biomass magazine - october 2009

INSIDE: BIOCHAR’S ROLE IN CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

October 2009

www.BiomassMagazine.com

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4 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2009

10 |2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

INSIDE OCTOBER 2009 VOLUME 3 ISSUE 10

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

24 POWER Witnessing a Waste-to-Energy Revival Wheelabrator Technologies has experienced the ups and downs of the municipal solid waste-to-energy rollercoaster. Today, it is seeing renewed interest in the industry fueled by high energy prices, renewable power production incentives and the quest to fi nd new sources. By Lisa Gibson

32 INDUSTRY Taking Out the Trash As the amount of waste Americans produce continues to grow, so does Covanta Energy’s business. The company currently converts 19 million tons of the nation’s waste into electricity through its waste-to-energy plants, which now number more than 40.By Anna Austin

38 INNOVATION From Scientifi c Breakthrough to Business Ramon Gonzalez discovered that under certain environmental conditions an industrial strain of E. coli can ferment glycerin anaerobically, making it a potentially valuable asset to the ethanol, biochemical and biodiesel industries. By Lisa Gibson

44 ENVIRONMENT A New Climate Change Mitigation Tool The International Biochar Initiative is trying to convince the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to accept biochar as an option for removing carbon from the atmosphere, which would create a market for the charcoal-like material that also enhances soil. By Anna Austin

CONTRIBUTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50 TECHNOLOGY Navigating the Intellectual Property Maze Patent protection isn’t the only option available to protect innovations involving equipment, processes or products. In some cases, trade secret protection may be the better choice. By Paul Craane

52 EQUIPMENT Geomembrane Cover Improves Biogas Collection, Heat Retention, Odor ControlCasco Inc. decreased its energy consumption and reduced its operating costs at its corn products refi nery by replacing the cover on its 4 million-gallon wastewater anaerobic digester with a new one designed and installed by Geomembrane Technologies Inc. By Jim McMahon

INDUSTRY | PAGE 32

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

06 Editor’s NoteWinding Up With Waste to EnergyBy Rona Johnson

07 Advertiser Index 10 Industry Events

12 Business Briefs

14 Industry News

59 BPA UpdateCongress Must Support the Clean Energy WorkforceBy Bob Cleaves

61 EERC UpdateThe Power of AlgaeBy Chad Wocken

62 Marketplace


Winding Up With Waste to Energy

t seems like the summer went so fast, but in North Dakota it always does. The days are getting shorter—instead of seeing daylight until 11 p.m. it’s starting to get dark at 8:30 p.m. The fi nches I’ve been feeding all summer are also aware of the change of seasons and are eating me out of house and home.

Every time I walk by the near-empty feeder I feel guilty because I’m out of food and reluctant to buy more because they are devouring it so quickly.

Although summer may be winding down in the Midwest, at Biomass Magazine we are just winding up. This month’s theme, waste-to-energy, is a great energizer for us. I know I’ve said it be-fore, but there is nothing better than turning garbage into some-thing useful.

Associate editors Anna Austin and Lisa Gibson wrote fea-tures on two of the largest waste-to-energy companies in the U.S., Wheelabrator Technologies and Covanta Energy. We chose them because they’ve been around since renewable energy fi rst became a buzzword in the 1970s. We wanted to see where they are to-day, and hear their thoughts about the industry’s future. As you will learn in the “Witnessing a Waste-to-Energy Revival” feature on page 24, it’s been a rollercoaster existence for those who managed to survive, but things are looking up. I hope this latest resurgence, which was no doubt prompted by high energy prices and government incentives, lasts longer than the last one. Covanta Energy is gearing up for the future by recently acquiring six waste-to-energy plants from Veolia Environmental Services, increasing the number of plants it operates to 44.

If you’re not into biomass power, check out “A New Climate Change Mitigation Tool” feature on page 44. This is about biochar and how the International Biochar Initiative is trying to get the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to accept it as a climate change mitigation option. If that should happen, it would create a market for biochar as a soil enhancement and a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If biochar doesn’t thrill you, you may want to check out the feature called “From Scientifi c Break-through to Business” on page 38 about an E. coli strain that can ferment glycerin. This discovery could have positive implications for the ethanol, biodiesel and biochemicals industries.

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of calls from people inquiring about engineering, construction and procurement fi rms. I have to assume this means that the biomass projects we’ve been reporting on the past several months are getting closer to starting construction. I have also seen scattered news stories online about construction costs going down, which would be excellent timing. Here’s hoping for a perfect storm: a plethora of biomass projects, affordable construction costs and contin-ued government support. I would like to include high energy prices, but that just doesn’t seem right with winter right around the corner and me living in North Dakota.

I

Rona JohnsonEditor

[email protected]

editor’sNOTE

10 |2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7

advertiserINDEX

2010 International BIOMASS 64Conference & Expo

2010 International Fuel 58Ethanol Workshop & Expo

Action Unloaders 42

ADI Systems Inc. 41

Agra Industries 46

Amandus Kahl GmbH & Co. 36

Biomass Magazine 47

BRUKS Rockwood 55

Christianson & Associates PLLP 43

Continental Biomass Industries, Inc. 4

CPM Roskamp 26

Detroit Stoker Company 54

Energy & Environmental Research Center 9

Evergent Technologies 8

Hoffman, Inc. 48

Indeck Power Equipment Co. 34

Jeffery Rader Corporation 40

Koger Air 30

MAC Equipment 2

Maas Companies 37

Morbark 56

Novozymes 3

Peterson 57

Poet LLC 63

Process Barron 35

Ronning Engineering 28

Schutte-Buffalo Hammer Mill 31

The Teaford Co. Inc. 27

W.S. Tyler USA 29

West Salem Machinery 23

Wolf Material Handling Systems 49

Yellow Springs Instruments 60

EDITORIAL

EDITOR Rona Johnson [email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITORSAnna Austin [email protected] Gibson [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann [email protected]

ART

ART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund [email protected]

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

PUBLISHING & SALES

PUBLISHER & CEO Mike Bryan [email protected]

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

VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENTTom Bryan [email protected]

SALES DIRECTOR Matthew Spoor [email protected]

SALES MANAGER, MEDIA & EVENTSHoward Brockhouse [email protected]

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Jeremy Hanson [email protected]

ACCOUNT MANAGERSChip Shereck [email protected] Steen [email protected] Brown [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry [email protected]

SUBSCRIBER ACQUISITION MANAGER Jason Smith [email protected]

Subscriptions Subscriptions to Bio-mass Magazine are $24.95 per year in the U.S; $39.95 in Canada and Mex-ico; and $49.95 outside North Amer-ica. Subscriptions can be completed online at www.BiomassMagazine.com or subscribe over the phone at (701) 746-8385.

Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more informa-tion, contact us 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 Magazine advertising opportunities, please con-tact us at (701) 746-8385 or [email protected].

Letters to the Editor We welcome let-ters to the editor. Send to Biomass Magazine Letters to the Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your name, address and phone num-ber. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

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Biogas

October 1-2, 2009 Le Meridien HotelSan FranciscoThis sixth annual event will bring together leading market experts to debate strategies for growing the markets for biogas power, heat and transport in the U.S. With a focus on sharing best practice case studies of agriculture, waste, landfi ll, sewage and wastewater biogas, the event will provide an excellent platform for networking, knowledge transfer and new business development. (971) 238-0700www2.greenpowerconferences.co.uk/v8-12/Prospectus/ Index.php?sEventCode=BS0910US

Pellets Industry Forum

October 6-7, 2009New Trade Fair CenterStuttgart, GermanyInternational manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers, planners, investors and public decision-makers will have an opportunity to exchange experi-ences at this event. The forum will address innovations and developments in international pellet marketing and sales concepts; international pellet fuel logistics; industrial research and development; natural resources availabil-ity; and quality management.+49 (0)7231 / 58 59 8-0 www.pelletsforum.de

Biofuels Markets Mexico & Central America

October 7, 2009 Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotels & Towers Mexico City, Mexico Mexico and countries across Central America have potential to grow their biofuels industries as governments recognize it as an opportunity to stimu-late economic growth in rural areas. This conference will provide an op-portunity to learn how, with the right legislative support, they can expand production and market share.+44 (0)207 099 0600www2 .g reenpowercon fe rences . co .uk / v8 -12 /Enqu i r y / I ndex .php?sEventCode=BF0907MX

Algae Biomass Summit

October 7-9, 2009Marriott San Diego Hotel & Marina San DiegoThe third annual event expects to draw 1,000 global leaders, scientists, innovators and policymakers. Industry leaders and attendees will discuss issues of critical importance to the emerging algae industry, including the commercial viability of algae production, current government and private initiatives, evolving technologies, processing concepts, life-cycle analysis, and venture and project fi nance.(206) 625-0075 www.algalbiomass.org/events/2009ABS

Jatropha Markets Americas

October 8-9, 2009 Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotels & Towers Mexico City, Mexico This event will provide valuable insight into the potential of jatropha as a commercially viable feedstock for biofuel production across Central and Latin America. Francisco Lopez Tostado, the Mexican Undersecretary for Agriculture will open the event, addressing the recent government-led in-centives for jatropha cultivation and biofuels development in Mexico. The event will examine the market developments that led the presidents of Mexico and Colombia to develop a biodiesel pilot plant with jatropha as a feedstock. +44 (0)207 099 0600www2.greenpowerconferences.co.uk/v8-12/Registrat ion/Index.php?sEventCode=BN0907MX

European Bioenergy Expo & Conference

October 8-10, 2009 Stoneleigh Park Warwickshire, EnglandThe bioenergy market is one of the fastest growing and fastest moving in the world today. The conference is designed for those already involved in biofuel or bioenergy production or thinking about adopting bioenergy for an organization, to explore the latest methods, costs of production and perfor-mance.+02079253573 www.ebec.co.uk/index.php

Bioenergy Engineering ’09

October 11-14, 2009Hyatt RegencyBellevue, WashingtonThis event is designed to provide professional education for all aspects of engineering in the biofuels and bioenergy systems from genetics through production, distribution and use. The agenda offers a forum for the ex-change of ideas and knowledge. Conference topics include advances in bioenergy engineering research and technology development, engineering in biorefi nery design, the future of biofuel production, and engineering a new bioenergy industry.(972) 355-5128 www.bioenergyengineering2009.com

International Renewable Energy Conference

October 13-15, 2009 Rockview HotelAbuja, NigeriaThe theme of IREC 2009 is Renewable Energy Growth in Africa: Legisla-tion and Policy Requirements. The conference also features several sub-themes including legislation and policy, fi nance and investment, renewable energy for rural and urban development and stakeholders for renewable energy legislation. This event attracted hundreds of visitors in 2008 and more exhibitors and visitors are expected this year. +234-1-3451326 www.irec-nigeria.com/2009/

industry events


2009 TAPPI International Bioenergy & Bioproducts Conference

October 14-16, 2009 Memphis Cook Convention CenterMemphis, TennesseeThis event will be held in conjunction with the Engineering, Pulping and Environmental Conference. A bridge session ending the EPE conference and beginning the IBBC event will be held Oct. 14. The IBBC will primarily focus on issues involving biomass utilization in the forest products industry, with particular emphasis on technology and its successful application and implementation.(334) 271-3318www.tappi.org/s_tappi/doc_events.asp?CID=11545&DID=560971

Renewable Energy From Organics Recycling

October 19-21, 2009 Ramada Mall of AmericaMinneapolisThis comprehensive conference is organized by the editors of BioCycle, the magazine for advancing composting, organics recycling and renewable energy. The event will bring together project managers, policymakers, in-vestors, utilities, consultants, farmers and researchers. Agenda topics fo-cus on latest developments in advanced systems, operations at innovative projects, economic and energy performance, and public policies that are helping to facilitate and fund development.

(610) 967-4135, ext. 21www.jgpress.com/biocycleenergy/home.html

Global Biogas Congress

October 20-22, 2009 Crowne Plaza Europa HotelBrussels, BelgiumBiogas is one of the fastest growing sectors in renewable energy. Attendees of this third annual congress will gain a new insight into its role in EU energy and agricultural policy, assess the potential impact of a biowaste directive on the biogas industry, hear from major utilities, and analyze the regulatory and strategic challenges of integrating biomass into the grid. +44 (0) 20 7017 7499 www.agra-net.com/biogas

Biomass & WtE: Waste to Energy

October 28-29, 2009 Sofi tel Shanghai Jin Jiang Oriental PudongShanghaiAttendees will have the opportunity to network with biomass, biodiesel, ethanol and cellulosic ethanol producers; local, municipal and provincial government representatives; enzymes and catalyst providers; and other industry experts. The conference will focus on emerging technologies, up-coming projects around the world and feedstock issues. Program highlights will include power generation from agricultural biomass, energy recovery from municipal solid waste and biotechnologies converting biomass to fuels and chemicals.+65 63469145 www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=091035&

Biomass Power Technical Seminar

October 28-30, 2009 Louisiana Tech UniversityRuston, Louisiana This conference is geared toward biomass developers, project managers, senior engineers, and executives from utilities, independent power pro-ducers, and cooperatives throughout the U.S. The key topics will include technical challenges with energy production from biomass through cofi ring, conversion of existing fossil fuel facilities and greenfi eld sites.(318) 255-6825 www.biomassengineers.com/seminar/index.htm

Canadian Renewable Fuels Summit

November 30-December 2, 2009Westin Bayshore HotelVancouver, British ColumbiaThis year’s summit will focus on how to grow beyond oil in a way that of-fers sustainable growth for Canada, economically, environmentally and so-cially. Discussions will include the new Canada-U.S. clean energy dialogue, moving toward second-generation biofuels, low-carbon fuel standards, and prospects to strengthen our renewable fuels’ economic outlook.(613) 594-5528 www.crfs2009.com/

Energy From Biomass and Waste

January 26-27, 2010Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference CentreLondonInvestment in bioenergy is set to rise in the U.K., and this conference and exhibition will provide a meeting place for this rapidly growing market. Ven-dors, buyers, investors, municipal representatives, legislators and scientists from around the world will come together to talk about new projects and business.+49 2802 9484840 www.ebw-uk.com/

World Biofuels Markets

March 15-17, 2010The RAI Exhibition and Congress CentreAmsterdam, The NetherlandsThis event will provide leaders of the biofuels industry an opportunity to meet new customers, suppliers and partners and help drive innovation and business. More than 4,500 executives from 78 countries have attended this conference to date.+44 20 7099 0600 www.worldbiofuelsmarkets.com/

industry events

10|2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 11


Novozymes appoints Monroe president of NA region

Novozymes announced the ap-pointment of Adam Monroe as the new president of its North American region. Monroe replaced Lars Hansen, who has returned to Denmark to head the compa-ny’s European region. Monroe began with Novozymes in 1991 in the process engi-

neering group. He has since served as production manger for granulation, regional director of supply chain operations and director of supply chain operations, Americas. In April 2008, he was promoted with increased responsibilities for supply chain and capacity planning in the Americas and global planning for Novozymes. BIO

business BRIEFS

Forest2Market launches new Web siteForest2Market has launched its new Web site, www.forest-

2market.com. The site offers a home for each of the company’s customer segments, enhanced information about Forest2Mar-ket products and services, and easier access to an enriched free content library. The redesign was partially driven by the expan-sion of Forest2Market’s customer base across geographies and industries. Also driving demand was the interest in wood bio-energy as concerns about climate change and energy security and independence emerged to the forefront of the national debate. BIO

ABO names Rosenthal executive directorThe Algal Biomass Organization appointed Mary Rosenthal

as the organization’s fi rst executive director. Rosenthal’s main fo-cus will be to help the ABO accelerate the development of the algal industry through increasing awareness of the benefi ts of al-gae among the commercial industry, the general public and poli-cymakers. She has more than 20 years experience in marketing and communications—both with large multinational corpora-tions and entrepreneurial public relations agencies. Most recent-ly, she was the director of communications and public affairs for NatureWorks LLC, a multimillion dollar business unit and joint venture between Cargill Inc. and Teijin of Japan. BIO

Sorghum professional joins Advanta US Advanta US has added sorghum seed professional Mike

Northcutt to its North American sales and development team for wholesale accounts. Northcutt will apply a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise to the company’s grow-ing seed-marketer clientele. A graduate of West Texas A&M with a bachelor’s degree in agronomy, he grew up on a farm near Tulia, Texas, where he developed his affi nity for sorghum. His career spans 38 years in the sorghum seed industry, work-ing in sales and marketing, operations and management with several seed companies. BIO

Vega chooses biomass expert as interim CEOVega Promotional Systems Inc. has chosen biomass expert

Michael Ray Knauff to become its interim CEO. Knauff will oversee the construction and implementation of Vega’s recently announced biomass plant in Georgia. He brings more than 30 years of experience in the negotiation, implementation and ad-ministration of all requirements for municipal and cooperative wholesale power contracts, industrial power supply contracts, and a broad range of interutility arrangements including interconnec-tion agreements, service schedules, seasonal exchange arrange-ments, transmission service arrangements, and the development of the rates and charges associated with such arrangements. BIO

Monroe

PerkinElmer awarded gas chromatography patentThe U.S. Patent & Trademark Offi ce has awarded PerkinEl-

mer Inc. Patent No. 7,422,625 B2 covering an advanced method in gas chromatography (GC). The patent, titled “Methods and Systems for Characterizing a Sorbent Tube,” protects the compa-ny’s proprietary methods that help gas chromatographers increase the accuracy of their results when using automated thermal des-orption (ATD) GC. PerkinElmer’s automatic verifi cation method described in the patent is deployed in the company’s TurboMa-trix Thermal Desorber product line of GC systems to help us-ers avoid manual errors in ATD measurement, which can cause inconsistent results and compromise sample integrity. BIO


Johnson joins Innovation FuelsKaren Johnson has joined Innovation Fuels as vice president

of business development. Her primary responsibility will be to develop and manage sales and marketing relationships with cus-tomers and other partners on the local, regional and national level for Innovation Fuels’ biodiesel products. Johnson will also execute the fi rm’s feedstock and off-take strategies as well as build allianc-es in the public sector. She comes from Dallas-based Crossmark where she managed distribution, marketing and sales for Dannon, Inc. in the New York/New Jersey metro area. BIO

business BRIEFS

MP2 Capital announces expansionMP2 Capital LLC announced that Mark Lerdal has joined

the fi rm as CEO. Lerdal has more than 20 years experience in the renewable energy sector as a developer, investor, executive and attorney. Prior to joining the fi rm, Lerdal was a partner at KKR Financial LLC in San Francisco and Hong Kong. The fi rm also announced the appointment of Charlie Glavin as its new managing director. Glavin has been an active player in the investment and technology industries for more than 22 years as an investor, executive and award-winning equity research ana-lyst. BIO

BTEC achieves milestoneThe Biomass Thermal Energy Council, a nonprofi t asso-

ciation dedicated to advancing the use of biomass for heat and other thermal energy applications, ended its founding member period recently with 57 members in 24 U.S. states and four countries. Formed in January 2009, members of BTEC are on the front line of the movement to grow the biomass thermal industry. BTEC founding members have played a key role in implementing legislative activities, education and outreach ef-forts, and BTEC’s developing research agenda. To learn more about BTEC, and for membership information, visit the Web site at www.biomassthermal.org. BIO

Range Fuels recognized for growth, innovation Range Fuels Inc. has been named to the 2009 AlwaysOn

Global 250 list. The AlwaysOn Global 250 Award is given to private, emerging technology companies creating new business opportunities in high-growth markets. Range Fuels was select-ed by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction. Winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journal-ists and industry insiders. BIO

Vermeer unveils corncob harvester Vermeer Corp. is offering a limited number of CCX770

Cob Harvesters to North American farmers for the 2009 har-vest. The cob harvester is designed to tow directly behind select corn harvesting combines to collect and unload cobs. It is a wag-on-style system manufactured at Vermeer headquarters in Pella, Iowa. The Vermeer CCX770 is a self-contained unit. Farmers use a bolt-on hitch that is added to the combine to connect the CCX770. As a result, it makes switching from crop to crop easy and timely. Because the CCX770 has its own engine, it mini-mizes undue stress on qualifi ed combines. BIO

Neal Isaacson joins Ze-gen as CFO Ze-gen Inc. welcomed Neal Isaacson as chief fi nancial of-

fi cer. Isaacson has more than 20 years of experience in strategic fi nancial planning, global cash management, and debt and equity fi nancings. His diverse background blends public company ex-perience with the high-growth, fast-paced environment of early-stage venture-backed companies. Prior to joining Ze-gen, Neal was CFO of EnerNOC Inc. where he oversaw Series B and Series C venture fi nancings, led multiple debt fi nancings, completed sev-eral acquisitions, and helped position the company for its success-ful initial public offering in May 2007 and follow-on offering in November 2007. BIO

The Vermeer corncob harvester is a self-contained unit that can be towed directly behind select combines to collect and unload cobs.

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industry NEWS

Helius Energy, whiskey distillery form joint venture U.K. based Helius Energy plc formed

a joint venture with the Combination of Rothes Distillers (CoRD) called Helius CoRDe that will utilize whiskey distillation byproducts to produce power, organic fertil-izer and animal feed.

The £50 million ($45 million) project in Morayshire, Scotland, will involve the con-struction of a patented GreenFields process plant and a 7.2 megawatt GreenSwitch com-bined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant.

The technology implemented at the GreenFields plant will convert coproducts of distillery and food processing operations into biomass fuel, organic soil conditioner and animal feed. “In the case of this project,

the GreenFields unit will process the pot ale (a high-protein coproduct removed prior to fi nal distillation of the spirit), and will be powered by electricity from the Green-Switch CHP unit. The CHP plant will be fueled with a combination of processed dis-tillery coproducts produced by the Green-Fields plant and wood chips from sustain-able sources, according to a Helius Energy spokesman. The plant will produce enough electricity to power 9,000 homes, for use on-site and/or transporting to the national grid.

While the two technologies can be co-located, as in the Rothes project, they can also be implemented separately according

to site requirements,” the spokesman said. “The GreenFields unit can be confi gured in a number of ways and can also process wa-ter for cooling and cleaning purposes.”

The exact proportion of each product will be determined when the unit is opera-tional, he added.

Helius Energy will own 51 percent of Helius CoRDe, and the Combination of Rothes Distillers will own the rest.

Helius anticipates engineering procure-ment and construction contracts will be awarded shortly. Construction of the proj-ect is slated to begin in early 2010, and is ex-pected to take about two years to complete.

—Anna Austin

Biomass project development list grows in U.S., CanadaSeveral new biomass power plants are in the works including two

in the U.S. and one in Canada.The Canadian project will be developed on the Lower Nicola

Indian Band Reservation in Merrit, British Columbia. The LNIB will own half of the project and Biomass Secure Power Inc. will own the other half. LNIB will provide the 25 acres on which the plant will be built and BSP will supply engineering expertise to design, build and op-erate the plant, along with a pellet mill that will be included in the same facility, according to BSP President and CEO Jim Carroll. He declined to release a cost estimate for the project.

The 12-megawatt (MW) plant and pellet mill will process 300,000 cubic meters of pine beetle-infested trees from the area annually, Car-roll said.

Ten megawatts from the power plant will be sold to BC Hydro, and BSP also is looking into providing electricity to homes on the res-ervation, Carroll said. The plant also will provide heat to dry the wood that’s fed into the pellet mill.

The wood pellets will be sold for a profi t, although the target mar-ket is uncertain. “We haven’t gotten the whole market defi ned,” Carroll said. The company is in purchasing discussions with European organi-zations, but would also like to establish a local market.

The LNIB has approved construction of the facility on its land, and BSP is in the process of securing required environmental permits. “But we’re well within what’s allowed, so that won’t be a problem,” Car-roll said. He added that he expects the plant to be on line in December 2010. BSP also is working on developing power plants in Abbotsford, British Columbia, California and eastern Canada, he said.

Adage LLC, a joint venture of Areva SA and Duke Energy, hopes to break ground on a 50-MW biomass power plant near Jasper, Fla., in early 2010, according to the company, which anticipates a 30-month construction period. The plant will run on 500,000 tons of wood waste

per year and is in negotiations with The Langdale Co. to secure a sup-ply. Adage also is in discussions with JEA, a Jacksonville area utility, to secure purchase agreements for the energy. The plant will have the capacity to provide electricity for 40,000 homes.

The facility will be built on a 215-acre site south of Jasper and will create 400 jobs during construction, along with 125 during operation, according to Adage. The cost of the project is estimated at more than $150 million, funded mostly by Adage, according to Jarret Adams, me-dia coordinator for the company.

Washington state will see a new biomass plant, too, as Northwest Renewable will begin construction next year on a $72.5 million power plant in Longview, according to the company. The 24-MW facility will run on 550 bone-dry tons of forest slash and other wood waste per day with the resulting energy sold to the grid. The plant will be built on a 32-acre site in an industrial park and will create 70 new jobs in the log-ging and processing industries. The company hopes the plant will be on line by 2011, the deadline to qualify for U.S. DOE tax incentives.

Northwest Renewable, owned by U.S. Ethanol, had previously an-nounced it would build a $100 million ethanol plant at the location, but market fl uctuations resulted in a change of plans, according to Tawni Camarillo, communications representative for the company. The food-versus-fuel debate also infl uenced the hold on the project, she added. “We have not thrown out that project,” she said. “It’s just on a tempo-rary hold.” Construction on the facility had begun when the company decided to put the project on hold.

Northwest Renewable also announced plans earlier this year to build a cellulosic ethanol plant on the same Longview site. It will work well beside the biomass power plant, as the feedstocks will be the same, Camarillo said.

—Lisa Gibson


Study investigates potential for biomass from grass in ND

Pellet Fuels Institute seeks research partners

A study in North Dakota aims to deter-mine what types of grasses can sustain the state’s soil and climate conditions while yielding the most biomass.

The North Dakota State University Cen-tral Grasslands Resource Extension Center in Streeter has teamed up with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, the North Da-kota Commerce Department and the Depart-ment of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, among others, to conduct the 10-year study. It will evaluate production, carbon sequestration, economics and longevity of perennial forages in western and central North Dakota.

Several 15-by-30-foot plots at fi ve loca-tions were seeded with the same 10 treatments, according to Paul Nyren, center director. Dry plots were set up near Hettinger, Minot, Willi-ston, Streeter and Carrington, and one irrigated plot near Williston. The harvesting began in 2007, but this is the fi rst year researchers will begin harvesting one set of plots every other year. “The hypothesis is that you might be able to get an increase in yield and save enough money by harvesting every other year to make it economically feasible,” Nyren said.

Federal funding for the project is funneled through the Natural Resources Trust. The agency focuses on maintaining cover on land,

another reason the researchers will begin har-vesting only every other year on some of the plots, Nyren said.

The project’s objectives are to determine the biomass yield and select chemical composi-tion of perennial herbaceous crops at several locations; determine the optimum harvest dates for maximum biomass yield and maintenance of the stands; compare annual and biennial harvest for total biomass yield and maintenance of the stands; evaluate carbon sequestration and storage of the various perennial crops; and evaluate the economic feasibility of the various perennial herbaceous energy crops with com-peting crops in the surrounding area, according to the research center’s Web site.

Grasses used in the study include switch-grass, wheat grass, wild rye, blue stem and com-binations of some grasses. The best yields of sunburst switchgrass came from the Williston irrigated plots, which yielded about 5.75 tons per acre in 2007 and 7.28 in 2008, but Nyren said the conclusions are diffi cult to describe. “The question is: what is that worth as a bio-fuel crop?” he asked. Studies show that to be economically feasible, biomass yields need to be worth about $75 per ton, he said. “We have to ask: what are companies going to be willing to pay?”

Harvest yields from 2007 and 2008, can be viewed at the center’s Web site at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/streeter/.

—Lisa Gibson

The Pellet Fuels Institute is seeking part-nerships with research institutions to assist in research aimed to facilitate the development of the North American pelletized fuel industry.

PFI, a nonprofi t association primarily made up of pellet fuel manufacturers, pellet burning appliance manufacturers, industry sup-pliers and retailers, developed an original set of pelletized fuel standards in the mid-1990s, but decided to rewrite the standards in 2005 because it lacked key components. The original standards test grades were too broad, test meth-ods were not defi ned, there was no specifi ed quality control or assurance practices, and there was no enforcement, according to the PFI.

The new standards were approved by membership in July 2008, and implementation began in February 2009. They are composed

of two documents—PFI standard specifi ca-tions for residential/commercial densifi ed fuel, and PFI quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program for residential/commercial densifi ed fuels. Both can be viewed at www.pelletheat.org/2/quality.html.

The standards document defi nes crite-ria for four grades of pelletized products and identifi es standardized methodology for testing each parameter; the QA/QC program docu-ment produces an industrywide quality man-agement system for demonstrating compliance with the standards.

As the fi rst year of implementation of the new standards passes, the PFI said it is likely some of the standards and the QA/QC pro-gram will need to be refi ned through research. Topics that require research efforts include

identifying agents that could corrode exposed pellet stove parts and exhaust ducting; develop-ing a database of physical, chemical and me-chanical properties of pellets that can be easily utilized; specifying inorganic constituents that could lead to ash fusibility; studying air emis-sions that arise from the burning of pellets made from various feedstocks and additives; and reviewing safety issues.

As PFI is a nonprofi t trade organization, it indicated that research funding will need to come from grants and/or institutions that al-ready have funding and are looking for research project partners pertinent to the industries they support.

For more information, visit www.pelletheat.org.

—Anna Austin

industry NEWS

A study in North Dakota will determine the state’s biomass potential.


industry NEWS

Heat Transfer International has nearly completed the installa-tion of a biomass energy plant at a feed mill in Howard City, Mich., that will become the state’s fi rst gasifi cation plant and the world’s fi rst hot air turbine powered by biomass, according to Pat Dickinson, HTI business developer.

The plant will convert turkey litter at Sietsema Farm Feeds into a syngas that will be used to provide the heat and electricity needed to produce turkey feed.

HTI is a designer and manufacturer of starved-air/low-tem-perature (SALT) biomass gasifi cation systems, Dickinson said. “We have a technology that converts biomass, through a thermal process, into synthesis gas,” he said. “The syngas is sent to a chamber where it is combusted—much like natural gas or propane—and is then used to make heat, which can be converted into steam, power or hot wa-ter; any commodity that is desired.”

Dickinson said the unique aspect of the soon-to-be commis-sioned system at Sietsema Farm is that the air turbine will produce power from poultry litter without the use of steam or an internal combustion engine. “We don’t have to worry about trying to clean the gas to run it through a reciprocating engine,” he said. “The heat we produce off the gasifi cation process is sent through our patented high-temperature ceramic heat exchanger technology, which sends clean, hot air to the turbine. So many times people are looking for—especially for smaller power systems—a half megawatt or a mega-watt of power. If they want to make power, they have to make high-pressure steam and use a steam turbine. We don’t have to go through that process, or have a high-pressure boiler to make power.”

The system at Sietsema Farm is capable of handling 35 tons, of turkey litter per day, although this type of system uses a fi xed-bed gasifi er and can handle nearly any type of biomass, as long as size and moisture content are previously confi gured. “It isn’t limited to dry biomass,” Dickinson said. “The type of gasifi er that we’re building right now can handle anywhere from zero to 50 percent moisture, so it has fl exibility. We make three or four different styles of gasifi ers so we can cater to the particular kind of biomass that will be used.”

As for quantifying its biomass processing capabilities, HTI’s sys-tems are modular designs, so the number isn’t defi nitive or restricted. “This particular system (Sietsema Farm) is handling 35 tons per day, and it’s a 23 million Btu per hour system. If you need 50 million Btus per hour or 70 tons per day, we’d build a larger system or two systems.”

The system installation at Sietsema Farm may be HTI’s debut, but Dickinson said the company’s technology is based on decades of experience. “We purchased the assets, patents and technology from our senior application engineer Robert Graham, who has been doing this for over 50 years—designing gasifi cation systems—so he brings previous experience, knowledge and all of his work on previ-ous jobs,” he said.

Design work on the Sietsema Farm system began in the spring of 2008. Dickinson said winter weather delayed the schedule, but construction resumed at the beginning of April; installation began early June. Now more than 90 percent complete, the companies ex-pect to offi cially open the facility at the end of October.

When calculating the return on investment (ROI), Dickin-son said it’s diffi cult and may vary considerably depending on the size of the plant, feedstock costs and other variables. “It’s hard to compute,” he said. “Typically, a small plant may have a longer ROI because there are more capital costs versus building a larger plant where you’re spreading the costs over a lot more power and a lot more steam. What’s your feedstock? Is it free or are you paying for it? Are you getting a tipping fee for it? Do you need power or steam? Are you going to sell your power as green power in certain states and get very high revenue for it and buy back your power at your lower retail rates? Are you going to apply for investment tax credits through the government? Are you going to use treasury grants to build the plant?”

Dickinson pointed out that HTI’s systems are utility-grade power plants designed to last 25-plus years, and aren’t necessarily built for a quick ROI but for long-term money savings, or protection against fl uctuating electricity and natural gas prices. “At Sietsema, [David Prouty] owns a turkey farm, he’s a pig producer, and he has a feed mill where he manufactures all of his own grain for his pig and turkey operations,” he said. “This energy center isn’t at the poultry facility but at the feed mill where he needs power and steam. He’s doing it for the long term, and will be able to control his own ex-penses at the feed mill without having to worry about the fl uctuation and prices of electricity and natural gas.”

—Anna Austin

HTI installs biomass-powered turbine at Michigan feed mill


industry NEWS

MGT Power to build second huge biomass power plant in UKBritain-based MGT Power Ltd. (www.

MGTPower.com) announced Aug. 10 its plans to build another 295-megawatt bio-mass power plant in the U.K. It will be the company’s second plant and will tie with the fi rst as the largest biomass power plant in the world.

The new proposed plant, with capital costs of about $823 million, will be located at the Port of Tyne in North Tyneside, ac-cording to MGT. The Tyne Renewable En-ergy Plant (Tyne REP) will be built on in-dustrial land on the north bank of the River Tyne and, like MGT’s other plant, will have the capacity to power up to 600,000 homes in Northeast England. Subject to planning, the company hopes to begin construction on the second plant in the fi rst quarter of 2011, with a goal of commercial operation in 2014, according to MGT.

Teesport, England, will be the home of the company’s fi rst 295-megawatt plant, slated to go on line in late 2012, and recently

approved by the British government. It will also be located at a port for easy shipping access and is estimated to cost about $819 million, according to the company. Both plants will run on 2.65 million tons of wood chips annually. Biomass for both plants will be shipped from certifi ed sustainable for-estry operations developed by MGT and partners in North and South America and the Baltic Seas, and U.K. sources in the lon-ger term, according to Chris Moore, direc-tor of MGT. The wood chips deliver a 95 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and each plant will reduce carbon dioxide emis-sions by 1.3 million tons annually, according to the company.

The fi rst stage of the Tyne REP plan-ning process is detailed in a scoping docu-ment that outlines details of the project and has been circulated to several local and national organizations such as the North Tyneside Council, the Environment Agency and the Department of Energy & Climate

Change. The document addresses rationale for the project, the energy and planning pol-icy framework and the technical studies and consultants MGT Power will undertake as part of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment.

The plant will provide hundreds of construction jobs, future permanent on-site jobs and 300 to 400 indirect jobs, according to the company. In addition, it represents an annual investment of $49 million in the local community, according to MGT. Both plants will help meet U.K.’s renewable energy target of 20 percent by 2020, each accounting for about 5.5 percent of the renewable target. Both will run 24 hours per day year round and each will produce the same amount of electricity in one year as a 1,000-megawatt wind farm, according to MGT.

—Lisa Gibson

This photo shows what MGT’s Port of Tyne biomass power facility will look like when it’s completed.

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industry NEWSUS Virgin Islands to develop 2 waste-to-energy plants

The U.S. Virgin Islands will soon become home to two waste-to-energy facilities that will collectively process 146,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year for the production of fuel, steam and elec-tricity.

Virgin Islands Gov. John deJongh unveiled the project in August. He said the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) signed two 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority signed two 20-year solid waste manage-ment services agreements with Alpine Energy Group LLC, an alterna-tive energy facility constructor/operator based in Denver. WAPA se-lected Alpine over 14 other proposals that were submitted

The PPAs between Alpine and the WAPA will now be forwarded to the Public Services Commission for review.

The $440 million project will serve the three main islands—St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix—with a total population of more than 100,000 residents.

The technology to be implemented at the facilities, provided by Tennessee-based WastAway Services LLC, breaks MSW down into a homogenous material and shreds it into a product called Fluff. The Fluff, which has the consistency of wood pulp, is further processed and sent through a separation procedure that removes any remaining fer-rous and nonferrous metals, and can then be pelletized for conversion into steam and energy, synthetic fuels, or used as a growing medium.

A typical WastAway system can transform 100 tons of garbage per

day into fuel. The fuel produced at the two new facilities will be mixed with petroleum coke for power production.

DeJongh, who has been in offi ce since 2007, said it will be the fi rst time in the history of the Virgin Islands that fossil fuels will not be used to generate electricity and provide potable water. It is hoped that the project will inspire other Caribbean nations facing similar landfi ll and solid waste challenges to consider alternative and renewable energy fuel sources, he said, to make energy more affordable for utility customers.

—Anna Austin

Virgin Islands Gov. deJongh, center, back row, presides over a contract sign-ing ceremony in August with Alpine Energy.

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Genome British Columbia funds pine beetle, poplar projectsGenome British Columbia announced it will be the primary source

of funding for two genomic research projects designed to increase the production of biofuels from biomass grown in British Columbia, par-ticularly from lodgepole pines killed by the pine beetle infestation and the production of wild poplar trees that could potentially replace them.

According to the Canadian Ministry of Forests and Range, as of 2008, the cumulative area of provincial forest affected to some degree by the pine beetle was about 14.5 million hectares (36 million acres).

The research projects will focus on effi ciently converting the dead timber to ethanol, and the optimization of breeding and selection of poplars.

Jack Saddler, University of British Columbia dean of forestry, will lead the fi rst project, which is titled “Optimizing Ethanol Fermentation of Mountain Pine Beetle Killed Lodgepole Pine.”

Enzyme producer Novozymes and the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council are co-funding the project.

Saddler said trees are a huge store of chemical energy that can be converted into liquid biofuel, but ideal methods to economically pro-duce sugars need to be identifi ed. He is confi dent that the solution found for coniferous trees will be transferable to deciduous varieties as well. “The idea is that once the dead lodgepole pine starts to run

out in about 20 years, we will have had enough time to replant with a fast-growing variety,” he added. The researchers believe poplar trees will make an adequate substitute.

The second project, at a cost of $7.7 million, will build on previ-ous Genome British Columbia research involving the sequencing of the poplar genome. “Optimized Populus Feedstocks and Novel Enzyme Systems for a British Columbia Bioenergy Sector” will be led by prin-cipal investigators Carl Douglas and Shawn Mansfi eld of UBC. The researchers will work to identify the genetic characteristics of certain wild poplars that allow their woods to be broken down more easily with a higher yield, for quicker and less expensive production of biofuels with less chemical processing.

The U.S. DOE Bioenergy Sciences Center, USDA Forest Products Laboratory and Sweden-based Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet Energyp-oplar are project co-funders.

“We need to be thinking about feedstock supply 10 to 15 years from now, so that we will have poplars ready to be harvested, which will allow us to keep up with industry demand,” Mansfi eld said.

For more information about the projects, visit www.genomebc.ca.

—Anna Austin


industry NEWS

BPA launches campaign to extend, increase biomass tax credit

Scottish recycling project to include food waste

The Biomass Power Association is investing $250,000 in a campaign to extend and increase the 2004 Jobs Act tax credit for biomass power plants, which expires at the end of this year.

The legislation was for four years, and biomass receives half the credits provided to other renewable energy technologies, ac-cording to Bob Cleaves, president and CEO of the BPA. The cred-its were given to biomass power plants that went into operation be-fore the act was passed in 2004, and more than 100 operating plants in the country count on the contribution, Cleaves said. “We have tax credits expiring at the end of this year that, if left to expire and not renewed, will have catastrophic consequences on our industry,” he emphasized in a press conference call in August.

About half of the renewable energy produced in the U.S. comes from biomass, he said. It’s more expensive than natural gas power, he added, so the tax incentives are a way to level the playing fi eld. “In order to get that message out there, we’re launching this public campaign,” Cleaves said.

The campaign will include educational briefi ngs on Capitol Hill, facility tours, advertising on cable and the Internet, an over-haul of the BPA Web site and interviews with the media.

The tax credits expiring this year are unique among all renew-able credits. For the past couple years, extensions have usually been for new companies and cover a full 10 years, while the Jobs Act credits cover plants that are fi ve years and older. That and the fact that it offers less credits set it apart, according to Cleaves. Without the extension and increase, at least half of the 80 plants in the U.S. owned and operated by BPA’s 50 members will lose a signifi cant amount of funding, he added.

The biomass industry provides jobs and clean energy, making it economically and environmentally benefi cial to the country, he said. “We think it’s a wise investment by the American taxpayer,” he said of the tax credits.

The campaign also aims to educate the public about the im-portance and benefi ts of biomass. “Most people, if you ask them, ‘What is biomass?’ they wouldn’t have a clue and that has got to change,” Cleaves said.

“This is all about jobs,” he said. “Particularly in 2009, what is relevant to the American people is, is this an investment in our economic future?”

—Lisa Gibson

In response to a report on the staggering amount of food waste in Scotland, Scottish Water Waste Services is expanding its garden waste collection and recycling project to include food waste from supermarkets, food manufacturers and households, the com-pany announced in September.

The study, conducted by Waste & Resources Action Pro-gramme Scotland, found that Scottish households throw away 1 billion pounds of food every year. SWWS’s Deerdykes Organics and Recycling Facility outside Cumbernauld began food collection trials in North Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Argyll and Bute and East Renfrewshire. The trash will be recycled and composted into pod, a peat-free soil improver, according to the company. The project has been successful thus far, according to SWWS. “We’ve had a fantastic start to these, and local residents have been incredibly supportive, showing a real ‘green’ streak,” said Donald MacBrayne, business development manager for SWWS.

The company has collected garden waste from fi ve councils (Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Argyll and Bute, East Dunbarton-

shire and West Dunbartonshire) since its establishment in 2006, composting the waste to produce pod. More than 100,000 metric tons of grass cuttings, tree trimmings and shrub pruning has been transformed to 50,000 metric tons of pod, according to SWWS.

In addition, an anaerobic digestion facility is under construc-tion on the Deerdykes site that will produce about 8,000 megawatts of power each year—enough to power 2,000 homes—from about 30,000 metric tons of food waste, according to SWWS. The fa-cility, estimated to cost about £7 million (about $11.6 million), is expected to be completed in the spring of 2010.

The biogas produced at the facility will be used in a combined-heat-and-power engine to generate electricity. The electricity will initially be used at the Deerdykes facility, but it could potentially be used to heat and power the neighboring industrial estate, or be sold to the national grid, according to the company. A district heating plan to export heat directly to local homes and businesses is also being discussed.

—Lisa Gibson


industry NEWSStudy fi nds potential for Mississippi Delta to join global bioeconomy

The U.S.’s Mississippi Delta Region can secure a leadership role in the $140 billion global bioeconomy by leveraging its agricultural and forestry assets and attracting technology partners from outside the region, according to “Regional Strategy for Biobased Products in the Mississippi Delta,” a Batelle Technology Partnership Practice study released Aug. 25.

The study, initiated by Memphis Bioworks Foundation, covers 98 counties in fi ve states—Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Missis-sippi and Tennessee—and includes participation from several com-panies and organizations in all fi ve states. The total area of the study covers 36 million acres.

Among other things, the study concluded that sustainably grown and harvested biomass in the region can supply an $8 billion biofuels and biobased products industry without affecting the food and feed supply. The study also found that the transformation would create more than 25,000 green and supporting jobs in the next 10 years, along with more than 50,000 in the next 20 years; it would open up markets for new crops that will increase biodiversity in the region, leading to reduced use of synthetic fertilizers, agricultural chemicals and water, while increasing options for local farmers; and would contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increase air quality, provide sustainable raw materials for local industries and

boost national security, according to Memphis Bioworks.The biomass addressed in the report includes all agricultural

crops and trees in harvested, unprocessed form, alternative crops such as canola and perennial grass, and woody biomass. The types of biomass are separated into four groups: oilseeds, sugar and starches, lignocellulosics, and niche crops.

A Mississippi Delta regional bioeconomy would provide farm-ers an opportunity to grow alternative crops and participate in val-ue-added agriculture, according to Steven Bares, Memphis Bioworks executive director. It also would allow companies to benefi t from a reliable source of renewable raw materials, attract regional invest-ment, add value to underutilized biomass resources, and create op-portunities to grow high-value biomass on marginal lands, among other advantages, according to the report.

Each of the fi ve states will launch individual initiatives appro-priate for its region aimed at enhancing existing opportunities and expanding its role in the biobased products industry, according to Memphis Bioworks.

The full report can be downloaded at www.agbioworks.org/regional.cfm.

—Lisa Gibson

USDA’s list of BCAP qualifi ers continues to growU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the

USDA had made the fi rst matching payment under the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, a 2008 Farm Bill program, which pro-vides fi nancial assistance to producers or entities that deliver eligible biomass material to designated biomass conversion facilities for use as heat, power, biobased products or biofuels. And that list is quickly growing.

The fi rst to make the list was Missouri-based Show Me Energy Co-op. The farmer-owned cooperative completed an agreement soon after the application acceptance deadline July 29, according to FSA Administrator Jonathan Coppess. The co-op has more than 500 biomass producers supplying materials such as switchgrass, straw, corn stover, sawdust, woodchips and other biomass materials to produce biomass pellets and possibly biofuels.

Show Me Energy Co-op was joined by eight more biomass conversion facilities. According to Kent Politsch, chief spokesman for the Farm Service Agency, the list will continue to expand. Cur-rent qualifi ers range from Wisconsin wood pellet producer Indeck Ladysmith LLC to the Sugar Cane Growers Co-op of Florida.

Under the BCAP program, the USDA will provide fi nancial assistance to biomass producers who sell their crops to qualifi ed biomass conversion facilities for up to 75 percent of the cost of

establishing and planting eligible biomass crops within a BCAP project area. In addition, the USDA will provide annual payments to help compensate for lost opportunity costs until the crops are established, and will provide further fi nancial assistance for the col-lection, harvest, storage and transportation of biomass crops by matching the amounts paid to producers by the biomass conversion facility, up to $45 per dry ton.

Politsch told Biomass Magazine that the number of qualifi ers should grow exponentially based on calls and other contacts. “I have been responding to about four calls per day, and they’re new clientel for this agency, including small tree farmers and landowners who rent land to lumber companies and are then required to clean their land before a new planting can take place; very different from the traditional grain and livestock producers we normally deal with,” he said.

The swift action on BCAP stems from President Barack Obama’s directive issued in May to Vilsack to aggressively accelerate the investment in and production of biofuels.

For more information about BCAP, visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/.

—Anna Austin


LiveFuels Inc., a developer of renewable algae-based biofuels, will begin pilot operations at its test facility in Brownsville, Texas, us-ing its natural process to optimize algal productivity and increase rates of conversion of biomass to renewable oils.

The process uses biological and environmental conditions instead of machinery. The company grows a mix of native algae species in 45 acres of open saltwater ponds, according to LiveFuels. To harvest the algae, the company uses “algae grazers” such as fi lter-feeding fi sh spe-cies and other aquatic herbivores. The fi sh, including those from the Tilapia or sardine families, collect and clean the algae through struc-tures in their mouths, according to the company. They swallow it and the algae is digested and concentrated in the fi sh’s fl esh. To extract the oil, the fi sh are cooked and pressure is applied, resulting in omega-3 fatty acids and other oils used as feedstocks for renewable fuels. The meat can be sold as animal feed or to the consumer market if it meets food-grade standards, and the bones can be used in agricultural fertil-izers.

The natural process eliminates the task of having to control algae species, oxygen concentration and other processes, according to Dave Jones, chief operating offi cer. In addition, it’s much easier to collect fi sh out of the ponds than the single-celled algae. LiveFuels is focused on letting nature do what it does best, according to Jones. The ap-proach only facilitates a useful natural process.

LiveFuels has fi led for 10 patents in the U.S. for its process, ac-

cording to the company. The results of the pilot project will be used to commercialize the process along the coast of Louisiana. The com-mercial facilities will be designed to harness fl ows of agricultural pol-lution from the Mississippi River that can be used as nutrients for gen-erating algal blooms. By removing those nutrients, LiveFuels’ systems also mitigate the impacts of agricultural pollution in the open ocean.

The company has other pilot facilities in the U.S., and has raised $10 million in private funding for its research.

—Lisa Gibson

LiveFuels uses algae grazers to optimize algae-based biofuels production.

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industry NEWS

Algae biofuels developer begins pilot operation

Nevada company prepares to commercialize algae bioreactorNevada-based W2 Energy Inc. (www.w2energy.com), a green

energy equipment developer, expected to have its patented algae bioreactor up and running in Guelph, Ontario, in mid-September, according to CEO Mike McLaren, after which the company will be-gin selling its bio-oil and searching for partners to help commercial-ize the bioreactor. “Our company strategy is joint venture instead of equipment sales,” McLaren said.

The Sunfi lter bioreactor will grow algae to produce bio-oil for biofuels and will be used to sequester carbon dioxide from the com-pany’s waste-to-energy processes. It also can be sold separately to algae producers, biodiesel producers, labs, aquaculture companies, and coal and petroleum plants, according to W2. A purchase cost for the equipment, which took a couple years to develop, has not been established, McLaren said.

Inside the bioreactor, low-power ultraviolet lights, in com-bination with gases, feed the algae so it grows and fi lls the tubes with blooms, according to W2’s Web site. When the blooms have reached an appropriate density, a set of magnetic rings inside the tubes scrapes the blooms clean and pushes the algae to the upper manifold, where compressed air pushes it out. The algae is then compressed, dried and then either gasifi ed or fed into a biodiesel

reactor to produce biodiesel. W2 also has developed a multifuel reactor to produce ultra-low

sulfur diesel, a blend of JP8 jet fuel or gasoline; a plasma-assisted gasifi er; a SteamRay rotary system engine that converts energy from steam or fuel combustion into a rotary force; small energy generat-ing systems; and the Non-Thermal Plasmatron. The plasmatron, de-signed to gasify hydrocarbons to produce syngas, also is being built in Guelph and should be operational in mid-September, McLaren said. W2 has licensed its technologies to Alpha Renewable Energy in India and is working with China and several corporations in the U.S., McLaren said.

The company also developed a 4-ton municipal solid waste sys-tem that was not sold as planned because the buyer’s funds were not adequate, he added.

Since W2 announced at the beginning of August that the bio-reactor will reach commercial scale, many parties have expressed interest in purchasing it, according to McLaren. “It’s hard to keep up,” he said.

—Lisa Gibson


industry NEWS

Forth Energy plans 4 biomass power plants in ScotlandU.K. power utility Scottish and Southern Energy plc and Edin-

burgh, Scotland, port operator Forth Ports have announced plans to construct four 100-megawatt biomass power plants at four separate locations in Scotland.

In June 2008, SSE and Forth Ports formed Forth Energy, a joint venture to develop renewable energy projects around Forth Ports’ sites in Scotland and England.

The proposed plants would produce heat and energy to be used at the port sites, as well as exported to the grid for commercial sale. Locations include Dundee, Leith, Rosyth and Grangemouth.

Under the U.K.’s Renewables Obligation, dedicated regular biomass plants can earn 1.5 Renewables Obligation Certifi cates per megawatt hour (MWh) of output. The Renewables Obligation re-quires licensed electricity suppliers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to source an increasing portion of electricity from renewable sources. The obligation levels for 2008-’09 are 9.1 percent of electricity supplied to customers in England, Wales and Scotland, and 3 percent of electricity supplied to customers in Northern Ire-land.

An ROC is a green certifi cate issued to an accredited generator for eligible renewable electricity generated within the U.K. and sup-plied to customers within the U.K. by a licensed electricity supplier.

Until March 2009, each ROC represented one MWh of elec-tricity, but since April the value of the ROC has been dependent on the generation technology type. Dedicated regular biomass genera-tion receives 1.5 ROCs per MWh.

The feedstock at the proposed biomass power plants will be mainly softwood sourced from sustainably managed forests in the U.K. and overseas, according to Forth Energy. The amount of woody biomass needed to fuel the plants was not immediately avail-able.

The company plans to undertake consultations on the plant proposals and seek consent to construct them next year.

SSE currently owns an 80 MW biomass power plant at Slough in Berkshire, England.

—Anna Austin

Wisconsin paper mill may host biomass power plantNorth American papermaker Domtar Corp.’s paper mill in Roth-

schild, Mich., may be the future site of a $250 million We Energies cogeneration biomass power plant, the companies announced Sept. 1.

The paper mill, built in 1909, has an annual paper production capacity of 147,000 tons and an annual pulp production capacity of 60,000 tons.

The 50-megawatt biomass power plant would share the mill’s cur-rent location and use recycled mill waste (bark and sludge residues) from the papermaking process, and waste wood from area forest op-erations and saw mills. This would eliminate the use of fossil fuels at the paper mill, and generate enough electricity to power roughly 40,000 homes.

Wisconsin legislation currently requires that by 2015, 10 per-cent of the state’s electricity be generated from renewable sources, or enough to supply the needs of 850,000 homes each year.

Feedstock sustainability will not be an issue, as studies indicate that area forests within a 75-mile radius of the Domtar mill can sup-port the proposed biomass power plant, according to We Energies. The company estimated the biomass power plant would require ap-proximately 500,000 tons of material per year, or the equivalent of 70 to 90 truckloads per day.

Once the feedstock is transported to the site, the fuel will be stored in the form of small chips, similar to fi ne mulch. When needed, it will be transferred to a standard, utility-style boiler and combusted to produce high-pressure steam, which is sent to a turbine generator to power the Domtar mill. The steam is then cooled in a condenser, and sent back to the boiler for reuse.

An estimated 400 new jobs will be created throughout project construction, which will be funded by We Energies, and about 150 permanent jobs will be created to support facility operations.

We Energies plans to fi le an application for a Certifi cate of Au-thority with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in early 2010, to request approval for the biomass plant. If approved, the company expects the plant to be operational in the fi rst half of 2013.

Another biomass power plant proposal in Wisconsin, Xcel En-ergy’s Ashland Bay Front Power Plant, is currently awaiting project ap-proval from the PSCW. Once complete, it will become the largest 100 percent biomass-fi red power plant in the U.S.

For more information about Xcel Energy’s project, go to www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2924&q=wisconsin biomass.

—Anna Austin


POWER

WITNESSING AWASTE-TO-ENERGY REVIVAL

A Wheelabrator crane pit operator transfers trash from the pit to the boiler. PHOTO: WHEELABRATOR TECHNOLOGIES


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In the 1970s, Wheelabrator Technologies helped to launch a prosperous municipal solid waste-to-energy industry in the U.S. The industry wasn’t immune to economic and societal hardships, however, and developers struggled to prosper; some didn’t survive. Today, the same factors that fueled the industry in its infancy are reenergizing it.

By Lisa Gibson


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he U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW)-to-energy industry has had its ups and downs but is on the upswing once again. Govern-

ment-issued tax incentives and the need for alternative energy sources make it an attrac-tive endeavor and economic alternative to landfi lls in communities striving to be self-suffi cient.

The fi rst waste-to-energy combustion facility in the U.S. went on line in New York in 1898, according to the Energy Informa-tion Administration, but it was not enough to initiate rapid growth. About 80 years later, in 1975, the fi rst commercial-scale, utility-grade MSW-to-energy plant in the country went on line in Saugus, Mass., built by Wheelabra-tor Technologies Inc. That was the start of an industry here that had been successful in Europe for years. “The Saugus Marsh dump was nearing the end of its life,” says David Beavens, vice president of fi nance for Whee-labrator. “And there was a need for a new, vi-able solution for waste disposal.” The plant still operates today, processing 1,500 tons of MSW per day from 10 nearby communities, serving about 750,000 people and provid-ing electricity for about 47,000 households through Saugus General Electric.

After that plant went on line, more than 100 plants were built around the country as the industry ballooned beginning in 1978, ac-

cording to the EIA. “If you think about that timing, you had the fi rst gasoline shortage; the fi rst energy shortage,” Beavens recalls. “So there was a move to fi nd alternative sources of energy. And that created interest in things like waste-to-energy.”

The Genesis of the Industry“A combination of forces converged in

the late 1970s, early 1980s that really were the genesis for this industry at that time,” Beavens

says. Those forces were the search for waste disposal solutions, legislated tax incentives and the desire for alternative energy sources as energy prices rose. “Rising energy prices are very favorable for the waste-to-energy business,” he says.

Dwindling solutions for waste disposal also proved favorable to the onset of the industry. “There was a local need to provide long-term, predictable waste disposal for constituents,” Beavens says. The country was

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A Wheelabrator employee looks through a boiler window.

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moving away from dumps, as tighter regula-tory compliance led to the end of the town dump concept. Increases in tipping fees also led to the demise of many landfi lls, according to the EIA.

During the energy shortage in the ’70s, Congress passed the Public Utility Regula-tory Policies Act, which stabilized prices for alternative sources of energy. The act, passed in 1978, made it mandatory for utilities to purchase electricity from qualifying facilities,

defi ned as “cogeneration or small power pro-duction facilities that meet certain ownership, operating and effi ciency criteria established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-sion pursuant to (PURPA),” according to the EIA. It also mandated that the price paid to MSW facilities for electricity be equal to the utility’s avoided cost of energy and capacity. As a result, MSW qualifying facilities received a higher price for their power than they might have received otherwise.

Boosted by these incentives, Wheelabra-tor led the way into an MSW-to-energy in-dustry in the U.S., Beavens says. “We’re very proud of that,” he says. Previously, many communities ran trash incinerators that re-duced the volume of trash by combustion before dumping it. But the incineration plants did not recover energy, used expensive fuel and offered little or no pollution control. Waste-to-energy provided a next-generation technology that recaptures energy, using trash as fuel, with no extra fossil fuels, Beavens says. Wheelabrator’s combustion systems are com-pliant with air regulatory requirements and extend landfi ll lives by reducing the volume of waste by 90 percent from incoming raw material to residual ash, Beavens says, and 70 percent to 75 percent by weight.

A RoadblockUnfortunately, the growth spurt didn’t

last and the same factors that jump-started the industry reshaped to slow it down in the mid ’90s. “The industry hit a wall,” Beavens says. The investment in tax credits expired, the energy markets were deregulated and the development of large, environmentally sound Subtitle D landfi lls made that type of disposal more plentiful and less expensive.

Many companies began to consolidate and those that had small plants sold their operations to larger companies. “Companies

The Wheelabrator Westchester plant in Peekskill, N.Y., supplies electricity for about 55,000 homes.

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came and went,” Beavens says. “You saw a lot of consolidations and companies exiting the industry.” For the most part, plants already in operation continued, but some under new management. “There were a few plants here and there that closed, but not too much on the waste-to-energy side,” he says. Wheelabra-tor and Covanta Energy became the primary waste-to-energy providers in the country, he says. It was then that Wheelabrator was ac-quired by its parent company Waste Manage-ment Inc.

For those companies that did manage to stay in business, new development and growth were stagnant. “So, you retrench,” Beavens says. Wheelabrator changed its focus from expansion to excelling and polishing its environmental practices, safety programs and operational effi ciencies, he explains. “We im-proved our operations and technology such that today, we’re excellent in our operations.”

A Bevy of PlantsToday, Wheelabrator operates 16 waste-

to-energy plants in the U.S., along with fi ve independent power plants with pollution con-trols and two ash landfi lls. Its waste-to-energy process uses combustion at temperatures of greater than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Basically, it’s a series of steps that ev-ery other step reciprocates,” says Peter Ken-drigan, plant manager at the company’s Westchester County facility in Peekskill, N.Y. The 60-megawatt plant was built in 1984 and supplies electricity for about 55,000 homes from 2,250 tons of MSW per day in a county of 850,000 people, according to Kendrigan. It actually has enough capacity to supply 88,000 homes, according to the company’s Webs site. Its capacity makes it one of the largest Whee-labrator waste-to-energy plants.

In Westchester, trucks deliver the waste to a receiving building, where most dump their loads into a pit, while some are randomly chosen for inspection. Those trucks dump

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their waste on the fl oor, where it’s sorted to ensure it contains no unacceptable material. “It’s very rare that we fi nd something unac-ceptable,” Kendrigan says. “With a plant of this age, most of the haulers have been here long enough that they’re familiar with the rules.”

Two large overhead cranes take the trash from the pit and feed it into Wheelabrator’s water wall boiler. Inside the boiler, the trash sits on Von Roll Holding AG grates, heavy metal plates developed by Von Roll, a world-wide electrical machinery developer. The grates move back and forth, transporting the trash through four boiler zones. First, the trash is dried out by injecting air underneath it. Then, it’s combusted in zones two and three and in zone four, all that’s left are the noncombustibles. The energy generated in the process is sold to Consolidated Electric.

Because of Westchester County’s ag-gressive recycling program, the waste that comes into the facility is ready to process and needs no pretreatment, Kendrigan says. “But once it’s in the process, we do add some things to make it cleaner and environmentally friendly,” he adds. A powder-activated carbon is added for mercury removal, lime slurry is sprayed into the system to remove sulfur dioxide and carbon, and urea cleans out ni-trogen oxide. Hydrocarbons, organic com-pounds and dioxin are controlled by the high temperatures in the combustion furnaces, and sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid are neutralized and made harmless by fl ue-gas scrubbers, he adds. Trace metals and particu-lates are collected in fabric fi lters. “Nothing escapes a waste-to-energy plant unless it has been purifi ed by heat or treatment,” Kend-rigan says. “High burning temperatures and cleansing processes remove more than 95 percent of pollutants from refuse that enters the facilities.”

“A signifi cant thing about the facility is that the air in the receiving building is drawn in through large fans and we use that in com-bustion inside of our boilers,” Kendrigan says. It creates negative pressure inside the building so odors and dust accumulated dur-ing dumping don’t escape the building.

Some of Wheelabrator’s plants produce and sell steam and electricity, and some just sell electricity, depending on the local needs


and economics. “It’s not economical to sell steam in this community,” Kendrigan says. The plant sits in an industrial area in Peek-skill, next to a fairly major highway. Piping to transport the heat would have to snake underneath the highway to get to the com-munity, he explains.

Residents of Peekskill are welcoming of the plant and Wheelabrator’s technology, Kendrigan says. “Westchester enjoys a very good relationship with the community,” he says. “The community itself has an extremely positive reaction to the facility.” It helps that it creates jobs for 66 locals. “All of the em-ployees are very proud of Westchester and Wheelabrator,” he adds. “We’re proud of what we do.”

Unique Stories While most of Wheelabrator’s plants

were built in response to waste disposal is-sues in the communities, each has a unique story of its own, Beavens says. His career with Wheelabrator started in 1988 at the Gloucester County plant in New Jersey. The local landfi ll in Gloucester County had his-torically been a dumping ground for the city of Philadelphia, he says. The large landfi ll, which he calls “a dump, in the true sense of the word,” sat in the middle of the county. It brought land values down and hindered economic development, so county offi cials decided as early as 1980 that they wanted to become self-suffi cient. “They were going to neither import waste nor export waste,” he says. They kept the dump alive long enough for them to build their own solid waste in-frastructure, which included Wheelabrator’s waste-to-energy plant. “So those came on line by the end of the 1980s, early 90s and they became self-suffi cient,” he says.

The Gloucester plant processes up to 575 tons of MSW per day from the county of 257,000 people. The 14-megawatt facility has the capacity to supply electricity for up to 15,000 homes.

Getting Back on TrackToday, Beavens sees factors emerging in

the MSW-to-energy market similar to those that gave rise to it in the ’70s and ’80s: alter-native energy is desirable, energy is expensive and tax incentives abound again to build new

plants. Also, landfi lls generally are located far-ther away from communities, requiring long hauls for trucks loaded with garbage to dump. “While the landfi lls are still plentiful, they tend not to be located close to population centers that generate the trash,” he says. As fuel prices rise, trucking becomes more expensive and those trucks emit pollutants into the air along their routes. Waste-to-energy facilities are sited within or close to population centers, re-ducing truck traffi c and transportation costs, he says.

“So if you think about today, while a little bit different, you’re seeing similar forc-es,” Beavens says. These forces are coming together once again, reviving the familiar at-traction to the industry. Beavens says he’s seen the change evolving in just the past two years. Currently, about 87 waste-to-energy facilities operate in the U.S., managing 93,000 tons per day, or 13 percent, of the nation’s MSW and producing 2,700 megawatts of energy, ac-cording to Wheelabrator.

New interest in the industry, and in Wheelabrator’s process in particular, comes in monthly from cities all over the world, Beavens says. “Domestically, we see a lot of interest,” he says. “Internationally, we see a great deal of interest.” The company is pursuing several projects in the U.K. and recently entered into a joint venture with a company in China. The government there expects to build more than one waste-to-energy facility per month, Bea-vens says, adding that the country has a very aggressive growth plan.

With so many new ventures on the hori-zon, Beavens sees promise in a comeback for the industry. “I think it’s in its early stages of growth and I expect it will continue,” he says. BIO

Lisa Gibson is a Biomass Magazine as-sociate editor. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 738-4952.

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TAKINGOUT THE TRASH


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Covanta Energy operates more than 40 waste-to-energy facilities across the globe. These plants collectively convert 19 million tons—or more than 5 percent—of the nation’s waste into renewable energy each year.

By Anna Austin

he number of power companies striv-ing to implement waste-to-energy ini-tiatives is rapidly increasing. Whether it involves introducing a new technol-

ogy or well-established power utilities convert-ing fossil fuel operations to biomass power, securing a plentiful, steady and convenient feed-stock supply is essential to making any energy-from-waste venture economically viable—and it shouldn’t be too diffi cult for plants that use municipal solid waste (MSW) to achieve.

Americans are producing more and more trash. According to the U.S. Energy Infor-mation Administration, in 1960, the average American threw away 2.7 pounds of trash per day. Today the average American throws away approximately 4.5 pounds per day, or more than 1,600 pounds per year.

As the annual amount of MSW generated continues to increase, the ways and means of disposing of it must expand and evolve, and Covanta Energy Corp. is one power provider that has rapidly expanded along with the in-crease. The company serves the disposal needs of more than 12 million people in communi-ties across the U.S., which, according to Paul Stauder, Covanta Energy senior vice president of domestic business management, equates to processing more than 5 percent of the MSW generated annually within the country.

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Hours before talking to Biomass Maga-zine, Stauder says the company closed on a deal resulting in its operations acquisition of six waste-to-energy plants previously owned by Veolia Environmental Services. Covanta Energy will likely acquire one more facility by the end of this year.

At 44 facilities, the company now op-erates the majority of the waste-to-energy plants in the U.S., and has divisions in Eu-rope and Asia.

Gold River Project Covanta Energy is active in projects

beyond its recent acquisitions. In particu-lar, the reconstruction of a brownfi eld site at Gold River, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. At the site of a former pulp and paper mill, which closed more than a decade ago, the company has the poten-tial to provide considerable economic de-velopment opportunities in a community that currently has an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent.

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Covanta Energy’s waste-to-energy facility in Fort Meyers, Fla.

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Between site preparation and con-struction there should be plenty of work. “We’ll use some existing roads and pos-sibly some foundation work, but the site was abandoned a long time ago and not in ready use,” Stauder says. “Essentially, we’ll go in there, take down buildings and struc-tures that we don’t need, construct a new power plant that will process 500,000 to 750,000 tons of waste per year, and pro-duce 90 megawatts of power to be sent to the BC Hydro grid.”

A project economic impact analysis by Roslyn Kunin and Associates Inc., which was performed using the British Columbia provincial government input/output mod-el, determined that economic activity in British Columbia would be boosted by $79 million during the three-year construction of the facility. Tax revenue would increase by $32 million, and more than 1,600 jobs would be generated during that period. Once in operation, it would add $32 mil-lion to the provincial economy, $1.5 mil-

lion to provincial tax revenue and create about 195 full-time jobs.

Construction of the $500 million Gold River Region project, which has been re-ceived enthusiastically by the surrounding community, is anticipated to begin by the end of the year. “We’d like to get a shovel in the ground before then, but it’s very tough these days, no matter what you’re building, to get all your permits,” Stauder says. “When you’re building any kind of power plant it’s even that much more dif-fi cult. There are a lot of regulations, a lot of processes to run through to get all your approvals so you can start the process. Ev-erything seems to take a little bit longer.”

Technology and Proximity Covanta has licensing rights to the

German thermal waste treatment technol-ogy Martin GMBH, which is used in many plants around the world. The majority of Covanta’s facilities use the Martin system, according to Stauder.

The core component of the Martin system Covanta deploys is a reverse-acting combustion grate, which is comprised of several stair-like grate steps equipped with surface-ground grate bars. Every second step is moved up and down against the grate inclination, which constantly rakes and agitates the fuel bed and mixes the red hot mass with newly fed waste. As the waste burns, the fuel bed tempera-ture reaches 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) and higher, and it is combusted to inert mineral ash through the slow and uniform mixing and agitating motion of the fuel bed.

Burned-out combustion residues are transferred by a slowly rotating roller at the grate discharge and into the Martin resi-due discharger where they are quenched. The thermal heat is converted into steam to turn a turbine and create power.

Stauder says the majority of the facili-ties are located in close proximity to land-fi lls and populated areas where electricity

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is needed, and Covanta typically contracts waste management companies to truck the waste, with one exception—the company’s plant in Dickerson, Md. This facility pro-cesses an average of 1,500 tons per day of solid waste, generating up to 55 mega-watts, enough to power 40,000 homes.

At Dickerson, MSW is fi rst delivered to the Shady Grove Transfer Station in Derwood, Md., compacted into inter-modal steel waste containers, and gantry cranes are used to load it onto railcars. Each day CSX Corp. assembles a train that transports the MSW 22 miles to the facility in Dickerson. There the contain-ers are off-loaded and trucked from the on-site rail yard to the facility’s enclosed refuse building.

Rail is also used after the Martin process, when the remaining ash mate-rial (according to the U.S. EIA, a ton of garbage is reduced to approximately 300 to 600 pounds of ash) is loaded back into sealed containers and shipped to a landfi ll

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A switchyard at one of Covanta Energy’s plants

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in Brunswick, Va., thereby not adding to the truck traffi c on the rural roads leading to the facility.

Although many of Covanta’s plants are located in the Northeast, where de-mands for power are high, others are scat-tered all over the country—from Detriot to Long Beach, Calif., to Minneapolis and even in Honolulu.

Reliability is the Ticket Collectively, Covanta Energy’s plants

produce approximately 5 percent of the nonhydro renewable power in the U.S. The beauty of waste-to-power applica-tions and what makes it superior to other renewable energy technologies is its reli-ability—waste is always being generated, Stauder says. “We always look at how we are able to provide renewable power that is very reliable—we will run at about 90 [percent] to 92 percent of availability, whereas if you evaluate a wind plant, that will run at about 25 [percent] to 30 per-

cent of the time, simply because the wind isn’t always blowing; it’s unreliable and you never know when it’s going to create power,” he says.

Even the output from hydropower plants fl uctuates with the seasons, de-pending on rain and water fl ows, Stauder says. “Being consistent and reliable, we’re benefi cial to the electrical infrastructure in the country and the growing need for power. On top of that, people might say ‘well, you’re a power plant, so you can’t be good,’ but we look at our process com-pared to the alterative process for waste disposal. When you are landfi lling, you’re taking a garbage truck of waste and put-ting it into the ground—it’s going to de-compose and turn into methane, which is 20 to 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas (GHG) than any other out there.”

He adds that while avoiding meth-ane and GHG creation, Covanta Energy also doesn’t add to truck traffi c and die-sel emissions associated with transporting

truckloads of trash to landfi lls that are typically farther away from the commu-nities they serve than renewable energy plants. “You need more trucks, more die-sel, and on top of that you’re not going to produce as much power out of a ton of trash, as you will at one of our plants,” he says. “Out of 1 ton of trash, we’ll produce about 600 kilowatts, whereas a landfi ll gas plant—if the landfi ll has one—will only produce between 75 and 150 kilowatts per ton. So those are some huge benefi ts—when you consider all of those things, we’re actually a GHG reducer compared to the alternatives, and we pride ourselves on what we do—we provide a service that is exceptionally good for communities, the economy and the environment.” BIO

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

INDUSTRY


INNOVATION

From Scientifi c Breakthrough to BusinessWhen Ramon Gonzalez discovered the secret to coaxing industrial E. coli strains to anaerobically ferment glycerin, commonly found in ethanol and biodiesel plant waste streams, he suspected it would be signifi cant to the biofuels, ethanol and biochemicals industries. GlycosBio, the company founded around that discovery, is now on the verge of commercializing its biochemical production capabilities.

By Lisa Gibson

PHOTO: ELIZABETH SLAVENS, BBI INTERNATIONAL


INNOVATION

ears of study had convinced most researchers and scientists that the common lab microorganism E. coli could not ferment glycerin anaerobically to produce ethanol and biochemicals. So in 2004, when Ramon

Gonzalez, then a professor at Iowa State University, discovered it was possible, he anticipated it would have a signifi cant impact on the biofuels and biochemicals industries and co-founded a com-pany, GlycosBio, in 2007 to capitalize on it.

Glycerin is a waste product of biodiesel production and is found in ethanol thin stillage, along with waste from other indus-tries. It was in abundant supply at the time of his discovery, as it is now. “It was obviously very important because of the belief that it was not possible,” says Gonzalez, now a William W. Akers assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomo-lecular Engineering at Rice University in Houston. Another reason the discovery was signifi cant is it came at a time when so many companies were looking for technologies that would enable them to make a profi t from their glycerin. “You can’t always marry those two things: fi nding something that is really exciting scientifi cally speaking, and that same thing that is exciting has an immediate ap-plication,” he says, adding that, for those reasons, he sees it as the most signifi cant discovery he’s made public in his career to date. It would have been very good anyway having just one of the two benefi ts, he adds. “It’s very appealing for me to think about.”

Gonzalez’s motivation came from the scientifi c challenge the project presented and his interest in fi nding a use for the abun-dance of glycerin, a problem he anticipated would become larger when more companies began making biodiesel.

The bottom line is that production costs of biofuels and bio-

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chemicals depend heavily on feedstock costs and Gonzalez’s dis-covery enables cost-effective production through waste products. “Having a cheap, abundant feedstock is key in the production pro-cess,” he says.

It’s All About EnvironmentGonzalez says his technique comes down to the microbe’s

environment, and compares it to human beings. “We behave in a given way based on what we have around us,” he explains. “If it is hot, we try to cool off. If it is cold, we try to put a few layers of clothes on. Organisms behave depending on their environment.” The proprietary environmental triggers Gonzalez discovered are valid for all E. coli strains he has tested, which are industrial and not strains linked to food poisoning. “The actual discovery is not really a specifi c strain,” he says. “It’s more the environment in which we put that strain to make it happy and able to ferment glycerol.”

It was previously thought that E. coli would not ferment glyc-erin because of the actual conceptual model of glycerin fermenta-tion. “Back then, when we started working on this, it was thought that in order for a microorganism to be able to ferment glycerol, it would need to be able to produce another product,” Gonzalez explains. “That product was 1,3 propanediol. E. coli does not have the ability to produce that 1,3 propanediol.” Because of that, most scientists thought E. coli could not ferment glycerin. Even under

Gonzalez’s environmental conditions, E. coli still will not produce 1,3 propanediol, he says, but it does produce something similar. “So it is not [1,3 propanediol] that actually enables glycerol fer-mentation,” Gonzalez confi rms. “The reason why they didn’t see it was because they didn’t use the right conditions.”

Utilizing that Feedstock GlycosBio co-founders saw promise and potential in Gon-

zalez’s discovery and hope its expected impact can be realized through their company. “It was more a strong understanding of the genetics and the process conditions together that allowed [Gonzalez] to discover what other people had been unable to fi nd,” said Paul Campbell, GlycosBio chief science offi cer. “If you provide oxygen, it will eat it very quickly and that’s not a problem, but that’s not interesting. Because if you have oxygen present, all you make is more biomass, more cells. You don’t make any inter-esting chemicals.”

“That discovery was so unique that it actually had enough in-terest from the venture capital community to make an investment in that discovery to commercialize that microbe to leverage it into a strategy to make biofuels or biochemicals,” says Richard Cilento, GlycosBio chairman.

“The uniqueness about the business is there hasn’t been a great deal of investment or research into existing low-value or unique


feedstock sources,” Cilento says, adding that low-value feedstocks are what drove interest and excitement from GlycosBio found-ers in helping Gonzalez commercialize his discovery. Most public domain work focuses on sugars, a single-feedstock strategy, which Cilento says is a mistake.

Besides glycerin, GlycosBio’s microbes can ferment feed-stocks such as gums, fatty acids, crude oil extracts from animals or plants, and the system is even compatible with algae. Most of those feedstocks are waste products from certain industries such as food rendering or oleochemicals production. Once operating at commercial scale, GlycosBio will license its microbe technologies to companies such as biochemicals and biofuels producers, which will produce the desired chemicals from their waste streams for a cost savings or even a possible profi t. For instance, adding fer-mentation equipment and microbes to a biodiesel plant can create a biochemical worth 70 cents to $1.20 per pound from crude glyc-erin, which is valued at 6 cents per pound, Cilento says. All biod-iesel and ethanol plants are target customers, along with chemi-cal companies that have feedstocks available to them under their umbrellas. “GlycosBio focuses on the science and technology, and the [customer] will focus on production,” Cilento says. Biofuels companies most likely would sell the biochemicals they produce, while chemical companies would consume them, Cilento explains, as they are a 100 percent replacement for petrochemicals.

The palm oil industry in Malaysia also has potential to ben-efi t from the company’s technologies, Cilento says. “There’s a tre-mendous amount of free fatty acids that come out of the refi ning palm oil process,” he says. Malaysia also has a number of biodiesel manufacturers, opening the door for GlycosBio to ferment their glycerol waste streams, he adds. “So our market and our customer segment will defi nitely be more of an international fl avor, and our

strategy is to match where the available feedstock is that marries us to a region where they’d prefer to make green chemicals or bio-chemicals,” he says.

GlycosBio started with native E. coli strains and, with Gon-

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A medium-scale (250 liters or 66 gallons) GlycosBio reactor

INNOVATION

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zalez’s help, continues to improve the process to make more bio-chemicals. “Once you get the microorganism to eat glycerol, you need to tweak it,” Gonzalez says. In its native form, it will produce primarily ethanol, but with metabolic engineering, it can make bu-tanediol, hydrogen, 1,2 propanediol, and organic acids such as suc-cinic and lactic acids. “We keep engineering to produce other prod-ucts, depending on the needs of the market,” Gonzalez says. “We keep adding to the product pipeline.” The company uses mostly E. coli, but also dabbles in other microbes, according to Campbell.

How it’s Done“A lot of our process is fairly fl exible,” Campbell says. “In

other words, we’ll reuse a lot of our equipment even if we change the chemical we are going to make.” The front end of the process is mostly the same no matter what end product the technology manufactures, according to Campbell. The difference comes in the back end when separating the chemical from the fermentation broth. “That equipment will be dependent on the chemical itself,” he says. For example, if the end product is ethanol, that last step will be distillation, whereas if the end product is an organic acid, that step most likely would be ion exchange.

The glycerin requires little on-site pretreatment other than heating it up a bit to pasteurize it. The same minimal pretreat-ment is used for fatty acids or fatty acid-rich feedstock. After pre-treatment, the glycerin is mixed with a salt solution and inoculated with the microbes. As they grow, the desired end product will be produced. Different microbes are used to produce different end products, Cilento says. “If there’s a different chemical, there’s a different microbe,” he says. “Even for one chemical, there are sev-eral microbes.”

It takes about 24 to 72 hours for the microbes to ferment

the glycerin or other waste feedstock, Campbell says. After that, the fermentation “beer” is pumped into the recovery equipment. “At that point, the facility looks more similar to a traditional pet-rochemical plant because all you’re doing is recovering your mol-ecule from a mix of other items,” he explains. Fermentation is the longest step in the process, Campbell says, and recovery takes just a few hours.

“A lot of the equipment in our lab is homemade just because of our unique techniques,” Cilento says. “Our intent is to obvi-ously make it compatible with existing fermentation equipment just because those are easier to scale at commercial levels.” He adds that GlycosBio eventually will design fermentors optimized for its specifi c approach.

GlycosBio is funded through private investors now, but is open to federal or state funding opportunities. Cilento has looked into some of the new federal loan and grant programs, he says. “It’s something that makes sense, it’s just about time and energy and how likely it is to get,” he adds. “Right now, from a funding perspective, we’re not necessarily in need, but we can at least take a look at it.”

The company has no active customers using the technology yet, but is in discussions with several companies interested in pro-ducing and using biochemicals. “We’re just excited to be at that phase from a development perspective,” Cilento says.

“The benefi t of our strategy is there are existing feedstocks available within industries that need help,” he emphasizes. “We come with a brand new idea and they don’t have to change any-thing. That’s a pretty easy story to tell.” BIO

Lisa Gibson is a Biomass Magazine associate editor. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 738-4952.

INNOVATION


ENVIRONMENT

A New Climate Change Mitigation Tool

The buzz about biochar is getting louder. Many companies have recently unveiled biochar production systems, and advocates are campaigning to include the soil enhancer in global carbon emission reduction policies.

By Anna Austin


ENVIRONMENT

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iochar, also called Agrichar or “terra preta” (meaning dark earth in Portuguese), is being lauded as the key to balanc-

ing carbon emissions and restoring soil fertility. The fi ne-grained, highly porous charcoal can be produced by heating bio-mass in an oxygen-starved environment. Many companies—some working quietly for years—have focused their efforts on developing and commercializing pyroly-sis or gasifi cation biochar production sys-tems, and are now displaying them to the public.

Whether they are at the commercial-ization stage or still a few years away, as in any industry, these companies can only go so far if the market for their product isn’t there. That’s where the umbrella of biochar lobbying groups, the Interna-tional Biochar Initiative comes in. The group has been pushing for biochar’s ac-ceptance into the United Nations Frame-work Convention on Climate Change as a vital tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation technology, and is making headway. If achieved, the IBI is confi dent that most nations will consider biochar as a credible climate change mitigation op-tion, which could help put a fl oor under the market.

According to the IBI, biochar can improve the Earth’s soils, reduce green-house gas (GHG) emissions and seques-ter atmospheric carbon in a stable soil carbon pool, and improve water quality by retaining agricultural chemicals.

Meanwhile, the biochar buzz is get-ting louder among farmers, scientists and government offi cials, and those already in the business might fi nd themselves way ahead of the pack if they are able to maintain their viability while the biochar market framework is being constructed.

What’s Cooking? There are two main ways to produce

biochar—pyrolysis and gasifi cation. Py-rolysis systems use kilns, retorts and oth-er specialized equipment to contain the baking biomass while excluding oxygen. Gasifi cation systems produce smaller

quantities of biochar in a directly heated reaction vessel with introduced air.

There are two types of pyrolysis systems—fast and slow. Fast pyrolysis produces more oils and liquids, such as bio-oil, while slow pyrolysis produces more synthesis gas and is used to make a solid fuel.

Colorado-based Biochar Engineering Corp. recently unveiled a mobile pyrolysis biochar production unit at the 2009 Inter-national Biochar Conference in Boulder, Colo. The system didn’t come to fruition overnight, according to Doug Guyer, company spokesman, as it has been in development for the past four years.

The 5-feet wide, 12-feet long, 7-feet tall system, dubbed the Biochar 1000 is capable of handling 1,000 pounds of in-put per hour, in this case wood chips, and achieves biochar yields of roughly 25 per-cent, according to Guyer.

“Whether it’s a farm co-op sharing the unit, or the forest service, it’s mo-bile and can be brought to where slash piles are being handled and used to make biochar instead of burning the slash,” he says. “The biochar can then be incor-porated right back into the forest soil or sold locally.”

Guyer says the company sold the fi rst two Biochar 1000s, which cost about $100,000 each, to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to research biochar’s benefi ts in mine reclamation, and to the North Carolina Farm Center for Inno-vation & Sustainability, which recently received a $1.2 million, three-year grant for biochar research, and will feature the system in a biochar demonstration center under their management.

Mantria Industries LLC recently opened a biochar production facility in Sequatchie County, Tenn. The operation, which utilizes a fl ash carbonization tech-nology, was developed at the University of Hawaii. A typical system consists of two 3.5-ton reactor units, which are pres-surized and sealed once the feedstock is loaded into canisters and placed inside. Electric heaters are turned on to ignite the feedstock then turned off, and the

BENVIRONMENT


ENVIRONMENT

autoclave temperature is controlled by a dual-draft process. Under elevated pres-sure and heat—temperatures ranging from 400 to 800 degrees Celsius (750 to 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit)—the biomass carbonizes. During carbonization, gases from the process are pumped through catalysts, broken down into simpler com-pounds and sent through fi lters for scrub-bing. When the 25-to-40-minute process is complete, the biochar is set in a cooling pool for 24 hours.

Mantria CEO Troy Wragg said the company has also contracted 30,000 square feet at a distribution center in Atlanta, Ga. “We have an advanced bag-ging system in place so we can quickly get the product into the market,” he says. “Material handling is one of the biggest costs in any type of fertilizer or soil amendment market, so that’s one of the things we’ve stepped up on—providing the same type of standards the pot ash or fertilizer industry has, but creating the actual logistical distribu-tion and shipping capabilities that other companies don’t have.”

Wragg says the company already has contracts in place for its EternaGreen

biochar, and sees the industry gaining momentum. “I believe over the next two to fi ve years, we’ll really start to see a boon for biochar, he says. “From 2011 on, we’re going to see biochar become one of the largest commodity products in the world, and I say that only because right now our current policies nationally and internationally are focused on energy playing a role to combat climate change when, in fact, agriculturally, we stand a chance to make a bigger impact.”

That impact could be huge, from the perspective of the IBI, the moth-ership lobbying group for biochar, al-though there are still some challenges in using biochar.

Biochar and the U.N. James Amonette, IBI science advi-

sory panelist and a scientist at the U.S. DOE Pacifi c Northwest National Lab-oratory, says during the past couple of years, the IBI’s main focus has been on the UNFCCC to be held in Copenha-gen, Denmark, in December, to coordi-nate efforts to get biochar on the offi cial list of mitigation strategies that can be employed to fi ght climate change.

Biochar Engineering’s Biochar 1000 can process 1,000 pounds of wood chips per hour.

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The IBI is at the top of the biochar community, he says, and is aimed at infl u-encing national and international policies. “National and regional organizations are also springing up under the IBI, but they’re all sort of connected,” he says.

At PNNL, Amonette says his biochar research involves two aspects, the fi rst be-ing the characterization of biochar to un-derstand its chemical and physical proper-ties. “I’ve taken a number of samples from whoever will give them to me and run them through a series of tests to try to understand how wide the variability is among properties in different types of biochar,” he says. “One of the big issues we have, and this is some-thing the IBI is working on as well, is clas-sifying biochars, as some are good for some purposes, and some are not—it depends on the exact purpose. Biochar A is good for purpose A but not for purpose B, and you’ll need to know this to avoid mistakes.”

ENVIRONMENT

Some biochars may have a high pH, and if applied to a soil that is already high in pH, the plants will likely die. If applied to an acidic-poorer soil in the southeast part of the U.S., that biochar would be per-fect as a liming agent, Amonette says. This also involves understanding how much biochar is stable for long periods of time and how much will be relatively available to microorganisms, he says. “This is a vola-tile matter/fi xed carbon ratio question and this is important from a carbon sequestra-tion perspective—how you value biochar for that purpose, and that is based on how much recalcitrant carbon you have in the char. We’re developing tests for that,” he says.

Amonette and the IBI are also trying to analyze the impact of biochar as a glob-al climate mitigation tool. “We’re working on a series of models where we are look-ing at the implementation of biochar on a large scale—how big should it be, at what level does it become sustainable or unsus-tainable, and what impact would it have in terms of mitigating climate change—we’re coming up with numbers, calculating how many gigatons of carbon per year the glob-al adoption of biochar can upset,” he says.

No matter how this research con-cludes, until there is a fl oor in the market for biochar provided by carbon credits or a carbon tax on other forms of energy, it will be diffi cult to make it economically, Amon-ette believes. “That’s the bottom line, and it prevents a lot of companies from mov-ing forward,” he says. “The IBI is trying to get it established as a mitigation strategy at the global level, and then national levels will start to implement cap and trade so it can be bought and sold as a carbon miti-gation option. Then I think you’ll start to see these new biochar developers become more profi table—it’s hard to justify mak-ing $800 per year on an acre of land as a farmer, and having somebody want to sell you biochar at $500 per ton, or even $50 per ton—when you could use 50 tons per acre. If you had carbon credits on that, it’d pay for itself.”

Mantria has an advanced biochar bagging system that allows them to quickly get the product to market.

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ENVIRONMENT

Accepting and Addressing Climate Change

If the IBI is successful in Copenhagen, the group expects that in the next year or so nations will start to adapt to biochar use. Until society in general takes climate change seriously, however, there still isn’t going to be a demand for it, Amonette says.

“If you look at the other options for sequestering carbon, like geological se-questration when CO2 (carbon dioxide) is injected under the ground, that’s extremely expensive—we’re talking $300 to $400 per ton of CO2. So in that regard, there’s a lot of room for this technology to fi t in eco-nomically once society says we’re going to do something about it.”

Amonette suspects it will take a num-ber of years, perhaps even upwards of ten, before efforts to address climate change shift into high gear. “A lot can happen in the next few years, so I think it’s a matter of these companies getting established, keep-ing their heads down and trying to be fl ex-ible,” he says. “They will be in a very good position a few years out when a massive response to climate change kicks in. A lot of the small-scale biochar people I know do a fast pyrolysis system, where they have bio-oil which they can sell for the energy, but can switch over and make more biochar by going with slow pyrolysis, or just change their parameters a bit so when the price of biochar goes up they have that option as well. There is a market for bio-oil as a replacement for bunker oil and things like that as long as you can control the acidity.”

Widespread acceptance of climate change will be key, according to Amonette. “In [the U.S.], 50 [percent] to 60 percent of people don’t believe in climate change, and that’s a huge barrier to overcome,” he says. “I think the only way it’ll be overcome is if a huge piece of Greenland slides off into the ocean and disrupts the Gulf Stream; something will have to get people’s atten-tion and make them realize we’d better take action.”

Amonette and the IBI believe that the next year will be critical in terms of estab-lishing what biochar can do from a climate

change mitigation perspective, and if suc-cessful at Copenhagen, they believe it will really catch fi re. “We could see some good carbon credits a few years down the road,” he says. “It’s moving extremely fast.” BIO

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

This diagram shows how pyrolysis can turn biomass into biochar and other products. The biochar is returned to the soil to increase its fertility.

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CONTRIBUTION

TECHNOLOGY By Paul Craane

Navigating the Intellectual Property MazeFinding the shortest distance between product and protection may take forms other than patents, and may more closely align with a company’s goals and the realities of the marketplace.

n transforming biomass to power, biofuels or oth-er chemicals, equipment is used to carry out a pro-

cess to provide a product. In-novation as to the equipment, the process or the product may cause a company to seek patent protection. Depending on the nature of the product and the company’s business plan, pat-ent protection may not be the only choice, or the best choice. In certain settings, a company may be able to choose the most advantageous form of protec-

tion, and trade secret protection may be the better choice when compared with seeking patent protection. However, in cer-tain other settings, even though trade secret protection may be possible as to the equipment or the process, the decision to pursue patent protection on the product may determine if trade secret protection is really an option.

To begin, patent rights may be used to secure new and non-obvious processes, ma-chines, manufactures and com-

positions of matter. In the fi rst instance, the federal govern-ment (in the form of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Of-fi ce) must decide whether an innova-tion is suffi ciently novel and nonobvi-ous to merit protec-tion. In the second instance, the federal courts will review the determi-nation of the Patent Offi ce if the patent must be enforced to prevent infringement of those rights.

The costs of obtaining a patent can easily run upwards

of $10,000, and the time from the fi ling of the application to the issuance of the patent can be on the order of two to four years. Additionally, as a quid pro quo for patent protection, the patentee must disclose to the public his or her best mode of making and using

the innovation. Patent rights are generally limited to 20 years from the fi ling date of the ap-plication for protection on the innovation. Once the 20-year term has run, the innovation will be available to the public.

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).

Paul Craanepartner, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP

I


In the alternative, innova-tions may be protected as trade secrets. Trade secret law may be used to protect formulae, pat-terns, compilations, programs, devices, methods, techniques or processes that are not generally known or reasonably ascertain-able, and that are the subject of reasonable, ongoing measures to keep the information con-fi dential. Trade secrets are not reviewed by the government until the holder has to enforce his or her rights in court.

Trade secret protection can be far less expensive than patent protection, at least in terms of legal fees, as the daily maintenance of the protection involves the company, rather than its attorney. Unlike patent protection, trade secret protec-tion requires that the company prevent disclosure of the in-novation. As soon as the in-novation is publicly disclosed, protection may be lost. Also unlike patent protection, trade secret protection does not have a defi nite expiration date, but may extend as long as secrecy is preserved, which may be well after the 20 years afforded un-der patent law.

At some point, one must decide whether to disclose and seek patent protection or to limit disclosure and seek trade secret protection. Fortunately, the nature of the product and the company’s business plan may provide guidance as to whether patent or trade secret protection is a better choice. The decision matrix is illustrat-ed below.

Consider fi rst the scenario

where it is not possible to de-termine from the product how the biomass has been converted into the product (i.e., the prod-uct is generic). For example, the company may be converting biomass into ethanol. Because the equipment or process is not derivable from the product, the company does not have to be concerned with a third party determining the details of the equipment or the process through reverse engineering of the product (i.e., working out the trade secret from the pub-licly available material). Conse-quently, trade secret protection is an option on the process or the equipment, although so too may be patent protection.

One business plan would be for the company to sell the equipment to a large number of third parties, or to permit a large number of third par-ties to use the process for a fee (see cell A). Even if this activ-ity is accompanied by suitable contracts or agreements to preserve the confi dentiality of the information (the details of the equipment or the process), the large number of parties in-volved militates against reliance on trade secret protection. The probability of dissemination to the public is too high with a large number of parties in-volved. Under such a set of circumstances, patent protec-tion may be a more secure op-tion, and would free the com-pany from having to pursue contractual limitations on each disclosure.

A second business plan would call for the company to

use the equipment or process internally and then sell the product, or to confi ne the per-mission to use the equipment or the process to a limited number of third parties (see cell B). In keeping with such a business plan, the control would appear far more certain. Consequently, while patent protection may be considered, trade secret pro-tection may be a better option because the chances for loss of the trade secret are minimized. The advantages would be a lon-ger period of protection, imme-diate availability of protection, and potentially reduced costs for obtaining the protection.

There is the possibility of independent discovery, where-by the same innovation is ar-rived at by a third party without access to the trade secret, in which case trade secret protec-tion may be lost. However, the more complex or unusual the equipment or process, the less likely this is to be a consider-ation. Even with a relatively simple improvement, where the product is generic and the access is limited (see cell B), trade secret protection for the equipment or process appears a strong alternative to patent protection.

Consider now the scenario where the product also is new and potentially nonobvious, such as where the biofuel is chemically altered by the inno-vative process, and the altera-tion improves its stability or its combustibility. In such a set-ting, patent protection could be sought on the product. Where the business plan includes in-volving numerous third parties, the recommendation would be to seek patent protection on the equipment or process as well (see cell C), in keeping with the discussion above. But what if the business plan did

not initially include widespread sale of the equipment or licens-ing the use of the process (see cell D)? Could the product be patented while the equipment and process are kept as a trade secret?

Even though secrecy as to the equipment or process may be achievable by limiting the number of parties having access to the equipment or process, to apply for patent protection on the product, it is necessary to disclose the best mode of mak-ing or using the product. Thus, it may be necessary to disclose the equipment or process in the application. Therefore, if patent protection is sought on the product, the company may have no choice but to seek patent protection on the equipment or process because it will be necessary to disclose the details of the equipment or process in seeking patent protection on the product. On the other hand, if the company foregoes patent protection on the product, the equipment and process may still be maintained as a trade secret (assuming that the equipment or process is not derivable from the product).

In the end, sometimes foregoing patent protection is the right decision to make, be-cause there are other forms of legal protection that may more closely align with a company’s goals and the realities of the marketplace. Considering the nature of the product and a company’s business plan, trade secret protection may be a bet-ter choice than patent protec-tion in certain circumstances. BIO

Paul Craane is a partner at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP. Reach him at [email protected] or (312) 474-6623.

TECHNOLOGY By Paul Craane

Product GenericProduct Unique

Widespread UsePatent (A)Patent (C)

Internal Use/Limited UseTrade Secret (B) Depends on Protection Sought for Product (D)

Patent Versus Trade Secret Decision Matrix


CONTRIBUTION

EQUIPMENT By Jim McMahon

Geomembrane Cover Improves Biogas Collection, Heat Retention, Odor ControlCanadian corn products refi ner, Casco, recently upgraded its 4 million-gallon wastewater anaerobic digester to include a state-of-the-art fl oating and insulated geomembrane cover, designed and installed by Geomembrane Technologies, effectively streamlining biogas collection, improving odor control and optimizing bioreactor heat retention.

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).

asco Inc. is all about processing corn products. As one of Canada’s biggest and oldest, manu-

facturers of corn-refined in-gredients such as sweeteners, starches, oil and animal feed, its products are used in more than 60 industries from food and beverage to pharmaceu-ticals to paper manufacturing

and animal nutrition. Com-bined, its three manufactur-ing facilities in Ontario, pro-cess 4.5 million bushels of corn each month. One of its plants, in Cardinal, on the St. Lawrence River and 50 miles south of Ottawa, is among the most automated corn wet-milling facilities in the in-dustry. Opened in 1858, and processing 70 million pounds

of corn monthly, the facility manufactures high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, specialty starches and corn oil for Ca-nadian and U.S. markets.

Along with the Cardinal facility’s high-volume of corn processing production—it runs 24 hours, seven days a week—is the plant’s need to process a continuing effluent of organic waste. A total av-

erage volume of 792,000 gal-lons (106,000 cubic feet) of wastewater per day enters its treatment facility. Eighty per-cent of this effluent is first processed through its anaero-bic digester.

Wastewater Generation from Corn Processing

Casco’s bulk volume fer-menter (BVF) was designed

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Casco’s new GTI fl oating membrane cover


and built in 1988 by ADI Sys-tems. It is limited to receiving 641,000 gallons (85,000 cubic feet) of wastewater per day, as specified by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), the agency responsible for setting wastewater standards in On-tario. This effluent is gener-ated from several areas of the plant through a wet milling process, where various com-ponents from the exterior and interior of the kernel are mechanically and chemically separated.

Essentially, a softened-kernel mixture is ground in a mill to separate the starch and gluten from the hulls. The hulls are then used as animal feed. The protein, also called gluten meal or corn meal, is separated from the starch. There is little effluent from this stage because most of the water gets recirculated to minimize loss of the starch or gluten.

The starch, now separat-ed, is either refined into sugar, or turned into a food-grade or industrial-grade starch. A starch slurry is introduced into several process streams where various surfactants (surface active agents) pro-duce chemical modifications to the physical properties of the granules to meet require-ments for different grades of

starch. The processing of the starch accounts for 10 per-cent of the wastewater efflu-ent going into the BVF.

During the conversion process for changing the starch to sugar, ion exchange resins are employed requiring the use of hydrochloric acid and caustic for regeneration. The initial regeneration flow, along with any sugar that is rinsed out with the resins, goes out as wastewater to the BVF reactor. Subsequent rinses that have a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of less than 1,000 parts per mil-lion (ppm), are diverted to the plant’s aerobic basin of the waste treatment plant. The sugar refinery is the big-gest supplier of wastewater to the system, accounting for 70 percent of the plant’s total effluent. Various other processes of the plant supply trace volumes of effluent to the BVF.

Cover StreamlinesBiogas Collection

Anaerobic digestion is a process where microorgan-isms break down biodegrad-able material in the absence of oxygen, used widely to treat wastewater sludges and organic waste because it pro-vides volume and mass reduc-tion of the input material. At

Casco, raw solids are added directly to the BVF bioreac-tor, where they are digested, minimizing waste sludge han-dling. Comparatively long re-tention times (typically great-er than seven days) and the large physical size of the bio-reactor (in excess of 4 million gallons) with a high volume of biomass maintained in it, work together to provide the system with inherent stabil-ity against shock conditions, such as by organics and solids loading, and temperature and pH fluctuations.

The biological breakdown of organic matter in the ab-sence of oxygen gives off pri-marily methane, but also car-bon dioxide and some traces of hydrogen sulfide, which al-together is labeled biogas. Al-though biogas-derived meth-ane and carbon dioxide come from an organic source with a short carbon cycle, they do still contribute to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. This is dimin-ished, however, when biogas is combusted. This energy re-lease allows biogas to be used as a fuel to run any type of heat engine, or to generate ei-ther mechanical or electrical power. In essence, anaerobic digestion is a renewable en-ergy source which converts wastewater to a methane- and carbon dioxide-rich biogas suitable for energy produc-tion, replacing fossil fuels.

The Casco Cardinal plant has used a geomembrane cover on its BVF bioreactor since it became operational in 1988. In October 2008, however, Casco upgraded to

an improved-design floating, insulated geomembrane cover with a streamlined capability to collect biogas. The cover captures and reclaims all of the biogas from the treatment process occurring inside the anaerobic tank. Without a cover, the biogas would be re-leased to the atmosphere. De-signed, built and installed by Geomembrane Technologies Inc., this new geomembrane cover is collecting an aver-age of 236,000 cubic feet of biogas per day from the BVF bioreactor at a 65 percent methane concentration.

“Over the past two years, Casco’s cover was getting to the point where it needed to be revamped or changed,” says Victor Cormier, engineer and Casco project manager for GTI. “As the previous cover aged over the 20 years that it had been in place, it be-gan to have issues inhibiting biogas collection. Our latest floating geomembrane cover system is significantly differ-ent from the previous cover. The prior cover fluctuated up and down with the wastewa-ter level inside the tank. The new-design GTI cover system is a trampoline type, it has no folds and the material is quite taut.”

Casco’s new floating and insulated geomembrane cover is made up of a one-inch layer of polyethylene foam lami-nated to polyethylene sheet-ing on the bottom (wastewa-ter facing) side. The top layer is a nonlaminated sheet of 40 mil specialty PVC (ethylene interpolymer alloy) that acts as a gas-tight barrier to keep


‘The prior cover fl uctuated up and down with the wastewater level inside the tank. The new-design GTI cover system is a trampoline type, it has no folds and the material is quite taut.’

Victor Cormier, engineer and Casco project manager, GTI


the biogas from passing through. It also incorporates a highly specialized weave design that provides maximum strength-to-weight ratios. Since this top sheet is exposed to the sun, it is also equipped with advanced ultravio-let inhibitors.

The cover’s polyethylene sheet-ing and insulation is not meant to be gas-tight, it is specially perforated to allow the biogas to pass through and become trapped by the top layer. This design has exceptional seam strength, extreme puncture and tear resistance, low thermal expansion and contrac-tion properties, a wide range of chem-ical resistance, high flexibility, and di-mensional stability under high loads and temperature fluctuations, making it ideal for anaerobic bioreactor float-ing cover applications.

The geomembrane cover lies on

the surface of the bioreactor, which provides buoyancy for the cover sys-tem. It works under a vacuum, using a blower system which keeps the gases withdrawn and suctioned underneath the cover. The system incorporates a novel floating-beam design which not only assists in the initial deployment of the cover panels over large biore-actors (such as at Casco), but it also creates a tent-like effect giving extra migration paths for the biogas to fol-low. The beams themselves are hollow molded plastic, but they are also bio-gas-tight. Aluminum angles are bolted down to all panel sides of the cover to make a gastight seal, and a very strong connection so the panels maintain a constant vacuum.

Not all cover designs work this efficiently, however. Polyethylene top sheets, for example, typically have a


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Casco’s 20-year-old cover prior to replacement


poor coefficient of expansion and contraction. When it gets cold, the material contracts, and when it gets warm it expands. Over time, this growing and shrinking will contort the shape of the cover, creating a series of hills and valleys that will inhibit biogas migration and collection, not to mention creating ponds of rainwa-ter. GTI’s cover system has overcome these deficiencies.

Once the biogas is collected, sev-eral options are available to the plant including disposal of the gas in a flare, or use as a fuel to provide process heat or to generate electricity. Biogas must be clean to reach pipeline quality, and must be of the correct composition. Carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen sul-fide and particulates must be removed before it can be used for heating or electrical generation. The Casco plant is currently flaring the gas, and is ex-amining options for utilizing the bio-gas within the plant.

A customized control system for the gas collection and management uses a programmable logic controller in communication with supervisory control and data acquisition control software with a personal computer op-erator interface. The software trends operational data, and Casco operators can remotely monitor and control the system.

Improving BVF Heat Retention

The efficiency of the BVF biore-actor—its ability to maintain digestion of the continuously incoming influent and its commensurate production of

biogas—is critically dependent upon keeping the temperature of the BFV reactor at 25 to 32 degrees Celsius (77 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit). This is par-ticularly important in cooler, northern climates, such as Casco’s location.

Heat loss in large volumes of wastewater translates to energy loss, and this lost heat must then be com-pensated for by adding heat. Casco has supplemented its BVF reactor with heat generated from its refinery wastewater, which has been intention-ally heated to maintain the bioreactor’s temperature.

Its new GTI geomembrane cover design provides a heightened level of insulation material to better hold heat within the reactor, and its snug fit reduces heat loss to a greater extent than the previous cover. Addition-ally, elimination of water evaporation and increased prevention of sunlight penetration improve maintenance of appropriate water temperatures. Mini-mizing heat loss, as well as preventing potential ice build-up in the BVF, has decreased Casco’s energy consump-tion and reduced its operating costs.

Averting an Unplanned Biogas Release

Casco moved ahead with the new geomembrane cover to control an un-planned biogas release and its atten-dant odor, which is generated mainly by hydrogen sulfide.

Standards set by the Ontario MOE do not allow any methane to be released to the environment from Casco’s BVF wastewater treatment. From an operating perspective, the


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Casco’s new GTI fl oating geomembrane cover is not only successfully retaining the digester’s biogas odors, and delivering a very effi cient system for the collection and management of biogas, it is also providing a strong surface to safely support foot traffi c.


company needed to have certainty that the GTI cover on the BVF would meet these standards. Complicating the problem is that just 150 feet from the bioreactor is a residential neighborhood. If a less durable cover released a concentrated cloud of methane, that cloud could drift over to the neighborhood and present a serious safety hazard if inhaled, and even more serious if it were to ignite, however unlikely.

“GTI had been doing regular in-

spections for us as part of their service on the original cover,” says Gerald Mo-rand, process engineer and environmen-tal coordinator for Casco. “Their tech-nicians advised us that the cover had become quite thin in a number of areas, and that it was getting to an imminent point where it could fail. That is when we made the decision to replace it. In ad-dition to the serious environmental and neighborhood safety implications, our

operators were now limited from walk-ing out onto the cover to measure the sludge levels. We deemed that the condi-tion of the cover made it unsafe to take these measurements.”

Challenging Cover SwitchAside from a very tight deadline re-

quired to replace the cover because of the possibility of an unplanned, and po-tentially dangerous biogas release—the GTI design, manufacturing and installa-tion team was required to complete the project in less than three weeks—a criti-cal factor was the need to execute the Casco cover switch while still operating the plant. This meant that the wastewa-ter flow from manufacturing could not stop. The solution implemented was to divert some of the plant effluent away from the BVF bioreactor to the aerobic lagoon while the work was in progress.

“We were concerned with the activ-ity of the BVF unit while the cover was off,” Morand says. “Because the biore-actor runs anaerobically, when it is ex-posed to the air we expected it to have a decrease in activity, so we did not want to overload the system. If we could decrease the COD going to the BVF it would not put too much of a strain on the system while it was exposed to the atmosphere, yet still allow it to have some nutrients so that the biological ac-tivity would remain active. We cut the wastewater volume to the BVF by 55 percent, and we overloaded the aerobic lagoon intentionally during the project to reduce the biogases in the digester while we had the cover off.”

Because the bioreactor is adjacent to the St. Lawrence River, only 25 feet of clearance was available on three sides of the system. The fourth side is bor-dered by the plant’s operating railroad line, again minimizing available space. This posed challenges with both remov-ing the old cover and installing the new one. To remedy this, GTI manufactured and transported the 130-by-410-foot



new cover in four large sections, which were folded and rolled. The rolls were placed directly onto the BVF water, one at a time, opened and connected using the GTI floating-beam design.

“The floating beams allowed us to connect the large cover panels together without having to weld them,” Cormier says. “We minimized the use of heat, because we did not want to ignite the biogas. The more we could do mechani-cally to fasten the large floating panels together without the use of electrical tools or heat, the safer the installation.”

“GTI used a combination of a large crane, fork lifts and dump trucks to help maneuver the cover sections,” Cormier says. “While we were removing pieces of the old cover, we were simultaneous-ly installing sections of the new cover to limit the reactor exposure to air and reduce the amount of odor coming off the wastewater. Usually, we remove the old cover, and install the new one by pulling one off while we are pulling on the other. In this case, because of the limited space, we had to design, build and install the new cover differently.”

Casco’s new GTI floating geomem-brane cover is not only successfully re-taining the digester’s biogas odors, and delivering a very efficient system for the collection and management of biogas, it is also providing a strong surface to safely support foot traffic. “We are quite happy with GTI, and felt comfortable working with their team,” Morand says. “They had the most intimate knowledge of our system and situation. The entire project went smoothly.”

“Companies are looking for both wastewater and freshwater cover sys-tems that are environmentally proven, energy efficient and essentially mainte-nance free,” says Hollis Cole, president and CEO of GTI. “This requires exten-sive research and development into new techniques and products, and a commit-ment to quality and performance. Float-ing, insulated geomembrane covers rep-

resent the most advanced level of this technology, especially when applied to anaerobic wastewater systems.”

Inevitably, manufacturers with an-aerobic wastewater bioreactors will gravitate to more energy-efficient cover systems to maximize biogas collection and usage, streamline their operations and improve their bottom line. Those companies that do upgrade to the latest cover technology will find themselves in

a better competitive position, particu-larly as energy costs continue to escalate and become an increasingly critical fac-tor in plant operations. BIO

Jim McMahon of Zebra Communications writes about water and wastewater sys-tems. Reach him at zebracom.net.

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B P AUPDATE

The main focus of the Biomass Power As-sociation is securing the extension of essential tax credits that are set to expire at the end of this year. In 2004, Congress awarded fi ve-year production tax credits to biomass facilities to spur investment and help ensure the continued viability of the biomass power industry. The purpose of these tax credits was to increase in-vestment in renewable energy sources that im-prove the environment and benefi t the economy. Those purposes remain critical today.

Currently biomass power generates more than half of the total renewable energy pro-duced in the U.S. Much of this production is the direct result of the 2004 tax credits, which are set to expire Dec. 31 of this year.

The truth is that these existing production tax credits remain the lifeline of the biomass power industry and are vitally important to its survival. If Congress does not extend these cru-cial tax credits, more than half of the existing biomass power facilities could be forced to shut down, and thousands of jobs would be lost.

Congress is determined to pass an Energy Bill that creates jobs and reduces America’s de-pendence on fossil fuels. Biomass power ad-dresses both concerns by creating thousands of jobs and increasing production of clean, renewable electricity. But we can’t take our eye off the needs of existing facilities while looking to develop new opportunities for growth in our industry.

Rural communities across the country rely on biomass power plants to boost their local economies. The impact of closing as many as half of today’s existing biomass facilities would be felt by the hard-working families in rural America who make their livelihood by produc-ing clean energy. In these economic hard times, the last thing Congress should do is abandon the clean energy workforce of America’s heartland.

In addition, many southeastern states lack sustainable sources of wind and solar power.

Electricity from biomass is the only way these states can achieve a meaningful mandate for renewable electricity. Failing to extend these tax credits would deal a devastating blow to the biomass power industry and mark a major setback in build-ing a green energy economy.

Recently, the BPA joined with the RES-Alliance for Jobs to sup-port an aggressive federal renew-able electricity mandate of 25 per-cent. Losing these tax credits would not only discourage future investment in biomass power, but it would also virtually eliminate any chance at meeting the goals of a new federal renewable electricity standard.

What’s worse is that these tax credits were awarded to biomass power at half the rate of competing renewables like wind and geother-mal—leaving biomass at a serious competitive disadvantage. Both wind and geothermal were granted 10-year terms for their production tax credit and at twice the rate of biomass. If Con-gress is serious about moving America’s econo-my towards clean, renewable energy, then policy-makers need to stop picking winners and losers and give biomass power the same tax credits as other renewables.

Both Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., have sponsored amendments (S. 870 and H.R. 2528) designed to provide an additional fi ve years of tax credits to these biomass power facilities. The BPA will continue to urge support for these tax credit ex-tensions and to ensure that biomass power plays a major role in building tomorrow’s green en-ergy economy. BIO

Bob Cleaves is president and CEO of the Biomass Power Association. To learn more about biomass power, please visit www.USABiomass.org.

Congress Must Support the Clean Energy Workforce

Bob Cleavespresident and CEO, Biomass Power Association


EERCUPDATE

The world of biomass is bursting with hope for algae, however, we must avoid the course of irrational exuberance that plagued past technologies. Many look to algae as the renewable resource to win the battle over global warming, and provide the U.S. with en-ergy security. In reality, algae hold great promise as a resource that, if developed correctly, could become a sustainable biomass source for energy and fuels. We are still years away from developing meaningful quan-tities, and prudence must govern the safe develop-ment of natural algae strains that will have no adverse impacts on ecosystems.

No one can deny the potential of algae. Unlike traditional oilseed crops, which produce 10 to 100 gal-lons of oil per acre, algae are mega oil producers capa-ble of producing 1,000 to 5,000 gallons of oil per acre. Oil collected from algae looks very similar, chemically, to crop oils and can be converted to renewable fuel using existing technology. Algae also do not compete with food sources, can grow in nonpotable and saline water on otherwise nonproductive land, treat polluted waters and recycle carbon dioxide (CO2). So if algae are so phenomenal, why aren’t we using them to pro-duce biofuels on a large-scale today?

Many challenges to large-scale algae-derived re-newable fuel exist and span the entire process from algae strain selection, through harvesting, to fuel con-version.

Although great strides have been made, algae pro-duction remains a challenge. Algae grow in shallow ponds or bioreactors where they use photosynthesis (sunlight, CO2 and other nutrients) to grow, reproduce and generate oil. Advancements are needed to opti-mize the supply of light, CO2, and nutrients to the algae.

Because of algae’s small size, and tendency to plug/foul fi lters, harvesting it from water is challeng-ing. Once harvested, the algae undergo energy-inten-sive drying and oil extraction processes. Research is ongoing to fi nd ways to more effi ciently collect oil and algae solids from their waterborne state.

Economics are also a major challenge facing algae’s future in the renewable fuels industry. Currently, the price of feedstock makes up the largest cost of pro-duction and can contribute 80 percent to 90 percent of the fi nal fuel price. The hope is that algae will have the ability to produce oil at a price competitive with petro-leum oil at $1 to $2 per gallon. To achieve this, technology advance-ments need to be demonstrated, but additional characteristics of algae will also need to be fully utilized. Treating impaired water and capturing CO2 will improve the economic viability of algal-based systems. Addition-ally, the identifi cation and extraction of other valuable products within algae, such as nutrients or pharma-ceuticals, will aid in the economic viability of algae.

Working to overcome these challenges and un-leash the potential of algae, the Energy & Environ-mental Research Center continues to develop path-ways to convert algae to renewable fuels. The EERC is currently teamed with Science Applications Inter-national Corp., and others to further demonstrate the EERC process to convert any oil, including algae oil, to “drop-in” compatible fuels.

The EERC has maintained its focus on produc-ing drop-in compatible renewable fuels, meaning that they are virtually indistinguishable from traditional petroleum-based fuels. The EERC and others are en-gaged in developing an economical process for the production and subsequent conversion of algal bio-mass to liquid fuels that are identical to gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. These algae-derived renewable fuels have the potential to rival petroleum fuels and truly be the new super fuel. BIO

Chad Wocken is a senior research manager at the EERC. Reach him at [email protected] or (701) 777-5273.

The Power of Algae

Chad Wockensenior researchmanager, EERC


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