Co. v. Murchison, 353 S.W.2d 870 at 879). Once natural gas has been produced from a reservoir the fi rst time, it changes from real property to personal property. Therefore, the owner of the produced gas does not lose title to it by storing it in a well-defi ned stor-age facility, even if such a facility is a depleted oil-and-gas reservoir. The producer of such

Goddard

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legal

natural gas does not owe royalties to the gas royalty interest owner on gas that had been produced elsewhere, injected into a reservoir for storage, and then extracted.

Similarly, landfi ll gas cannot be consid-ered “native” gas because it does not come from a geographic reservoir on or under the land, nor could it have been captured by drill-ing into any preexisting reservoir. Thus, even though it is arguable that landfi ll gas has been “created” on the same tract of land, it should be considered “extraneous” to any gas that might be found in the reservoirs on the land, which belongs to the mineral estate. In that sense, landfi ll gas, presumably not having been injected into a reservoir, should be even less likely than “re-injected gas” to be con-sidered part of the mineral estate, because there was no commingling of the gas from the different estates. Therefore, landfi ll gas, being “extraneous” to whatever gas exists in the mineral estate, is outside of the contem-plated grant or reservation of minerals that created the mineral estate, and the landfi ll owner’s interest in the landfi ll gas should be unaffected by the conveyance creating the mineral estate.

Statutes and PolicyStatutes and regulations governing the

safe venting and fl aring of landfi ll gas are typi-cally aimed at the owners and operators of the landfi ll, and do not mention the owner of the mineral estate. This implies that the state considers the owner of the landfi ll (presum-ably the surface owner or licensee) to be the owner of the gas, rather than the mineral estate owner or his or her lessee. It would appear to be somewhat inequitable that, after not having shared in the environmental, health and safety regulatory burdens that have been traditionally placed upon landfi ll operators in regards to landfi ll gas, and the costs to install the landfi ll gas collection system, the mineral estate owner should be considered the owner of landfi ll gas now that it has been shown to be commercially valuable.

Explicit policy statements in a Texas stat-ute concerning the harnessing of landfi ll gas can realistically only be realized by recognizing the landfi ll owner/operator as the owner of the landfi ll gas. In the Texas Utilities Code, the

legislature clearly stated its intent “that by Jan. 1, 2015, an additional 5,000 megawatts of gen-erating capacity from renewable energy tech-nologies will have been installed in this state (Texas Utilities Code Annotated § 39.904(a), (d) (Vernon 2002)).” The term “renewable en-ergy technologies” is defi ned to include landfi ll gas production and utilization in generating electricity.

The Texas legislature’s intent to develop landfi ll gas, however, clearly depends upon the involvement of the landfi ll owners and opera-tors. It would be unlikely that a landfi ll owner would invest money and undertake other risks for the extraction of landfi ll gas if it did not expect to maintain an ownership interest in the landfi ll gas once it was “produced.” If the land-fi ll owner or operator knew it would receive no revenue from collecting the landfi ll gas, landfi ll owners and operators would be economically better off fl aring the gas in accordance with existing guidelines, rather than fi nancing the construction of collection systems.

When lawmakers make an explicit decla-ration of public policy in a statute, the statute at issue should be interpreted to give effect to such policy. Therefore, the economic reality that the landfi ll owner must be considered the owner of the landfi ll gas cannot be ignored in the interpretation of these statutes.

As the country struggles to develop new sources of renewable energy and reduce its reliance on foreign oil, the potential of land-fi ll gas must be realized. For this to happen, the question of who owns the landfi ll gas has to be settled in favor of the landfi ll operator. As this article has discussed, this is the only logical conclusion that can be reached. BIO

James E. Goddard and Patrick Beaton are attorneys practicing in the energy sec-tion of the law fi rm of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. Reach Goddard at [email protected] or (214) 740-8461. Reach Beaton at [email protected] or (713) 226-1602.

Page 76: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

emissions

76 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

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Biomass combustion and gas-ifi cation plants have become more economically desirable due to rising energy prices. By

its nature, combustion always results in a certain amount of undesirable pollutants in the fl ue gas. However, pollution con-trol equipment is used to prevent pollut-ants from entering the atmosphere. One example of control equipment, the elec-trostatic precipitator, can comply with pollution control regulations while pro-tecting the sensitive downstream compo-nents in a biomass plant.

The most important decision in de-signing an electrostatic precipitator for a specifi c application is the selection of the basic plant size. This requires a fun-damental understanding of the physi-

cal and electrical processes taking place, along with an extensive data bank of relevant experiences. No single theory adequately incorporates the many pro-cess variables that have to be considered. Perhaps the best-known theory is the Deutsch Model, which is summarized in the following formula: Fractional collec-tion effi ciency= 1-e-k.

The variable “e” equals the Nape-rian Log Base and “k” is a constant for a particular application, which equals plate area multiplied by effective migration ve-locity divided by gas volume.

Compatible with BiomassExperience shows that effective mi-

gration velocity is not a constant but rath-er a function of the dust and gas proper-

ties unique to each material burned in a boiler. Modifi cations to this basic formu-la may be necessary when low emissions are required.

The design criteria for an electro-static precipitator are directly related to the process characteristics, including emission, gas volume and temperature, dust concentration and particle size, dew point, dust resistance and chemical com-position of the gas, among other factors. The dust resistivity is an important factor for the dust separation. The temperature infl uences the amount and composition of the adsorbed substances as well as the electric conductivity of the solid body. Once these parameters are known, the design of the electrostatic precipitator can move forward.

Biomass gasifi cation is experiencing a renaissance as a result of cogeneration.

emissions

Knocking Down the DustEuropean companies that burn biomass have been managing emissions for decades. Now a common device—the electrostatic precipitator—is increasingly being used in North American biomass processing.

By Petru Sangeorzan

The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily refl ect the views of Biomass Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

Page 78: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

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emissions

In a time of increasing fossil fuels pric-es, even small-scale biomass gasifi cation plants are now economically feasible. Bio-mass is carbon dioxide-neutral and con-verts a nearly unlimited and locally avail-able waste product into a valuable source of unlimited energy. Offsetting these favorable developments are more strin-gent pollution control requirements for small-scale boilers (and other combustion plants) that require the use of fi ltering or electrical separating systems. For biomass combustion applications, dry electrostatic precipitators are more commonly speci-fi ed. Wet electrostatic precipitators are used when the waste gas includes liquid particulates, in addition to the dust.

The dry electrostatic precipitator includes self-cleaning mechanisms that remove dust in continuous operations. Electrostatic precipitators have proved successful for many years in the Europe-an woodworking industry to remove dust from fl ue gas produced by wood-fi red boilers and dryers. The dry electrostatic precipitator is operated to reduce fl y ash and dust particles as small as 0.1 microns in the waste gas. This proven dust con-trol technology has been introduced into the North American biomass industry to meet and/or exceed most pollution con-trol requirements.

Breaking Down the Basic Functions

The basic function of the dry elec-trostatic precipitator is simple. Dust-lad-en gases are pushed or pulled through the electrostatic precipitator to remove dust and other contaminants from the fl ue gas before entering the environment. The dirty air fl ow enters the electrostatic pre-cipitator fi lter and is channelled through lanes formed by the collection plates where two mechanically separated fi elds, arranged one behind the other, are fed by several high-voltage converters. The high voltage applied to the discharge system (70 kilovolts to 100 kilovolts) leads to negative charging of the dust particles.

The dust-laden particles in the fl ue gas migrate to the positively charged col-lecting plate and adhere to it. The dust is separated from the plates periodically by a mechanical rapping system. The sepa-rated dust falls through the electrostatic precipitator and collects in a chamber located on the bottom of the unit. This collection chamber also has a self-clean-ing mechanism that removes the dust from the electrostatic precipitator.

The pressure loss across the electro-static precipitator is only 2 to 2.5 millibar (1 millibar equals 0.0145037738 pounds per square inch). The electrostatic pre-

Microprocessors allow electrostatic precipitator users to reach optimal operating conditions over a wide range of waste gas applications.SOURCE: WEIS ENVIRONMENTAL LLC

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emissions

cipitator is able to withstand fl ue gas temperatures of up to 790 degrees Fahr-enheit. The use of modern high-voltage converters with microprocessor con-trols permits optimization of operating conditions across a wide range of waste gas applications. The energy required to reach these effi ciencies is extremely low, between 1.7 and 3 kilowatts per hour de-pending on the type and size of the elec-trostatic precipitator.

To continuously protect down-stream components, it is important that any electrostatic precipitator or other fi lter provide low maintenance and high availability. Tar in the waste gas compli-cates the maintenance of the electrostat-ic precipitator, plugging in-line process equipment and hampering the operation of prime movers that use the gas (e.g., a gas engine). In this situation, it is critical that any gas-cleaning system be able to remove the tar from the waste gas.

A wet electrostatic precipitator can perform this function. The basic prin-ciple of a wet electrostatic precipitator is as follows: The process gas enters the electrostatic precipitator either horizon-tally or vertically. The gas is spread to a uniform fl ow profi le across the entire fi lter cross-section by means of a gas distribution system. The gas fl ow direc-tion through the electric fi eld is always opposite to the direction of gravity. The process gas and the dust particles are electrically charged by means of the high voltage (75 to 135 kilovolts) applied be-tween the corona discharge electrodes and the honeycomb-type collecting elec-trodes. The charged ions are produced in the corona discharge and then attach themselves to dust particles or droplets of tar and water. These particles and droplets are negatively charged and are attracted to the positively charged elec-trode.

The precipitated dust and liquid fl ows downward (pulled by gravity) to the bottom of the electrostatic precipitator for removal. The purifi ed gas leaves the fi lter through the gas outlet hood. The wet electrostatic precipitator captures

tar aerosols and dust particles, thereby protecting downstream equipment from potential damage. Wet-gas cleaning has successfully been applied in electricity generation with gas engines in applica-tions such as updraft and downdraft gas-ifi ers, and with circulating fl uidized bed gasifi ers.

Unlike many forms of gas-cleaning technology, both types of electrostatic precipitators can be custom designed to achieve any required effi ciency while op-erating at most emission levels. Burning

biomass can present a special environ-mental challenge well suited to the use of a custom-designed electrostatic precipi-tator. Picking a knowledgeable electro-static precipitator vendor with extensive experience in a wide range of industries will ensure a successful design for your facility. BIO

Petru Sangeorzan is the national sales man-ager for Weis Environmental LLC. Reach him at [email protected] or (901) 531-6081.

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Page 80: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

80 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|200880 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 8|2008

Page 81: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

10|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 81

WE KNOW CELLULOSE TO ETHANOL

With over 40 years of combined “hands-on” experience in conversion of lignocellulosic

biomass to ethanol at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, BBI is your best resource for

cellulosic project evaluation and development. Our experts understand the critical technical

and economic issues related to feedstock collection and storage, biological and thermo-

chemical conversion technologies and downstream processing. Our direct experience

includes the design and engineering of concentrated acid hydrolysis, dilute acid pretreatment,

enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation processes for converting a broad range of feedstocks

to ethanol. Whether it’s a feasibility study, feedstock assessment, due diligence, process design

or complete project development, BBI is the definitive source of answers for your cellulose-to-

ethanol questions.

BBI International Project Development

Adding Value to the Biofuels Industry

300 Union Blvd., Suite 325 Lakewood, CO 80228 Phone: 303-526-5655 www.bbiinternational.com

Page 82: Biomass Magazine - October 2008

82 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2008

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[email protected]

2 N D A N N UA LM a r c h 9 - 1 1 , 2 0 0 9Hosted at IPSCO PLACE,Regina, Saskatchewan

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A generation its traditionally defi ned as the average length of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring. Considering today’s birth

rate, a generation is about 30 years.Biofuels have also been lumped into fi rst-,

second- and third-generational categories. We use fi rst-generation biofuels in our fuel tanks today, so do we need to wait another 30 years until we fi ll up with second-generation biofuels and another 30 years for the third? Luckily, human and technology generations don’t exactly correlate. Let’s consider where we are with each of these generations.

First-generation biofuels are created largely from feedstocks that have traditionally been used as food. Today’s fi rst-generation biofuels (ethanol from corn and biodiesel from vegetable oil and animal fats) have taken a lot of heat in the me-dia as being the culprit behind rising food prices. Although they may contribute to higher food prices, it is a very small effect, and the debate doesn’t consider the environmental and energy se-curity benefi ts of biofuels. Because there are lim-ited quantities of low-cost options for feedstocks, fi rst-generation biofuels have nearly reached their maximum market share in the fuels market.

Second-generation biofuels are made from nonfood feedstocks using advanced technical pro-cesses. Cellulosic ethanol is the most developed second-generation biofuel and is produced from the cellulose or cell wall of plant cells. Examples of potential feedstocks for the next generation of biofuels include forest residues (sawdust), indus-try residues (black liquor from the paper industry), agricultural residues (corn stover), municipal waste and sustainable biomass (jatropha, camelina and switchgrass). Feedstock costs remain high which is often due to processing (shredding, densifying, pulverizing and handling) and transportation, and not necessarily due to growing them. Also, market accessibility and acceptance are hurdles that need to be addressed. Despite these challenges, sec-ond-generation biofuels can widen the feedstock options and produce a much greater amount of fuel for the market, with the potential for great-

er greenhouse gas emission savings compared to fi rst-generation biofuels.

Third-generation biofuels, like second-gen-eration biofuels, are made from nonfood feed-stocks, but the resulting fuel is indistinguishable from its petroleum counterparts. These fuels are also known as advanced biofuels or green hydro-carbons. In the future, algae will be a likely feed-stock for these fuels. Several technological and economic challenges exist to bring third-generation biofuels to market.

Paving the pathway to third-generation fuels, the Energy & Environmental Re-search Center at the University of North Dakota developed a process that produces combi-nations of biofuels, such as propane, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel, that are equivalent to petroleum-derived fuels, enabling direct substitution with existing fuels and providing renewable options across the spectrum of fuel needs. Direct substi-tution means the biofuels could be used in cars, airplanes and military vehicles without modifi ca-tions or additional logistical needs. The feedstock-fl exible process can use various crop oils, waste greases and algae.

The key challenge for developing the next gen-erations of biofuels is acquiring economical feed-stock. Feedstock cost contributes 80 percent to 90 percent of the fi nal fuel price for most processes and is critical to the economic viability of future generations of biofuels. There is likely room in the marketplace for all biofuel generations, with each broadening the feedstock and technology options and improving fuel performance. This article is the second in a series dedicated to helping readers de-velop informed opinions about biofuels. BIO

Tera Buckley is a marketing research specialist at the EERC in Grand Forks, N.D. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 777-5296.

Sustainability of Biofuels: Future Generations

EERCUPDATE

Buckley

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L

DISTILLERS GR AINSCONFERENCE & TRADE SHOW

www.distillersgrainsconference.com

a BBI International event

October 19 – 21, 2008Indianapolis Marriott Downtown

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

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