Biomass Magazine - October 2007

Biorefineries in WaitingPulp and Paper Mills in a Unique Position to Diversify into Other Biomass-Based Products

US $24.95 year : www.BiomassMagazine.com

INSIDE:WINDOW MAKER FIRES UP $22 MILLION STEAM PLANT

October 2007

PHOTO: Glenn Ostle/Paper360

The BBI Biofuels Workshop & Trade Show Series focuses on near-term development of commercial-scale ethanol and biodiesel production, and provides information and expertise that specifically targets regional challenges and opportunities for further development of the biofuels industry.

Be part of a rapidly growing industry and network with current and future biofuels producers, industry suppliers, marketers, feedstock producers, policymakers, government officials, researchers and academia from your region.

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In partnership with:

Western RegionOctober 9-11, 2007

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Eastern RegionNovember 28-30, 2007

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10|2007 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

INSIDE October 2007 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 5

FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 POWER Landfill Eliminators

Plasma gasification techniques are being employed to convert municipal solid

waste into energy. The process, which some believe could revolutionize waste

management, yields syngas and a byproduct used in road construction.

By Jessica Ebert

26 PROFILE Steam-Powered Window Plant

Andersen Corp. uses the wood waste from its window and door manufacturing

process to fire its $22 million steam generation plant. The plant is unique in that it also

utilizes a warm water recovery system for heat. By Ron Kotrba

32 PROCESS Making the Most of Manure

Anaerobic digestion is the perfect manure management system for dairy

operators looking to reduce odors and greenhouse gas emissions, and

generate electricity and fertilizer. Before installing such a system, however,

farmers should determine whether it’s a good fit for their operations.

By Bryan Sims

38 FUEL Not so Run of the Mill

Are pulp and paper mills positioned to transform into biorefineries? That would seem

to be the case as many are taking a closer look at gasification, biomass

boilers and renewable fuels production. By Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

44 PYROLYSIS Agrichar Rejuvenates Tired Soils

Researchers have discovered that ancient Amazonians were able to improve

unproductive soil by incorporating charcoal. The discovery may lead to incredible new

markets for companies working on the fast pyrolysis of biomass, which produces

bio-oil and a pure carbon sometimes referred to as agrichar. By Jerry W. Kram

50 RESEARCH Analyzing the Energy Values of Enhanced Biomass

Crop residue is receiving heavy interest from ethanol producers as a feedstock, but

it may also provide power. A researcher is attempting to create a renewable, localized

power source from energy-enhanced biomass. By David L. Wertz

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

06 Editor’s Note

07 Advertiser Index

09 Industry Events

13 Business Briefs

14 Industry News

55 In the LabIs it Biomass?

Radiocarbon Testing Can Tell the Real McCoy

By Jerry W. Kram

57 EERC UpdateA Road Map for Biofuels Research—

Production of Green Diesel

By Joshua R. Strege

POWER | PAGE 20

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2007

editor’sNOTE

Give retailers latitude to take us beyond the wall

ommercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants will likely start production by 2010 at

the same time the United States will be producing 15 billion to 17 billion gallons

of grain-based ethanol per year—enough to quench the demand for E10 use

coast to coast.

Syncing production capacity with E10 demand is practical, but it does little to lessen

the United States’ reliance on foreign oil. Experts say two things will simultaneously occur

when the nation’s annual ethanol production capacity hits 15 billion to 17 billion gallons:

1) Corn prices will ascend to a level that makes any additional corn-based ethanol pro-

duction economically unfeasible; and 2) Nearly every gallon of gasoline in the United

States will contain 10 percent ethanol. That’s when America will hit the so-called “E10

wall,” a point at which corn-based ethanol production and E10 markets peak concurrent-

ly.

Of course, cellulosic ethanol has the potential to take us far beyond that proverbial

wall. However, assuming that cellulosic ethanol will be produced commercially—and in

huge volumes—how, where and why will new markets for this added production capaci-

ty arise?

Proposed federal legislation would raise the national renewable fuels standard to 36

billion gallons and include “advanced biofuels carve-outs” to guarantee early life for cellu-

losic ethanol. Beyond that, consumer demand for price-competitive E85—or other high

blends such as E20 to E50—will drive the market. The widespread acceptance of

“blender pumps” that allow drivers to make their own ethanol blend purchasing decisions

could redefine the way Americans think about transportation fuels. At the same time, it’s

possible that we’ll soon see the emergence of fuel-efficient flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs)

that aren’t just capable of running on ethanol blends, but are optimized for them.

Finally, with the availability and widespread acceptance of higher ethanol blends

(E20 to E85) being necessary for the long-term success of cellulosic ethanol, producers

and retailers should be given increased latitude to price biofuels competitively without

being hamstrung by “minimum markup” laws originally designed to prevent unscrupulous

gasoline retailers from putting their competitors out of business with predatory pricing.

Wisconsin ethanol producer Utica Energy LLC and its associated retailer Renew E85

have been sued for selling E85 at unfairly low prices, which seems ludicrous at a time

when complaining about prices at the pump is practically a national pastime. I’m not say-

ing E85 retailers should be totally sheltered from predatory pricing laws, but if this nation

is serious about lessening its oil addiction and getting beyond that E10 wall, retailers of

high ethanol blends should be granted some leeway with new market development.

C

Tom Bryan Editorial Director

[email protected]

Letter to the Editor

Senior Staff Writer Ron Kotrba’s

story in the July issue of BiomassMagazine talked about technology that

allows for the use of turkey litter [as a

power source], and provides a seem-

ingly win-win situation for a disposal

issue that has become a major environ-

mental headache due to nitrogen load-

ing and clean water issues.

I have been involved in alternative

energy—particularly biodiesel—for the

past four years, and the one thing I

have learned is that there are no silver

bullets, just “least-worst” solutions. Just

look at the sustainability issue sur-

rounding the use of palm oil in biodiesel

production.

Perhaps you could do a little

research into the apparent air pollution

concerns associated with incinerating

poultry litter—in particular, emissions of

arsenic, as well as the presence of

heavy metals in the ash, which is turned

into fertilizer. Check out www

.energyjustice.net/fibrowatch/toxics.htm

l for a start. There are trade-offs, and it

is important to understand what the full

range of issues is.

Chad Freckmann

Blue Ridge Clean Fuels


EDITORIAL

Tom Bryan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR [email protected]

Jaci Satterlund ART DIRECTOR [email protected]

Jessica Sobolik MANAGING EDITOR [email protected]

Dave Nilles CONTRIBUTIONS EDITOR [email protected]

Rona Johnson FEATURES EDITOR [email protected]

Craig A. Johnson PLANT LIST & CONSTRUCTION EDITOR [email protected]

Michael Shirek ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

Jan Tellmann COPY EDITOR [email protected]

Ron Kotrba SENIOR STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Nicholas Zeman STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Anduin Kirkbride McElroy STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Jerry W. Kram STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Susanne Retka Schill STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Bryan Sims STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Jessica Ebert STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Elizabeth Slavens GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALESMike Bryan PUBLISHER & CEO [email protected]

Kathy Bryan PUBLISHER & VICE PRESIDENT [email protected]

Joe Bryan VICE PRESIDENT OF MEDIA [email protected]

Matthew Spoor SALES DIRECTOR [email protected]

Howard Brockhouse SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Clay Moore ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Jeremy Hanson ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Chad Ekanger ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Chip Shereck ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Tim Charles ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

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Trista Lund ADVERTISING COORDINATOR [email protected]

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Tim Greer CIRCULATION COORDINATOR [email protected]

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Christie Anderson ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

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Continental Biomass Industries, Inc. 4

Energy & Environmental Research Center 19

Ethanol Producer Magazine 53

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International Biomass ‘08 Conference & Trade Show 8

International Distillers Grains Conference 56

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The first International Biomass Conference & Trade Show aims to facilitate the advancement of near-term and commercial-scale manufacturing of biomass-based power, fuels, and chemicals. Plan to learn and share information on biorefining technologies for the production and advancement of biopower, bioproducts, biochemicals, biofuels, intermediate products, and coproducts –through general sessions, technical workshops, and an industry trade show.

April 15 – 17, 2008Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

SAVE THE DATE

Biomass is the largest and most promising sustainable and renewable resource with

unlimited global applications.

Explore the Opportunities, Experience the Technology!

Sponsorship and Exhibitor opportunities now available.

Visit www.biomassconference.com for more information.

Conferences & Events . 719-539-0300 . [email protected]

In partnership with:

. Basic R&D/Fundamental Process Development . Biochemicals . Biofuels . Biopower . Bioproducts . Biorefining Concepts

. Cellulosic Ethanol . Commerical Applications . Economics and Finance . Feedstocks . Fibers . Pilot Demonstrations . Project Feasibility

TECHNICAL STREAMS WILL INCLUDE:

BBI INTERNATIONAL

green event

Event organizer:


Next Generation Biofuel Markets

October 4-5, 2007Hotel OkuraAmsterdam, The NetherlandsAfter 260 biofuels executives attended Europe’s first-ever Next GenerationBiofuel Markets seminar in March, held in conjunction with the World BiofuelsMarkets Congress, the program is back for a second installment in Amsterdam.This event will cover topics such as regulation and policy drivers, finance andinvestment, and the countdown to cellulose. +44 20 7801 6333 www.greenpowerconferences.com/biofuelsmarkets

Biofuels Workshop & Trade Show-Western Region

October 9-12, 2007Marriott Portland Downtown WaterfrontPortland, OregonThis year’s event, themed “Building a Biofuels Industry,” will address the currentstatus and the future challenges of the biofuels industry in the western UnitedStates. Two technical breakout workshops will address ethanol and biodiesel.There will also be technology roundtables and a discussion on sustainability.(719) 539-0300 www.biofuelsworkshop.com

Investors’Summit on Climate Change Investment Opportunities

October 16-17, 2007New York Helmsley HotelManhattan, New YorkThis event is designed to help investors explore new opportunities and riskstrategies related to climate-related business trends, and identify and evaluatethe impact of climate risk on their portfolios. Topics include renewable energycredits and second-generation biofuels, among many others.(800) 280-8440 www.frallc.com

Making Wood Work: Local Energy Solutions

October 16-18, 2007Holiday Inn ParksideMissoula, MontanaAt this workshop for implementing biomass boilers, the Fuels for Schools andBeyond initiative and its diverse partners will share their knowledge and experi-ence gained from implementing projects nationwide. Workshop sessions willguide participants through the ins and outs of system implementation at everystage of the process. Speaker panels will cover various topics, and the agendaincludes field tours of operating biomass boilers.(406) 363-1444, ext. 5 www.fuelsforschools.org

/biomass_boiler_workshop.html

Next Generation Biofuels for a “Twenty in Ten”World

October 22-23, 2007The FlatotelNew York City, New YorkIn order to meet President George W. Bush’s plan to reduce gasoline usage by20 percent within 10 years, this conference will discuss the development, expan-sion and commercialization of the biofuels industry. The U.S. DOE’s cellulosicdemonstration project and biomass conversion pilot project will be discussed,among other topics.(800) 280-8440 www.frallc.com

National Supply Summit

October 29-30, 2007Ritz-Carlton Lake Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaPrices for gasoline, diesel, heating oil, jet fuel and biofuels are regularly buffetedby dramatic updrafts and downdrafts, thanks to the delicate balance in NorthAmerican supply and demand. This summit analyzes whether these trends willcontinue, and addresses what needs to be done to contend with pricing andsupply turbulence. Biobased jet fuel, renewable diesel and biobutanol will be dis-cussed among other topics.(866) 620-5940 www.opisnet.com/supply

Biofuels Workshop & Trade Show-Eastern Region

November 27-30, 2007Sheraton Philadelphia City Center HotelPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaThis year’s event, themed “Building a Biofuels Industry,” will address the currentstatus and future challenges of the biofuels industry in the eastern United States.The agenda includes two technical breakout workshops that address ethanoland biodiesel, along with additional tracks for biomass utilization and celluloseto ethanol. There will also be a discussion on sustainability.(719) 539-0300 www.biofuelsworkshop.com

Canadian Renewable Fuels Summit

December 2-4, 2007Quebec City Convention CenterQuebec City, QuebecRegistration is open for the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association’sfourth annual event, themed “Building on the Promise.” Confirmed speak-ers include Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada; PhillipSchwab of Biotech Canada; Ray Foot of Canadian Pacific Railway; andRick Tolman of the National Corn Growers Association, among many others.Canada: (519) 576-4500U.S.: (719) 539-0300 www.crfs2007.com

industryevents

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Novozymes North America, Inc.77 Perry Chapel Church RoadFranklinton, NC 27525 Tel. +1 919-494-3000Fax +1 919-494-3485

[email protected]

Transforming corn and other grains into biofuels is a major

industry today. But what about tomorrow? The future of bio-

fuels will also rely on the next generation of raw materials –

biomass. At Novozymes we’re taking a fresh look at all types

of biomass, and considering how we can turn it into something

useful. And you know what? Corn cobs and wheat straw are

just the beginning. Who knows what other types of waste we

can transform into fuel?

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation. Together

with customers across a broad array of industries we create

tomorrow’s industrial biosolutions, improving our customers’

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

www.novozymes.com.

The future of fuel


Verenium to expand test siteIn its second-quarter financial reports, Cambridge, Mass.-based

Verenium Corp., formed by a merger between Diversa Corp. andCelunol Corp., announced an expansion of its demonstration-scalecellulosic ethanol plant and research facility in Jennings, La.Subsequently, the scheduled completion date has been pushed backuntil early next year. The site will be used to test various enzymecocktails and processing technologies dedicated primarily to theconversion of sugarcane waste. The facility will also be used to trainfuture commercial-scale plant operators. BIO

NREL plans biomass lab expansionIn the next two years, the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable

Energy Laboratory (NREL) plans to expand two biomass energyfacilities: the Alternative Fuels User Facility and the Thermal TestFacility. New buildings will be built at both facilities. John Ashworth,director of NREL’s National Bioenergy Center, said one reason forthe expansion is that some of the current testing equipment is beingused at full capacity. Also, NREL couldn’t replicate certain industri-al processes at scale because of the high pressures, high tempera-tures and hazardous materials involved in those processes. BIO

Multidisciplinary journal launchedBruce Dale, chemical engineering and materials science

professor at Michigan State University, is the editor-in-chief ofa new magazine launched in August. Biofuels, Bioproducts andBiorefining is published by the Society of Chemical Industry andJohn Wiley and Sons Inc. Dale leads an editorial board of sixinternationally recognized scientists and 21 advisory editors.The journal seeks a balance of peer-reviewed critical reviews,commentary, patent intelligence and business news. The inaugu-ral issue is available at www.biofpr.com. BIO

businessBRIEFS

Range Fuels adds threeBroomfield, Colo.-based Range

Fuels Inc., a proposed cellulosic ethanolproducer, appointed Dan Hannon asCFO in August to lead the company’sfinance, risk control and investor rela-tions activities.

In addition, David Tillman, aMcKnight presidential chairman ofecology at the University of Minnesota,was appointed to the company’s scien-tific advisory board. He specializes inbiodiversity and ecosystem manage-ment.

Charles Adams has joined Range Fuels’ board of directors.He currently serves as managing director in the commoditiesdivision of Morgan Stanley. BIO

Hannon

FPL Energy finds partner for citrus-peel-to-ethanol plantFPL Energy, a leading

renewable energy provider,recently signed a letter ofintent with Citrus EnergyLLC, a citrus-peel-to-ethanol technology devel-oper, to build the first com-mercial-scale citrus-peel-to-ethanol plant in Florida. Thenew facility will be collocatedwith a citrus processor andwill likely be in production inearly 2009, according toDavid Stewart, president ofCitrus Energy. In addition, the feedstock is available nearly eightmonths each year. “It’s a good business model,” Stewart said. BIO

Abengoa changes site for cellulosic ethanol plantIn August, Abengoa Bioenergy dedicated a site in Hugoton,

Kan., to the construction of a 13 MMgy cellulosic ethanol produc-tion facility and an 88 MMgy grain-based ethanol facility. AbengoaExecutive Vice President Chris Standlee said potential feedstocksfor both plants would include corn, wheat, sorghum and prairiegrasses. The cellulosic ethanol plant was originally proposed inColwich, Kan., where Abengoa currently produces 20 MMgy ofethanol from corn and milo. Standlee said community concern wasthe main reason to relocate the cellulosic ethanol plant. The compa-ny has received permits to build a second 88 MMgy grain-basedethanol facility in Colwich. BIO

FPL Energy and Citrus Energy will collocate a citrus-waste-to-ethanolplant with a citrus processing facilitysuch as this one in Florida.


industryNEWS

Daniel de la Torre Ugarte, professor of agricul-tural economics at the University of Tennessee (UT),said his department’s November 2006 study, titled“25 Percent Renewable Energy for the United Statesby the Year 2025: Agricultural and EconomicImpacts,” is currently being updated and shouldfunction as a schedule more than a prediction. The“25x’25” initiative, backed by several organizationsand individuals, detailed how to obtain 25 percent ofthe country’s energy from renewable resources likewind, solar power, and biofuels by the year 2025.

“We basically wanted to state what crop andconversion yields will be necessary to produce this much energyon this timeline,” Ugarte said. “It should be considered an agen-da for agriculture and research—not as a forecast.”

Now Ugarte and others in the department of agriculturaleconomics are evaluating the potential of harvesting standingtimber from plantations, which could contribute to and perhapsincrease the percentage of renewable energy that the UnitedStates could produce within the next 15 to 20 years. “We’re look-ing further into the incorporation of the forest sector in terms of

renewable energy production,” Ugarte said. “Thestudy released last year really only considers wastematerial, not the harvesting of trees from plantations.”

According to Burton English, another professorof agricultural economics at UT, the 25x’25 study wascritiqued for its lack of information on land-use com-petition between forestry and agriculture. “We onlystudied residues, thinnings and fuel reductions, so weare trying now to expand our evaluation of theforestry sector,” English said.

Contrary to concerns about shifting land usefrom food production to energy crops, UT’s 25x’25

study said producing 25 percent of the U.S. fuel supply fromrenewable sources won’t hinder the ability of the agricultural sec-tor to produce necessary feedstuffs. “The ways in which we pro-duce food from traditional crops may change, and there may besome difficulties along the way,” English admitted, but shiftingacres to energy crops shouldn’t hinder the ability of U.S. agricul-ture to meet its nutritional needs, he added.

-Nicholas Zeman

Analysis of standing timber next on UT agenda

English

PureVision begins construction of cellulosic biomass pilot plantColorado-based PureVision

Technology Inc., which develops cellulosicbiorefining technologies, has started con-struction of a cellulosic biomass pilotplant at its headquarters in Fort Lupton,Colo. The experimental biomass process-ing equipment is the next generation ofthe company’s fractionation technology,which can rapidly convert cellulosic bio-mass into biofuels, including ethanol, andother bioproducts such as glues, sealantsand detergents.

Since 2003, PureVision has beenusing a continuous, small-scale processdevelopment unit (PDU) with a through-put of 100 to 200 pounds per day of bio-mass. The PDU has been used to processdifferent cellulosic feedstocks and todemonstrate the fractionation process.After perfecting the patented PureVisionbiomass conversion process, the companyis now constructing a larger pilot plant

with a throughput of about three tons ofbiomass per day..

According to PureVision founder andCEO Ed Lehrburger, the company’s tech-nology entails employing a countercurrentfractionation process where the solids areseparated from the liquids. From there, thetwo materials are broken down furtherinto three streams: zylose, lignin and cellu-lose compounds. The organic compounds

can be used to produce a specific bioprod-uct or fuel. PureVision uses a wide rangeof biomass feedstocks including cornstover, sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw andsoft woods, according to Lehrburger.“[The technology] is just taking off,” hesaid. “We’ve perfected it on a small scale,and now we’re building a bigger pilotplant. We’re trying to raise money to getthe whole pilot plant program going.”

Lehrburger noted that it will likelytake until the first half of 2008 to finishconstruction of the pilot plant. Data col-lected once the pilot plant is on line willprovide design specifications to scale upthe PureVision equipment to a 100-ton-per-day demonstration-scale cellulosebiorefinery, which is slated to breakground in 2009.

-Bryan Sims


industryNEWS

Syntroleum Corp. and Tyson FoodsInc. have jointly created Dynamic FuelsLLC to build multiple, stand-alone facilitiesthat will produce what they call “ultra-clean,high-quality, next-generation renewable syn-thetic fuels,” or renewable diesel.

Once the first Dynamic Fuels facility isoperational, Syntroleum intends to furtherdevelop its trademarked, proprietaryBiofining process by adding componentsfrom its Fischer-Tropsch technology to thefront end of the plants to convert biomassinto liquid fuels.

The first facility using Syntroleum’strademarked Biofining technology will pro-duce about 75 MMgy of renewable dieselfrom low-grade animal fats, greases andvegetable oils supplied by Tyson. The $150million project is targeted to be on line in

2010 somewhere in the south-centralUnited States.

Syntroleum CEO Jack Holmesdescribed the Biofining synthetic fuel assuperior to both petroleum-based fuels andbiodiesel products. The new product willhave a higher cetane content, lower cloud

points, lower freeze points, and very lowsulfur and aromatics.

The company has experience in devel-oping Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuels fromcoal and natural gas for jet fuels. Last year, itsupplied 100,000 gallons of syntheticFischer-Tropsch jet fuel to the U.S. AirForce for testing in a 50-50 blend with con-ventional jet fuel in B-52 bombers. Thissummer, Syntroleum contracted with theU.S. Department of Defense to supply 500gallons of its synthetic jet fuel producedfrom fats for testing in military turbineapplications. The company predicts itsBiofining process will create renewable fuelscomparable with its high-quality Fischer-Tropsch fuels.

-Susanne Retka Schill

Syntroleum,Tyson partner to produce biofuels

Committee drafts woody biomass harvesting guidelinesIn 2005, the Minnesota legislature

passed a mandate requiring the MinnesotaForest Resources Council (MFRC) and theMinnesota Department of NaturalResources to develop guidelines for the sus-tainable harvest of woody biomass fromforests, brushlands and open lands.

A “confluence of interest” in biomass-to-energy production spurred the legislativeorder, along with increasing energy pricesand state-supported incentives for renewableenergy production. Also, an agreement wasrecently signed by the city of Hibbing, Minn.;the city of Virginia, Minn.; and Xcel Energyin which the two communities will supplyXcel Energy, a leading utility, with energyfrom woody biomass, explained DaveZumeta, executive director of the MFRC. Inresponse, the two state agencies appointed a12-member technical committee comprisedof soil scientists, wildlife biologists, forestmanagers, loggers and others to develop theguidelines based on existing timber harvest-

ing and forest guidelines, and a worldwide lit-erature review compiled by researchers at theUniversity of Minnesota. The new, voluntaryguidelines were approved by the committeeMay 16, and final documents will be publiclyavailable this month.

Woody biomass provides a habitat formicrobes, insects, birds and animals; filterswater destined for wetlands and other bodiesof water; and provides nutrients to the soil.The general aim of the committee was toprovide guidelines for how much woody bio-mass can be removed from forests and othergrasslands without negatively impactingwildlife and plant diversity, water quality, andsoil productivity. Although the report pres-ents numerous guidelines, the main recom-mendation on a given site is that one-third ofthe fine woody debris—the tops, limbs andwoody biomass that measures less than sixinches at the large end—be retained. This isthe equivalent of leaving one out of everyfive average-sized trees in a particular area.

“I do see a lot of potential through bio-mass harvesting to improve forest manage-ment,” said Dean Current, program directorfor the University of Minnesota’s Center forIntegrated Natural Resource and AgriculturalManagement. “We need the guidelines tomake sure it’s done in an environmentallysustainable way.”

The new guidelines have generatednationwide interest, Zumeta said. “This has-n’t been done before,” he told BiomassMagazine. He cautions that the guidelines arejust a first step. “There are a lot of researchquestions that need to be addressed,” he said.Over the next few years, the implementationand effectiveness of the guidelines will bemonitored so that revisions can make theguidelines more focused. “This is a first cut atit, and we’ll improve them down the line,”Zumeta said.

- Jessica Ebert


industryNEWS

Engineering is underway on a biomass-to-power project in southern Florida, forwhich project owner Biomass InvestmentGroup Inc. already has a 130-megawatt pur-chase agreement with Progress Energy. Basedin Gulf Breeze, Fla., Biomass InvestmentGroup plans to grow, harvest and pyrolyzeEgrass—the company’s trademarked namefor arundo donax, or giant reed, the woodwind“reed of choice,” according to Jim Wimberly,Biomass Investment Group’s vice president ofagricultural operations. Arundo donax isextremely efficient at photosynthesis,Wimberly said, which allows the plant to growone inch per day. Although woodwind reedsare made from this crop after it has grown tomaturity, Biomass Investment Group’s plansare to harvest the crop prematurely using achopper to eliminate variability of the nodes.The company will be growing Egrass onapproximately 20,000 acres. Compared withyield numbers on switchgrass, which the U.S.DOE says can average eight tons per acre peryear, Wimberly said Egrass can produce 30tons per acre per year (two harvests per fieldper year) in southern Florida. Arundo donaxseed isn't viable because it only propagates

vegetatively, which Wimberly said quells landmanagement concerns over unwanted, way-ward growth of the crop.

Biomass Investment Group is currentlyperforming front-end engineering on itsIntegrated Pyrolysis/Combined Cycle Systemfor the conversion of Egrass to bio-oil. Thepyrolysis oil will then be upgraded to combus-tion turbine fuel to generate electricity. “Fastpyrolysis is gaining attention, and we’re devel-oping proprietary technologies to improve it,”Wimberly said, adding that a 4-to-1 net ener-gy production is achieved in the company’senergy farm model. He said a project of thisnature will avoid the emission of 30 milliontons of carbon that a similarly sized, coal-based power plant would otherwise emit. Thisproject isn’t carbon-neutral, but rather carbonnegative, thanks to the immense root systemsof the plants sequestering carbon from the airunderground. Farming Egrass requires mini-mal inputs and no tilling. The front-end engi-neering is targeted for completion some timenext year.

-Ron Kotrba

Egrass power project under development

This drawing shows a proposed energy farm that Biomass Investment Group is currentlydeveloping.

Cargill Inc. has opened a center todevelop biobased chemical products. TheBiOH Polyols Research and DevelopmentCenter in Plymouth, Minn., will hostresearchers in a 19,000-square-foot facilitythat will include a pilot production area. Atthe center, the company will be researchingthe production and use of biobased ure-thane products that will be marketed underthe BiOH trademark. The initial productswill be flexible foams for the automobile,bedding and furniture markets.

Polyols are a family of alcohols withmultiple hydroxyl groups that includes gly-cols, glycerol and sugar-based alcohols.Cargill’s BiOH polyols are derived fromvegetable oils such as soybean oil. Futureapplications of the technology may allowCargill to offer replacements for otherpetroleum-based urethane products such asrigid foams and rubber-like compoundscalled elastomers. Ricardo De Genova, thetechnical manager for the BiOH brand, willmanage the new lab. “You can do thingswith this chemistry that you can’t do withpetroleum,” he said. “The potential isunlimited.”

Cargill’s BiOH products have receivedwidespread recognition, including the 2007President’s Green Chemistry ChallengeAward given by the U.S. EPA and theAmerican Chemical Society.

-Jerry W. Kram

Cargill opens polyol center


industryNEWS

An innovative plan will give an Iowa biodiesel plant a financialboost while helping the surrounding counties manage solid waste. SoyEnergy LLC, a 30 MMgy biodiesel plant that recently started initialconstruction near Marcus, Iowa, will use processed engineered fuel(PEF) pellets to be manufactured by the Cherokee County SolidWaste Department to power its processes,, said Mark Buschkamp,executive director of Cherokee Area Economic Development Corp.The pellets will be less expensive than natural gas, a more traditionalpower source.

The PEF pellet manufacturing plant will be built at a landfill thatserves three counties using a system developed by LundellManufacturing in Cherokee, Iowa. Municipal waste trucked to thelandfill will be processed to remove recyclable material, heavy plastics,metals and electronics. “What you have left is basically paper, contam-inated cardboard and film plastics like Saran wrap and grocery sacks,”Buschkamp said. “That goes through a mill and comes out as an inch-and-a-half-diameter pellet.”

Buschkamp said one of the major benefits of the project is thatit will greatly extend the life of the landfill. Currently, a landfill cell—one small, rotating area where all garbage is buried to control runoffand vermin issues—isfilled after three years. With the pellet plant, hesaid a cell will take 12 years to be filled. In addition, ash from thebiodiesel plant boilers will be used as landfill cover. Buschkamp saidthe pellet plant is slated to come on line a month or two before thebiodiesel plant is completed in the second quarter of 2008.

-Jerry W. Kram

Solid waste pellets to fuel biodiesel plant

Danish biotechnology companies Novozymes and Xergi joinedforces in mid-summer to develop new technologies and microbescapable of harnessing manure energy for the production of electrici-ty, heat, fuel and fertil-izer.

Although specif-ic details about thecompanies’ researchand developmentplans weren’t available at press time, Thomas Schafer, senior directorfor new business development at Novozymes, said representatives ofNovozymes and Xergi will meet soon to establish targets for what thetwo companies want to achieve and how the venture will move for-ward. “We have some ideas, Xergi has some ideas, and now we’reworking to leverage those,” Schafer said.

Objectives may include increasing the robustness of biogasplants by developing technologies and microbes that are insensitive tothe incoming feedstock, or by improving the efficiency of the processand thereby the yield of energy. Since Novozymes boasts one of themost diverse collections of bacteria and fungi, the company willscreen for microbes that can help to meet the set targets. Xergi excelsin engineering and will be charged with designing new technologies.“We’ll fit our biological solutions into Xergi’s technology solutions,”Schafer explained.

-Jessica Ebert

Enzymes convert biomass starches for fuel cellsResearchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

(ORNL) and the University of Georgia have proposed using polysac-charides from biomass to directly produce hydrogen in a low-tempera-ture, low-atmospheric-pressure process.

Using synthetic biology approaches, the process adds a combina-tion of 13 enzymes never found together in nature to a mixture ofstarch and water. The enzymes use the energy in the starch to break upthe water into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, said lead researcher Y.H.Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering atVirginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. A membrane bleeds off the carbondioxide, and the hydrogen is used by the fuel cell to create electricity.Water, a product of the fuel cell process, is recycled for the starch-waterreactor. Laboratory tests confirm that it all takes place at a low temper-ature of about 86 degrees Fahrenheit and under low atmospheric pres-sure.

The research was based on Zhang’s work with cellulosic ethanol

production, and ORNL and University of Georgia researchers’ workwith enzymatic hydrogen production. According to Virginia Tech, theresearchers were certain they could put the processes together. Zhang’scolleagues in the project include Barbara Evans and Jonathan Mielenzof ORNL, and Robert Hopkins and Michael Adams of the Universityof Georgia.

The next step will be to increase reaction rates and reduce enzymecosts, Zhang said. He described the energy conversion efficiency fromthe sugar-to-hydrogen fuel cell system as extremely high—more thanthree times higher than a sugar-to-ethanol internal-combustion-enginesystem. “It means that if about 30 percent of transportation fuel canbe replaced by ethanol from biomass as the DOE proposed, the sameamount of biomass will be sufficient to provide 100 percent of vehicletransportation fuel through this technology,” Zhang said.

- Susanne Retka Schill

Novozymes, Xergi to develop biogas microbes


industryNEWS

Anglo-American company LosonocoInc., with offices in London and Ft.Lauderdale, Fla., is bringing the SunshineState’s lone ethanol plant centrally located inBartow out of retirement by integrating first-and second-generation conversion technolo-gies.

The original 6.5 MMgy ethanol plantused beverage waste as a feedstock.Losonoco representative Alan Banks said theidle plant should be operational again by thesummer of 2008. In order to accomplish this,however, a feedstock choice must be madesoon; the company is looking at using either

corn or milo. The plant is located next to a135-megawatt power plant from which therecommissioned alcohol facility will receivewaste heat for processing before returningthe condensate back to the power plant for itsown operations.

In addition to the grain-based ethanolplant, Losonoco has proposed an adjacent125-ton-per-day demonstration facility thatwould gasify carbon-based feedstocks intoethanol (60 percent), ammonia nitrate (20percent) and steam to run the productionprocess (20 percent). Banks said feedstockswith up to 55 percent moisture content can

be utilized. Other feedstocks for the firstdemo plant are likely to be corn stover, citrusresidues, yard and forestry waste, switchgrass,and even the grain-based ethanol plant’s dis-tillers wet grains. Losonoco intends to use theSkygas Gasification process, a plasma-basedtechnology that Banks said requires nosmokestack because the process doesn’trelease emissions. Eventually the companyplans to rachet up its biomass-to-ethanol pro-duction in Bartow to 25 MMgy, but no time-lines have were set at press

-Ron Kotrba

Florida's only ethanol plant to reopen

Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL), anAlliant Energy subsidiary based in Madison,Wis., is waiting to see if the U.S. ForestService’s Forest Products Laboratory willaward the Southwest Badger ResourcesConservation and Development Council witha grant it recently applied for. If the councilreceives the $12,000 in funding, WPL will pro-vide an additional $12,000 and help the coun-cil obtain biomass feedstocks for a proposedboiler at the Nelson Dewey GeneratingStation in Cassville, Wis., which will provide300 megawatts of electricity to surroundingcommunities.

The new boiler would be capable ofburning at least 10 percent biomass by weight,along with fossil fuels. It would burn approxi-

mately 300 tons (15 to 20 truckloads) of bio-mass each day with the majority of it comingfrom within 30 to 50 miles of the plant. Whenthe funds would be distributed was undis-closed at press time,, according to Alliant.

“We are excited about the potential thatbiomass possesses as a major fuel source inWisconsin,” said Bill Johnson, manager ofbiofuels development for Alliant Energy.“The work that the Southwest Badger[Resources Conservation and DevelopmentCouncil] has proposed comes at a critical time

as we work to help jump-start biofuels in thestate.” Johnson, who joined Alliant in June,works with area farmers and foresters to showthe benefits of becoming a biomass supplier,while providing the company with a pre-dictable and plentiful supply of organic mate-rials.

Since 2000, Alliant Energy has been con-ducting test burns of switchgrass at itsChariton Valley Generating Station inOttumwa, Iowa. More than 6,000 tons ofswitchgrass have been processed, generatingenough energy to power 1,000 homes in vari-ous tests, the most recent of which concludedin May 2006.

-Bryan Sims

Alliant Energy awaits grant approval for Wisconsin biomass project

When a company in the field of cellu-losic ethanol research and developmentstarts to secure investment partners likeVeraSun Energy Corp., one of the nation’sleading ethanol producers, it’s going to drawa considerable amount of attention.

“It’s been very busy around here,” saidJef Sharp, CEO of SunEthanol in Amherst,Mass. “VeraSun is an important player in theestablished ethanol industry, and they canbe very helpful in the development of ourtechnology.”

SunEthanol’s technology platform isbased around the “Q Microbe,” a unique,naturally occurring bacterium discovered inthe New England soil by University ofMassachusetts microbiologist SusanLeschine. Because this bacterium can con-vert cellulose from a number of feedstocks,

it has a significant commercial feasibility,which VeraSun tells Biomass Magazine is thereason for its investment in SunEthanol.“Because this is a naturally occurring bacte-ria, we think we can convert cellulose in asimpler step, which takes some of the costout of the process,” Sharp said. “That givesus an advantage over other technologiesthat may be more complex and gives usmore flexibility in terms of feedstock.”

-Nicholas Zeman

SunEthanol secures VeraSun as investment partner

University ofNorth Dakota

Grand Forks

Backed by more than 60 years of experience in gasification technologies and more than a decade in biomass energy, the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is leading North Dakota and the nation in renewable energy technologies.

With more than 300 employees, the EERC is a worldwide leader in developing cleaner, more efficient energy technologies as well as environmental technologies to protect and clean our air, water, and soil. At the EERC, sound science evolves into true innovation. Find out more about how EERC innovatation can work for you.

www.undeerc.org EERC Technology … Putting Research into Practice

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Where Sound Science Evolvesinto True Innovation


power

The process is called plasma gasification and the technology for creating and harnessingplasma has been around for decades. However, plasma gasification technology is nowbeing used for a new purpose—the conversion of municipal solid waste-to-energy.

By Jessica Ebert

LandfillEl im inators


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lants that use extremely hightemperatures to turn munic-ipal solid waste (MSW) intoelectricity are springingfrom the soils of countriesaround the globe includingCanada, Spain, the United

States and Japan. Although the processtechnologies and temperature rangesemployed at these facilities vary, the basicconcept is the same: MSW goes in, elec-tricity comes out. In addition, unlikeincineration few, if any, emissions are pro-duced and little, if any, of the remainingmaterial needs to be landfilled.

As farfetched as it may sound, thetechnology for producing plasmas datesback nearly a century. Plasmas are gasesthat have been heated to the point of ion-

ization—meaning they are composed ofcharged particles such as electrons thatcan conduct electricity and generatetremendous amounts of heat. Lightningis an example of naturally occurring plas-ma. Since the early 1900s, plasmas havebeen used to melt metals and to makeacetylene fuel from natural gas. In the1960s, NASA developed plasma technol-ogy to simulate the intense heat of re-entry for testing the durability of certainpieces of shuttle equipment. The technol-ogy continues to be used in the metal andchemical industries and has now begun tofilter into waste management.

In the latter case, the scenario goessomething like this: MSW is shreddedinto one- to two-inch waste strips, whichare dumped into a steel cylinder. This

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P‘Plasma processing of MSW has unique treatment capabilities unequaled byexisting technologies.Plasma gasification couldrevolutionize the whole fieldof waste management.’

The plasma gasification plant in Ottawa sits on three acres across the road from the Trail Road Landfill. It processes about 85 tons ofcity municipal solid waste each day.

cupola is typically equipped with twotorches near the bottom or top, whichprotrude like perches in a canary cage.These torches house electrodes, andwhen a continuous flow of electricity isapplied, an arc forms between them.The air in the torch pushes thisextremely hot artificial bolt of lightninginto a furnace, where the MSW enters.The torrid temperatures generated bythis process, which can be hotter thanthe surface of the sun, rip apart com-pounds and convert inorganic solidsinto a glassy obsidian-like rock that canbe used in road construction. Theprocess also transforms organic materi-als into syngas that can be used to makeelectricity and liquid fuels. Since theentire process is closed to the atmos-phere, no emissions are released duringthe conversion of MSW to syngas andslag. “Plasma processing of MSW has

unique treatment capabilities unequaledby existing technologies,” says LouCirceo, director of plasma applicationsresearch at Georgia Tech ResearchInstitute. “Plasma gasification couldrevolutionize the whole field of wastemanagement.”

That’s certainly the hope of cityplanners, county commissioners andtheir comrades worldwide who feel thecrunch of ever diminishing landfillspace. The city of Ottawa for instance,has partnered with Plasco EnergyGroup Inc., a private high-technologycompany based in Canada, to process

85 tons of MSW per day over the nexttwo years. The company holds 19patents for its process technologiesincluding one for the overall plasmagasification system, explains RodBryden, president and CEO of thecompany. Bryden, who owned Ottawa’sNational Hockey League team from thetime it was an expansion franchise untilabout two years ago, has been buildingbusinesses since 1974. “Plasma-basedtechnologies have been around forsome time but I saw the opportunity tocreate a conversion business that woulddeliver environmental quality while cre-ating net energy for sale,” he says.

Plasco broke ground for the newdemonstration facility in September2006. Construction was completed inJune and the plant, which covers threeacres of grassland across the road fromthe Trail Road Landfill southwest ofOttawa, started in July. The plant beganreceiving waste from city trucks in lateSeptember.

Process VariationThe Plasco plasma gasification

process differs from the general schemepreviously described. Instead of direct-

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Refining gases rather thanwhole MSW requires lessheat from the torches, whichsaves energy.

Glassy black rocks like this are a solidbyproduct of plasma gasification.

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ly dumping the shredded MSW into aplasma torch chamber, Plasco’s processuses a separate gasification chamber toheat the strips of waste to about 700degrees Celsius (1,292 degreesFahrenheit). In this step, some compo-nents of the MSW such as water are con-verted into gas while everything else istransformed to ash. The gas rises to avertical chamber that holds two plasmatorches, which blast the gas into its basicelements. Some of these elements reforminto syngas, a mixture of carbon monox-ide and hydrogen. Before the syngas canbe scrubbed of heavy metals such asmercury, cadmium and lead as well asother undesirable chemicals like chlorineand sulfur, the syngas is cooled. Some ofthe heat released during this cooling isshuttled back to the initial chamber. Thisis the only process that recycles heat toconvert waste into syngas, Brydenexplains. “We don’t use these plasmatorches to generate gas,” Bryden explains.“We use these plasma torches to refinethe gases that have already been releasedfrom the waste.” Refining gases ratherthan whole MSW requires less heat fromthe torches, which saves energy. “This isone of the reasons our system producesso much more power than it consumes.”

The ash from that first gasificationchamber is transferred to a separate plas-ma torch compartment where it is con-verted into syngas and a hard glass-likematerial that is broken into pieces andsold for use as a construction aggregate.All the syngas that’s produced is collected

and piped to a bank of generators thatconverts it into electricity. In the end, outof 100 tons of MSW that enters the sys-tem, 4 megawatts (MW) of electricity aresold to the grid and used to power about3,600 homes, 1 MW of electricity is usedto power the plant, 15 tons of slag aggre-gate is produced and sold, and 500 kilo-grams (kg) of sulfur is sold as fertilizer.In addition, 1 kg of ash—made up ofheavy metals—is landfilled. “You couldfit a day’s disposal requirement in theglove compartment of your car,” Brydensays.

The plant in Ottawa will run for twoyears at which time the city will either dis-mantle the facility, continue to use it forMSW treatment or operate the plant as adevelopment facility for the processing ofother energetic materials that pose dis-posal challenges such as paper mill wasteand the sludge from sewage treatment. Inaddition, Plasco has a memorandum ofunderstanding with a waste managementcompany in Spain to build a plant inBarcelona that will process 200 tons ofMSW per day and two other contracts arein the works for plants in Canada. “Weexpect that by October we’ll be movingforward with commercial plants in anumber of places,” Bryden says.

Growing in PopularityOver the past several years, about 12

commercial plasma waste processingfacilities have been operating in Europeand North America, and about 10 inAsia. The waste processed at these facili-ties varies and ranges from MSW to med-ical waste, catalytic converters, asbestosand ammunition.

The largest facility in the world todate is slated for start up in 2010. Theplant will be built in St. Lucie County, abeach destination along Florida’s south-central Atlantic coast. On April 10,Geoplasma LLC, an energy developerbased in Atlanta, Ga., signed an agree-ment with the county. The company willfinance, permit, construct, own and oper-ate the $425 million MSW-to-energy

plant for 20 years.The new plant will be constructed in

two stages. The first will likely start up inthe winter of 2010 and will process atleast 1,000 tons of MSW each day andproduce enough electricity to powerabout 25,000 homes. Each gasifier unitwill house up to six plasma torches andwill process between 500 to 750 tons ofwaste. Within five years, Geoplasmaintends to scale-up the plant by addingmore gasifier reactors. At this time, theplant, which will stand on about eightacres, will process 3,000 tons of MSWper day, two-thirds of which will comefrom the existing landfill. “We’ll be ableto consume the landfill within our 20-year contract. This will be the first timethat a landfill like this has been recoveredto our knowledge,” explains HilburnHillestad, president of Geoplasma.

The plasma torches and gasificationreactors for the modules will be suppliedby Westinghouse Plasma Corp., the tech-nology developer Geoplasma has teamedwith. Westinghouse has been in the plas-ma gasification business since the 1960s.The company’s technology is being usedin two waste processing facilities in Japanand in a General Motors Corp. plant inDefinance, Ohio, for scrap metal melting.The torches in the latter plant have beenin use for 17 years and the electrodeshave been in use for more than 500,000hours. Westinghouse was recentlyacquired by Alter Nrg Corp. of Canadaand Geoplasma will be the exclusive mar-

‘It’s the most sustainablealternative technology fordisposing of MSW that weknow of at a time when wecritically need alternativeenergy supplies.’

Over the past several years, about 12 commercialplasma waste processingfacilities have been operating in Europe andNorth America, and about 10 in Asia.

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keter for the Westinghouse technologyin Canada and the United States,Hillestad explains.

“The technology is proven and reli-able,” says Shyam Dighe, president andchief technology officer forWestinghouse Plasma Corp. Althoughthe technology has been around for awhile, “now, several factors have cometogether to make plasma gasificationlike a perfect storm,” he adds.

Hillestad agrees with Dighe andadds that “over the past few years we’veseen a steep increase in energy prices inthis country and worldwide. Beforethose energy prices spiked the natural

gas community generated a lot ofpower with natural gas and we couldn’tcompete with that. Now, however, oursyngas can compete with natural gas togenerate electricity. It’s the most sustain-able alternative technology for dispos-ing of MSW that we know of at a timewhen we critically need alternative ener-gy supplies.” BIO

Jessica Ebert is a Biomass Magazinestaff writer. She can be reached [email protected] or (701) 746-

8385.

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profile

Popular window maker Andersen Corp. is commissioning its new steam plant inBayport, Minn., powered exclusively by the wood waste generated from themanufacturing of 6 million windows and doors a year.

By Ron Kotrba

Steam-PoweredWindow Plant


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inor inefficiencies typically plague the com-missioning of untried or unique industrialdesigns, which is precisely why project man-ager Larry Stevens remained on-site as theprocess unfolded at Andersen Corp.’s newbiomass-powered steam plant in Bayport,

Minn. Stevens works for PioneerPower Inc., general contractor onthis project that called for thedesign and construction of an ener-gy-efficient, clean, self-sufficientsteam generation plant fueled bywaste streams from Andersen’swindow and door manufacturingprocess. Stevens says minor snagsare always expected when a newsystem goes live and the quest forpractical optimization begins.When EPM talked to Stevens inmid-August he was coordinatingthe warm-water discharge from tur-bines at a nearby power plant—part of an energy-savings fea-ture considered to be the most distinct aspect of the new plant’sdesign.

The window maker’s plant came on line this spring, produc-ing all the steam needed to manufacture 6 million wooden doorsand windows a year. “The Bayport plant is Andersen’s mothership,” says Dan Kinrichs, Andersen facilities engineer.Andersen’s other plants across North America are mostlyassembly facilities that don’t requiresteam like the Bayport plant. Sincethe 1980s, Andersen’s Bayport facil-ity purchased a portion of its steamfrom a thermal facility owned byNRG Energy Inc., which was onthe site of a neighboring powerplant. By 2005, 60 percent ofAndersen’s steam was being pipedin from its neighbor, with theremainder generated in-house byAndersen’s increasingly antiquatedwood-fed boiler system. SusanRoeder, Andersen’s manager ofcommunity relations and publicaffairs, says the business simply outgrew its capacity to generateenough of its own steam, which led to an increasing depend-ence on its supplier.

Fueled by sawdust, shavings and wood fines (all byproductsof wood processing) from its own manufacturing process,Andersen’s new facility is self-sufficient and modern. By all

measures the project has been a smashing success, which is phe-nomenal considering the inflexible schedule project leadersfaced. They were given less than two years to have this plantrunning full steam ahead by April 2007, when Andersen’s long-time steam supply would no longer be available. Amidst all ofthis, Stevens says he dealt with the stress just fine. “I went from

looking like I was 25 [years old] tolooking 45, but I dealt with it justfine,” he laughs. The pressure wasintense as the window maker set outto determine the best solution toaddress a projected steam deficiency.

Identifying the Right Financial,Environmental Solution

Luckily for Andersen, someemployees were already investigat-ing options for steam before thecompany’s steam supply contractwas up—well before the news hitthat its current contract with NRG

would not be up for renewal. Kirk Hogberg, manager of ener-gy and environmental management for Andersen, says he andhis team eventually learned NRG’s steam plant would no longerbe running after April 2007 due to emissions reductions target-ed at the Alan S. King power plant, on which NRG’s facility waslocated. “One way for them to reduce their environmentalimpact was to stop making and selling steam,” Hogberg says.“The mood here when we found out was that it was a good

thing we started having discussionswhen we did.”

Many different proposals forsteam replacement were considered,requiring an interdisciplinaryapproach. “The decision involvedpersonnel from a wide range withinour company,” Kinrichs says.“Some of the key criteria we lookedat ranged from return on invest-ment, environmental impact andredundancy on the system. Wereceived seven or eight proposals,each with different options.”Andersen finally selected a package

and TKDA, a St. Paul-based engineering firm, was awarded thecontract in July 2005 for an April 2007 completion date. “Weapproached them with an Andersen-owned concept—a uniqueproject that met their steam needs and provided a good returnon investment,” says Charles Lederer, TKDA project managerand senior engineering specialist. Pioneer Power was selected to

MThe design-build package consisted

of a $22 million steam generationfacility to be entirely owned by

Andersen featuring all new, state-of-the-art equipment accompanied by aunique and energy-saving addendum

within the design.

Because the wood from Andersen’swaste stream is made into such a

fine, clean flour that contains no paintor contaminants, the resulting ash

content from burning it is extremelylow—two-tenths of one percent ofwhat goes in comes out as ash.


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be general contractor. The design-build package consisted of a$22 million steam generation facility to be entirely owned byAndersen featuring all new, state-of-the-art equipment accom-panied by a unique and energy-saving addendum within thedesign.

Inner WorkingsThe heart of Andersen’s new facility is the wood fuel feed-

ing it, and the burners and steam-generating boilers turning thatwood into energy and steam. Different waste wood streamsresult in differently sized wood particles like shavings, chips orfines. Depending on the particle sizes within a particular wastestream, the material is either run through a hammermill or aninitial grinder to pulverize the wood and make it into a moreconsistent size. All the woody material is turned into wood flourafter it leaves the second grinder. It’s stored in what Kinrichscalls the north brown silo and ready for use. “The wood flour ispumped from the north brown silo to the day bin, which holds

a half a day’s worth of storage,” Kinrichs says. Two augerstransport the wood flour from the day bin into the plant.

The wood flour is blown from the augers into Cohenwood-scroll burners firing three boilers made by C-B NebraskaBoiler. Each boiler is capable of producing 40,000 pounds ofsteam an hour. Lederer says all the equipment from the wall ofthe plant—where the material is fed inside—to the burners wassupplied by Cohen. “We wanted the burner operations and thefuel feed system to be matched up—it’s a keystone piece of theplant,” Lederer says. According to Stevens, the boilers and burn-ers had to be matched up by August 2006. “That was a big task,”he says. An economizer is positioned after the boilers, whichreduces the temperature of the flue gas. From there, an electro-static precipitator (ESP) collects particulate matter from thewaste gas stream. The ESP conveys an electrical charge to theparticles and initiates their collection upon metal plates insidethe precipitator, after which the collected particulate matter isdispensed into a hopper for removal. The use of an ESP rather

Community advisory boards helped shape the development of Andersen’s steam generation plant in Bayport, Minn., which won a 2007Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award.


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than a bag house offers advantages such as reduced energy con-sumption, improved performance and a longer life for the sys-tem. Because the burners and boilers had to be matched up soquickly and the ESP system had a six-month lead time, PioneerPower was forced to negotiate the purchase of the ESP beforethe final specs on the burner-boiler system were configured,Stevens says. After the exhaust gases pass through the ESP, adraft fan carries the gases up theemissions stack where the continu-ous emissions monitoring systemgrabs a final analysis of the gasesbefore they are released into theatmosphere. Because the woodfrom Andersen’s waste stream ismade into such a fine, clean flourthat contains no paint or contami-nants, the resulting ash contentfrom burning it is extremely low—two-tenths of one percent of whatgoes in comes out as ash.

Andersen’s Bayport operationproduces lots of fine particlesderived from cutting wood or from the exhaust stream justdetailed, all of which must eventually be exhausted from theplant. This necessitates a massive exodus of air jettisoned fromthe complex with every passing minute. “There’s a lot of vent-ing going on,” Stevens tells Biomass Magazine. “There’s an airdeficit of about 600,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm).” Hogbergelaborates, “With all of our different dust collecting and manu-facturing operations in Bayport, there’s a lot of exhaust. In thewinter there’s a big negative air pressure inside the facility, soTKDA came up with the idea for a warm water recovery sys-

tem.” While NRG’s thermal facility on-site of the local powerplant couldn’t provide steam to Andersen anymore, the powerplant had been releasing warm water (up to 65 degreesFahrenheit) from its turbines into the river. Part of TKDA’sdesign proposal included the utilization of this warm waterfrom its neighbor to run through four large makeup air-handlingunits each capable of ingesting 750 gallons of temperate water

per minute for a total of 3,000 gal-lons per minute. The warm water isused to temper the oftentimes sub-zero air from Minnesota winters thatrushes into the negative air-pressureenvironment inside the plant. With a600,000 cfm deficit inside the plant,the makeup air handling units utiliz-ing warm water discharged from thepower plant puts 400,000 cfm oftemperate air back into the plant,thereby reducing the amount ofsteam Andersen needs to generate.“The warm-water recovery systemeliminates the need for an additional

boiler,” Roeder says. Approximately 360,000 million Britishthermal units (MMBtu) of energy are needed to produce all ofthe steam Andersen consumes in a year; the warm-water recov-ery system recovers 50,000 MMBtu annually, which amounts toone-seventh of the total energy needed to produce all of itssteam requirements. Now that Andersen’s new plant is running,98 percent of the wood funneled through its Bayport plant iseither resident in the wooden door and window products it sells,or is consumed to generate process steam for the manufactureof those very same products.

Now that Andersen’s new plant isrunning, 98 percent of the wood

funneled through its Bayport plant iseither resident in the wooden doorand window products it sells, or is

consumed to generate process steamfor the manufacture of those very

same products.


profile

Identifying the final adjustments needed to effectivelyaddress those last remaining comissioning issues is ongoing asinefficiencies from suboptimal combustion in the burners arebeing investigated. Also, the unavoidably rushed purchase ofthe ESP before the specifications for the boilers and burnerswere fully configured has culminated in an inordinate loading of

particulates in the ESP. But these are all said to be part of thenormal routine when dialing into the optimal performance ofany new design.

Ron Kotrba is a Biomass Magazine senior staff writer. Reach himat [email protected] or (701) 746-8385.

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The labyrinth of pipes, burners, boilers and tubes inside Andersen’s steam plant was brought together by the project’s general contractor, Pioneer Power. Cohen wood-scroll burners are paired with Nebraska boilers, each producing 40,000 pounds of steam anhour fed by wood flour.


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Complaints from odor-offended neighbors and adesire to reduce greenhouse gas emissionshave prompted some dairy farmers to integrateanaerobic digestion systems into their operations. Although it’s not for everyone, usingmanure to generate power and produce a nutrient-rich soil amendment is something thatshould seriously be considered.

By Bryan Sims

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Making the Most ofM A N U R E


ne of the biggest challenges dairy operatorsface is managing ruminant manure. Many farm-ers today are using biogas recovery systems,such as anaerobic digestion to increase prof-itability, better manage crops, generate on-sitepower and ultimately improve the environment.

The environmental benefits provided by anaerobic digestersystems exceed those of conventional liquid and slurry manuremanagement systems that use storage tanks, ponds and lagoons.Dairy farmers and agricultural experts agree that the primarybenefits of anaerobic digestion are odor control, improved soilnutrient management and the reduction of greenhouse gasemissions. The process also allows for the capture of methaneand carbon dioxide, commonly known as biogas, which can besold as clean-burning electricity.

It’s often the environmental bene-fits, rather than the digester’s electricaland thermal energy generation potential,that motivate most farmers to usedigester technology. This is especiallytrue in areas that enjoy low electricpower costs.

Although anaerobic digestion canhelp farmers manage manure it won’t fixpoor management practices. “Manuredoes require a certain level of manage-

ment and a digester is not going to replace poor management,”says Amanda Bilek, energy and program associate for TheMinnesota Project. “If the management on the farm is goodthen the management with the digester will remain good.” TheMinnesota Project is a nonprofit organization founded in 1979by former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn. The project isfocused on renewable energy, farm practices and policy, and theproduction and consumption of local and sustainable-producedfoods.

Anaerobic digestion occurs when the biomass, such as ani-

mal manure, is sealed in an airtight container called a digester. Abiochemical process occurs where different species of bacteriadigest biomass in an oxygen-free environment at temperaturessimilar to those in a cow’s stomach. The different types of bac-teria produce biogas by working together to break down com-plex organic wastes. “Anaerobic digestion is more akin to a nat-ural process,” says Larry Krom, project manager forWisconsin’s Focus on Energy program. “We’re essentially work-ing with nature and we’re providing an environment to enhancethe process to produce more biogas for domestic energy use.”Focus on Energy is a statewide organization that helps residentsand businesses install cost-effective, energy-efficient and renew-able energy projects. The program also works with the U.S.DOE and other grant providers on the regulatory front to, forexample, reduce barriers to anaerobic digestion by utilizing bet-ter buy-back rates, feasibility grants, business and marketinggrants, implementation grants and equipment grants to jump-start projects.

Depending on the waste feedstock and the system design,biogas is typically 60 percent methane, and 40 percent carbondioxide, water vapor and trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide.The biogas can be used in the form of electricity, steam or heatto reduce natural gas and/or coal consumption. The electricitycan also be plugged into local utility grid.

Environmental ImprovementsDennis Haubenschild, owner of a 1,000-head dairy farm in

Princeton, Minn., installed an anaerobic digestion system in

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O

Haubenschild’s 1,000-head dairy farm in Princeton, Minn., featuresa mesophilic digester that has effectively captured methane forenergy use since 1998. It was the subject of a case study by TheMinnesota Project, which measured the economic and environmental benefits of the system.

Bilek

‘Manure does require a certain level ofmanagement and a digester is notgoing to replace poor management. If the management on the farm is goodthen the management with the digesterwill remain good.’


1998 and knows first-hand the benefits of a digester. “The envi-ronmental advantages of the digester are that every 100 cowsproduce approximately a barrel of oil equivalent of energy perday,” he says. “Agriculture should and could be supplying 50percent of our domestic energy using the tools that are alreadyavailable.”

The Minnesota Project conducted a case study onHaubenschild’s dairy farm in 1998 to quantify the economic andenvironmental benefits of his anaerobic digester. The mostnoticeable improvements were the elimination of farm odorsand the removal of harmful greenhouse gases, such as methaneand carbon dioxide. “It’s the methane, which is 21 times moredamaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, that we’rereally trying to utilize in these systems,” Krom says. The captur-

ing of hazardous gases for use as domestic energy offsets theenvironmental impacts of fossil fuel generation, provides clean,renewable domestic power and enables a dairy farm to lower itscarbon footprint. The carbon credits that are earned can be soldon the Chicago Climate Exchange, which is somethingHaubenschild has been doing for two years. “Any time you canlower your carbon footprint, you’re doing what you need to do,”he says. “My main goal is sustainability. The closer to zero [car-bon emissions] the better, then I’ve achieved my goal.”

Anaerobic digestion systems haven’t necessarily improvedin efficiency or complexity. Today’s systems are merely varia-tions of digesters developed years ago. However, there are dif-ferent types of digester systems. The two types primarily beingemployed today are the thermophilic and mesophilic systems. Athermophylic system utilizes temperatures of about 130 degreesFahrenheit, whereas a mesophilic system operates at about 100degrees Fahrenheit. Before installing an anaerobic digester, thetype of system, the specific needs of the operation and the geo-graphic location must be considered, Krom says. “Theoreticallyyou can produce more biogas with thermophilic systems,” hesays. “However, the heat loss in the northern climate is going tobe much greater, especially if an above-ground tank is used.That means you’re going to have to increase the amount ofinsulation and make sure that you have enough tank heatingavailable.”

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Pictured is an above-ground stainless steel tank, complete-mix mesophilic digester with a 230 kilowatt engine generator that producesapproximately 1.7 million kilowatt hours per year of electricity using the manure from a 750 to 800 dairy cow herd. The digester is ownedby Clear Horizons LLC and is in operation at the Crave Brothers Farm in Waterloo, Wis.

‘It’s the methane, which is 21 timesmore damaging to the atmosphere thancarbon dioxide, that we’re really tryingto utilize in these systems.’


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Safeguarding Land and Animal HealthAside from the environmental benefits, anaerobic digestion

systems also provide dairy farmers with a soil amendment anda product that can help them manage their cow herd health.

Once the manure has been processed through the anaero-bic digester and biogas is captured for power generation, thedigestate can be separated from its solid (organic) and liquidforms. The liquid effluent can be used as a fertilizer. For long-

term storage, it can be pumped into a facility similar to a lagoon.The digester effluent is composed mainly of nitrogen, phos-phorus and trace amounts of potassium—also called “macronutrients.” Nitrogen is the chief ingredient that enhances cropgrowth. Although digester effluent is widely used among today’sdairy farmers, soil scientists warn that misapplication canseverely damage the environment. “I think anaerobic digestionis great but it has some additional management concerns that

The anaerobic digester at Quantum Dairy in Weyauwega, Wis., is a below-ground concrete tank, modified plug-flow mesophilicdigester with a 200 kilowatt engine generator that produces about 1.6 million kilowatt hours per year of electricity using the manurefrom a 1,200-head dairy cow herd.


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you need to be aware of when you’re spreading these liquids,”says Eric Cooley, research coordinator and outreach specialistfor Discovery Farms, a Wisconsin-based research organizationthat takes a real-world approach to finding economical solutionsto overcome challenges and environmental regulations placedon farmers. It’s important to closely monitor the phosphoruscontent in the effluent because that’s the limiting agent, he says.The nutrient undergoes a slight conversion from its particulate

state to its soluble or dissolved state, which is ortho phospho-rus, he says. The phosphorus in the ortho or soluble form cancause problems, Cooley says. Phosphorus can run off intowater and form algal blooms, which degrade water quality.Applying effluent during the winter is especially dangerous asnitrogen in its organic form is ammonia. Ammonia has positive-ly charged ions that have a high affinity to water and can harmfish because of its high toxicity. Digester effluent can be spreadsafely on hay ground, however, because hay is an exceptional

crop for taking up nutrients like phosphorus, Cooley says.While the rate of application is crucial, timing is everything

when applying manure or digester effluent. “There’s always thedanger of misapplication whether farmers are applying rawmanure or the effluent from an anaerobic digester,” Krom says.“In other words, you don’t want to apply materials on frozenfields. If you have a very mineralized form of the nutrient, youwant to be able to match that with the uptake cycles of theplants to the best of your knowledge.”

In addition to enhanced crop management practices, anaer-obic digesters can eliminate the flow of lethal microorganismssuch as E. coli, fecal streptococcus, Krohn’s disease and Johnesdisease that if not managed properly can infect cattle. One wayto manage diseases is to use the proper bedding materials. Thecost of animal bedding material is considerable over a year’stime and is the second largest cash flow item for farmers, Kromsays. On farms with anaerobic digestion systems, the digestatethat’s separated from the solid content of the manure can bedried and be used for bedding.

Despite its many benefits, most experts agree that the spe-cific needs of the operation must drive the decision to invest inan anaerobic digestion system. “Anaerobic digestion is going tobe great for some people and it can be terrible for others,”Cooley says. “It just depends how that system is managed andhow that farm is run. There are a lot of different factors that gointo whether it’s a good idea or not.” BIO

Bryan Sims is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach him at

[email protected] or (701) 746-8385.

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‘Anaerobic digestion is going to be greatfor some people and it can be terrible forothers. It just depends how that systemis managed and how that farm is run.There are a lot of different factors thatgo into whether it’s a good idea or not.’


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The forest products industry has years of experience in conversion technology, and cellulose and lignin separations. Theindustry is now looking to develop its pulp and paper mills intobiorefineries with ethanol as a focus.

By Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

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MILL

Not So Runof

the


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ulp and paper mills,many of which werebuilt in the 1800s,haven’t changed muchin their many decadesof operation. Of

Course, product improvements andprocess efficiencies have been developedand implemented, but the basic infra-structure and purpose of the mills remainthe same. All this is about to change aspulp and paper mills are positioned tobecome the next biorefiner-ies.

A biorefinery is general-ly defined as a renewablemirror of a petroleum refin-ery, where a variety of fuels,chemicals and power areproduced from one source,and the mix of these prod-ucts can be adjusted basedon market value. The forestproducts industry is nowevaluating its potential as biorefineries.As biorefineries, pulp and paper mills

could utilize technologies such as gasifi-cation, biomass boilers, biodiesel andethanol production. Such technologieswould reduce or eliminate fossil fuel con-sumption, provide value-added productsand streamline pulp production.

“I have always taken the approach ofan integrated biorefinery,” says ArthurRagauskas, a chemistry and biochemistryprofessor at the Institute of PaperScience and Technology at Georgia Tech.Since 1989, Ragauskas has studied

process efficiencies andwaste-stream utilization inthe forest products industry.He maintains that the futureof the industry is broaderthan paper. Mills will contin-ue to make paper but pro-ducers have begun to explorehow they can take the wastestreams to make fuels orchemicals, he says.

This is a hot topic in thepulp and paper industry, says GlennOstle, editorial director of Paper360, the

official publication of the TechnicalAssociation of the Pulp and PaperIndustry and the Paper IndustryManagement Association. He explainsthat the industry sentiment is tornbetween a desire to diversify into a bur-geoning market and reluctance becausethe costs are so high. There are also ques-tions about policy and technology thattend to make diversification a big gamble,he says.

Nevertheless, many mills are movingforward with biomass projects. For exam-

P

Ragauskas

‘A lot of pulp and papermills right now are looking at ways toreduce energy costsbecause that’s such ahuge part of their costsand competitiveness.Eventually, they’ll get into the actual productionof ethanol.’

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In the future, paper may be one of many products produced at pulp and paper mills.


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ple, Evergreen Pulp Inc. in Eureka, Calif.,has proposed a project to gasify woodwaste and to use the resultant biogas topower the mill. Many companies alreadyburn the spent pulping liquor (or blackliquor) in conventional boilers, primarilyto recover the pulping chemicals, but theprocess also generates enough power to

make the processthe largest con-tributor to U.S.biomass energyg e n e r a t i o n ,according to theU.S. DOE Officeof EnergyEfficiency andR e n e w a b l eEnergy. Now,some companies

are looking toward gasification of theblack liquor, which could substantiallyimprove the efficiency of the process.

“Biomass-to-gas is one of the inter-ests we’ve seen come through our officequite a bit,” says Kris Plamann, businessdevelopment manager of BaischEngineering in Wisconsin. “It will bringdown pulp and paper mills’ overall ener-gy costs, so long-term it’s an overall ener-gy saver. But everyone wants to be thesecond to do it. Now that some millshave been funded to be the first, every-one can follow and learn from theirexperience.”

Plamann says biomass utilization forenergy production will likely be the firstphase in a mill’s transition into a biorefin-ery. In the past year, Baisch Engineeringhas seen a dramatic increase in millsinquiring about various biorefinery tech-nologies, she says. “A lot of pulp andpaper mills right now are looking at waysto reduce energy costs because that’ssuch a huge part of their costs and com-petitiveness,” Plamann says. “Eventually,they’ll get into the actual production ofethanol. Paper mills are looking at theirpotential to make cellulosic ethanolbecause they have so much biomassavailable.” For revenue generation,

ethanol is probably the most promisingproduct that could come from pulpbiorefineries.

Pulp and paper mills that choose tostart producing ethanol face aggressivecompetition. Western Biomass Energy inUpton, Wyo., is being developed by KLProcess Design Group of Rapid City,S.D., as a stand-alone 1.5 MMgy ethanoldemonstration plant that would produceethanol from waste wood. It claims to bethe first biomass ethanol plant that does-n’t use acids or that fully depends on spe-cialized enzymes to release cellulosic sug-ars from lignin fibers. The plant startedgrinding wood in August.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts-basedMascoma Corp. announced in July that itplans to build a wood-to-ethanol plant inMichigan, although no details have beenannounced regarding when constructionor production would start. Range Fuels

Inc., which is owned by Khosla VenturesLLC, also announced its intent to startconstruction on a cellulosic ethanol plantthis summer, although at press timeground had not been broken on the 100MMgy facility. The company intends toconvert wood waste from Georgia’s

Plamann

‘A pulp mill has a lot ofattractive features formaking bioethanol. It haspermits, transportationinfrastructure, is locatedclose to wood resourcesand agricultureresources, and it has aworkforce that is used toworking with wood. Youhave a lot of intrinsicadvantages.’


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forestry industry into ethanol.Despite the looming competition,

mills as biorefineries have many advan-tages over stand-alone cellulosic ethanolplants. “The [stand-alone] cellulosicplants are being developed in placeswhere the biomass is, but not necessarilynear water and power,” Plamann says.“Paper mills are built along the water-ways, so [ethanol production] is a naturalfit for the pulp and paper industry.”

Ragauskas agrees. “A pulp mill has alot of attractive features for makingbioethanol,” he says. “It has permits,transportation infrastructure, is locatedclose to wood resources and agricultureresources, and it has a workforce that isused to working with wood. You have alot of intrinsic advantages.” However,wood handling is just one part of theprocess, and pulp and paper mills willrequire partnerships with companiesexperienced in saccharification and fer-mentation, Ragauskas notes.

Another attractive incentive to makeethanol at pulp mills is that it could actu-ally enhance the efficiency of the plant.“Ethanol plants would be a good fit forKraft mills that have an excess of bio-mass generated steam,” says Bob Bensondirector of research and development atGreenField Ethanol, who is referring tothe Kraft process that is practiced at mostpulp and paper mills today. “Removinghemicellulose from the wood chips prior

to pulping reducesthe mass of dissolvedwood componentsthat pass through therecovery furnace.The productioncapacity of somepulp mills is limitedby the recovery fur-nace operating rate.These mills couldgenerate the sameamount of pulp andproduce ethanol as abyproduct.”

Benson pointsout that yet anotheradvantage for pulpand paper mills overstand-alone cellulosicethanol plants is thatmills separate thewood parts. Thusthat cost is alreadyfactored into the pulpand paper process.Through the hydroly-sis of wood chipswith water or othersolvents (possiblyethanol) prior topulping, Benson saysabout half of the hemicellulose, or about10 percent of the wood dry matter, couldbe extracted. This extract could be fur-ther hydrolyzed to sugar and then fer-mented to ethanol.

Hemicellulose is a byproduct whichis largely being wasted at mills today. It isoften burned in the boilers with the ligninafter the cellulose has been sorted out forpulp production. To make better use ofthe hemicellulose it must be separatedfrom the lignin. Ragauskas says pre-extraction of hemicelluloses before pulp-ing could make about 14 million tonsavailable to the biofuels industry annuallywhile at the same time enhancing the pro-duction of Kraft mill pulps, as describedabove. He is careful to note, however,that not all hemicelluloses can be extract-

ed, as some are necessary to producequality pulp.

Although the buzz in the industryhas gone so far as to predict that papermay even be a byproduct at mills in thefuture, it is more likely that paper willremain a primary product. Pulp still has ahigher selling price per pound thanethanol, and the market demands thattransportation fuel remain cheap.Therefore, as biorefinieries, mills mustcontinue to maximize the returns on allof its products.

Ethanol production at pulp andpaper mills is not new. In the 1940s and1950s, there were about 40 mills that alsoproduced alcohol, according to Benson.Before he moved to GreenField, he wasthe vice president of research and devel-

‘If you look at patternswithin the United States,big changes in industrycome from small companies that grow.New products, newchemicals and newmaterials—they will leadthe revolution of some ofthese conversion technologies.’

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Flambeau River Papers LLC is planning to install a biomass boiler or gasifier.Additionally, Flambeau River Biorefinery LLC, which would produce 20 MMgy of cellulosic ethanol, is being developed adjacent to the paper mill in Park Falls, Wis.


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opment at Tembec Chemical ProductsGroup and has been working to produceethanol from hemicellulose and pentosethe past 30 years. Today, the Tembec millin Temiscaming, Quebec, is the onlyknown pulp mill in North America thatcurrently produces ethanol. The compa-ny ferments spent sulfite liquor (woodhydrolysates) with the yeast Saccharomycescerevisiae, which is also used in corn-to-ethanol fermentation. Tembec produces15 million liters per year (4 MMgy) ofalcohol, most of which goes to the foodand beverage market.

Tembec produces paper using thesulfite pulping process as opposed to theKraft process. The technology of takingthe liquor that comes out of sulfite pulp-ing is very well known, Benson says.However, sulfite pulping is not common-ly practiced today because it yields lesscellulose pulp compared with the morecommon Kraft process. This is one rea-son why alcohol production at millsdropped off and it became necessary todevelop alcohol production technologiesthat are compatible with the Kraftprocess.

One such development is theAmerican Value Added Pulping (AVAP)process, developed by Atlanta-basedAmerican Process Inc. The company hasentered into an agreement withFlambeau River Biorefinery LLC, a 20MMgy cellulosic ethanol biorefineryunder development. The biorefinery willbe collocated with Flambeau RiverPapers LLC, a paper mill based in ParkFalls, Wis. AVAP is a patent pending,hydrolysis-based technology focused onconverting hemicellulose to ethanol. Themajor pulping chemical is alcohol.Flambeau River Biorefinery PresidentBen Thorp says the process completelyseparates the cellulose and lignin fromthe liquor. “What’s left is a broth con-taining the pulping alcohol and the hemi-cellulose,” he says. “We heat it to theboiling point of the alcohol, evaporateand recover the alcohol, and reuse it inthe pulping process.” This leaves the

hemicellulose ready for saccharificationand fermentation.

Thorp tells Biomass Magazine thatfunding is critical for the project to goforward. In August, Flambeau applied formoney from the U.S. DOE’s third roundof funding for cellulosic ethanol projects.Thorp expects to start construction uponacquisition of financing and permitting.

Another venture, announced in lateAugust, would produce a variety of biofu-els from gasified black liquor. Swedish-based Chemrec AB and Ohio-basedNewPage Corp. are exploring the produc-tion of renewable, biomass-based fuels atthe NewPage paper mill in Escanaba,Mich. The plant would employ Chemrec’sblack liquor gasification (BLG) technolo-gy, which converts waste from the paperpulping process into syngas that wouldthen be processed into biofuels. The tech-nology could enable the Escanaba mill toproduce up to 13 million gallons of liquidbiofuel per year. No timeline for the proj-ect was announced.

These projects may be the front-run-ners in the effort to get pulp and papermills to produce cellulosic ethanol.Announcements of pilot plants and milltrials continue to pop up, while the firstphase of biorefinery development formills—biomass power—is becomingmore prolific. Within five to 10 years,Plamann predicts that many mills will beoperating as biorefineries, and that thetrend will spread across the United Statesand Canada in less than 15 years.

Ragauskas says it’s time to involvemore young and talented people in theindustry. “We’re on the cusp of transitioninto the integrated biorefinery,” he says.“If you look at patterns within the UnitedStates, big changes in industry come fromsmall companies that grow. New prod-ucts, new chemicals and new materials—they will lead the revolution of some ofthese conversion technologies.” BIO

Anduin Kirkbride McElroy is a BiomassMagazine staff writer. Reach her at [email protected] or (701) 746-8385.


In the Amazon, a mysterious, black soil was discovered that was much more productive than thesurrounding red clay. Research has determinedthat these soils were created more than 1,000 yearsago by the area natives. Now, as scientists try torecreate those soils, biomass producers could bethe big beneficiaries.

By Jerry W. Kram

pyrolysis

A g r i c h a r

TIRED SOILS

Rejuvenates


pyrolysis


uropean conquistadorswere drawn to theAmazon rain forest bylegends of El Dorado, acountry where the citieswere made of gold. El

Dorado was a myth and in their greedfor gold, the conquistadors missed atreasure that was right beneath their feet.It was black gold, and that doesn’t meanoil.

“Terra preta” means black earth. Itis prized in the Amazon because of itshigh level of fertility compared with thesurrounding red clay soils. The tremen-dous precipitation in the region washesaway any nutrients not taken up byplants, leaving an impoverished soil thatis ill-suited for agriculture. In contrast,

the terra preta is highly productive yearafter year. How these soils kept produc-ing good crops was a mystery until a fewyears ago. Researchers discovered theterra preta was largely man made. Overcenturies, the ancient residents of theAmazon incorporated charcoal into thesoil. Amazingly, radiocarbon datingshowed that some of the terra preta siteswere 1,500 to 2,000 years old.

The same properties that enrich theearth could also someday protect theskies. Now that it is known that charcoal

can remain in the soil for millennia,some scientists think this may be a pos-sible carbon sink to reduce greenhousegases in the atmosphere.

Dark MatterChar is the product of partially

burned biomass. While charcoal hasbeen produced for almost as long asman has controlled fire, the modernsource of char is from a process calledfast pyrolysis. In this process, biomass isheated to the point where volatile gasesand liquids are driven off and con-densed into a product call bio-oil. Whatremains is almost pure carbon, calledchar, agrichar or biochar with a varyingash content that depends on the type ofbiomass used. Interest in the char hasgrown as more companies explore pro-cessing technology and new uses forbiomass.

Heartland Bioenergy LLC is pro-posing to build a biorefinery in centralIowa. The company’s goal is to use cornstalks to produce transportation fuel.“We have been working on biomassissues for five or six years now,” saysLon Crosby, a researcher with HeartlandBioenergy. “If you are going to collectbiomass to prove technology, you hadbetter have a way to use the biomass.”

Heartland looked at a number oftechnologies as a base for its proposedbiorefinery. “As we started to look forways to use biomass, we looked at gasifi-cation, fast pyrolysis and a variety ofother techniques,” Crosby says.“Probably the best approach we foundwas to start with fast pyrolysis, becauseit yields two products: bio-oil andbiochar.”

Bio-oil is a relatively easy product tomarket as a bunker fuel, Crosby says.There is an existing demand for char,but finding new uses for it would makethe whole process more economicallyviable. “Biochar is easy (to market) aslong as you are interested in low-valueapplications,” he adds. “I happen to alsofarm, so looking at char’s agriculturalapplications was a natural choice.”

Heartland is testing char in a large-scale project to see how it impacts cornproduction. Dynamotive EnergySystems Corp. has provided Heartlandwith 14 tons of biochar. While workingwith the USDA National Soil TilthLaboratory, Iowa State University, theIowa Soybean Association and PrairieRivers of Iowa Resource Conservationand Development, Crosby created alarge-scale test plot to measure theimpact of adding char to the soil. Theplot consists of three strips that are 30feet wide and 800 feet long. One strip isuntreated while the others were treatedwith 2.5 and 5 tons per acre of char.

This experiment will overcomesome of the deficiencies seen in small-scale agrichar experiments. Crosby sayschar experiments are greatly affected byedge effects between treated anduntreated soils. This skews the resultsfrom test plots that are a few metersacross. By using large plots, edge effectsare reduced producing more reliabledata.

A Hot ProductDynamotive has been producing

bio-oil and char for several years inCanada, says Desmond Radlein, thecompany’s chief scientist. The companyuses waste wood from the timber indus-try as a feedstock. Radlein views the bio-oil as the primary product and the charas a secondary product. “If you pyrolyzewood under fast pyrolysis conditionsyou might get 70 percent of a liquid as a

pyrolysis

E

‘As we started to look forways to use biomass, welooked at gasification, fastpyrolysis and a variety ofother techniques.Probably the bestapproach we found wasto start with fast pyrolysis,because you get twoproducts: bio-oil andbiochar.’

‘It turns out that the conditions under whichthe char is made underpyrolysis seem also to bethe optimal conditions tomaking a good char forsoil amendment purposes’


pyrolysis

product withsome gas andsome char as abyproduct,” hesays. “Fast pyrol-ysis is a fairlywell establishedt e c h n o l o g y .Several peopleare practicing itand trying tocommercialize it.

The basic idea is to make a liquid fuel. Itisn’t a high-grade fuel. You can’t burn itin your car but you can burn it in boilersand gas turbines.”

Dynamotive began its work on fastpyrolysis at about the same time terrapreta soils became a hot research topic.“It turns out that the conditions underwhich the char is made under pyrolysisseem also to be the optimal conditionsto making a good char for soil amend-ment purposes,” Radlein says. “Char is asecondary product, but from that per-

spective, one is always looking to seewhat one can do with it.”

There are several uses for pyrolysischar, Radlein says. It can be convertedinto activated carbon. Char can be com-pressed into charcoal briquettes or usedto make gunpowder. “The activated car-bon market is very big,” Radlein says. “Itis used for water treatment among otherthings. But (agricultural uses) would be apotentially very big market.”

In the BlackWhile the soils of the Amazon have

received much of the attention, Crosbysays char’s effect on soil is a worldwidephenomenon. “The terra preta soilshave gotten all the recent publicity, butagronomists have known for decadesthat the most productive soils in Europewere char based,” Crosby says. “Up untilthe research on terra preta soils, no onebelieved the char was playing an activerole in the ecosystem. Research on terrapreta showed that char itself is having a

significant effect as a direct parameter,instead of just something that happenedto be in the soil.”

There are several theories as to whychar increases soil productivity. One isthat it creates a base for microorganismsthat produce substances that hold soilparticles and nutrients together. Anothertheory suggests that the char itselfadsorbs nutrients and slowly releases itto plants over time. “We know a lot ofreasons why things happen,” Crosbysays. “I don’t think anyone understandshow all those things interact to createthe phenomena we see.”

Studies in the laboratory also sug-gest bio-char can cut down on nonpointwater pollution by holding nutrients likenitrogen and phosphorus in the soil,keeping it out of rivers and lakes. It stillisn’t proven that this will work on a larg-er scale, Crosby says. “No one has donelarge-scale field studies to show thatwhat happens in the laboratory happensin a production situation,” he says.

Radlein


pyrolysis

“That’s one of the reasons we initiatedthis large-scale field study.”

One of the goals of the project is tolearn how to work with bio-char as a soilamendment. Most farm chemicals areapplied at a rate of a few pounds peracre. Even nitrogen fertilizer is usuallyapplied at no more than a few hundredpounds per acre. In Crosby’s field test,the application rates are 25 to 50 timesas great. “We can learn about how youincorporate bio-char into the soil profileand how it distributes,” he says. “Youcan’t just take the top 24 inches of soiland uniformly mix char into it like yousee in the terra preta soils.”

Another issue is that nobody makesequipment to handle char and efficientlyincorporate it into the soil. “We are try-ing a bunch of different pieces of tech-nology,” Crosby says. “We have not yetfound the perfect one. The problem ischar is very light with a very low bulkdensity and it’s very granular. That’s verydifferent than your typical potassium orphosphorus fertilizer. Your controllersaren’t set up for it, your chain speedsaren’t set up for it, and your openingsaren’t set up for it. You can’t apply itvery far above the ground to controlwind drift because it is so light and gran-ular.”

Heartland’s bio-char study will be along-term effort. Crosby says char car-ries a load of plant nutrients, so the firstyear’s results will be a combination offertilization as well as the char’s impact.It will take several seasons before he canbe sure of the char’s effect on soil pro-ductivity. “We have just started aresearch project that’s going to go on foryears,” Crosby says. “Char’s interactionwith soil is complicated. In the first yearthere is a nutrient effect and a char effectand nobody knows how to separatethose two factors. So we expect thisstudy will go on for a long time.”

Air EffectsChar can affect the sky as well as the

earth, says Danny Day, president ofEprida Inc. “There has been a huge fearthat we won’t be able to solve climatechange,” he says. “We won’t be able todo this in time and it’s just hopeless. Forthe first time ever in history, we nowhave enough people where we can solveclimate change. Climate change hascome and gone and wiped out billions oflives of humans and animals a lot oftimes. But for the first time we haveenough control so we can manage ourclimate.”

Eprida is developing small-scale fastpyrolysis systems that it plans to marketto individuals and small groups of farm-ers. Eprida’s process has an added twist

Agrichar has become a hot topic among agricultur-al and biomass researchers. There are severalresources available for people interested in the topic.Terra preta and agrichar are also the subjects of aninternational conference. The International AgricharInitiative has posted several of the presentations fromits 2007 conference in Australia on its Web site:www.iaiconference.org.

Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University in NewYork is one of the leading researchers on terra pretaand agrichar. He maintains a Web site with links tobasic information, ongoing research at Cornell andelsewhere and references at: www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/biochar/Biochar_home.htm.

Danny Day of Eprida, Inc. has been very active inpromoting agrichar worldwide. Eprida’s Web site linksto copies of his presentations to groups as diverse asthe Lumber Manufacturers Association, the U.S. EPAand to the World Renewable Energy Conference at:www.eprida.com/present.php4.

Terra Preta Around the Web

‘Since we are in therenewable energy business, producing aliquid fuel from biomass,then a product that canbe used to enhance biomass productivity isobviously of interest.’

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in that it uses hydrogen and carbondioxide generated by the pyrolysisprocess and nitrogen from the air toproduce ammonium bicarbonate, whichgets incorporated into the char increas-ing its fertilizer value. “We are sellingmachines right now,” Day says. “Thecapacity is one ton per hour for what weconsider our standard unit. But everybiomass stream is different. And everybiomass stream produces a differentkind of agrichar.”

Day says the company is completingits development process and expects tostart delivering its machines by the mid-dle of 2008.

Because conventional nitrogen fer-tilizers take huge amounts of energy toproduce—mostly due to the use of nat-ural gas—Day says that Eprida’sagrichar and bio-oil combine to make acarbon negative fuel productionprocess. After the char is incorporatedinto the soil, it remains there for hun-dreds if not thousands of years. Thecarbon dioxide produced when the bio-oil is burned is incorporated into bio-mass, starting the process over again.The net result is less carbon dioxide inthe air, slowing global warming.

Radlein is intrigued by char’s poten-tial for the industry’s future. “Since weare in the renewable energy business,producing a liquid fuel from biomass,then a product that can be used toenhance biomass productivity is obvi-ously of interest,” he says. “If one wereto envision an energy plantation sce-nario, where you are growing biomassspecifically to convert to useful energy,then you could imagine the char beingput back into the soil to enhance pro-ductivity. So it is a natural fit.” BIO

Jerry W. Kram is a Biomass Magazinestaff writer. He can be reached [email protected] or (701) 746-8385.


The percentage of crop-based liquidfuels in America’s energy inventory isexpected to increase rapidly in the nexttwo decades, and agri-businesses arealready gearing up to meet this challenge.The production of crop-based ethanoland biodiesel is being expanded on allhorizons, but these processes are energy-intensive. To make a significant impact inthis country’s energy inventory, agri-fuelproduction requires a dependable andaffordable supply of heat and electricityat, or near, each production site or refin-ery. Such capabilities don’t currently existthroughout the country. However, ener-gy-enhanced biomass (EEB) can meetthe practical needs required to supportfuture biofuels industries. EEBs can beproduced and used locally to generateheat, steam and electricity on a county-

by-county or farm-by-farm basis.EEB is produced principally from

waste materials such as crop residues andscrap tires. Crop residues may be used “asis,” but the scrap tires must be chemicallyaltered to remove unwanted sulfur andmetals.

Crop residues and scrap tires arereadily available in many rural communi-ties, so transportation costs involved inthe preparation of EEBs can be mini-mized. Corn stover, distillers grains, saw-dust and sunflower stalks are quite plenti-ful in this and many other countries.These lignocellulosic materials have simi-lar heat values, ranging from 5,000 to6,500 British thermal units (Btus) perpound depending on the moisture andmineral contents of each crop residuesample. A microprocessor-controlled

Parr Oxygen Bomb Calorimeter was usedto measure the heat content of each sam-ple. For comparison, the crop residueswere dried at 107 degrees Celsius (225degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours andthen ground into a fine powder. The 30percent increase in heat content of thedried powdered samples reflects theremoval of moisture from the cropresidue samples (Table 2).

Because “as is” crop residues havevery low energy densities, they have typi-cally not been used for large-scale electri-cal power generation and/or industrialheat and steam generation. However, asalready noted, localized collection ofcrop residues contains a large quantity ofavailable energy, and this must not be dis-carded from our national energy invento-ry. To date, EEBs have been made from

Analyzing the Energy Values of Enhanced BiomassBy David L. Wertz

research


corn stover, distillers grains, sunflowerstalks, pine sawdust and switchgrass tocapture this energy in a more useful man-ner. These EEBs are solid fuels with sat-isfactory energy densities.

Unlike other solid fuels, EEB, due toits low sulfur contents, produce minimalacid rain-producing gases when combust-ed. The nitrogen contents of the EEBcomponents can be readily converted to afertilizer on site. Compared to coal, EEBsalso produce much less high-temperatureash. To date, no environmentally unac-ceptable materials have been found toexist in EEB ash.

EEB overcomes the low energy-den-sity limitation of crop residues-to-energybecause the blends of chemically alteredscrap tires and crop residue have heat val-ues ranging from 10,000 to 11,500 Btusper pound.

EEBs represent an array of solidfuels which may be produced as pellets orpowder from a variety of crop residues bycombining these residues with chemicallyaltered tire particles. EEBs have been pre-pared using a wide variety of composi-tions with one or several crop residues.For the following data, the EEBs wereproduced by blending 50 percent driedcrop residue with 50 percent chemicallyaltered tire particles. At this ratio, EEBshave energy densities corresponding toapproximately 11,000 Btus per pound,which is similar to bituminous coals and40 percent to 50 percent higher than thecrop residues from which they are pre-pared. However, combustion of suchEEBs produces only 25 percent to 30 per-cent of the sulfur emissions of coal, andthe EEBs can be pre-designed to produceeven less sulfur oxide gases.

Our results indicate that the dried,powdered crop residues have compara-tively similar heat values (approximately

Sulfur content by feedstock

Nitrogen content by feedstock

Corn stoverCorn stover, dried and powderedChemically altered tire particles50:50 blend of dried and powdered cornstover and chemically altered tire particlesIllinois No. 6 bituminous coal

research


research

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8,000 Btus per pound). The heat value ofthe 50:50 EEB prepared from each cropresidue falls in the 10,000 to 11,000 Btusper pound range, which is similar to theheat values of bituminous coals (Table 3).Our results also indicate that the sulfurcomponent in these EEBs is much lowerthan in coal, while the nitrogen contentsare similar. Thus, when combusted, EEBsproduce less greenhouse gases than anenergy equivalent of coal.

With the following mathematical rela-tionship, several important parameters forthe EEBs may be predicted. The heatcontent of an EEB mixture may be esti-mated by:

Heat EEB = {q × 8,000 Btus perpound + (100 – q) × 13,100 Btus perpound}

Similar relations may be made for sul-fur oxide abundance and nitrogen abun-dance in the EEBs:

Percentage sulfur EEB = {[q × 0.1percent] + [(100 - q) × 1.3 percent] /100,

Percentage nitrogen EEB = {[q × 1.7percent] + [(100 - q) × 2.7 percent] /100

Percentage ash EEB = {[q × 6.8 per-centage] + [(100 - q) × 5.8 percent] /100.

In these relationships, “q” is the masspercent of crop residue in the EEB mix-ture, so “100 – q” is the percentage ofchemically altered tire particles in that

EEB. For the biomass samples, the meas-ured sulfur, nitrogen and low temperatureash are 0.1 percent, 1.7 percent and 6.8percent, respectively. Thus, the typical50:50 EEB will have a heat content of1,055 Btus per pound, and sulfur andnitrogen abundances of 0.7 percent and2.2 percent, respectively. Combustion ofthe 50:50 EEB will produce 6.3 percenthigh-temperature ash.

A consequence of these mathematicalmodels is that an EEB may be pre-designed to satisfy a specific heat contentand/or sulfur emission requirement.Therefore, the EEB could be produced to

meet these standards. This research is aportion of the Mississippi BiomassInitiative and is sponsored by theMississippi Technology Alliance.

David L. Wertz is the chief technology officerfor Wertz Oxidative Molecular Bombardmentat Ambient Temperatures (WOMBAT)Technologies International Inc. He taughtand conducted research for 40 years in thedepartment of chemistry and biochemistry atthe University of Southern Mississippi,where he now serves as professor emeritus.Reach him at [email protected] Jami Holloway and Laura BethMoore were involved in this research.

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IN THE

LAB

he popularity of biomass is growing. It seems everyone

wants clean, green fuel, power and products—and is will-

ing to pay for them. Not only that, but there are significant

government incentives available to biomass producers.

However, when an industry starts to grow rapidly, some

entities will be tempted to find “shortcuts.”

It is possible to distinguish biomass-derived products from products

made from petroleum or coal. This is because a tiny amount of carbon—

the building block of life and organic chemistry—is radioactive. Cosmic

rays continually bombard Earth, and when one hits a nitrogen atom in

the atmosphere, it converts the nitrogen into carbon 14 (C 14). C 14 is

radioactive with a half-life of about 5,000 years. That means it will be

undetectable after about 50,000 years. Because carbon 14 is constant-

ly being manufactured by cosmic rays, all living things will contain a cer-

tain percentage of it. Fossil fuels, which were formed millions of years

ago, won’t contain C 14.

Beta Analytic Inc. does thousands of radiocarbon analyses every

year. Much of this work is for archeological researchers, but a growing

part of the company’s business is the analysis of biomass-derived prod-

ucts, says company President Darden Hood. “The methodology for

radiocarbon analysis has been around for 50 years, so there are no sur-

prises in what we do,” he says. “It’s not like coming up with a new tech-

nology.”

Hood says Beta Analytic started biomass analysis after the USDA

approached him with a dilemma in 2004: how to implement the

Biopreferred Program (www.biobased.oce.usda.gov), which gives bio-

mass-derived products a preference in government procurement. “If you

are a manufacturer of product that contains cornstarch, cellulose or

recycled carbon in any form, you qualify for preferred procurement from

the federal government if you meet certain commitments,” Hood says.

“There were manufacturers making claims of renewable content in their

products, and there was no way to validate those claims by creating an

enormous auditing program with people trying to trace the whole chain

of custody of all the different supplies, where they came from and how

much was used. It was insurmountable.”

Radiometric testing was a solution. In this test, a sample is burned

in a vacuum system to form carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is

chemically reacted to produce either benzene or graphite. Benzene is

used for a radiometric test in which a scintillation counter measures the

amount of radioactivity in the sample. Graphite is used with an acceler-

ator mass spectrometer (AMS), which can count the atoms in a sample

and measure the amount of C 14 directly. Hood says while the AMS is

more expensive, it can analyze very small samples.

By comparing the amount of C 14 in a sample with how much is

known to be contained in living tissue, Beta Analytic can determine how

much of a substance was derived from biomass and how much was

from petroleum.

Green power is another market where radiocarbon analysis may

be a standard test in the future. Hood says it is possible to sample the

emissions coming from a biomass-fueled boiler or generator in order to

determine what percentage of the fuel was renewable. This could be

especially important for systems powered by municipal solid waste

(MSW). Since MSW is a mixture of biomass and petroleum-derived

plastics, the renewable content of the fuel stream can vary over time. By

analyzing the C 14 content of the emissions, regulators can determine

how much of the produced electricity would qualify as “green power.”

Hood says his company worked hard with ASTM International to

create renewable content standard ASTM D6866-05. “We were asked

to join the committee to standardize the methods of radiocarbon dating

to make it applicable to the regulatory environment,” he says. “The

method acts as a way to verify anywhere along the chain how much

impact our renewable resource industry is having on our greenhouse

gas emissions as a nation. ” BIO

—Jerry W. Kram

Is it biomass? Radiocarbon testing can tell the real McCoy

T

Darden Hood, president of Beta Analytic, watches closely as a sample ispurified for analysis of its carbon 14 content.


EERCUPDATE

A Road Map for Biofuels Research—Production of Green Diesel

o continue the theme from last month’s column, “This is not your father’s ethanol process,” wewould like to shift gears a bit from producing ethanol and focus on the production of synthet-ic, or green, diesel, which is significantly different than traditional biodiesel production.Although biodiesel production significantly trails ethanol production, momentum is growingbased on technology advances and economics which could result in green diesel productionexceeding ethanol production in the not-too-distant future.

It is apparent that the greatest impact biomass fuels may have on the transportation industry, on a field-to-wheels basis (miles driven per acre harvested), is when the biomass is used to produce green diesel. In thepast, the greatest disadvantage for diesel fuel has been the reluctance, for a variety of reasons, of the Americanconsumer to purchase diesel vehicles. These concerns appear to be fading, with a resurgence in diesel vehiclesin the United States.

There are three primary methods, or pathways, of producing green diesel. The firstis thermal gasification of biomass to syngas followed by Fischer-Tropsch conversion togreen diesel. This pathway has the significant advantage of being a well-establishedprocess for natural gas feedstocks, used by Germany during World War II and then bySasol Ltd. of South Africa, to produce a fuel that is almost completely compatible withpetroleum-derived diesel. However, the product of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis containsno aromatics or cyclic compounds, which can negatively impact fuel density, resulting inan overall loss in engine performance.

Second is thermal gasification followed by methanol synthesis over a catalyst bed,followed by conversion of the methanol to dimethyl ether (DME). DME is used as anaerosol propellant and manufactured by several companies using nonrenewable methanol as a feedstock. Likediesel, DME can be used in compression ignition engines and presents a higher fuel economy than do spark-ignition fuels. Unlike diesel, DME is molecularly homogeneous, which allows engines to be precisely tuned tooptimize combustion. However, DME is also a gas at room temperature and pressure, requiring it to be com-pressed to a liquid for transportation.

Lastly is pyrolysis followed by hydrogenation of the bio-oil product to green diesel. Pyrolysis is alreadypracticed on the commercial scale for production of food additives. Bio-oil often contains aromatic and cycliccompounds, so hydrogenated bio-oil is likely to meet all of the existing specifications for diesel fuel withoutrequiring any additives. The primary disadvantage to using hydrogenated bio-oil is the risk that the green dieselproduct may contain unacceptable amounts of aromatics or other unsaturated compounds. These compoundscan lead to smog formation and limit the shelf life of the fuel. Such compounds could be eliminated by addingmore hydrogen to the fuel during hydrogenation, which may negatively impact process cost and complexity.

The six pathways from biomass to transportation fuel described in our last two columns are by no meansthe only advanced methods being considered today, but are the most likely to find success on the large scale.Some of the processes have already found commercial success in other markets (e.g, food additives) or in usingraw materials other than biomass (e.g, natural gas instead of syngas). Other processes show promise becausethey represent simple, efficient or low-cost options.

Whichever process or combination of processes ultimately finds the greatest success at producing trans-portation fuels, it is clear that the future of biofuels will have a larger and more varied market than the cornethanol and biodiesel markets of today. BIO

Joshua R. Strege is a research engineer at the EERC in Grand Forks, N.D. He can be reached at [email protected] or(701) 777-3252.

Strege

T

Biofuels Canada is the first and only trade publication dedicated to covering the rapidly growing biofuels

industries of Canada. The magazine is primarily focused on conventional ethanol and biodiesel production

and use, as well as cutting-edge production technologies such as cellulosic ethanol. The full-color

bi-monthly magazine is written for a broad range of industry professionals including plant personnel,

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60 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2007 10|2007 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 60

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