Biomass
Archived Posts from this Category
Vermont college named “greenest school”
Posted by admin2 on 22 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass, Conservation, LEED
The Sierra Club has named Poultney, Vermont’s Green Mountain College the country’s greenest school.
So, what does it take to be one of the nation’s green schools? A biomass plant might be a good place to start. Indeed, Sierra’s decision to give more weight to each school’s energy supply really shuffled the list. In fact, Green Mountain College was ranked 35th last year. No doubt, a large portion of this improvement can be attributed to the school’s new biomass plant, a $5.8 million plant opened on Earth Day of 2010. The school intends to be carbon neutral as early as next year, after reducing its carbon emissions by 50% upfront. The biomass heating plant allows GMC to heat its 155 acres of campus buildings by using green woodchips. In fact, the plant will burn an estimated 4,000 – 5,000 tons of locally sourced woodchips annually, shifting 85 percent of current fuel oil usage to biomass. While the plant supplies 20% of the school’s electricity, the school purchases an additional 54% of its electricity through Central Vermont Public Service’s Cow Power program. Such power helps support local dairy farmers by generating biogas from the methane of cow waste.
Cellulosic biomass converted into jet fuel
Posted by admin2 on 03 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass
Colorado-based Gevo has successfully converted fermentable sugar from cellulosic biomass into isobutanol and eventually to paraffinic kerosene (jet fuel).
The company, which is funded with a $1.8 million grant from the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture Biomass R&D Program, said it converted fermentable sugars from cellulosic biomass into isobutanol, which was converted to isobutylene and paraffinic kerosene.
British food store’s fuel to be 100% biomass
Posted by admin2 on 10 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass
British food store, Waitrose, is building a new store in the Isle of Wight that will be powered completely by biomass.
The retailer has submitted a planning application to the local council to turn a local electricity substation into a biomass plant to provide all the electricity, heating and cooling needs for the 18,000 square foot store currently under construction in the town of East Cowes. If it is approved, the scheme will mean the new Waitrose will be able to operate ‘off-grid’ and have a ‘carbon negative’ footprint.
32% of Sweden’s energy comes from biomass
Posted by admin2 on 03 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass
Sweden is one of the world’s leaders in renewable energy use. 32% of its energy consumption in 2009 was generated by biomass.
The total energy consumption generated from biomass in Sweden grew from 88 terrawatt hours (TWh) to 115 TWh between 2000 and 2009, while the usage of oil-based products declined from 142 TWh to 112 TWh during the same period, according to the Swedish Bioenergy Association Svebio.
Biomass surpassed oil to become the number one source for energy generation in 2009, accounting for 32% of the total energy consumption in the country. It is projected that biomass consumption will continue to increase by another 10% in 2011.
Biomass conference to be held in May
Posted by admin2 on 01 Apr 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass
The 2010 International Biomass Conference and Expo will be held on May 4-6 In Minneapolis, Minnesota.
At the BIOMASS Conference, future and existing biofuels and biomass power producers will have an opportunity to network with waste generators and other industry suppliers and technology providers. They will rub elbows with utility executives, researchers, policy makers, investors, project developers and, of course, farmers, the original bioenergy pioneers and current purveyors of dedicated energy crops and ag residues.
Tires made from biomass soon available
Posted by admin2 on 28 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass
Biotech firm Genencor has developed a way to create isoprene from biomass. Isoprene is the key molecule in rubber. The biomass-based isoprene is called BioIsoprene.
Genecor’s research partner, Goodyear, has already made a few low-carbon BioIsoprene-based tires. What’s more, the manufacturing process scales. According to Genecor, the total yearly BioIsoprene market could reach $1.2 billion as soon as 2012.
Germany uses 10% renewables in 2009
Posted by admin2 on 26 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro, Solar, Wind
Germany is well on its way to its 18% renewable energy goal in 2020. The country used renewable sources for 10% of its energy needs in 2009.
Energy produced by sources including biomass, geo-thermal, hydro-electric, solar and wind accounted for 10.1 percent of the total consumed by Europe’s biggest economy, up from 9.3 percent in 2008.
Biomass sources were the single biggest supplier.
Inexpensive GlidArc reactors can produce super-clean fuels
Posted by admin2 on 23 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass
A report presented by Albin Czernichowski, Ph.D. at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society described how an inexpensive device called a GlidArc reactor can produce clean fuel from waste materials.
Czernichowski noted that the reactors, about the size of a refrigerator, are custom designed to clean dirty gases produced by a low-tech gasification of locally available wastes, biomass, or other resources to produce clean mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas to synthesize biofuels. Corn farming regions, for instance, could use corn stover (leaves and stalks left in the field after harvest) as the raw material. In urban areas, waste cooking oil from restaurants could be the raw material. In regions that produce biodiesel fuel, glycerol could be converted into clean fuels. Czernichowski pointed out production of biofuels results in huge amounts of glycerol byproduct — 200 pounds for every 2,000 pounds of biodiesel. The glycerol is expensive to refine to the high purity needed for commercial use. GlidArc reactors could transform glycerol into a clean synthesis gas (the carbon monoxide and hydrogen) for production of fuels, he said.
EU to meet 2020 renewable energy standards
Posted by admin2 on 13 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass, Conservation, Geothermal, Hydro, Ocean Energy, Osmotic, Solar, Wind
The member nations of the European Union expect to achieve 20.3% renewable energy consumption by 2020, exceeding the 20% target.
In a summary of national forecasts, the Commission says the EU will reach an overall share of 20.3% from renewable sources. 10 of the 27 member states are likely to exceed their targets for renewable energy, with another 12 countries to meet their goals domestically.
Concentrated solar used to turn biomass in to biofuel
Posted by admin2 on 11 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass, Solar
Sundrop Fuels, Inc., has developed a process using concentrated solar to vaporize biofuel that produces twice as much fuel as conventional gassification.
Sundrop’s process works using a network of solar mirrors that point sunlight to a gasifying unit. The unit heats up ceramic tubes to 1,200 to 1,300 degrees C–hot enough to vaporize any biomass and turn it into synthetic gas. Since the unit operates at such a high temperature, it doesn’t leave behind nasty tar like conventional systems. And while other gasification units require biomass for heating, the Sundrop system relies solely on solar power–so all of Sundrop’s biomass can go directly towards manufacturing syngas.
