Hurst Boiler News
Savings Everywhere
Greening the Plant July 22, 2010
By Doug Day
Clean water may not be the only thing coming out of the Sheboygan (Wis.) Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in a few years. If all goes as planned, the plant may be sending electricity to the grid at times rather than just using power from outside sources.
Energy-efficiency projects have already sliced the plant's utility costs by about 40 percent while earning revenue from renewable energy and emission credits.
"This is a business," says plant superintendent Dale Doerr. "We try to save money for the ratepayers. When we do projects, the first thing we look at is energy efficiency. We can't control what energy costs, but we surely can control how much we use."
The installation of 10 digester-gas-fueled microturbines for cogeneration has greatly reduced the plant's use of natural gas and has ended the practice of flaring methane – good for the environment and good for ratepayers, who pay among the lowest rates in the state. Other recent projects include:
- New and more efficient sludge boilers. • Variable-frequency drives and premium-efficiency motors for lift pumps.
- High-efficiency single-stage, centrifugal air compressors and airflow control valves.
- A pump overload monitoring system.
- An automated chlorination control system.
ENERGY NEUTRAL?
Since 2006, the plant has cut its carbon dioxide emissions by about 3 million pounds, equivalent to planting 8,400 trees. Doerr says the plant could become "energy neutral" in the next three to five years.
The new blowers and airflow control valves have also improved the plant's nutrient removal process and have made it more stable, resulting in less phosphorous and nitrogen going into Lake Michigan. Doerr credits an excellent staff and forward-thinking decision- makers for the plant's success.
The 18.4 mgd secondary treatment plant serves 68,000 people in the Lake Michigan cities of Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls, the village of Kohler, and four townships. Doerr came on board in 2000 and immediately added half a million dollars to the budget, about a 10 percent increase, to cover a maintenance backlog.
"It had a minimal impact on rates that first year, and it's been in there ever since," he says. "After six years, we got caught up on maintenance and started concentrating on energy efficiency."
COGEN ON HIS MIND
Despite using biogas to fuel boilers for digester heat and a 500 hp engine for an influent pump, about 25 percent of the plant's biogas used to be flared off — about 50,000 cubic feet per day. To Doerr, that was a waste of fuel.
A 2003 study pointed toward cogeneration, but it took two years before the plant found a workable strategy and a partner: Alliant Energy-Wisconsin Power & Light, the local utility and a distributor of Capstone microturbines.
"They said they would pay for the electrical generation part of the project if we paid for the heat recovery and building modifications," says Doerr. The utility also agreed to pay for gas compression and filtration and, after some negotiation, agreed to pay for the Cain heat exchangers, as well. Unison Solutions managed the construction project and designed and built the gas treatment and compression system.
The total project cost was $1.2 million, of which Sheboygan paid only $205,000, funded in part through a $20,000 grant from Wisconsin Focus on Energy. The payoff was big once the 300 kW project went online in February 2006. "We recovered nearly all our money in the first two years," says Doerr.
The plant still pays the utility for the annual 1,660 MWh net output of electricity from the microturbines. But the plant gets monthly payments from Alliant Energy for monitoring the system, keeps the revenue from selling renewable energy credits, and realizes all the savings from reduced use of natural gas enabled by heat recovery. Capstone heat recovery modules capture heat at about 1 million Btu/hr (about 65,000 therms per year) to keep the digesters at their proper operating temperature of 95 degrees and to heat plant buildings.
GETTING MORE VALUABLE
With energy prices increasing, the efficiency investment is growing in value. The plant spends about $380,000 a year for energy, according to Doerr. Natural gas rates have about doubled since 2002 and electricity rates have increased about 70 percent. "Our bill has remained flat during that time," Doerr says. The plant's ENERGY STAR efficiency rating, which was 29 in 2003, is now 89.
It will get even better in 2013, when the plant can buy the microturbines from Alliant Energy. "At that time, we anticipate the microturbines will be generating about $150,000 worth of electricity, and we'll be able to buy them for $100,000," Doerr says. While there will be some maintenance costs, the electricity will essentially be free.
That will make the methane even more valuable, as well. The plant has already taken steps to increase methane production. Highstrength food processing waste is added directly to the anaerobic digesters. The higher BOD increases methane production by as much as 90 percent, creating even more fuel while reducing processing costs for the industries that provide the waste product. Food pro-cessors such as cheese plants used to pay about $120 per thousand gallons for treatment and now pay about $30.
MORE SAVINGS
The microturbine project came after years of planning. The plant's biggest energy-saving project came from an unplanned maintenance need in 2005 when one of three 2.3-million-Btu sludge boilers failed. With two other boilers the same age, the staff decided to replace all of them with two 3.8-million-Btu boilers.
The new boilers were also tied into the building's heating loop. The reclaimed heat, formerly a waste byproduct, now heats the plant's buildings about 10 months out of the year. That project alone reduced natural gas consumption by 78 percent. The $350,000 project saved around $110,000 over the first two years, and nearly $200,000 in each of the next two years as natural gas rates went up.
Doerr now plans to purchase two more 200 kW Capstone microturbines for the cogeneration system next year, increasing generating capacity to about 700 kW — equal to the plant's normal daytime electrical load. Nighttime load can drop to about 450 kW. "There will be times at night when we'll be pushing energy back onto the grid," he says. He also plans to install a hydroturbine in the near future. The plant sits 50 feet above Lake Michigan, and from there the effluent discharge can provide enough energy to add another 20 to 40 kW of generating capacity.
Also on the table are a lighting idea and a solar energy project. "We have 50 outdoor lights that run all night long," Doerr says. "We've been looking at solar lighting, but that can be pretty expensive. Right now we're looking at converting the lights to LEDs that use half the energy of high-pressure sodium bulbs." A 2 MW solar electric project is also under consideration for the 225,000-squarefoot plant roof.
IMPACT ON OPERATORS
Like all technology, upgrades can have negative and positive effects on users. Operators at the Sheboygan plant can tell at any time where the plant's power demand is coming from with the help of nine Allen-Bradley, a division of Rockwell Automation, power monitors. "Every equipment base has a power meter that reports to our SCADA system so operators can see where power is used," says Doerr. "We've put in equipment that took some of their work away, like airflow control valves. Before that, they'd have to go around when the water temperature changed and make adjustments to the aeration basins. They don't have to do that now."
There are also items they have to watch now that they didn't look for in the past. "We don't want to run equipment when we're at a certain level of electrical power demand," says Doerr. "We want to stay below a peak of 750 kW, unless it's raining. Operators have to be more cognizant of what's running."
Doerr says many wastewater treatment plants could do what Sheboygan has done. "You put a plan together and sell it to the people who make the decisions," he says. "These things weren't done blindly. You have to do the research and do your homework."
Renewable energy cash grant guidance revised
POWER-GEN WORLDWIDE May 10, 2010
By POWER-GEN WORLDWIDE
A requirement that new renewable energy projects needed to have begun construction to qualify for cash grants in lieu of tax credits is being revised by the Department of Treasury. The department now says that off-site work, developers hired under contract and certain costs accrued can all be considered to help a project qualify before the December 31, 2010 in-service deadline. The revision allows certain costs incurred by a manufacturer or contractor to be taken into account, but the property must be manufactured or built for the applicant by another person under a written contract. In addition, the contract must be entered into before the property is manufactured or constructed. The revised guidance also says that off-site work may be taken into consideration to demonstrate that physical work of a significant nature has begun, such as manufacturing parts of a wind turbine off site to be assembled on site. It also says that if a manufacturer produces components for multiple facilities, then reasonable methods must be used to associate individual components with particular facilities. If a property uses both self-constructed components and components constructed by someone other than a contracted developer, the costs of both are combined to help reach the 5 percent threshold. The current guidance says that if a project qualifies for a Treasury grant, it must be placed in service in 2009 or 2010. There is also a stipulation that if construction on the project begins in 2009 or 2010, it must be complete by 2012 for wind projects, 2013 for biomass, geothermal and other resources, and 2016 for solar. The current guidance says construction on a project begins when "physical work of a significant nature begins," but it also says an applicant can treat construction as beginning when the applicant pays or incurs more than 5 percent of the total cost of the property. However, economic performance requirements must be met for a cost to be treated as paid or incurred, but an applicant on the accumulation method of accounting would not have incurred a cost until the property was provided to the applicant.
Obama takes steps to boost biofuels
Biomass Magazine February 03, 2010
By Anna Austin
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner participated in a conference call to discuss the energy announcements following a meeting with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and a bipartisan group of governors from across the country.
During the conference, Vilsack pointed out that historically, government agencies such as the USDA and EPA have been duplicating efforts for similar but different energy-related projects, rather than collaborating. The first task force report encourages interagency cooperation, he said, while clearly delineating responsibilities in order to concentrate and leverage resources.
The report also recognizes that one size does not fit all, Vilsack added. “So every region in the country will able to participate in a biofuel future to create jobs and economic opportunity, particularly in rural communities,” he said. “It lays out necessity focusing on a regional approach, each region of the country playing to its strengths.” Obama’s FY2011 budget will develop five regional feedstock research and demonstration centers that will partner universities, industry and other federal and state agencies, tribal nations and internationals, to accelerate research and development in second- and third-generation feedstocks, and the implementation of a supply chain that will allow the U.S. to get new biofuels to market as quickly and sufficiently as possible.
“One issue we face in connection with promoting biofuels is encouraging production of feedstocks,” Vilsack said. “So many [people] have been waiting for the proposed rule as it relates to the BCAP program. We believe [BCAP] is an essential component to our national biofuels and renewable energy policies, and needs to be designed to reduce financial risks for farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who want to invest in and establish production of nonfood, non-feed biomass. BCAP will address the ‘chicken or egg’ dilemma that has stalled biomass growth in this sector, and we believe we have fashioned a rule that has sufficient flexibility to ensure technology neutrality. Cellulosic feedstocks, woody biomass, energy cane all need to be and will be explored with the BCAP rule.”
Vilsack also said the interagency group believes the rule addresses concerns expressed by the wood industry, by proposing a prohibition on wood waste and residues not just on federal land but also nonfederal land, that otherwise might be used for higher value products. “We’re also putting forward a number of alternatives for matching payments to biomass suppliers to make sure that those funds are targeted to biomass that contributes to an increase in the baseline use among current biomass conversion facilities,” he said. “The public has 60 days to comment on proposed rule, and we will incorporate those comments into the final rulemaking process.”
Jackson discussed the changes to the RFS2 ruling, while ensuring it will create many new jobs, particularly in rural areas that have been hit hard by the economic depression, and also help farmers by creating new markets for agricultural products. She estimated the rule will result in an annual $13 billion increase in income for U.S. farmers by 2022.
The RFS2 is an effort to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), Jackson said, and there has been reasonable worry that with the life-cycle impacts of switching to renewable fuels there may not be reductions of GHGs, or that even more carbon emissions may be generated. “To address those worries, the EPA used the soundest available science that has evolved in response from questions and concerns from a number of stakeholders, and employed a full life-cycle analysis to track GHG emissions for biofuels production and use including land use issues,” she said. “Using this, [with RFS2] we’ve estimated a reduction of carbon emissions to the equivalent of taking 27 million cars off the road annually by 2022.”
Jackson concluded by emphasizing that the interagency group wants to send a positive, specific and direct message that the Obama/Biden administration is highly supportive of the biofuels industry, sees a tremendous opportunity for growth and expansion of that industry, and is committed to making it happen.
Novozymes, a company that develops enzymes and is currently building a production facility in Nebraska, applauded the government for its efforts to expand ethanol production. “The new commitment made by President Obama will significantly help grow and advance development of biofuels in the U.S., and at the same time create thousands of new green jobs,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes. “The new RFS2 is a strong framework and by moving to E15 and increased accessibility of E85, the biofuel industry can create more long-lasting, high earning jobs that will help transform the way the U.S. and world use and consume fuel. And at the same time lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.”
http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3476
Obama Awards $54 Million for State Energy Programs
American Council On Renewable Energy July 27, 2009
By ACORE
Obama Administration Awards More than $54 Million for State Energy Programs in Four States and Territories
July 27, 2009--U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today announced more than $54 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.Under DOE's State Energy Program, states and territories have proposed statewide plans that prioritize energy savings, create or retain jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"This funding will provide an important boost for state economies, help to put Americans back to work, and move us toward energy independence," said Secretary Chu. "It reflects our commitment to support innovative state and local strategies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy while insisting that taxpayer dollars be spent responsibly."
These states and territories are receiving 40% of their total State Energy Program (SEP) funding authorized under the Recovery Act today. They will now have received 50% of their total Recovery Act SEP funding. The initial 10% of total funding was previously available to states to support planning activities; the remaining 50% of funds will be released once they meet reporting, oversight, and accountability milestones required by the Recovery Act.
Activities eligible for State Energy Program funding include energy audits, building retrofits, education and training efforts, transportation programs to increase the use of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles, and new financing mechanisms to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.
The Recovery Act appropriated $3.1 billion to the State Energy Program (SEP) to help promote energy efficiency and clean energy deployment, as well as to support local economic recovery. States use these grants at the state and local level to create green jobs and address state energy priorities.
Transparency and accountability are important priorities for SEP and all Recovery Act projects. Throughout the program's implementation, DOE will provide strong oversight at the local, state, and national level, while emphasizing with states the need to quickly award funds to help create new jobs and stimulate local economies.
The following states are receiving awards today:
NEVADA - $13,885,600 awarded today
The state of Nevada will use its Recovery Act SEP funds for a series of clean energy initiatives, including the creation of a new revolving loan fund, building retrofits, and transportation upgrades. The revolving loan fund will support community-scale and utility-scale renewable energy generation, energy efficiency and conservation projects, and energy saving performance contracting throughout the state. This financial mechanism will create a sustainable program that will provide loans for years to come, helping Nevada promote energy independence, while protecting the state's environment.
Nevada also plans to implement energy efficiency retrofits in state buildings and K-12 schools across the state. Over $16 million will be invested in LED lighting, lighting control, window performance technologies, and renewable energy technologies to reduce energy costs and consumption in these buildings. Nevada will also use its funds to create an energy efficient traffic signals and street lights program. This program forms a partnership between the Nevada State Energy Office, the Nevada Department of Transportation, Regional Transportation Commissions, and the Nevada Department of Public Safety, to install energy-efficient LED traffic signals and street lights throughout the state, giving priority to high accident rate intersections. This funding will significantly reduce energy consumption and improve safety through greater visibility. Funding will also be provided for the adoption and implementation of the 2009 Residential and Commercial Building Codes.
After demonstrating successful implementation of its plan, the state will receive more than $17 million in additional funding, for a total of nearly $35 million.
RHODE ISLAND - $9,584,000 awarded today
Rhode Island will use its Recovery Act State Energy Program funds to advance energy efficiency in the public, commercial, industrial, and residential sectors. Rhode Island will implement various commercial and industrial energy efficiency initiatives that will help employers lower energy bills and improve profitability. For the residential sector, Rhode Island will increase professional support for comprehensive household energy audits and energy efficiency improvements. The state will also use Recovery Act funding to upgrade the state's building energy codes to help realize energy savings in new residential and commercial buildings.
After demonstrating successful implementation of its plan, the state will receive almost $12 million in additional funding, for a total of nearly $24 million.
WISCONSIN - $22,195,200 awarded today
Wisconsin will use its Recovery Act SEP funding to coordinate and expand state activities and policy development that will achieve both state and federal goals of lessening dependence on fossil fuels, increasing renewable energy generation, and investing in clean energy manufacturing to create jobs. As part of its energy efficiency efforts, the state will invest in new programs to help existing industrial facilities adopt more energy efficient practices.
Wisconsin will also work to strengthen its manufacturing sector by investing in businesses that manufacture clean energy products and components, such as wind, solar, biofuels, and advanced electrical storage systems. The state will invest in these advanced manufacturing areas and assist companies in retooling facilities or equipment to provide component parts and other critical needs for renewable energy systems and energy efficient technologies. Projects will be selected through a competitive process and may include advanced battery manufacturing, retrofitting manufacturing facilities to produce wind turbine components, fuel conversion projects from fossil fuels to biomass, and energy efficiency improvements at pulp and paper plants. Wisconsin will also implement a number of innovative financing strategies to make loans available to the widest possible audience.
After demonstrating successful implementation of its plan, the state will receive nearly $28 million in additional funding, for a total of over $55 million.
VERMONT - $8,799,600 awarded today
The state of Vermont will use its Recovery Act allocation to fund incentives to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency measures across the state in the public, private, and residential sectors. The state will increase the development and deployment of cost-effective and environmentally sustainable electric power resources by offering grants and loans to residents, businesses, non-profits, government, and farms to help them install such renewable energy systems as solar, wind and geothermal.
The state also will establish a revolving loan and/or small grant program for public-serving non-profit or government institutions—including K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities—to implement energy efficiency measures or renewable energy projects.
In addition, Vermont will use SEP Recovery Act funds to install thermal solar renewable energy systems for heating and/or hot water to low-income residences. This effort will allow the state to continue to expand the weatherization program and realize greater energy savings.
After demonstrating successful implementation of its plan, the state will receive almost $11 million in additional funding, for a total of nearly $22 million.
http://www.acore.org/news/article/2009/07/28/obama_administration_awards_more_54_million_state_energy_programs_four_state
Go Carbon Neutral with a Hurst Biomass Boiler System
Engineered Systems Magazine Feb 2009 July 30, 2009
By Joanna Turpin
Chipping Away At Emissions
by Joanna Turpin
Posted: Engineered Systems Magazine February 1, 2009
Tighter air regulations and an abundance of trees have paired up to fuel the move toward hybrid biomass boilers in these Canadian hospitals. Read about the upgraded systems’ differences and the considerations for trading fossil fuels for sawdust, wood chips, and bark.
Think of Canada, and there’s a good chance that what comes to mind is a sparsely populated country with spectacular scenery. Meandering coastlines, dramatic mountain ranges, and pristine lakes are located throughout the provinces, as well as vast expanses of forest, which carpet 402 million hectares — or almost half — of the country.
Given the enormous amount of trees growing in Canada, it is no wonder that the forest industry is extremely important to the country’s economy. It contributes up to 3% of the gross domestic product and over $34 billion in exports, which include the largest amount of market pulp and newsprint in the world.
The province of Quebec is an integral part of the country’s forest industry, as its millions of acres of forests supply approximately 500 mills with wood for lumber, pulp and paper, and plywood. These mills process countless numbers of trees every day, resulting in massive quantities of byproducts such as sawdust, bark, and wood shavings. The mills would normally have to pay to have these byproducts removed from their sites, but two Quebec hospitals are now utilizing the wood waste to power their new biomass boilers.
Reduces Emissions
Canada has often been in the forefront of environmental legislation, and continued actions by the government support that position. The government recently introduced tough, mandatory regulations for industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and 60% to 70% by 2050. The government also plans to cut air pollution in half by 2015, which is the most aggressive plan in Canadian history.
In order to curb its greenhouse gas emissions and comply with the regulations, the government of Quebec asked the mechanical contracting firm of R. Nantel & Associés Inc., Montreal, to survey its northern hospitals
to determine if they were candidates for biomass boilers. “Years ago, the government purchased solid fuel boilers, which today are in such bad shape, there was no way to get them legal with the environment, so they had to be replaced. There are a lot of sawmills in northern Quebec that have a lot of solid fuel left all over the place that the hospitals could use, so the biomass boilers made sense,” said Roland Fauteux, of R. Nantel & Associés Inc.
These boilers not only utilize the wood waste from the local mills, they also substantially improve the hospitals’ energy efficiency while reducing the facilities’ emissions of greenhouse gases. Some might question whether or not burning wood is that much cleaner than burning other types of fuel (Sidebar), but modern biomass boilers come equipped with proven emissions control devices that significantly reduce NOx and CO emissions. In addition, particulate emissions are reduced through the use of cyclone separators, bag houses, or electronic precipitators, which catch almost all the ash generated during the combustion process.
Two small hospitals in northern Quebec, La Sarre and Macamic, were just recently retrofitted with new biomass boilers, and there are more on the horizon. “There are close to 11 hospitals to do,” said Fauteux. “Usually after one is done, the start-up completed, and the bugs worked out, we go on to the next one. We do one a year, because by the time the operators are at ease, it takes that much time. It also comes down to budget, because there’s only so much money to spend.”
And, as Fauteux pointed out, once he gets into the boiler room, there’s more to do than just replace the boiler: Most of the other equipment needs to be repaired or replaced as well, including headers, valves, pumps, and heat exchangers. Fauteux noted at one hospital, one of the high-pressure valves had a hole in it, and a screw had been put in to hold the steam. “You definitely didn’t want to go alongside where the screw was,” he chuckled. “You’d get a hole in your head if it let go.”
Hybrid Boiler Fills The Bill
La Sarre and Macamic Hospitals were built in the 1940s, and both still had their original boilers, which Fauteux pointed out were riveted, not welded. Most of the original boilers were disassembled and removed, although each hospital kept one existing boiler as a backup. Ironically, these boilers are not allowed to operate due to their excessive emissions, but they will remain in place until facility personnel become comfortable with the new biomass boilers.
Fauteux installed Hurst multi-fuel “Hybrid Series” solid fuel-fired steam boilers at both hospitals, and back-up oil burners were installed on the 200-hp boiler at La Sarre and the 250-hp boiler at Macamic, just in case there is ever a problem in the fuel handling.
The fuel is kept in a storage area that is located 30 ft down in the ground, which keeps the wood from freezing. Every few days, a truck delivers a load of wood waste — usually sawdust, wood chips, and bark — and dumps it into the reserve. Due to rising fuel prices, these fuel deliveries are getting more expensive, but they’re still less than the cost of buying oil or gas.
“Years ago, it cost about $25/ton for the wood waste to be delivered,” said Fauteux. “Now it’s $65/ton undelivered. But the price of oil and gas is going up, too. The wood waste costs 35% to 40% of what it would to buy oil or gas, which is a big savings.”
The fuel in the ground rests on a “walking” floor, which allows the bulk biomass to transition from the storage area into the fuel feed circuit as called for by the power system it is supplying. The walking floor moves the fuel to a conveyor belt and then to a feed/transfer conveyor supplying a metering bin. The metering bin maintains a minimal reserve of fuel, however, its primary function is to provide a positive head of fuel above the variable pitch metering screw to ensure a relatively constant delivery rate per revolution.
The metering bin is fitted with a level indicating device, so as the load on the energy system is increased (i.e., steam pressure drops), the demand for fuel correspondingly increases, lowering the fuel level in the bin. A metering screw located immediately below the metering bin is used to transport the fuel, at a measured rate, to a rotary air lock device. The air lock device acts as a draft barrier, allowing fuel to pass from the metering screw to the stoker screw while limiting the intrusion of air through the fuel system. The stoker then brings the fuel into the boiler (the underfeed stoker system is used at the Quebec hospitals).
To control particulate emissions, the boilers are equipped with two multi-cyclones, commonly called collectors, in series. The principle of operation of the cyclones is identical: Hot particle laden flue gases enter the unit and are directed down through the outer of two concentric tubes. Access to the outer cast iron tube is through spinner vanes that impart a centrifugal motion to the flue gases. The heavier entrained particles are forced to the outside of the larger outer tube and fall to the bottom of the cyclone hopper. The gases exit the larger tube through the smaller steel center tube.
Approximately 95% of the particulate matter is removed at the primary collector. The ash/particulate drops to the bottom of the tapered hopper and passes through a rotary air lock to a either dumpster or drag chain conveyor for removal, or to a fan-driven re-injection line back into the combustion chamber. The secondary collector contains a larger number of smaller cast iron and steel tube configurations, and approximately 95% of the remaining finer particulate matter is removed here.
Fauteux said he knows the emission controls on the new boilers are working because the hospitals are no longer identified by the big black clouds hovering over the buildings. “It used to be you didn’t have to get directions to get to the hospitals — all you had to do was watch for the smoke coming out. Now you have to watch for the signs, because you’ll never get there otherwise.”
Same System Used Everywhere
The same hybrid boiler system will be installed at all the other Quebec hospitals in which Fauteux is involved for two reasons. First, the government is comfortable with this particular technology, and second, keeping the same system results in fewer spare parts being needed by the hospitals.
“The government wanted to have one central location in the north that doesn’t have to supply parts for 20 different kinds of boilers,” said Fauteux. “This is a good move for their budget, because they can supply all the hospitals through one warehouse, because all the motors and drives are the same from place to place. There isn’t a heavy budget for spare parts in each hospital.”
Using the same boiler system at the different locations will also be easier for hospital personnel, who are having to adjust to using a computer to control the equipment. “They had to get used to this new technology. It won’t bite. If necessary, all they have to do is shut down the boiler, and then they restart it. It’s not that complicated.
They really appreciate that now they can shut down the boiler from their home or office, or make corrections without going over there.”
Neither hospital has been through a complete season, so a full energy assessment hasn’t been made. However, Fauteux believes each facility is saving 40% to 45% in their energy costs, compared to what they were paying previously. And most importantly, the boilers passed the stringent emissions tests conducted by the government.
“They haven’t decided which hospital we will work on next,” said Fauteux, “but now that we have the boiler system down, each job will move a little faster.” ES
Sidebar: Advantages of Wood Biomass Equipment
In a paper prepared for the USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry Technology Marketing Unit, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, chemical engineer Richard Bergman and wood technologist John Zerbe outlined some of the benefits of using wood biomass equipment:
“Wood fuel has several environmental advantages compared with fossil fuels. Wood can be continually replenished, which leads to a sustainable and dependable supply. However, proper forest management must be practiced to ensure that growing conditions are not degraded during biomass production.
“There is little net production of carbon dioxide from wood combustion, because the CO2 generated during combustion of wood equals the CO2 consumed during the lifecycle of the tree. Transporting the material using petroleum generates excess CO2.
“Wood fuel contains minimal heavy metals and extremely low levels of sulfur; wood fuel is no threat to acid rain pollution. Particulate emissions from wood are controllable through standard emission control devices such as bag houses, cyclone separators, and electronic precipitators. Bottom ash is minimal. Usually, wood ash is less than 1% of the weight of the wood, and sometimes ash may be used as a fertilizer.
“The principal economic advantage of wood-burning systems is that wood fuel is usually less expensive than competing fossil fuels. However, the price of wood for use as fuel can be extremely variable. Sometimes when surplus supplies of wood residues are available at nearby forest product manufacturing plants or municipal solid waste handling facilities, the cost can be very low or even negative. Transportation for delivering from the supply site to the wood combustion or wood processing unit is the primary expense of wood fuel.
“At other times, mostly dependent on location of the wood power facility, the cost of wood fuel can be quite high because large volumes of fuel are needed to have a dependable and consistent supply of wood fuel. Because the market for wood biomass energy may be uncertain or uncommon in a particular area, potential wood biomass users may want to do a brief, informal feasibility study before undertaking a rigorous economic analysis.”
Obama administration calls for aggressive biomass spending
http://www.bbiinternational.com April 01, 2009
By BBI International
Obama administration calls for aggressive biomass spending
LAKEWOOD, Colorado — The American economy is in the grip of a crisis unparalleled since the Great Depression. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 presented to Congress, President Obama has included $58 billion to be devoted to energy investments in the coming years — of that, at least $800 million would be directed specifically at biomass-driven energy projects.
The bill in its current form would encourage the production of power derived from closed- and open-loop biomass, landfill gas and waste-to-energy facilities. It would extend the federal production tax credit (PTC) and let producers claim an investment tax credit (ITC) rather than the PTC for certain projects. It would also grant producers the option of receiving federal grants rather than the ITC in some cases. The bill also provides $850 million in federal support for removal of hazardous fuels and related efforts to prevent wildfires on public lands. A further provision designed to boost weatherization efforts calls for grants promoting the use of upgraded renewable energy generation systems using biomass such as wood pellets.
"This is not just a short-term program to boost employment," said President Obama speaking of the bill. "It's one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century."
In an effort to create jobs and boost the economy, long-term investment in renewable energy programs will both create high-wage jobs and a sustainable energy economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than 10 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources. In the first ten months of 2008, biomass utilization increased by 8 percent over the same period in 2007.
"This investment couldn't come at a better time," says BBI International CEO Mike Bryan. "Renewable energy industry leaders will find this administration's forward-looking policies and support particularly encouraging."
In April, BBI will host The International BIOMASS Conference & Expo, the only conference in the world designed to serve multiple segments of the global biomass industry. As the world of biomass expands, the conference has broadened to six unique tracks that encompass the vast majority of biomass feedstocks:
• Crop Residues
• Dedicated Energy Crops
• Forest & Wood Processing Residues
• Livestock & Poultry Wastes
• MSW, Urban Wastes & Landfill Gas
• Food Processing Residues
Registration is open
Register at http://www.biomassconference.com. The general conference registration fee includes admission to the general session and all workshops, entry to the Expo, all meal functions, and speaker presentations. Other rates and levels of access are available.
Dare to DREAM™! - Double Renewable Energy in AMerica
American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) February 26, 2009
Dare to DREAM™! - Double Renewable Energy in AMerica
The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and the renewable energy industries in America are delighted to have a new administration committed to advancing renewable energy with a plan to create new clean energy jobs with a goal to double alternative energy production in the next three years.
ACORE believes we must respond immediately to this bold new leadership with our own pledge to help reach the goal. ACORE issues a Call for Action to each of our 600+ organizational members, and all other renewable energy organizations, asking each to come forward with your Action Plan to help achieve the DREAM: Double Renewable Energy in AMerica.
For more info, or to submit your Action Plan, visit this website: http://www.acore.org/dream
Share it with like-minded industry advocates who welcome this opportunity to speak up on what we each plan to do to “Just Double It” by 2012. In turn, ACORE is committed to follow up with the government to ensure submitted plans are seen in Washington, DC.
Excerpts from Obama's Speech:
“We will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years… modernize more than 75 percent of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of 2 million American homes…"
“We will put Americans to work in jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings, and developing new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet …”
“We will begin updating the way we get our electricity by starting to build a new smart grid that will save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack, and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation.“
Biomass Helps Power National Lab
MachineDesign.com January 08, 2009
By MD Staff
The Savannah River National Lab, Aiken, S.C., recently replaced a 1950s era coal-burning steam generating plant with a state-of-the-art facility that will burn biomass, mostly wood from the local logging industry. The original plant was too large, so Savannah managers often had to vent much of the steam, which reduced its efficiency.
The new plant has two state-of-the-art HURST 30,000 lb/ hr steam boilers, one burning biomass, and the other fuel oil. The fuel-oil boiler is a standby for maintenance periods and peak demands. The plant cost $10 million to build, but should save $1.5 million annually in reduced operating and maintenance costs, as well as less energy consumption. It also meets new Clean Air and Water Act standards.
Palin unveils energy goals for cities, villages
Associated Press January 16, 2009
By DAN JOLING
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Gov. Sarah Palin has crossed swords with conservation groups over petroleum drilling, but she earned nothing but praise Friday after announcing the most ambitious renewable energy goal in the nation.
At a news conference announcing her statewide energy plan, Palin called for 50 percent of Alaska's power to be generated by renewable resources by 2025.
The goal addresses both urban Alaska, including Anchorage, Fairbanks and other cities that make up the Railbelt, and the hundreds of Alaska villages off the road system and power grid.
Palin called for six state utilities that serve most of the population to stop traditional infighting and take a regional approach for new power generation projects that could lower costs.
Palin also unveiled a guide listing alternative energy assets of every village in Alaska. Those resources can be developed to wean far-flung villages off electricity generated by burning diesel fuel that must be imported by barge or airplane.
"This guide will help us move to a future where, ideally, 50 percent of Alaska's electricity is generated from renewable resources by 2025," Palin said.
President-elect Barack Obama has called for 25 percent nationwide by 2025. According the Union of Concerned Scientists, 26 states have adopted renewable electricity standards and four states have a voluntary renewable energy goal, with no specific enforcement mechanism. Washington state's goal is 15 percent by 2020 and Oregon's is 25 percent by 2025.
About 24 percent of Alaska's power already comes from renewable energy, mostly hydropower from the Alaska Panhandle. Reaching Palin's goal will take major projects to serve Alaska cities that are beyond the reach of single utilities, said Pat Lavin, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation.
He called Palin's announcement "a defining moment in Alaska's history."
"We just became a leader among states in committing to renewable energy as the power source of the future," he said.
Alaska conservation organizations have been at odds with Palin over her push for petroleum development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf off Alaska's coast.
Kate Troll, director of the Alaska Conservation Alliance, said the governor's announcement was the first time she has officially voiced the importance of consolidating utilities, using more fuel-efficient engines, and getting rural communities off diesel.
"Together, these goals make a very forward-thinking energy plan," Troll said.
Deborah Williams of Alaska Conservation Solutions urged Palin to have codify her goal to aid utilities in planning.
"That goal is nationally significant," she said.
Palin said she wants the state to continue to be a major supplier of energy to the nation but planned to take an unprecedented effort to inventory and analyze options within the state.
Joe Balash, Palin's aide on oil and gas, said there will be a continuing effort to find new power generation sources for the Railbelt, likely through a new corporation that can handle projects beyond the capability of individual utilities. Talks have been ongoing with utilities, he said, and legislation likely will be introduced in the 90-day 2009 session, which kicks off Tuesday.
The community guide is a primer on alternative energy sources as well as an inventory for projects. For example, the accompanying documentation show that Scammon Bay, a mile from the Bering Sea in western Alaska, has the potential for a wind-diesel hybrid project, and that 700 miles to the northeast on the Yukon River, the village of Circle has potential for generating electricity with geothermal resources.
Palin energy adviser Steve Haagenson, who oversaw the village report, also unveiled the first 77 projects picked for grants from the $100 million Alaska Renewable Energy Fund.
They range from wind farms in the Aleutians, Kodiak and Delta Junction to a landfill gas recovery project in Anchorage.
State legislative leaders have cautioned that with the precipitous drop in the price of crude oil, from which Alaska earns upward of 90 percent of its state revenue, money for renewable energy projects may not be so plentiful in 2009.
EIA Energy Outlook
U.S. Energy Information Administration December 17, 2008
The Annual Energy Outlook 2009 (AEO2009) reference case released today by the Energy Information Administration presents updated projections for U.S. energy consumption and production through 2030.
Oil Use and Import Dependence: For the first time in more than 20 years, the new AEO reference case projects virtually no growth in U.S. oil consumption, reflecting the combined effect of recently enacted CAFE standards, requirements for increased use of renewable fuels, and an assumed rebound in oil prices as the world economy recovers. With overall liquid fuel demand in the AEO2009 reference case growing by only 1 million barrels per day between 2007 and 2030, increased use of domestically-produced biofuels, and rising domestic oil production spurred by higher prices, the net import share of total liquids supplied, including biofuels, declines from 58 percent in 2007 to less than 40 percent in 2025 before increasing to 41 percent in 2030 (Figure 1).
Natural Gas Use and Import Dependence: The reference case raises EIA’s projection for U.S. production and consumption of natural gas, reflecting increased availability of resources and higher demand for electric power generation. With growing production of natural gas from unconventional onshore sources, the Outer Continental Shelf, and Alaska, the net import share of total natural gas use also declines, from 16 percent in 2007 to less than 3 percent in 2030 (Figure 2).
Total Primary Energy Use and Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Efficiency policies and higher energy prices in AEO2009 slow the rise in U.S. energy use, which is projected to grow from 101.9 quadrillion Btu in 2007 to 113.3 quadrillion Btu in 2030. When combined with the increased use of renewables and a reduction in projected additions of new coal-fired conventional power plants, this slows the growth in energy-related GHG emissions. Energy-related CO2 emissions grow at 0.3 percent per year from 2007 to 2030 in the AEO2009 reference case, reaching a level of 6,410 million metric tons in 2030, as compared with 6,851 million metric tons in the AEO2008 reference case (Figure 3).
Oil Prices: The assumption of a higher world oil price path in the AEO2009 reference case reflects tighter constraints on access to low cost oil supplies in a setting where the forces driving growth in long-term demand in non-OECD countries remains as strong as previously expected. In 2007 dollars, the world crude oil price, averaging near $60 in 2009, rises as the global economy rebounds and global demand once again grows more rapidly than non-OPEC liquids supply. In 2030, the average real price of crude oil is $130 per barrel in 2007 dollars ($189 per barrel in nominal dollars) (Figure 4).
Renewable Energy Use: Total consumption of marketed renewable fuels — including wood, municipal waste, and biomass in the end use sectors; hydroelectricity, geothermal, municipal waste, biomass, solar, and wind for electric power generation; ethanol for gasoline blending; and biomass-based diesel — grows by 3.3 percent per year in the AEO2009 reference case. This rapid growth reflects the EISA2007 renewable fuel standard and strong growth in the use of renewables for electricity generation that is spurred by renewable portfolio standards for electricity generators in many States.
Vehicle Characteristics: A sharp increase in the sale of unconventional vehicle technologies, such as flex-fuel, hybrid, and diesel vehicles, and a significant decline in the new light-truck share of total light-duty vehicle sales are projected. Hybrid vehicle sales (all varieties) increase from 2 percent of new light-duty vehicle sales in 2007 to 38 percent in 2030. Sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) grow to 90,000 vehicles annually by 2014, supported by recently enacted tax credits. By 2030, PHEVs account for 2 percent of new light vehicle sales (Figure 5).
Modeling Methodology: The AEO2009 reference case assumes no changes in current laws and regulations. However, it reflects the behavior of investors and regulators who, in their investment evaluation process, are implicitly (or explicitly) adding a cost to many proposed power plants that employ GHG-intensive technologies. Additions of new coal-fired power plants are significantly reduced from earlier projections. Other highlights of the AEO2009 reference case projections include:
- Coal, oil, and natural gas meet 79 percent of total U.S. primary energy supply requirements in 2030, down from an 85-percent share in 2007.
- Total domestic production of natural gas reaches 23.7 trillion cubic feet by 2030. While exploration and production costs rise over time, higher natural gas prices support the projected level of production. Onshore production of unconventional natural gas, including shale gas, increases from 9.2 trillion cubic feet in 2007 to 13.2 trillion cubic feet in 2030.
- Ethanol use for gasoline blending grows to 12.2 billion gallons and E85 consumption to 17.3 billion gallons in 2030. The ethanol supply from cellulosic feedstocks reaches 12.6 billion gallons (including both domestic and imported production) in 2030. Biodiesel and biomass-to-liquid diesel fuel use both rise significantly, reaching nearly 2 billion gallons and 5 billion gallons, respectively, in 2030.
- Total electricity consumption, including both purchases from electric power producers and on-site generation, grows from 3,903 billion kilowatthours in 2007 to 4,902 billion kilowatthours in 2030.
- New natural gas and renewable plants account for the majority of generating capacity additions. The natural gas share of electricity generation remains between 19 percent and 22 percent through 2030. Coal’s generation share declines from 49 percent to 45 percent between 2007 and 2025, then rebounds slightly to 47 percent in 2030 as a small number of new coal plants are added.
- The reference case projections from theEarly Release Summary of AEO2009 are available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/index.html. The full AEO2009 report, including projections with differing assumptions on the price of oil, the rate of economic growth, and the characteristics of new technologies, will be released in early 2009, along with regional projections.
The report described in this press release was prepared by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. The information contained in the report and the press release should be attributed to the Energy Information Administration and should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any policy position of the Department of Energy or any other organization.
EIA Program Contact: John Conti, 202/586-2222, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
EIA Press Contact: National Energy Information Center, 202/586-8800, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
EIA-2008-16Contact:
National Energy Information Center (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Phone:(202) 586-8800 FAX:(202) 586-0727
Hurst Boiler Announces New Biomass Boiler Systems
Hurst Boiler Press Release December 18, 2008
The latest edition in our biomass boiler series is the Hurst Reciprocating Grate Stoker with automated ash removal.
This unit offers the very best of solid fuel combustion allowing mechanical replacement of fuel with the least amount of moving parts. This efficient multi-fuel design is offered in various configurations to utilize a wide selection of solid fuels. All Hurst factory stokers are cast from the highest quality steel alloys and mounted on a robust undercarriage system. Capable of burning wood, coal,bark, construction debris, nuts, shells, husks, paper, card/board products , hog fuel, sawdust, shavings, sludge and agricultural biomass.
The Hurst BIOMASS-TER features a Co2 Neutral Release and PLC based total systems monitoring.
Hybrid Series: Available in Steam or Hot Water Multi-Pass Dry Back Design, 100 to 1800 BHP, 15 to 450 PSI Steam.
N65 Series: Available in Steam or Hot Water Firebox Design, 100 to 1500 BHP, 15 to 450 PSI Steam.
S100 Series: Available in Steam or Hot Water Firebox Design, 100 to 800 BHP, Low Pressure Steam with Hot Water Options.
STAG Units (Stand-Alone Gasifier): STAG units are used when heated air is needed instead of steam or hot water. Hurst manufactures units to service Oil Heaters, Rotary Dryers, Lumber Kilns, Brick Kilns, and the firing and co-firing of Boilers. Available with components such as Ash Systems, Material Handling, Custom Blend Refractories, Combustion Air Systems and the Hurst BIOMASS-TER Combustion Monitoring System.
Our Biomass product line is available with options including Flat Grate Stokers, Underfeed Stokers, and Traveling Grate Stokers to meet all biomass system requirements.
Energy solutions based on biomass and bio-fuels provide clean and renewable energy. Green-thinking companies are now using biofuels to mitigate the impact their activities have on the environment by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. This can also generate earnings by saving money on energy costs, and by the sale of carbon credits. Achieve energy independence, and no longer be at the mercy of the oil markets. Hurst Boiler is a leader in the development of boiler technology and energy management projects through sustainable solutions for renewable energy and energy efficiency by biomass.
HURST Biomass Boiler Systems can reduce, or even eliminate your energy and disposal costs through the combustion of renewable and sustainable fuel sources, also known as Biomass.
LECG Study Shows Ethanol Tax Exemption Increases U.S. Government Revenues and Reduces Dependence on
Grainnet November 19, 2008
Wayne, PA—The federal investment in ethanol over the past three decades has yielded billions of dollars of economic gain, according to a report released November 17 from economic consulting firm LECG, LLC.
The report concluded that each dollar invested in America’s ethanol industry in the form of the federal excise tax credit returned nearly $5 to federal, state and local government and the economy as a whole.
According to the analysis, the tax provision has not only increased federal tax revenues, but also reduced imported oil expenditures and put more money into consumer pockets. The analysis, conducted by LECG Director John Urbanchuk on behalf of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), found that America’s ethanol industry has: ”...generated an estimated $33.4 billion (2008$) in tax revenue for the Federal government and nearly $17 billion (2008$) of additional tax revenue for State and Local governments since 1978, reduced America’s tab for imported oil by $97.5 billion, helped reduce farm program payments by more than $3 billion annually since 2006, and put some $66 billion more into the pockets of Americans in the form of increased household income since its inception in 1978.”
“The federal investment in America’s ethanol industry has been and will continue paying dividends for the American economy,” said Urbanchuk.
“The federal tax incentive has spurred the kind of investment in rural America that has not been seen perhaps since the New Deal.
"The resulting benefits of this investment have yielded billions of dollars in new tax revenue, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduced America’s oil dependence by billions of barrels, and helped keep nearly $100 billion here at home rather than being spent for oil overseas.
"Economically, this incentive has been an unequivocal success.”
Key findings of the analysis include the following benefits of the federal tax incentive for ethanol blending and the resulting growth of the American ethanol industry since 1978:
- More than 53 billion gallons of ethanol have been produced, or about 1.2 percent of all the motor gasoline sold over this period. (In 2008, ethanol represents 7% of the nation’s gasoline supply.)
- A displacement of nearly 1.9 billion barrels of imported crude oil (the amount of crude required to produce the ethanol equivalent of 34.9 billion gallons of gasoline) valued at $97.5 billion (2008$).
- An addition of $228 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2008.
- The creation of more than 210,000 jobs in all sectors of the economy. (Note: After 2006, this calculation includes only those gallons produced above the mandated levels as established first in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and revised in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. By comparison, the ethanol industry helped create 238,000 new jobs in 2007 as a result of the 6.5 billion gallons produced.) • Increased household incomes by $66.2 billion (2008$).
- The ethanol industry has paid for itself since the inception of the excise tax credit. An estimated $33.4 billion (2008$) in tax revenue for the Federal government and nearly $17 billion (2008$) of additional tax revenue for State and Local governments has been generated since 1978. The estimated cost of the ethanol tax credit over this same period was $30.4 billion (2008$). Consequently, the ethanol industry generated a surplus of about $3 billion for the Federal treasury alone over the past three decades.
*The excise tax credit also has saved taxpayers money by reducing farm program outlays through higher prices for corn.
"Recent research published at Iowa State University estimated that the Federal government saved $3.45 billion in 2007 alone because it was not making loan deficiency payments, as it was in 2005 and 2006."
Gassing up with garbage
Herald Tribune July 24, 2008
By Matthew L. Wald
After years of false starts, a new industry selling motor fuel made from waste is getting a big push in the United States, with the first commercial sales possible within months.
Many companies have announced plans to build plants that would take in material like wood chips, garbage or crop waste and turn out motor fuels. About 28 small plants are in advanced planning, under construction or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode.
For decades scientists have known it was possible to convert waste to fuel, but in an era of cheap oil, it made little sense. With oil now trading around $125 a barrel and gasoline above $4 a gallon, the potential economics of a waste-to-fuel industry have shifted radically, setting off a frenzy to be first to market.
"I think American innovation is going to come up with the solution," said Prabhakar Nair, research chief for UOP, a company working on the problem.
Success is far from assured, however. Some of the latest announcements come from small companies whose dreams may be bigger than their bank accounts. They are counting on billions in taxpayer subsidies. Big technological hurdles remain, and even if they can be solved, no one is sure what unintended consequences will emerge or what it will really cost to produce this type of fuel.
"We desperately need it, and I personally think it's not there yet," said Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. "You have to look at starts with a grain of salt, especially starts where they say, 'It's around the corner, and by the way, can you pay half the bill?' "
Still, the incentive to make fuel from something, anything, besides oil and food is greater than ever. Moreover, the U.S. government is offering grants to help plants get off the ground and subsidies for one type of fuel of $1.01 a gallon, twice the subsidy it historically offered to ethanol made from corn.
Potential controls on global warming gases would heighten the appeal of these fuels, since many of them would add little new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Tellingly, the type of companies placing bets on the field has started to expand. The earliest were small start-ups founded by people with more technological vision than business experience. Now some of the giants of global business, including Honeywell, Dupont, General Motors, Shell and BP, are taking stakes in the nascent industry.
The dream of making fuel from plants is almost as old as the internal combustion engine. Henry Ford himself was fascinated by the idea, and it re-emerges in periods of fuel scarcity and high prices. These days, advancing technology has made the notion more plausible.
Virtually any material containing hydrogen, carbon and oxygen could potentially be turned into motor fuel. That includes plastics, construction debris, forest and lawn trimmings, wood chips, wheat straw and many other types of agricultural waste.
The potential fuels include ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline, or other liquids that could displace gasoline or diesel entirely. Government studies suggest the country could potentially replace half its gasoline supply in this way — even more if cars became more efficient.
The government is pushing to get the industry off the ground. Legislation passed last year mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022, less than half of it from corn ethanol. Almost all the rest is supposed to come from nonfood sources, though the requirement could be waived if the industry faltered.
"One has to say upfront that what Congress has done is remarkable in its bravery," said David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, a group in Minneapolis that advocates biofuels. Much of the new money flowing into the field is coming from Silicon Valley, where the venture capitalists who gave the world the Internet revolution see an opportunity to do something similar with the fuel supply. At Solazyme, a start-up in South San Francisco that hopes to commercialize a process for making fuel from algae, President Harrison Dillon said, "When we founded the company in 2003, we couldn't find a venture capital firm that had heard of the concept of a biofuel." Now he is backed by two such firms.
Venture capital investment in the first half of this year hit $612 million, up from $375 million in all of 2007, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Every few days brings another announcement. PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm, counts projects worth perhaps $1.5 billion that will total more than 300 million gallons of capacity by 2011, if they all get built.
That is small in the scheme of American fuel demand, but it would presumably set the stage for substantial growth if those first projects prove that the economics can work.
One of the first companies to bring a plant online is KL Process Design Group, in Wyoming. With experience making corn ethanol plants, it has built a small plant meant to use pine wastes from a nearby national forest. The company is still testing its production line but hopes to begin commercial sales of ethanol late this year.
"We're still learning and tweaking, and hoping for a little bit of capital infusion," said Tom Slunecka, a vice president of the company.
Range Fuels, of Denver, is building a commercial-scale plant in Soperton, Georgia, with help from the Energy Department. That plant will take pine chips and turn them into ethanol, with commercial sales expected by late 2009 or 2010.
Some companies want to use garbage. On Friday, a company called Fulcrum BioEnergy said it would start construction later this year on a $120 million plant at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, in Storey County, Nevada, to make 10.5 million gallons of ethanol a year from 90,000 tons of garbage. Operation would begin in early 2010.
In Montreal, another firm, Enerkem, plans to use arsenic-contaminated utility poles from the provincial electric company. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a plan by BlueFire Ethanol to build a $30 million garbage-to-ethanol plant on 10 acres next to a landfill in Lancaster, California; construction will start soon, the company said.
A handful of small companies has long made a diesel replacement from waste oil, or sold kits to individuals to do the same. One company in Carthage, Missouri, even turns turkey guts into fuel. The goal of the emerging waste-to-fuel industry is more elaborate, however: to take bulky, solid feedstocks and transform them into high-grade motor fuel.
History provides plenty of warning that it will not be easy. A company called Verenium in Lafayette, Louisiana, has cut ribbons three times in one locale since 1998 on plants that would supposedly make fuel from sugar cane waste, and has yet to sell a drop because of problems converting laboratory success into smooth, commercial-scale operation.
A bigger operation, Iogen, has been running a demonstration plant in Ottawa since 2004 that can turn wheat straw into ethanol. It was expected to build a plant in Idaho but has suspended work to focus attention on a plant in Saskatchewan. "It would be our view that there are substantial challenges in scaling up a big new biochemical process," said Brian Foody, the president.
The Energy Department early last year picked six projects as most likely to succeed, and offered each of them tens of millions of dollars. Iogen's Idaho project was among them; so was a plant in Kansas proposed by a Florida company, Alico, that has also been abandoned. Still, increasing interest from big companies — ones with a track record of solving technical problems — suggests that a waste-to-fuel industry may not remain out of reach forever.
General Motors has invested an undisclosed sum in two companies, Coskata, of Warrenville, Illinois, and Macoma, of Lebanon, New Hampshire, that aim to turn crop wastes into ethanol. DuPont, one of the world's largest chemical companies, has joined forces with a company called Genencor, announcing plans to commercialize a process for making ethanol from the nonedible parts of corn and sugar cane. They plan to invest $140 million over three years.
In making their announcement, the companies estimated the worldwide market for fuels made by methods like theirs would eventually reach $75 billion, dwarfing the scale of today's biofuels produced from food crops like corn and sugar cane.
New Biomass Technology Dramatically Increases Ethanol Yield From Grasses And Yard Waste
ScienceDaily July 29, 2008
University of Georgia researchers have developed a new technology that promises to dramatically increase the yield of ethanol from readily available non-food crops, such as Bermudagrass, switchgrass, Napiergrass—and even yard waste.
“Producing ethanol from renewable biomass sources such as grasses is desirable because they are potentially available in large quantities,” said Joy Peterson, professor of microbiology and chair of UGA’s Bioenergy Task Force. “Optimizing the breakdown of the plant fibers is critical to production of liquid transportation fuel via fermentation.” Peterson developed the new technology with former UGA microbiology student Sarah Kate Brandon, and Mark Eiteman, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
The new technology features a fast, mild, acid-free pretreatment process that increases by at least 10 times the amount of simple sugars released from inexpensive biomass for conversion to ethanol. The technology effectively eliminates the use of expensive and environmentally unsafe chemicals currently used to pretreat biomass.
The technology is available for licensing from the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., which has filed a patent application.
Inexpensive waste products—including corn stover or bagasse, the waste from corn and sugar cane harvests, fast-growing weeds—and non-food crops grown for biofuel, such as switchgrass, Napiergrass and Bermudagrass, are widely viewed as the best sustainable resources for ethanol made from biofuels.
“Using non-food crops that can be grown on marginal lands, like grasses, and fibrous waste streams like corn stover, is important because of the ongoing food-versus-fuel debate,” said Peterson. “When agricultural crops, such as corn or potatoes, are grown for biofuels production, the cost of the starting material may fluctuate greatly because of competing demands for food and feed. The trade-off with using a biomass like grasses is that grasses are harder to break apart than corn or potatoes, and the cost of making the same fuel, like ethanol, rises.”
Developing an efficient, cost-effective process to convert the fibrous stalks, leaves, and blades of plant wastes into simple sugars is the biggest challenge to bio-based ethanol production. Thick, complex plant cell walls are highly resistant to efforts to break them down.
Currently, woody biomass requires soaking under high pressure and temperatures in expensive, environmentally aggressive bases or acids before it is subjected to enzymes that digest it, producing simple sugars. The harsh pretreatment solutions subsequently must be removed and disposed of safely. They also cause formation of side products that can slow down the conversion of the sugars into ethanol.
In contrast, the environmentally friendly UGA technology eliminates the expense of harsh pretreatment chemicals and their disposal, and the formation of side products is minimal. “The new technology has commercial application for the biomass industry, including producers of sugar cane, corn, switchgrass, Napiergrass and other woody biomass crops,” said Gennaro Gama, UGARF technology manager responsible for licensing this technology. “It may also help renewable energy and biofermentation companies—and local governments.
“By allowing for the use of myriad raw materials, this technology allows more options for ethanol facilities trying to meet nearby demand by using locally available, inexpensive starting materials,” he added. “This would greatly reduce the costs and carbon footprint associated with the delivery of raw materials to fermentation facilities and the subsequent delivery of ethanol to points of sale. Local production of ethanol may also protect specific areas against speculative fluctuations in fuel prices.
“It’s easy to imagine that this easy-to-use, inexpensive technology could be used by local governments, alone or in partnership with entrepreneurs, to meet local demand for ethanol, possibly using yard waste as a substrate,” he said.
University of Georgia (2008, July 29). New Biomass Technology Dramatically Increases Ethanol Yield From Grasses And Yard Waste. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080728192938.htm
Verenium Technology to be Used in Asia
Ethanol Magazine July 25, 2008
By Kris Bevill
Cambridge-based Verenium Corp., a cellulosic ethanol enzyme developer and producer, is collaborating with Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. to continue the advancement of cellulosic ethanol facilities in Asia.
Last week the companies announced the opening of an approximately 790,000 gallon per year cellulosic ethanol production facility in Saraburi, Thailand. Marubeni spokesperson Kanaya Mitsushige said the plant began operations in March and is continuing to operate on a demonstration-scale under supervision from Marubeni headquarters.
The facility is colocated with an ethanol production facility that will use sugarcane as its primary feedstock. The bagasse left over from ethanol production will be utilized as feedstock at the cellulosic plant, using Verenium’s process technology to produce ethanol.
"We are very pleased to see our proprietary cellulosic technology continue to serve as a template for the commercialization of next-generation ethanol in Asia," said Carlos Riva, president and chief executive officer at Verenium. "As in the U.S., we believe cellulosic ethanol derived from non-food biomass is going to play a critical role in the global energy mix, and we look forward to further partnering with Marubeni, as we continue to advance additional strategic corporate partnership opportunities, to expand our technology's reach and potential around the globe."
Marubeni and Tsukishima Kikai Co. Ltd., co-sub-licensors of Verenium’s cellulosic ethanol production technology, have already utilized the process in an approximately
Hawaii Companies to Build Microalgae Facility
Biodiesel Magazine July 23, 2008
By Susanne Retka Schill
Algae biofuels in Hawaii are one step closer to reality with the announcement of the joint development of a commercial-scale microalgae facility on the island of Maui.
HR BioPetroleum, Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Hawaiian Electric Co., and Maui Electric Co., subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. announced July 16 that they have signed a memoranda of understanding to develop a commercial-scale microalgae facility on the island of Maui. The facility will produce lipid oil to be used in producing biodiesel and other products, such as animal feed.
Under agreement, HR BioPetroleum will be responsible for overall project management, including obtaining financing, construction and operation of the microalgae facility. Alexander & Baldwin will provide land adjacent to the power plant operated by Maui Electric Industries where the algae production ponds and processing plant will be built. Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric will lead in determining the permitting and construction needs for piping to carry stack gases containing carbon dioxide to feed the algae facility.
According to Hawaiian Electric, the first phase of the commercial facility could be in operation by 2011 if preliminary milestones are met as planned. Those factors include confirmation of algae performance data from HR BioPetroleum’s pilot and demonstration facilities, receipt of required regulatory approvals, formation of a special purpose entity, project financing and the signing of definitive agreements with the parties involved.
In 2007, HR BioPetroleum and Royal Dutch Shell PLC formed a separate joint venture to operate a demonstration facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce oil for conversion into biodiesel. The goal is to produce biofuel feedstocks while simultaneously reducing industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.
Hawaii-based Alexander & Baldwin, which has divisions involved in real estate, ocean freight, sugar and coffee, has been producing renewable energy in Hawaii for more than 100 years using biomass and hydro-electric generations on both Maui and Kauai, according Allen Doane, chairman and chief executive officer. “We are excited about the promise of algae as another renewable energy source and we look forward to the potential reduction in imported oil and greenhouse gas emissions it represents.”
“This project entails some uncertainty,” said Karl Stahlkopf, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president for energy solutions and chief technology officer. “Stepping forward to be a first implementer of a new idea always does. However, it unites the best of the new Hawaii high-tech industry with two long-established Hawaii infrastructure companies in a unique partnership.”
New Hurst Biomass Boiler Stops Traffic
April 07, 2008
ROCKFORD — A tollway ramp and part of U.S. 20 have reopened after authorities freed a semitrailer that backed up and could not make it under the Perryville Road overpass.
The incident occurred about 8:55 a.m. when the truck’s semitrailer failed to travel under the Perryville Road overpass because its load, a boiler, was too high. The load was more than 15 feet high, Illinois State Police Trooper Brent Massingill said. The Perryville overpass has a clearance of 14 feet, 10 inches.
Massingill, who coordinated efforts between the state police, Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois Department of Transportation employees, helped get the truck off the road, using one lane of U.S. 20 west of Perryville Road and the eastbound on-ramp less than a mile west.
The driver, whose name was not available, was following a route mapped out by the Department of Transportation and was not ticketed.
Authorities cleared the scene at 2:15 p.m.
Hurst Boiler Sponsors Fuels for Schools
January 11, 2008
Fuels for Schools was started in Vermont as a statewide initiative to promote and encourage the use of renewable, local natural resources to provide reliable heat for schools. It has since grown into a multistate program, and has recently expanded its scope beyond schools.
The Hurst Boiler and Fuels for Schools objectives:
To promote and encourage the use of wood biomass as a renewable, natural resource to provide a clean, readily available energy source suitable for use in heating systems in public and private buildings. To facilitate the removal of hazardous fuels from our forests by assisting in the development of viable commercial uses of the removed material.
In late 2001, Fuels for Schools was started in the Northern and Intermountain regions of the USDA’s Forest Service. The previous summer, fires ravaged much of the Bitterroot Valley of Montana and Idaho, says Dave Atkins, the Fuels for Schools program manager for the Forest Service’s Northern and Intermountain regions. Following the fires, Congress passed the National Fire Plan, which was aimed at reducing wood that could possibly fuel fires and fire suppression. It included funds to help with small-diameter wood utilization, which is not as valuable to the wood industry, is fuel for fire and costly to dispose of. A community group saw Vermont as an example, and applied for funds from the Forest Service for the first school demonstration project in Darby, Mont. From there, a regional program was developed.
There are now systems operating in Montana, Nevada, Idaho and North Dakota. Wyoming and Utah are working to identify their demonstration communities. Within these states, 16 projects have been installed or are in the design phase. Hurst has partnered in three Biomass Boiler installations thus far, and plans are underway for several more.
Atkins says the localized systems fill an important niche. “The advantage is you’re closer to your source of material, so you keep transportation costs down,” he says. “If you are consuming heat and energy on site in your local area, you don’t need a lot of transmission lines for moving the energy product to the end user.”
Designing wood boilers for schools requires unique considerations compared with other boiler systems. Salmon explains that most boilers are designed to meet peak load, but that peak load happens very infrequently—less than 15 minutes every five years. With conventional gas boilers, this usually isn’t a problem, as they operate efficiently at a small fraction of their capacity. “Wood boilers function well at high fire, and less so at lower fire,” Salmon says. “In general, we design wood boilers for less than peak load, to work productively for much of the year.”
Both Salmon and Atkins emphasized the savings—both time and money—in implementing a biomass system in new construction. “The cost of the system is a good one-third less than a retrofit,” Atkins says. “There is no cost to integrate the plumbing and connections, and it’s part of a bigger project, so the building permits and design fees are spread over a bigger project.” This savings was demonstrated this spring at a new high school in Kalispell, Mont.
Expanding to Other States
The Fuels for Schools program may expand to other states. The Farm Bill, which is in Congress right now, includes a section on wood-to-energy within the forestry title. “If that legislation passes, that would likely be an opportunity for our effort to be expanded throughout the United States in a similar fashion to what we’ve done,” Atkins says.
As the program expands into less forested states, the motive in pursuing these biomass projects becomes less about managing excess biomass supply and more about utilizing renewable energy sources. Nevada, which has a renewable energy portfolio, is such a state. Ironically, one of the most recent Fuels for Schools projects, and also the largest, is not in a school.
Enter the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nev., which, along with Hurst Boiler & Welding Co., Inc. of Coolidge, GA, completed the installation of a $6.4 million biomass system in June. The combined-heat-and-power system, producing one megawatt of electricity, will require 16,000 tons of wood per year. This is huge compared with the other Fuels for Schools project in Nevada, which only requires 150 tons of wood per year.
The Hurst Biomass Boiler and a 200-kilowatt photovoltaic solar component will provide all of the electricity, heat and hot water for the 408,000 square-foot facility. The project took 1½ years to plan and about seven months to construct. The system is estimated to save the NNCC $1 million per year. “The payback will be very quick,” Perock says. “Forestry agencies are driven by the number of acres treated, not by biomass removed,” he says. “In Nevada, we’re trying to make a market for wood waste. When the market goes up, it will be easier to justify going out and getting the wood from the forest.”
Fuels for Schools requires that half of a project’s fuel supply comes from the forests. But Perock says he is not holding the correctional facility to those standards. “We have to get the supply wherever we can, because it all counts—whether you’re pulling it out of the woods where it’s going to be burned in piles or pulling it out of the landfills where it’s going to be buried,” he says. The plan is to buy wood from Carson City Renewable Energy, a wood processing facility that diverts and processes wood waste from the local landfill.
Like it is in Nevada, the regional Fuels for Schools program will continue to expand beyond schools, where appropriate. In an analysis of all buildings with boiler systems in Montana and Michigan, CTA’s Salmon says that only about 10 percent are strong projects, meaning that the cost of converting to a wood heating system would generate a positive cash flow in the first year. Energy conservation should be the first thing that everybody considers.”
Montana Biomass Resources
http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/default.asp http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/forestry/Assistance/Biomass/default.asp http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/forestry/Assistance/Biomass/newbenefits.asp
http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/forestry/Assistance/Biomass/supply.asp
Hurst Boiler Announces Major Building Expansion
March 09, 2007
Hurst Boiler & Welding Co., Inc. has authorized the construction of a major building expansion, a project that will double the current size of their manufacturing facilities and corporate headquarters in Coolidge, Georgia to over 220,000 square feet. With their headquarters firmly established as a well-recognized landmark on the ideally situated GA Hwy 319 property, the goals for expansion are to retain the functional and design strengths of the existing structure while crafting an addition that will meet the manufacturer's staffing, business and manufacturing needs through at least the next decade. Groundbreaking occurred in mid-2006, with construction and occupancy being completed for the Grand Opening on April 12, 2007. "We are building a structure that is similar to the existing 117,000 square-foot building, in an additional building adjacent to the existing facility, explains Jeff Hurst, Vice President, Sales & Marketing. "So on one hand, the ultimate appearance of the site will be much larger simply due to the sheer scope of the project and size of the final structure. But on the other hand, our staff, distributors and visitors will easily recognize the continuation of the identifiable HURST Boiler structure and presence."
The construction project represents HURST Boiler's continued commitment to the community. "The Hurst Boiler & Welding Company 60,000 square foot expansion is a tangible example of the commitment to excellence that Hurst has demonstrated throughout their 40 year history," said Don Sims, President of the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce. "Hurst is a major reason that we enjoy a high quality of life in our community," Sims continued, 'they are the third largest industrial employer in the county and among the top ten total employers." Thomasville and Thomas County have maintained a greater percentage of industrial jobs than the State of Georgia or the United States. "In a global economy, Hurst has positioned itself to compete successfully and has provided a superior product for its customers, while creating excellent career opportunities for its employees."
One of the new features of the Hurst expansion is the 35,000 sq. ft. state-of-the- art Vessel Code Shop. Plant visitors will be able to view the latest in boiler technology and boiler and vessel manufacturing processes. Training and continuing education facilities will also be included in the new design and office space, encompassing 17,050 sq.ft. Nesmith’s Landscaping further enhanced the Coolidge headquarters site with the addition of several tranquil ponds and scenic landscaping to improve both the physical and mental environment for employees and visitors.
The Hurst Boiler Engineering Department created the design and concept of the new office and plant. Hayward Hurst, Vice President of Installations, was Project Manager throughout the construction process. "We sought consultants, designers and builders who have the resources and vision to help us create a world-class facility," he said.
Tommy Hurst, Vice President of Hurst Boiler & Welding Co., Inc. said, "The solid fuel boiler market is now global, and Hurst enjoys a large share of those sales, in both domestic and international markets. With today's gas and oil prices becoming ever more expensive, more industries are going to alternate solid fuel boiler and direct burning systems."
Scott Hobbs, New Plant Manager and Coordinator, reports increased sales necessitated the expansion to accommodate increased manufacturing, research and development.
Hurst Boiler's original structure was built in 1970. It was a total of 1000 sq. ft. and is still standing. It was designed to accommodate growth over the following 10 years. It surpassed that goal, thanks to increases in customer service and manufacturing efficiency that allowed Hurst Boiler to continue to grow. "Over the years, we've gained tremendous benefit from our continual engineering efforts, and ultimately keeping our focus directed on serving our customers' needs and requirements." says Ray Pierce, Packaged Boiler & National Sales Manager, Hurst Boiler & Welding Co., Inc. Future growth in manufacturing and new accounts was a key driver behind the decision to expand, and a detailed analysis revealed expansion projections were on-track with our growth initiatives.
"When founder, Gene Hurst, set out in 1967 to form our company, we did not have great financial resources, but what we did have was a profound faith in the future," says Jeff Hurst. "Today, we are fortunate to have the financial resources to support even greater levels of growth over our next 40 years and, most importantly, we have never lost that faith."
For nearly 40 years, Hurst Boiler & Welding Co., Inc. has been a major supplier of gas, oil & wood fired boilers to thousands of satisfied customers. Hurst also manufactures a complete line of boiler room peripherals such as blowdown separators' surge tanks, pressurized feed water tanks, steam accumulators and stacks. We have grown as a company in direct response to the companies that rely on us. Today, that growth has reached such proportions that Hurst Boiler and Welding Company is recognized internationally as a leader in the efficient and environmentally sound combustion of solid fuels as well as gas and oil. HURST Boiler maintains a staff of fully trained service engineers as well as an extensive supply of spare parts ready to respond to our customer's needs quickly, all over the world. In addition, we continually employ sophisticated techniques to provide the latest improvements in boiler and support equipment manufacturing, installation, troubleshooting and operation. Our dedication to quality and fast service is unsurpassed.
HURST Boiler, headquartered in Coolidge, GA is an international boiler manufacturing and service company operating worldwide, with thousands of installations currently in place is considered one of the nation's fastest growing boiler companies, HURST Boiler currently employs over 325 people.
