Biomass Magazine - June 2008

Harnessing the Sun’s PowerSolar-Powered Gasification Process ProducesCarbon-Negative Biofuels from Biomass

www.BiomassMagazine.com

INSIDE: INTERNATIONAL BIOMASS ‘08 CONFERENCE & TRADE SHOW REVIEW

June 2008

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6|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

INSIDE JUNE 2008 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 6

FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 EVENT Biofuels in the Future

The International Biomass ’08 Conference & Trade Show focused on environmental, political

and technological issues involved in using biomass for energy and fuel.

By Tom Bryan, Marc Hequet, Jessica Sobolik and Dave Nilles

26 TECHNOLOGY Solar-Powered Biomass Gasification

Colorado researchers have discovered how to harness the sun’s power to convert biomass

into syngas.

By Jessica Ebert

32 INDUSTRY The Power of Association

The work of the USABiomass Power Producers Alliance may not be splashed all over the front

page of every major newspaper in the country, but the organization is well-known on Capitol Hill.

By Ron Kotrba

38 POLICY Pledging Allegiance to Renewable Energy

The pledge process during the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference

2008 resulted in various countries vowing to promote and develop renewable energy.

By Jerry W. Kram

44 JAPAN Blending Aesthetics and Energy

In Japan, the blossoming of the cherries is a time of national delight. Now the cultural

treasure provides another gift: gasified fuel from its wood.

By Eric Kroh

50 MEXICO Assessing the Impact of Mexico’s Biofuels Law

Mexico recently enacted its federal Law for the Promotion and Development of Biofuels,

marking the nation’s push toward biofuels and biomass utilization. Will the law help Mexico

match the momentum of its northern neighbors?

By Raul Felix

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

06 Editor’s NoteConference Solidifies Importance of Biomass

By Rona Johnson

07 Advertiser Index

08 CITIES CornerMoving Biomass into the Urban Marketplace

By Art Wiselogel

09 Industry Events

11 Business Briefs

12 Industry News

55 In the LabSeeking Cyanobacterial Cellulose

By Jerry W. Kram

57 EERC UpdateThe Breakdown on Anaerobic Digestion

By Dan Stepan

INDUSTRY | PAGE 38

Correction from our April 2008 issue:In the Feedstock feature on page 71, the introduction shouldsay Florida’s citrus-processing industry produces up to 5 million tons of citrus waste annually, not five tons.

want to thank everyone who

attended the International Biomass

’08 Conference & Trade Show that

was held in Minneapolis in April. It was

great to visit with people in the industry

and to witness firsthand the enthusi-

asm that we try to convey in BiomassMagazine.

Although I couldn’t possibly make

it to every session of the conference, the ones I attended covered every-

thing from biomass processing to permitting and life cycle assessment to

project finance. If you didn’t get a chance to attend the conference, check

out the Event feature that starts on page 18.

I think it’s clear to most Americans that we can no longer solely rely on

petroleum and coal for our energy needs. I have to agree with Lee Lynd,

cofounder and chief scientific officer of Mascoma Corp., and a speaker at

the conference, who noted that it will take a host of solutions including the

use of renewable fuels, increased vehicle fuel efficiency, increased crop

and biomass production on underutilized land, increased crop and bio-

mass yields, and advanced biomass processing methods to wean us from

our dependence on fossil fuels. His comments about agriculture were

thought-provoking, particularly when he said that we need to “re-imagine

agriculture to accommodate large-scale energy production.”

I think that’s already starting to happen to some extent as farmers look

into the prospect of growing switchgrass and develop equipment to har-

vest corn, cobs and stover to make cellulosic ethanol. No doubt, the pres-

sure on farmers to produce crops for food, feed, fuel and the export mar-

ket has intensified. However, I’m confident, as I saw farmers out planting

crops this spring, that with help from scientists, engineers and plant breed-

ers, they are up to the task.

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 6|2008

editor ’sNOTE

Conference Solidifies Importance of Biomass

I

Rona JohnsonFeatures Editor

[email protected]

This article ("What to Do with

the Remnants of a Plastic Culture,"

April 2008) posed more questions

than answers. That's OK because it

is a tricky issue. I feel the chemists

are going to be the ones to develop

the solution. They were clever

enough to develop plastic, and they

will be clever enough to find [alterna-

tive uses].

However, the story concludes,

“While U.S. consumers often bear

the onus of recycling all the plastic

we consume, where is industry’s

accountability for selling it in the first

place?” That seems to imply that

companies shouldn't be allowed to

sell the stuff. If so, no credit is given

to the beneficial impact that plastic

has on the environment. Compared

with glass, the reduced use of fuel to

transport all of those goods is

tremendous (due to weight reduc-

tion). Both glass and aluminum

require much more energy to pro-

duce (with resulting ecological dam-

age). Certainly they are easier to

recycle, but that is dependent on

participation. Getting people here to

take their “recyclables” to the center

is like pulling teeth, and only some

places have curbside pickup.

The article didn’t mention any

requirements that the U.S. EPA has

in this regard. It didn’t say whether

the plant monitors its own emissions.

It is far from a complete discussion.

Art Erickson

letter to theE D I T O R


EDITORIAL

Tom Bryan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR [email protected]

Jessica Sobolik MANAGING EDITOR [email protected]

Dave Nilles CONTRIBUTIONS EDITOR [email protected]

Rona Johnson FEATURES EDITOR [email protected]

Ron Kotrba SENIOR 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]

Sarah Smith STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Kris Bevill STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Timothy Charles Holmseth STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Marc Hequet INTERNATIONAL EDITOR [email protected]

Hope Deutscher ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

Jan Tellmann COPY EDITOR [email protected]

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

Amber Armstrong ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

ART

Jaci Satterlund ART DIRECTOR [email protected]

Elizabeth Slavens GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

Sam Melquist GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

Jack Sitter GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALES

Mike Bryan PUBLISHER & CEO [email protected]

Kathy Bryan PUBLISHER & 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]

Marty Steen ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Marla DeFoe ADVERTISING COORDINATOR [email protected]

Jessica Beaudry SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER [email protected]

Jason Smith SUBSCRIBER ACQUISITION MANAGER [email protected]

Erika Wishart ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

Christie Anderson ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

Subscriptions Subscriptions to BiomassMagazine are available for just $24.95

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advertiserINDEX

2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo 4

Amandus Kahl USA Corp. 31

BBI International Community Initiative To Improve Energy Sustainability (CITIES) 59

Barr-Rosin Inc. 41

BBI Project Development 3, 48 & 56

Biofuels Canada 58

Boc Edwards 53

Christianson & Associates PLLP 20

Energy & Environmental Research Center 10

Energy from Biomass and Waste Expo & Conference 23 & 37

Ethanol Producer Magazine 54

FCStone 21

Cert no. SCS-COC-00648

Harris Group Inc. 25

Laidig Systems Inc. 29

Midwest Process Solutions 34

New Horizon Corp. 28

Percival Scientific Inc. 43

Price BIOstock Services 40

Process Barron 47

Rath, Young and Pignatelli PC 24

Robert-James Sales Inc. 60

Roskamp Champion 49

Rotochopper Inc. 2

The Teaford Co. Inc. 35


CITIESc o r n e r

elcome to the CITIES Corner.The idea behind this column isto provide insightful commen-tary on technologies, issues andpolitics specific to biomass inthe urban setting. If you

believe as I do that we are on the precipice of a newenergy era where renewable energy and biomass willplay a pivotal role in our everyday lives these areexciting yet trying times. As with any change, therewill be controversy around the integration of the newwith the old; economic and environmental impacts;viability of technologies; and how the change willimpact the average person on the street. In this age of24-hour news channels with talking heads, theInternet, and YouTube, there will be plenty of spinfrom both proponents and opponents to providefodder for commentary.

Before going any further, I should introducemyself. I am the manager of BBI International'sCommunity Initiative to Improve EnergySustainability (CITIES). I wish that I could claim cre-ative credit for the initiative's name, but that goes toMike Bryan who is the chief executive officer of BBIInternational. I have been involved with biomassfrom my childhood when I use to watch "pulp wood-ers" harvest loblolly pine from my grandfather's farmin southern Mississippi. Since that time I have earneddegrees in forestry and agriculture from MississippiState, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M. My workexperience includes Westvaco Corp. (paper compa-ny), Texas A&M University, the University ofGeorgia, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,and on a contract with the U.S. DOE's Golden,Colo., field office. As a scientist and manager, my pri-

mary focus was biomass han-dling, storage and transportationalong with project developmentactivities. Now I have the oppor-tunity to take this experience andassist communities in their driveto become more sustainable. Inthis effort, I am supported by acompetent and savvy staff of analysts, engineers andeconomists.

In the little space I have left I would like to offerencouragement to those of you who have long toiledin the area of biomass. As the effort to reduce green-house gas emissions increases, demand for cleanrenewable energy is going to grow. This is alreadyhappening in states where global climate change isviewed as a major point of concern for the environ-ment and their economic well being. In most regionsof the country biomass will be a major component ofthese efforts.

Now is the time to prove your technology andbusiness concept to lenders and develop a com-pelling story for equity holders so that when the timeis ripe you're ready to ride the renewable energy wave.Yes, change can happen and it usually happens quick-er than expected and catches us by surprise. Thosewho have positioned themselves properly will reapmost of the rewards when the opportunity for bio-mass heat, power, fuels and chemicals burst into theurban marketplace.

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

WMoving Biomass into the Urban Marketplace

24th Annual International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo

June 16-19, 2008Opryland Hotel & Convention CenterNashville, TennesseeThis conference will follow the record-breaking 2007 event, in which more than500 exhibitors were on display and more than 5,300 people attended. The agen-da includes discussions on cellulosic ethanol technology and enzymes, cellu-lose biorefining, anaerobic digestion and gasification. The U.S. EPA will beannouncing combined-heat-and-power awards, as well.(719) 539-0300 www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

BIO International Convention

June 17-20, 2008San Diego Convention CenterSan Diego, CaliforniaThis event covers many biotechnology topics, including biofuels and cleantech,which will be the focus of a pre-conference session held June 16. The sessionfeatures two roundtables, titled “The New Biotech Revolution” and “TheConvergence of Biotech and Cleantech.” Speakers at the session include CarlosRiva, chief executive officer of Verenium Corp., and Richard Hamilton, presidentand CEO of Ceres Inc.(202) 962-6655 www.bio2008.org

Biofuels 2010:The Next Generation

June 23-24, 2008Hilton AmericasHouston, TexasThis event will cover the latest innovations, developments and regulations with-in the biofuels industry. Topics include cellulosic ethanol; feedstocks such asMiscanthus; the commercialization of ethanol and biomass; and the integrationof refining and biorefining.(416) 214-3400 www.biofuels2010.com

Biomass ’08 Technical Workshop:Power, Fuels and Chemicals

July 15-16, 2008Alerus CenterGrand Forks, North Dakota This event, hosted by the Energy & Environmental Research Center, will discusstrends and opportunities in utilizing biomass, policies and incentives, cellulosicethanol, biomass-based chemicals and other products, and biomass for heatand electricity, among many other topics.(701) 777-5246 www.undeerc.org/biomass08

Biofuels Financial Conference

July 23-24, 2008Hilton Minneapolis Airport-Mall of America HotelMinneapolis, MinnesotaThis fourth annual event, hosted by Christianson & Associates PLLP, willaddress current financial issues evolving within the biofuels industry. Agendatopics include financial reporting, insurance, human resource issues, compli-ance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404, taxation updates, environmentalissues, industry benchmarking and risk management. (320) 441-5526 www.christiansoncpa.com/biofuelsconference.cfm

2008 Farm to Fuel Summit

July 30-August 1, 2008Rosen Shingle CreekOrlando, FloridaThis event stemmed from the Farm to Fuel Initiative developed by FloridaAgriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson to promote the production and dis-tribution of renewable energy from Florida-grown crops, agricultural wastes andother biomass. Topics of discussion include the farm bill, the EnergyIndependence & Security Act of 2007, the Florida energy bill, internationalaffairs, biofuels infrastructure, and research, among many others. (850) 488-0646 www.floridafarmtofuel.com

Biomass World 2008

September 23-24, 2008Hilton HotelBeijing, ChinaThis forum will focus on the conversion of biomass to power, gas and liquid fuels.Attendees will hear updates on such projects in China, Malaysia, India, Pakistan,Thailand and the Philippines. Other topics include cellulosic ethanol, biogas,cofiring, gasification, combustion, enzymes and the economics of various bio-mass feedstocks.+65 63469115 www.cmtevents.com

Energy from Biomass and Waste

October 14-16, 2008David L. Lawrence Convention CenterPittsburgh, Pennsylvania More than 1,000 people are expected to attend this event, which will addresssustainable waste management, the commercial viability of waste-to-energyand biomass-to-energy technologies, positive effects of energy from biomassand waste programs, domestic and international markets, business opportuni-ties, and legal and financial issues. More than 100 exhibitors will showcase thelatest in sustainable energy production and safe waste handling, as well. +49-2802-948484-0 www.epw-expo.com

industryevents



GPRE receives grantGreen Plains Renewable

Energy Inc. has received pre-liminary approval from theIowa Power Fund for a $2.3million grant that will fund the research and development ofalgae as a biofuels feedstock. The grant will allow corn-basedethanol producer GPRE and GreenFuel Technologies Corp. toconduct a 195-day test to determine the viability of algae pro-duction using carbon dioxide produced at GPRE’s plant inShenandoah, Iowa. If the test is successful, the project could beexpanded commercially. BIO

Essent Trading to buy green electricity from ElectrawindsThis spring, Essent Trading, a Geneva, Switzerland-based

energy trading company, entered into a 15-year contract to pur-chase all the electricity that will be produced at a biosteam plantcurrently under construction in Belgium. The plant, being builtby Belgium-based Electrawinds NV, is expected to be operationalin the summer of 2009. It will burn up to 180,000 tons of solidbiomass waste and produce 133,920 megawatts of electricityannually. Essent Trading serves 2.7 million customers across theNetherlands, Belgium and Germany. BIO

Ze-gen appoints Fraser to new positionBoston-based Ze-gen Inc., a privately

held biotechnology firm, has appointedScott Fraser as senior vice president ofengineering. In this new position, he willmanage Ze-gen’s gasification technology;direct the company’s five-ton-per-hourgasification demonstration facility in NewBedford, Mass.; investigate the economicapplications of the company’s high-quali-ty synthesis gas; and manage the engineering, procurement andconstruction contracts for Ze-gen's future commercial-scaleplants. BIO

businessBRIEFSDamman, Portz fill new positions at BBI

BBI International Inc. announced thatAngela Damman has filled the newly creat-ed position of vice president of interna-tional business development. Damman,who was previously the vice president ofconference and events for BBI, will over-see global expansion for the company anddevelop new business for BBI's serviceareas.

BBI also hired Tim Portz to conduct business developmentfor its Community Initiative to Improve Energy Sustainability(CITIES) program. He will pursue opportunities to sell CITIESconsultation services to interested municipalities, concentratinghis initial efforts in the upper-Midwestern states. BIO

Green Energy Resources offers wood supply to U.S.companies

Green Energy Resources, aManhattan-based wood waste sup-plier, began offering supply con-tracts to U.S. companies in need ofwood chips or pellets. The compa-ny uses software, called the Urban Tree Certification System, tolocate specific tree species that may be required by its customers.Products are collected and delivered via an extensive supply net-work using truck, rail or barge, whichever is most cost-effective.Green Energy Resources Chief Executive Officer Joe Murray saidincreased wood waste demand in the Northeast and California hasled to new market developments across the United States. BIO

Partnership explores cellulosic biomass conversionA public-private technology alliance among ConocoPhillips,

the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory andIowa State University aims to research the conversion of non-food agricultural residues, grasses and fast-growing trees intofuel. The partners will examine various processes including gasi-fication, pyrolysis and fermentation. Each entity will contributeits own time and resources, and produce an initial report on themost cost-effective biomass conversion technologies by January2009. BIO

Damman

Fraser


industryNEWS

This spring, a round of USDA grantstotaling $4.1 million was awarded to 17 smallbusinesses and community groups that aredeveloping innovative uses for woody bio-mass from national forests.

The grants will help create markets forsmall-diameter woody material, and damagedand low-valued trees removed to reduce therisk of fire hazard, insect infestation and dis-ease. "The renewable use of shrubs andunderbrush removes unhealthy overgrowthin our national forests, and creates localopportunities for new products and energysources," said Agriculture Secretary EdSchafer when he announced the grantawards.

A past grant winner in Montana, forexample, demonstrated the feasibility ofadapting a roll on/off container system usedby waste management firms to efficientlyconcentrate forest slash. One of this year’sgrantees, the Coquille Tribe of Oregon inNorth Bend, Ore., will be purchasing equip-

ment to utilize the same system to collect andtransport forest slash, rather than piling andburning it. The tribe supplies woody biomassto several projects.

In Portland, Ore., Bear Mountain ForestProducts was given a grant to collaboratewith others in using a briquetting machinefor densifying wood residue. According toSusan LeVan-Green, program manager of

the Forestry Technology Marketing Unit atthe Forest Products Laboratory in Madison,Wis., the high needle content in some mate-rial makes it unsuitable for pelletizingprocesses aimed at the residential marketbecause high needle content increases the ashabove acceptable levels. Bear Mountain’swork is demonstrating the effectiveness ofusing lower-grade, high-needle-contentmaterial in making larger compressed bri-quettes, which can be used in industrial boil-ers, creating a new market for the woodwaste.

This is the fourth year of the USDA’swoody biomass program, which has granteda total of $19.1 million to 81 projects to helpbusinesses, tribes and organizations upgradeequipment, and install systems to make bet-ter use of woody underbrush and forestslash. “We’ve had some very good successwith the program,” LeVan-Green said.

-Susanne Retka Schill

Woody biomass grants aim to expand use of forest waste

Advanced biofuel projects receive DOE fundingIn April, the U.S. DOE Biomass

Program announced the selection of threesmall-scale cellulosic ethanol projects inMaine, Tennessee and Kentucky to receive$86 million in a second round of fundingfrom the department's Biomass Program.

Mascoma Corp., RSE Pulp andChemical LLC, and Ecofin LLC are leadingthe projects, which are expected to be opera-tional within four years. Each one will pro-duce liquid transportation fuels such as cellu-losic ethanol, as well as biobased chemicalsand biobased products used in industrialapplications.

Mascoma, based in Boston, received upto $26 million for a 5 MMgy switchgrass-based ethanol plant to be built in MonroeCounty, Tenn. RSE Pulp and Chemical, asubsidiary of Red Shield EnvironmentalLLC, received up to $30 million for a wood-based ethanol facility at an existing pulp millin Old Town, Maine. Nicholasville, Ky.-basedEcofin, a subsidiary of Alltech Inc., receivedup to $30 million for a 1 MMgy demonstra-tion-scale plant to validate the commercial

viability of a novel, solid-state enzymeprocess that can convert a wide range of lig-nocellulosic feedstocks to ethanol and otherbiobased products.

Earlier this year, the DOE selected fourprojects in the first round of theBiomass Program’s funding inSt. Joseph, Mo.; Commerce City,Colo.; Boardman, Ore.; andWisconsin Rapids, Wis. With thefirst and second round com-bined, the seven selected small-scale biorefinery projects willreceive up to $200 million inDOE funding and, when combined with theindustry cost-share, will total more than $634million invested over the next four years.

More DOE funding for advanced biofu-el projects is available. Applications were dueMay 29 for a funding opportunity for up to $7million in federal monies over the 2008 and2009 fiscal years for advanced research anddevelopment in converting nonfood-basedbiomass into advanced biofuels. The DOEexpected to select five to seven projects that

would improve the conversion of biomass tobiofuels through pyrolysis, which uses heat tobreak down the lignin, cellulose and hemicel-lulose of biomass feedstocks.

The DOE Golden Field Office is mak-ing approximately $4 millionavailable to higher-educationinstitutions for applied researchin the conversion of biomass toadvanced fuels. The applications,due June 2, should reflect inno-vative and unique approaches toaddressing the needs of the bio-chemical and thermochemical

processing of biomass as implemented inintegrated biorefinery operations. This couldinvolve—but isn’t limited to—unique inter-faces between pretreatment processing andadvanced biofuel production, consolidatedbioprocessing options, or unique and innova-tive combinations of chemical and biologicalprocessing. The DOE expects to fundbetween three and 12 institutions.

-Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

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Left to right: Before and after images show the clearing of tree stands to reduce fire hazards.


industryNEWS

Verenium to complete cellulosic ethanol plantVerenium Corp., a Massachusetts-based

biofuels and enzyme developer, hasannounced key milestones at its demonstra-tion-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Jennings,La. The start-up phase has begun on individ-ual systems at the $60 million, 1.4 MMgyfacility, and at press time a grand openingevent was slated to be held at the end of May.

“We feel that 2008 is going to be a trans-formational year for Verenium as we contin-ue to make significant progress at our facilitiesin Jennings,” said Kelly Lindenboom, vicepresident of corporate communications forVerenium. “Our facility is the first of its kindin the United States, and we expect the learn-ing that comes out of that plant will give usthe guidance we need to move forward onour first commercial-scale facility by the endof next year. It will be an important landmarknot only for Verenium, but for the cellulosicethanol industry.”

Following completion of the start-up

phase, Verenium will move into the “commis-sioning and optimization phase” to validatethe implementation of its technology, and toprocess ethanol at scale. That phase is expect-ed to continue through the end of 2008.

Upon successful completion of those steps,Verenium expects to begin construction of itsfirst commercial-scale facility. “The next sev-eral months will be critical in terms of scalingour process and technology, and garneringthe insights needed to begin construction onour first commercial facility, which will trulybe a landmark for the emerging next-genera-tion biofuels industry,” said Carlos Riva, pres-ident and chief executive officer ofVerenium.

Verenium was formed in 2007 through amerger between Celunol Corp. and DiversaCorp. The enzyme technology that Diversabrought to Verenium allowed the combinedcompany to manufacture enzymes on-site.According to Lindenboom, “having all thatin-house has certainly been a competitiveadvantage.”

-Kris Bevill

CVEC fires up gasifier, considers corn cobsIn April, Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co.

LLLP, a corn-based ethanol producer inBenson, Minn., started up its biomass gasi-fier, which will burn wood residues to gen-erate power that replaces natural gas.

The gasifier was built by Ames, Iowa-based Frontline BioEnergy LLC. The com-bustible gas produced in the gasifier will beused for steam generation at the ethanolplant, according to Norman Reese, generalmanager of Frontline BioEnergy.“Frontline and CVEC have worked togeth-er from the start to develop feedstock han-dling, install the gasifier and integrate theproducer gas burner to reach this mile-stone,” he said. Approximately 90 percentof the plant’s natural gas usage will be dis-placed by burning approximately 280 tonsof wood waste per day.

In the near future, CVEC and

Frontline plan to use corn cobs as an addi-tional biomass feedstock in the gasifier,Reese said. “Long-term plans include

increasing the percentage of cobs in thefuel mix, and possibly using stover, prairiegrasses, and/or other ag residues,” he said.This fall, CVEC will publicly demonstratethe harvesting of 3,500 tons of cobs on atleast 5,000 acres. “We will be feedingground cobs into the gasifier after the har-vest in the fall,” Reese said.

CVEC General Manager Bill Lee saidCVEC chose to focus on corn cobs ratherthan corn stover for several reasons, onebeing that cobs produce approximatelyone-third less ash than stover whenburned. Cobs can also be harvested moreefficiently, transported more cheaply andstored more easily than corn stover. Theyare the least-useful part of the corn plantthat replenishes the soil after harvest.

-Timothy Charles Holmseth

Verenium’s demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanolfacility in Jennings, La., has begun the start-upprocess.

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Construction of the biomass gasifier at CVEC beganin June 2007 and finished in April.

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industryNEWS

Among the green hills and sandy beach-es cradled in the southern seas, a potentialbiofuels breakthrough is coming close tofruition. In New Zealand, AquaflowBionomic Corp. Ltd. announced that com-mercial-scale wild algae harvesting is takingplace at oxidation ponds in Marlborough, atthe northern end of the nation’s South Island.The ponds cover 100 acres and produce sev-eral tons of algae daily.

According to founding director BarrieLeay, an on-site biorefinery will convert thealgae into what the company calls “biocrude,”but he declined to describe the company’sconversion technology, citing patent con-cerns. Aquaflow has investigated other possi-ble harvest areas, including 1,000-acre oxida-tion ponds in the United States. “We believethis is an important step not just for our com-pany, but for everybody,” Leay said. “Theprocesses we have worked through are evolu-

tionary—not revolutionary—to get to thisscale over the past two-and-a-half years. It’sbeen a slow, gentle accumulation of knowl-edge to get us to this point.”

Leay said the company’s business modelis to create a network of small biorefineriesbased around existing water treatmentlagoons. He compared this with the existingbiodiesel and ethanol industries, where feed-stocks are shipped to a central facility. “Themodel we developed is quite different thananybody else’s,” he said. “We will not be look-ing at concentrating production in large oilrefineries. We shall be using a distributedmodel in which we do the conversion ofalgae to oil on the site where the algae ishoused. The closest analogy is that we arereversing the pattern of the old IBM main-frames (one central location), and going tolaptop and Blackberry models (which gowhere users need them).”

In addition to algae production, thecompany has also researched feedlots, food-processing plants and dairy farms as otherpossible sources of organic material for feed-stocks.. Aquaflow is also developing jet fuelderived from algae. Leay said the potential is“very significant,” and his company is con-ducting serious investigative work. BoeingCo. has been involved with Aquaflow todevelop the product.

Aquaflow is looking to expand its reach.It has partnered with Singapore-based PurePower Asia to license and develop its technol-ogy in south Asia. Pure Power took a 19.9percent share in Aquaflow in 2007. “[PurePower] will be developing a significant part ofthe Asian market, probably in 2009,” Leaysaid.

-Jerry W. Kram

Aquaflow Bionomic harvests first wild algae

Canadian Green Fuels aims to be nation's largest biofuel producerCanadian Green Fuels Inc. is investing

approximately $50 million in the constructionof the nation's largest and the world's ninth-largest biofuel plant to be located in Regina,Saskatchewan.

The plans underway involve upgrading anexisting plant in Regina, as well as building anew plant. “We expect these plants to have thecapacity to produce 240 million liters (63MMgy) of biofuels a year and be considered'green' plants, as all aspects of the plant andwaste products are used to create revenue,”said Mike Shenher, chief executive officer ofCGF. The revenue from both plants couldtotal approximately $300 million per year, hesaid.

A general information session held inMcLean, Saskatchewan, on April 21 drew resi-dents from McLean and the surrounding areato discuss opportunities and concerns thatcould stem from such a development. The

meeting revealed a positive public sentiment,said CGF Chief Development Officer TroyMetz. “We were very surprised at the outpour-ing of support, and very humbled when [the

public] formally welcomed us to their homesand to their community.” McLean is 25 mileseast of Regina.

The greenfield plant, which is expected toproduce 200 MMly (52 MMgy), will be pow-ered by the energy it creates, which includesbiodiesel, bio-oil and biofuel additives. Thefacility will crush 1,200 metric tons of variousoilseeds daily, including canola, flax, sunflow-ers and soybeans..

“Once we hit the ground, our modelexpects that we could begin building profitabil-ity within 90 days of starting the equipment,”Metz said. “A plant this size would probablyneed in excess of 460,000 metric tons a year ofoilseeds, and what makes us unique is ourcapability to crush any oil-yielding seed, notjust canola.”

-Timothy Charles Holmseth

A retail tank sits outside of Canadian Green Fuels'existing facility in Regina, Saskatchewan.

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Renegy Holdings Inc. achieved a milestone in late April by bring-ing its first commercial-scale biomass power plant in Snowflake, Ariz.,onto the electrical grid. The Tempe, Ariz.-based company expects tocomplete performance tests on the 24-megawatt facility and graduallyramp up power output to full load by mid-year.

The plant is using a refurbished Babcock & Wilcox Co. boiler con-verted to an open-bottom bubbling fluidized-bed combustor, whichwill create steam for electrical generation. The system was designed touse wet, recycled newsprint fibers from an adjacent newsprint mill as afeedstock, explained Megan Meloni, director of investor relations forRenegy. The newsprint mill, owned and operated by Catalyst PaperCorp., will provide approximately 25 percent of the feedstock for theproject. The other 75 percent will be wood waste. “We have a numberof contracts with the U.S. Forest Service to clear out fire salvage,”Meloni said. Snowflake is near the area where in 2002 the largest forestfire in the history of the Southwest burned more than 475,000 acres.

In addition to the Snowflake plant, Renegy has acquired an idle 13-megawatt biomass plant in Susanville, Calif., that has the potential to berestarted by the end of 2008. The company also recently signed lettersof intent to acquire two additional biomass facilities: an operating 20-megawatt facility in Loyalton, Calif., and an idle 18-megawatt facility inIone, Calif. Renegy's other business activities include an established fuelaggregation and wood products division, which collects and transportswood waste to its power plants, and sells logs, lumber, shaved woodproducts and other high-value wood byproducts to cover the cost offuel for its primary business operations. Renegy Holdings was formedin October 2007 though a merger between Catalytica Energy SystemsInc. and the renewable energy divisions of NZ Legacy LLC.

For more information about Renegy, visit www.renegy.com.

-Susanne Retka Schill

Renegy biomass plant begins operation

A Methane Capture Pilot Program, which stemmed from theSwine Farm Environmental Performance Standards Act passed bythe North Carolina Senate in July 2007, will begin providing swine-powered electricity to state residents by 2010. So far, approximately200 swine producers have expressed interest in the methane pro-gram, and 50 finalists will be selected this summer.

“We had a swine integrator come in and say it was going toenroll all its farms,” said Vernon Cox, chief of the TechnicalServices Section of the North Carolina Division of Soil and WaterConservation, which will administer the registry for the stateDepartment of Environmental and Natural Resources in partner-ship with the North Carolina Utilities Commission. “Currently, theutilities commission is in the process of establishing an appropriaterate to allow these producers to recover their costs for installing thesystems,” Cox said. Rates will be capped at 18 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the legislation.

The chosen finalists will sell to utility companies the electricityproduced from methane generated in their waste systems in full orpartial lagoon covers. The methane will be converted to electricitythrough biogas generators. Each selected farm must enter into aseven-year contract because state officials anticipate lower costs ineach year of the program. Initial profits will be minimal, but they areexpected to rise annually as hog producers become more efficient atproducing the biogas.

Although the number of North Carolina hog farms hasdecreased over the years due to state moratoriums slowing growth,the state is second in the nation—behind Iowa—in hog production.

In past years, North Carolina hog waste was allowed to bestored in lagoons and then sprayed onto crops as a fertilizer, givinghog farmers an added revenue stream. When environmental advo-cates lobbied for stricter controls over this process, hog associationslooked to environmentally palatable uses for the lagoons and sug-gested the methane proposal to the legislature in 2006.

-Sarah Smith

North Carolina 'hogs' electric spotlight

Renegy is gathering wood waste from surrounding forests, which will provide 75percent of the feedstocks for its new 24-megawatt biomass power plant inSnowflake, Ariz.

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Swine manure can be a source of electricity in North Carolina.


industryNEWS

Synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogenand carbon monoxide produced by the ther-mal decomposition of organic matter, can beused for many applications if it can be pro-duced economically. John Sessa, presidentand chief executive officer of Florida SyngasLLC, thinks he has such a system that usesthe ubiquitous and low-cost byproduct ofbiodiesel production: glycerin.

Most pyrolysis processes use a tremen-dous amount of heat in the absence of oxy-gen to decompose organic matter into itsbasic components, Sessa said. Florida Syngasuses a much different process that uses care-fully calibrated amounts of oxygen to partial-ly oxidize glycerin into syngas. The key to thisnew method is converting the reactants intohigh-temperature electric plasma andreforming them with a proprietary high-tem-perature catalyst. “Through the proper mixof air, glycerin and electricity, we create anelectric arc plasma,” Sessa said. “The materi-

al itself is part of the energetic plasma.”Sessa pointed out that this process is

also different from using plasmatorches to pyrolize biomass intosyngas. He said the process is 90percent efficient in extractingenergy from the glycerin.“Because of our methodology, wedon’t need a whole lot of electric-ity,” he said. “We will be feedingback about 10 percent of theenergy we create to the reaction chamber tokeep our process running.” The processrequires crude glycerin to be partially refinedbecause sodium and other salts will degradethe unit’s catalyst.

The combination of glycerin and oxy-gen releases heat that is used to support thecontinuing reaction. In larger units, excessheat can be extracted for combined-heat-and-power production. The syngas can besent to a standard gas turbine or fuel cells to

generate electricity, burned for industrial heator sent through a Fischer-Tropsch process to

create synfuels.Florida Syngas has an order

for 10 one-megawatt generatorsfrom Advent Power Systems Inc.based on Florida Syngas’ systems.The company is looking for oth-ers to test the beta version of itssystem. Sessa said developmentof a commercial-scale system is

underway. “We are not to the point where wehave a ‘push the red button and it starts’ sys-tem,” he said. “We are probably a year awayfrom a field-ready product. We are probablynine months away from a beta unit. We haveseveral folks ready to be the beta site.” Thesystem will be initially marketed to biodieselcompanies as a method for reducing theirplants’ energy costs.

-Jerry W. Kram

Florida Syngas converts glycerin

Twelve governors and the premier ofManitoba have entered into several regionalstrategies to achieve energy security whilereducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.The projects stem from the MidwesternRegional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord,which was implemented in November 2007to aggressively reduce GHG emissions by 60percent to 80 percent in the long term, andcreate a regional cap-and-trade scheme tomeet the targets. The accord is expected to befully implemented by 2010.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa,Michigan, Kansas and Manitoba signed theaccord as full participants. Indiana, Ohio andSouth Dakota adopted portions of theaccord and were given “observer status” toparticipate in the formation of a cap-and-

trade system.North Dakota, which has significant coal

industries, didn’t sign the accord. Instead, itjoined the previously mentioned states andNebraska in establishing the Energy Securityand Climate Stewardship Platform to advanceenergy-efficiency goals that will includerenewable fuels. Missouri later adopted por-tions of the platform agreement, which wasformulated to guide the future developmentof the Midwest’s energy economy since theregion is heavily dependent on coal and agri-culture. The platform agreement lists goalsand time lines for energy-efficiency improve-ments, low-carbon transportation fuel avail-ability, renewable electricity production,biobased products, and carbon capture andstorage.

Several other agreements include theCarbon Management InfrastructurePartnership, the Midwestern BiobasedProduct Procurement System, a coordinatedregional effort to develop biofuels and aworking group to pursue a collaborative,multi-jurisdictional transmission initiative.

The Midwestern accord is a companioneffort to three other regional initiatives toreduce greenhouse gases. In 2003, California,Oregon and Washington created the WestCoast Global Warming Initiative; in 2006,Arizona and New Mexico formed theSouthwest Climate Change Initiative; and in2007, Arizona, California, New Mexico,Oregon and Washington formed the WesternRegional Climate Action Initiative.

-Sarah Smith

Midwestern governors aim to reduce GHG

Sessa


industryNEWS

Two companies to convert Indiana MSW to ethanolAt press time, the Lake County Solid

Waste Management District board was expect-ed to approve contracts at the end of May fortwo separate companies to make ethanol fromthe Indiana county’s municipal solid waste(MSW). The combined capacity of the twoproposed plants is 170 MMgy.

According to district Executive DirectorJeff Langbehn, the board issued a request forproposals for MSW disposal last year. Itreceived two proposals for waste-to-ethanolprojects and one for landfilling. In March, thedistrict voted to develop contracts with allthree companies. The board voted GenaholPowers 1 LLC as the primary vendor for con-verting waste into ethanol, while IndianaEthanol Power LLC will be the secondary ven-dor. Allied Waste Industries Inc. will be con-tracted to landfill the waste that can’t be con-verted into ethanol.

Lake County said it has plenty of MSW to

supply two ethanol facilities. It’s home to Gary,a Chicago suburb, and 16 other municipalities.In addition, two adjacent counties and the cityof Chicago have expressed interest in sendingtheir MSW to the facilities. “Since [the propos-als have been submitted], there has been somuch interest,” Langbehn said.

Genahol Powers 1 expects to start pro-cessing 4,000 tons of waste per day and rampup to 10,000 tons per day, which would pro-duce 150 MMgy of ethanol. The companywould use a patented process that has 40,000hours of proven production on a pilot scale,according to Chairman and Chief ExecutiveOfficer Earl Powers. After recyclables and thenon-recoverable waste are removed, theremaining 80 percent to 85 percent will be fedinto a series of gasifiers to make synthesis gas.“We have a proprietary method of taking thatsyngas, cleaning it and making ethanol throughthe use of a chemical catalyst,” said Don

Bogner, vice president of marketing forGenahol. He said capital costs will range from$250 million to $410 million, depending on thesize of the facility.

Indiana Ethanol Powers plans to utilize apatented type of weak-acid hydrolysis inventedby collaborator GeneSyst International Inc.The process uses gravity-pressure vessels toturn waste products into simple sugars. Theproposed 20 MMgy plant would process 1,500tons of trash per day, according to the compa-ny. Construction is expected to cost $100 mil-lion.

Because contracts weren’t finalized bypress time, neither company had selected a sitewithin the county. They expect to begin per-mitting after contracts are finalized, with con-struction starting by the end of this year.

-Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

CleanTech Biofuels, Merrick team in MSW-to-ethanol project CleanTech Biofuels Inc. and its Denver-

based engineering firm Merrick & Co. havebegun developing a demonstration-scale facil-ity that converts municipal solid waste (MSW)into ethanol at Hazen Research Inc.’s eight-acre research facility in Golden, Colo.

According to CleanTech Biofuels ChiefExecutive Officer Ed Hennessey, the initialphase of the project involves testing the viabil-ity of the company’s biomass conversion tech-nology, referred to as HFTA, in combinationwith its pressurized-steam classification tech-nology that converts MSW to fuel-gradeethanol.

To accomplish this, the St. Louis-basedcompany purchased a reactor system from theForest Products Laboratory at the Universityof California, Berkeley in late January. At UCBerkeley, Hennessey said the reactor systemsuccessfully demonstrated the effectiveness ofthe HFTA cellulose conversion technologyusing wood waste feedstocks. The technologywas then reassembled at Hazen’s research site,

where CleanTech Biofuels is currently utilizingthe reactor system in the project’s first phaseto optimize reaction conditions on what thecompany calls “process engineered fuel,” orcellulosic biomass from MSW. The companyplans to incorporate other cellulosic feed-

stocks—corn stover, wood waste and switch-grass—into the process, but MSW will be theprimary feedstock.

“The purpose of the pilot project is todemonstrate the viability of the technologies,to get the operating data and to be able toforecast capital costs for a larger commercialplant once we’ve demonstrated it on a smallerscale,” Hennessey said. Once initial tests aresuccessful, CleanTech will utilize Hazen’sresearch and development expertise in theenergy field, and Merrick & Co.’s engineeringservices, to build a demonstration facility atHazen’s research site. Hazen will maintain allpermits, licenses and other approvals neces-sary to complete the project. “We hope to beunder construction on the demonstrationplant around August,” Hennessey said.

Once operational, the facility is projectedto produce approximately 36,000 gallons ofcellulosic ethanol per year from four tons ofMSW per day, Hennessey said.

-Bryan Sims

The cellulose-conversion reactor that CleanTechpurchased from the University of California,Berkeley will be used to optimize the company'sHFTA cellulose-conversion technology.

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Using the world’s best farmland to grow biomass for fuel can lead to indirect land-use changes that accelerate global warming and increase competition forfood worldwide—but that’s only part of the story, said three experts at theInternational Biomass ’08 Conference & Trade Show held in April in Minneapolis.

By Tom Bryan

B i o f u e l s i n t h e F u t u r e

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n the opening day of the InternationalBiomass ’08 Conference & Trade Show,University of Minnesota ecologist DavidTilman joined Dartmouth College biologistLee Lynd and Natural Resources DefenseCouncil policy analyst Nathanael Greene in apanel discussion that hinged on new lifecycleanalyses integrating biofuels’ allegedly detri-

mental impact on land conversion and its associated ills.The contending needs for energy, food, sustainability and

carbon reduction is an intensifying worldwide dilemma. Theworld’s population is growing and arable land is not, Tilman

said. “Our population isat 6.3 billion people andheading toward 9 to 9.5billion people,” he said.“We’re on a steep pop-ulation growth curve.People around theworld are consumingmore of everything—not just food—and inthe next 50 years thepopulation will growby another 3 billionmore people.”

Rising incomes indeveloping parts of

the world are allowing millions of people to transition from sub-sistence diets consisting of mainly grains to those includingbeef. This dietary shift is accelerating the demand for grainaround the world at a rate that is “much greater than the world’sfarms can produce,” and that is contributing to higher grain,land and food prices. Similar forces are driving energy priceshigher. “Global energy consumption has doubled in the past 50years, paralleling demand for food,” Tilman said, explaining thatit will double again in the next 40 years.

As this global competition for land materializes, there is agrowing belief that producing fuel from traditional food cropsis leading to corn, soybean oil and wheat being priced at the“energy equivalent” of $100-per-barrel oil. “There’s a fear thatthe food and energy sectors are becoming less independent andmore joined,” the ecologist said.

In spite of these new pressures, Tilman said there is stillenormous potential for next-generation biofuels if they canattain irrefutable low-carbon status. In addition to sharply cut-ting the fossil energy used to make biofuels—a would-be boonto biomass power—future producers must look to waste, agri-cultural residues and perennial energy crops grown on marginal,degraded or abandoned land to achieve conclusive low-carbonstatus, he said.

Tilman’s critics say those constrictions greatly diminish therole of biofuels in an increasingly carbon constrained world. Infact, Tilman admits that only 15 percent of the world’s currentpetroleum use could be offset by biofuels made from the envi-ronmentally friendly feedstocks he endorses.

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The potential for biomass is nearly limitless. However,experts at the International Biomass ’08 Conference &Trade Show said there are plenty of challenges that needto be overcome before its use becomes more significant.

More than 800 people attended the first annual event,which aimed to facilitate the advancement of near-termand commercial-scale manufacturing of biomass-basedproducts.

Norway-based Borregaard provided a commercial-scale example of the unique opportunities for biomassusage for power, fuels and chemicals. The company toutsitself as having the world’s most advanced biorefinery,which produces ingredients, fine chemicals and energyfrom wood—primarily spruce. Its approach is similar to theprocess of converting crude oil into a wide variety of prod-ucts. However, instead of petroleum, Borregaard usesrenewable wood as a feedstock. The company has morethan 60 years of experience in the feasibilities and chal-lenges of handling and processing biomass, according toGisle Johansen Lohre, Borregaard’s vice president ofbusiness development.

Lohre said many biomass project ideas look good onpaper, but they “won’t work in the real world” due to a poorenergy balance and the lack of saleable products. He saidcompanies should focus on producing a variety of mar-ketable products in order to thrive.

Lohre said his company converts 1,000 kilograms ofwood to 79 kilograms of biofuel, 400 kilograms of cellu-lose, 400 kilograms of lignin, three kilograms of vanillin, 50kilograms of ethanol and 50 kilograms of carbon dioxide.Borregaard converts more than 90 percent of incoming

biomass into marketable products, Lohre said, adding thatethanol created only 10 percent of the value in his compa-ny’s process.

John Hemmings, process director of studies and tech-nology for Canadian-based SNC Lavalin, shared with con-ference attendees a three-stage path for biomass plants.He said current coal-fired facilities emit up to 450 poundsof carbon dioxide per barrel of coal-to-liquid production. Acofired coal and biomass plant would be carbon neutral,especially if biomass is gathered from within a 75-mileradius. The District Energy St. Paul Inc. project, whichconference attendees had the opportunity to tour, collectswood-based biomass within a 75-mile radius to createheat and power for downtown St. Paul. For more informa-tion on the project, visit www.biomassmagazine.com.Hemmings said it takes $3 per million British thermal unitsto move biomass 100 miles. However, carbon taxes wouldhelp partially offset logistical challenges.

The third-stage plant would cofire coal and biomassand feature an algae-based biodiesel facility, Hemmingssaid. The algae would utilize the plant’s concentrated car-bon dioxide stream. While many companies tout theiralgae-to-biodiesel technology, he said a commercial-scaleprocess is at least eight to 10 years away from hitting themarket.

For more information on the conference, visit www.biomassconference.com.

—Dave Nilles

Overcoming Challenges to Reach Potential


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Utilities can’t meet state-by-state renewable energystandards with wind alone—biomass can help. That wasthe message Xcel Energy Inc.’s Betsy Engelking, managerfor resource planning and bidding, told participants at theInternational Biomass ’08 Conference & Trade Show.

Wind gets all the attention when states set renewableenergy standards because it’s well represented by lobby-ists, Engelking told participants. Not so for biomass.“Nobody stands for biomass,” Engelking said. “The windlobby was there in full force, but where were the biomasspeople?”

Yet, Engelking said, biomass will be in demand asstates set standards to meet the federal renewable energystandards. Minnesota has set a mandate requiring 25 per-cent of its electricity come from renewable energy by 2025.As a result, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, which isMinnesota’s largest utility, must generate 30 percent of itspower using renewables by 2020.

No state has adopted a biomass standard, Engelkingsaid, and definitions vary from state to state. Some statesdon’t allow certain kinds of biomass, such as Montanawhich requires “nontoxic” biomass.

Wind generators go where the wind blows—not neces-sarily where people need electricity—and such generation

is constrained by transmission-line capacity, Engelkingsaid. Biomass plants, on the other hand, can go wheredemand is greatest.

Biomass faces challenges, however. Wind may becheaper but biomass projects, especially with cogeneration,are economically viable. “I think that biomass has to showit’s actually a higher-value resource and therefore it’s rea-sonable to pay a little more,” Engelking said.

Another drawback to using biomass is that the facilitiesneed fuel from within a 50-mile radius or less to minimizetransportation costs, Engelking said. Feedstock availabilitymay limit the size of plants; and smaller plants may notbring the same economies of scale that larger plants expe-rience. Engelking added, developers, meanwhile, are rela-tively inexperienced and have limited access to financing—and they may face growing public opposition.

Even so, biomass works. Xcel Energy now buys elec-tricity from three biomass plants: a 50-megawatt facility inSt. Paul, Minn.; 35 megawatts from Laurentian Energy,located in northeastern Minnesota’s Iron Range; and 25megawatts from the Fibrominn plant at Benson, Minn., thatburns turkey litter, the first such plant in the United States.

—Marc Hequet

Tilman is best known inthe biofuels industry for hisgroundbreaking work withmixed prairie grasses forethanol production. TheCedar Creek BiodiversityExperiment in Minnesotashowed that the bestyields of biomass energy

per acre came from planting a com-bination of six perennial grass species together on unproductiveland. Biofuels made from such high-diversity prairie grasses arecarbon negative, in theory yielding 140 percent less greenhousegases than gasoline, he said.

In the near future, Tilman said, it’s likely that the high priceof food and food crops will make it increasingly less likely that

farmers will dedicate grain to biofuels. “Economics and ethicswill likely mean that our best land will go to food productionwith ag residue and dedicated energy crops like mixed prairiegrasses grown on degraded land going to biofuels,” he said.

The Emergence of ‘New Agriculture’

Lynd, a leading biomass expert and co-founder ofMascoma Corp., asserted that land conversion theory is new,fragmented and still not wholly accepted by the scientific com-munity. He said it’s decidedly premature to conclude that biofu-els have no potential because of their superficially inherent con-nection to land-use change. “The space has been so incomplete-ly explored,” he said, adding that the hope of “new agriculture”will provide previously unforeseen pathways around the landconversion dilemma.

Utility Providers Need Biomass to MeetRenewable Energy Standards

The continued investigation and development of biomass-basedfuels, coupled with the limitless potential of new agriculture, holdgreat potential for dramatic land-use reductions while increasing theamount of land used for food, feed and fuel globally.

Lynd

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Exposition & ConferenceOctober 14-16, 2008Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Become An Exhibitor Now,Secure Your Speaking Opportunity!

More NetworkingMore Leads

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www.ebw-expo.com

2008

Ethanol Plants Explore Water Recycling OptionsSince ethanol plants typically take in approximately 3

gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of ethanol, waterusage is an issue. Two unnamed plants in particular areexploring separate water recycling programs, which werepresented at the International Biomass ‘08 Conference &Trade Show.

Marcus Allhands, vice president of Orival Inc.,detailed an ethanol case study that his company conduct-ed with a 110 MMgy ethanol plant in Iowa that reuseseffluent from a wastewater treatment plant six miles away.The facility, which uses approximately 330 MMgy ofprocess water, installed a pipeline connecting the twobusinesses. After exploring different options, plant man-agement decided to install three auto screen filters sup-plied by Orival. The filters screen solid particles from theeffluent as it comes into the plant. Each screen monitorsthe change in water pressure as solid particles are collect-ed, and when the water pressure reaches a certain level,the filter automatically rinses the screen for 10 secondsusing 14 gallons of water per unit. This is done withouttaking the plant offline for maintenance.

Initially, when the filters were installed and the waterwas turned on, the filters became clogged, Allhands said.

Later, construction debris in the pipeline was found to bethe culprit. The pipes were flushed, and no problemsoccurred after that. The units have been in continuousoperation for more than a year.

Chad Grismer, an engineer with WestwoodProfessional Services Inc., presented a different water-recycling option that a Minnesota ethanol plant was con-sidering before the industry’s economics took a downturn.“That project is now in a holding pattern,” Grismer said.This option allows a plant to reuse discharge water asnonprocess water, reducing groundwater consumptionand recharging groundwater supplies. This can beachieved through an evapotranspiration channel thatwould wind back and forth outside the ethanol plant, pass-ing through an area of planted trees before the waterenters a nearby pond. The trees would take in the water,including the dissolved particles within the water, andtranspire it into the atmosphere, along with evaporation.The trees could double as a biomass resource. The plantcould then take the water from the pond and re-insert itinto the plant.

—Jessica Sobolik


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New uses and new combinations for existing crops, as wellas new crops and new crop systems will lead to exponentialgains in productivity and biomass yields, Lynd said. “This newagriculture has only scant investigation worldwide.”

Looking at the broad issue of land use and resource con-sumption, Lynd said the world will not be able to produce itsway out of the dilemma it now faces. He said it will require sys-temic redesign and radical changes in the way we use and pro-duce energy. Ultimately, Lynd said, the continued investigationand development of biomass-based fuels, coupled with the lim-itless potential of new agriculture, hold great potential for dra-matic land-use reductions while increasing theamount of land used for food,feed and fuel

globally. “Even the most challenging cellulosic ethanol land con-version scenarios can achieve large carbon reductions given themotivation to achieve [that] outcome.”

Lynd said theories put forth by scientists such as Princeton’sTim Searchinger do not embody the multiple systemic changesthat are characteristic of sustainable transition paths.Translation: They lack hope and underestimate human ingenu-ity.

Advances in agriculture and biofuels production technologywon’t be enough, however. Lynd said a host of factors must coa-lesce to bring about the changes that are now widely accepted as

necessary. Vehicle efficiency (fuel economy), for example, willhave to improve by a multiple of 2.5, as will biomass cropyields. Someday, he said, it might be possible to meet all ofthe world’s food and mobility needs using 10 percent lessland than we use today.

Volume Requirements Versus PerformanceGreene said the biofuels industry should not casually

dismiss land-use-change and food-versus-fuel theories, asIowa Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, did last week callingthe recent criticism of ethanol by foreign officials “a bigjoke,” according to The New York Times. Rather, he said,it’s vital to acknowledge the role biofuels play—negligi-ble or not—in land-use-related issues.

There are, however, many other factors at play,Greene said.

“If you step back a little bit, it’s easier to see thecomplexity of this issue,” he said, explaining that theworld’s growing population, rising incomes, chang-ing diets, and increased energy demand, as well as a

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Conference attendees take a break between sessions.

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growing demand for bio-fuels from food crops,are putting increasedpressure on land andfood prices. “All ofthese things are attrib-uted to increasedgrain prices,” he said.“Increased grainprices are leading tohigher prices forland. As grain goesup, so does land.We’ve already seenland prices go up

substantially in the United States andthat’s going to trickle throughout the rest of the world. It alsoputs more pressure on farmers to increase yield, and there are avariety of ways they can do that but driving the land harder isgoing to be among them. Higher land prices and higher pressurefor increased yields are going to lead, in an unconstrained world,to increased clearing of land, more fertilizer and more tillage.”

Building on the assertions made by Tilman and Lynd,Greene said the key to making biofuels work is exploring pathsto increase both food and biomass production while steeringclear of land conversion drivers. “We can get more food andmore biomass off of our land, fighting global hunger and glob-al warming at the same time,” he asserted.

Farmers need an incentive to change, however, and thefastest, most effective way to provide that incentive is throughpublic policy, Green said. “We need to avoid extremes, embrace

change and pay for performance, he said. “We need to put dol-lars on the table for the things we want as a society.”

Referring to the corn ethanol industry’s vital function as abridge to next-generation biofuels, Greene said, “We can’t expectan industry to accept change that victimizes or cannibalizes itscurrent existence.”

On the other hand, it’s time to start making performance-based policy choices that favor low-carbon biofuels. “Feedstocksthat use very little land or are outside of land-use competitionshould not be penalized,” he said. “Feedstocks that are grown onflat, black, prime arable land—those that cause the most land-use competition—should have the highest penalty.”

Greene said the new 36-billion-gallon renewable fuels stan-dard moves the United States in the right direction with its land-use safeguards, aggressive production targets and bold green-house gas emissions reduction floors. However, the NRDCwould eventually prefer to see a more fundamental low-carbonfuel standard with performance-based incentives that go beyondcarbon to water and land-use-change sustainability checks.

“We need to move away from these simple, blunt volumerequirements that just pay for more and more production, andstart paying for performance,” he said. “We should also moveaway from technology picking. Let’s let the market and the inno-vation of industry and farmers figure out, through [low-carbonpolicy drivers], what we as a society need.” BIO

Tom Bryan is editorial director of Biomass Magazine. Reach him at

[email protected] or (701) 738-4962.

Greene

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's solar furnace uses a series ofoff-axis mirrors to concentrate the sun up to 21,000 times for applicationssuch as decontaminating soil and bonding metal to ceramics.PHOTO: WARREN GRETZ


technology

A collaboration of Colorado-based researchers is taking thenext step toward the synthesis of carbon-negative biofuels.

By Jessica Ebert

ne of the drawbacks of biomass gasi-fication systems is that the energy topower these reactors is typicallydrawn from coal-fired power plants.To produce a truly carbon-neutral, oreven better, a carbon-negative fuel,

the electricity to turn waste biomass feedstocks into asyngas, which can be further processed into fuels, mustcome from a renewable energy source.

To that end, a team of scientists including engi-neers and horticulturists from the University ofColorado in Boulder, Colorado State University inFort Collins and the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory in Golden, Colo., have embarked on aproject to develop rapid solar-thermal reactor systemsfor the conversion of biomass to syngas. The project

is being funded by a three-year, $1 million USDA andU.S. DOE grant, which was announced in early Marchas part of an $18.4 million package to fund 21 biomassresearch and development demonstration projects.

The collaboration is led by Alan Weimer, a profes-sor at CU-Boulder and executive director of theColorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels whoworked for Dow Chemical Co. for more than 16 yearsbefore pursuing a career in academia. At Dow, Weimerworked in the area of ultra high-temperature process-ing for the synthesis of fine materials like tungsten car-bide, which is used in the manufacture of mininginstruments and other high-tech tools. The materialswere generated by flowing chemical precursorsthrough a graphite reactor tube that is heated indirect-ly by electricity.

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When he joined the university’s Department of Chemicaland Biological Engineering, his first project was an extension ofhis earlier research, but rather than using electricity from the grid,his work involved using concentrated sunlight for chemical pro-cessing. “The process looks a lot like the technology developedat Dow except instead of heating with electricity, we use sun-light,” Weimer explains. “We can achieve the same temperatureswithout generating any greenhouse gases.”

During these early studies, Weimer and colleagues estab-lished a relationship with the engineers at NREL who haddesigned what’s called a high-flux solar furnace in the late 1980s.The furnace facility sits on top of a high, barren mesa and con-sists of two main components: a flat mirror called a heliostat thattracks the sun as it moves across the sky and a primary concen-trator, which consists of a series of 25 curved, hexagonal-shapedmirrors. The large, 32-square meter (38-square yard) heliostatreflects sunlight onto the primary concentrator, which focusesthe sun to a single point. “It’s basically similar to using a magni-fying glass to concentrate sunlight to a point, although we usemirrors instead of lenses,” explains Carl Bingham, staff engineerat NREL. This concentrated sunlight, which has been reduced toa beam measuring 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter, isreflected a second time at a target area inside the test buildingwhere researchers run their experiments.

“The original intent was to see what we could do with high-ly concentrated solar radiation,” Bingham says. By tightening thefocus of the sunlight or increasing its concentration, tempera-tures pushing greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,632 degreesFahrenheit) can be reached. “The idea is that heating things withconcentrated sunlight gets things very hot, very quickly,” he says.In addition to scorching temperatures, the furnace allows for theselective heating of the sample surfaces. NREL’s solar furnace primary concentrator reflects the tracking heliostat.

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Bingham, who has worked on the solar furnace nearly sinceits inception, explains that the early experimentation involvedmaterials synthesis including the application of films onto vari-ous substrates, the formation of silicon crystals, the develop-ment of new methods for bonding metal onto ceramics and themanufacture of fullerenes, which are carbon structures used insemiconductors, superconductors, high-performance metals andmedical technologies.

A New Research PathEventually, the NREL engineers started collaborating with

the researchers from Boulder. “We developed an alliance withCU and started doing work in the hydrogen program, which isstill going on today,” Bingham says. This research involved split-ting water into hydrogen and oxygen, which requires very hightemperatures and special materials. “It’s a difficult and challeng-ing problem,” Weimer says. A challenge his team continues totackle. However, it also led one of Weimer’s graduate students tosuggest an alternative research path.

“He came in one day and said ‘with all this interest in bio-mass, I bet biomass is a piece of cake compared with splittingwater,’” Weimer recalls. He proceeded to collect some Kentuckybluegrass from outside the laboratory, grind it up and process it.“What we discovered was that at temperatures of about 1,200degrees C (2,192 degrees F) the short, rapid pyrolysis or gasifica-tion in the presence of steam of the biomass, produced syngaswith usage in excess of 90 percent of the biomass,” he says. Thisis significant, Weimer explains, because conventional gasificationprocesses require a partial oxidation of the feedstock, whichleads to yield loss. In addition, the very rapid heating for a veryshort time prevented the formation of tars. This eliminates theneed for cleaning the syngas before it’s reformulated to fuel,

This is one of the electrically-heated transport tube reaction systems that is usedin Weimer’s lab at CU-Boulder to mimic the rapid biomass gasification thatoccurs when the solar furnace at NREL is used.

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which is a pricey capital cost for a biomass plant, Weimer says.At CU-Boulder, Weimer’s students and staff work with two

electrically-heated transport tube reactors. As biomass flowsthrough the tube, either by itself or with some inert gas or steam,the feedstock is heated to high temperatures for only a few sec-onds. The kinetics of this reaction are closely monitored for var-ious feedstocks and used to develop mathematical models thatpredict how the solar reactors at NREL should behave. Thesemodels are then used to design the reactors that will be used foron-sun demonstrations. This includes a secondary concentrator,which is a cone-shaped device that essentially wraps the sunlightaround the reaction tube. The biomass is gasified as the tubeabsorbs the heat. “Our students build these reactors here in theshop in our department. They mount them on skids. They putthe skids in the back of a pickup truck and drive up to NRELwhere they locate the reactors in the corner of the test building,”Weimer explains.

“With the biomass we’re really in the sweet spot,” Weimerexplains. “The materials issues associated with the water splittinggo away.” But there are other challenges. The biggest of these is

finding biomass feedstocks independent of the food chain. “Atthe conditions that we operate, however, we can handle hugevariability in feedstocks,” he says. Weimer’s team has gasifiedgrasses, sorghum and even lignin. “Our feedstock could belignin, sawdust, forestry waste, spent grains from a brewery,switchgrass, corn stover, sorghum,” he says. “It could also bemunicipal solid waste or paper. It could even be glycerin.”

The team is also planning to develop algae for gasification.“We see algae as an ideal feedstock,” Weimer says. But ratherthan extracting oil from the microbes for the production ofbiodiesel, the algae themselves will serve as a biomass feedstockfor the production of syngas. In addition to algae processing,researchers at CSU led by Yaling Qian are working to understandhow switchgrass can be grown on marginal lands using brownwater. “You could consider our process as a renewable, thermo-chemical sledgehammer,” Weimer says.

Another challenge is interfacing the on-sun gasification withthe reforming of the syngas. This represents the other half ofWeimer’s research: the work to develop catalytic processes to dothe seamless downstream reforming of the syngas to biofuel.

technology

First-year Ph.D. students Victoria Aston (New Mexico Institute of Technology), left, and Bryan Woodruff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) take reactor datafor rapid sorghum conversion to syngas.

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technology

These are the obstacles that Weimer aims to iron out in thenext three years. However, “we don’t envision any showstoppersfor the conversion of biomass,” he says. For one thing, theprocess is a small version of the system he worked on at Dow tosynthesize materials. This process is now commercial and used inlarge scale to make advanced materials. “So we feel very comfort-able that this design can be scaled up,” he says. Weimer has alsolooked into the economics of building solar-powered biomassgasification and conversion plants and it looks encouraging, hesays. For this current USDA/DOE funded project, Weimer andcolleagues have teamed with several companies including XcelEnergy, Arizona Public Service, Abengoa Bioenergy andCopernican Energy Inc. Weimer expects interest in this type ofresearch to continue to grow.

“There’s been a lot of funding-research emphasis on usingconcentrated sunlight to make electricity,” Weimer says. “There’salso been a lot of interest in biomass gasification. We operate atthe interface of those technologies. Although there’s typically nota lot of money at that interface, it has been recognized that whenyou operate at the interface, there’s a huge opportunity for inno-vation.” BIO

Jessica Ebert is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach her [email protected] or (701) 738-4962.

This is the product recovery filtration and gas scrubbing system used in thebiomass gasification process developed in Weimer’s lab at CU-Boulder.

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industry

Influential forces work quietly behind the scenes on Capitol Hill in favor of biomass powerproducers. These forces—organized people with an important message—are not oftensensationalized in the newspapers, but their work is important and lawmakers know whothey are.

By Ron Kotrba

PowerThe of


industry

o most people the value ofa penny is rather inconse-quential. To biomasspower producers though,the difference between apenny and 2 cents can

make or break projects and hogtie thewhole industry. Small biomass powerplants from California to Maine havebeen denied equal access to the fullrenewable energy production tax credit(PTC) in section 45 of the InternalRevenue Service tax code for which theircounterparts in the wind and geothermalindustries have been eligible for years.The full credit is 2 cents per kilowatthour—plants burning forest and agricul-tural residues for electrical generation forsale back to the grid receive only 1 centper kilowatt hour. This disparity is one ofthe most debated issues in the broaderrenewable energy complex and is a majorpoint of contention among those in thebiomass industry itself. “Closed-loop”biomass power plants have been eligiblefor the full credit for 15 years but theallowance of “open-loop” generators toreceive any credit at all was an after-thought. Consequently, they drew theshort ways-and-means stick.

A closed-loop biomass power plantis one in which the feedstock is grown

specifically for the purpose of powergeneration. These are eligible for the fullPTC as stated in section 45 of the IRStax code. Jerry Whitfield of BiomassInvestment Group told the U.S. House

Committee on Ways and Means recentlythat no closed-loop section 45 biomasselectricity PTC has ever been claimedsince its inception in the Energy PolicyAct of 1992. Robert Cleaves, chairman


industry

Disparity in Section 45 Eligibility for a 50 MW Biomass Power Plant

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Over the course of a year, a hypothetical 50 MW closed-loop biomass power plant is eligible for $4.4million more in IRS section 45 production tax credits—at the 2-cent-per-kW/hr rate—than the samesized open-loop biomass power plant, which is only eligible for 1 cent per kW/hr.

SOURCE: USA BPPA


industry

of the USA Biomass Power ProducersAlliance, suggests why. “A number of usthink that the reason why there has notbeen a closed-loop system built—notwithstanding 15 years of tax credits forit—is because the economics have beenchallenging and the development hori-zon is long,” Cleaves tells BiomassMagazine. “And there doesn’t seem to be

an obvious business model out there thatwould accommodate a closed-loop sys-tem.”

Unlike closed-loop systems, anopen-loop biomass power facility burnswaste wood or other lignocellulosicresidues to generate electrical power.Because the nature of the open-loop’sfeedstock and the lower or even negative

cost of the hand-me-down fuel, thesepower companies may only cash in onhalf the value of the full PTC allotted towind and geothermal power generation,and the nonexistent closed-loop biomassfacilities. The 41 members of USABPPArepresent 70 percent of all the stand-alone biomass power generated in theUnited States, accounting for 1,100megawatts of electricity—all from open-loop biomass power generation.

“We are the only national trade asso-ciation in biomass to energy doing whatwe do,” says Bill Carlson who recentlyretired as USABPPA chairman afternearly a decade of service—the positionCleaves filled. “We are different thanACORE (American Council onRenewable Energy) in that the way weare funded and organized, we have the

‘Through our lobbyists in[Washington] D.C. we advocateour position on Capitol Hill. Our ability to be successfulthere is directly tied to our ability to have success in getting a broad membership indifferent geographical regions ofthe country.’

Construction of the Snowflake White Mountain Power Biomass facility, owned by Renegy Holdings Inc., nearSnowflake, Ariz. Renegy is a member of USABPPA.

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ability to advocate legislatively—ACORE cannot. Through our lobbyistsin [Washington] D.C., we advocate ourposition on Capitol Hill. Our ability tobe successful there is directly tied to ourability to have success in getting a broadmembership in different geographicalregions of the country.” Without a voicein Washington biomass power producersmay never receive section 45 tax parity,nor gain an extension to the “in-service”date—which is critical to growing bio-mass power generation.

Extension is Job OneAll the advocating in the world for

tax parity between open- and closed-loop biomass power projects meansnothing if the in-service date is notextended. In his statement, Whitfieldtold Congress that these one-year exten-sions do little to instill confidence ininvestors to fund the move from designto construction—especially for the elu-sive closed-loop system which hithertohas been a specter in the biomass powerindustry. Rather than a short extension,Whitfield suggested a five-year prolonga-tion. Lengthening the in-service date ofthe PTC despite the disparity is on theforefront of the USABPPA agenda—and signs of success are beginning toshow.

At press time, biomass power proj-ects currently under construction mustbe operating by the end of 2008 in orderto be eligible for the credit. If projectsmeet this deadline they are eligible forthe PTC for 10 years from the in-servicedate. Sandy Feldman, section 45 attorneywith K&L Gates, explains that the dura-

tion of the PTC for plants in existenceearlier depends on when they came online. Those in service before Oct. 22,2004, may receive the PTC until Dec. 31,2009. Projects beginning operationbetween October 2004 and August 2005may receive the credit for up to five yearsof the in-service date. Renewable energypower plants coming on line betweenAugust 2005 and Dec. 31, 2008—as thelaw stands now—are eligible for the PTCfor up to 10 years from the in-servicedate. But thanks in part to the USABPPAlobbyists, pending legislation may indeedextend this date, but not for five years.

On April 3, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced S.2821, which propos-es to extend the PTC in-service date oneyear, pushing the deadline back to Dec.31, 2009. According to the office of Sen.Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who sits on theSenate Committee on Finance and is aproponent of the PTC in-service dateextension, S.2821 passed 88-8 in theSenate as an amendment to the housing

bill. As is the case with all legislation—stay tuned. In the meantime, USABPPAlobbyists will be quietly working away onCapitol Hill to do what’s right for itsmembers. “Our sole reason for being is

to create a settingwhere both existingand new biomasspower plants can besuccessful,” Carlsonsays. “We’re veryactive at the nationallevel—we workbehind the scenes and

people don’t read about us in the news-paper. But the people in Congress knowwho we are.”

The Case for Tax ParityWhile USABPPA’s immediate advo-

cacy efforts are focused on extending thein-service date, the issue of tax parity isstill paramount—and for good reason.“If we can claim the full tax credit, open-loop biomass power projects have a pret-


industry

Carlson

California Feedstock Cost Increase‘We’re very active at thenational level—we work behind

the scenes and people don’tread about us in the newspaper.But the people in Congressknow who we are.’

According to USABPPA leadership the competition for wood waste in California over the last five years, in partdue to power plant retrofitting in preparation to meet the Golden State’s upcoming RPS, has caused wood-waste feedstock costs to jump from an average of $22 per bone dry ton to $40 per BDT. SOURCE: USA BPPA


ty solid set of economics in many loca-tions,” Carlson says. “That’s the modelthat works—taking people’s waste mate-rials and making electricity out of it.”Here’s the problem with open-loop sys-tems only being eligible for 1-cent perkilowatt hour: Competition from a grow-ing number of state renewable portfoliostandards (RPS) and pending advancedbiofuels project developments are driv-ing the cost of lignocellulosic feedstocksup—and driving down the economic via-bility of biomass power. This alreadyhappened in the state of Californiawhere the USABPPA has its roots.

“In California they have an RPScoming due in 2010,” Carlson says. “Theutilities there are scrambling all overthemselves to find additional sources forrenewable energy and biomass is inthere. They’re picking up lucrative con-tracts and restarting old plants and, basi-cally, getting into competition with theplants already there for a limited amount

of fuel. That could easily happen—thefuel suppliers make all the money out ofthe supply contract rather than the guyrunning the power plant.” According toUSABPPA, the retrofitting of old plantsin California to generate power from bio-mass has helped boost feedstock costsper bone dry ton from $22 to $40 in thepast five years. “And the revenue streamhas not gone up at that same rate,”Cleaves tells Biomass Magazine. “A lot ofthem were under fixed contracts with theutilities while the new interests havemore lucrative contracts—so it’s kind ofmessed things up there from a profit per-spective.” Without PTC tax parity proj-ects will not have the financial where-withal to compete, and may be run out ofbusiness.

Maine is suffering from a problemsimilar to that which is ailing California’sbiomass power industry. Cleaves, who isfrom Maine, says old power plants arebeing retrofitted to compete for the

nearby MassachusettsRPS market. “That’svery lucrative so theyend up starting allthese old plants, con-verting fuel from coalto wood and falling allover each other,” hesays.

Moreover, cellulosic ethanol andsome alternative diesel fuels will be com-peting for the same feedstocks. “Withsome of the incentives coming downfrom Congress, they will really skew theeconomics in favor of cellulosic ethanoland away from biomass power,” Carlsonsays. That’s just one more reason whybiomass power producers need a voiceon the Hill. BIO

Ron Kotrba is a Biomass Magazine seniorwriter. Reach him at [email protected] (701) 738-4962.

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policy

Pledging Allegiance to Renewable Energy

Representatives from around the world came to Washington, D.C., to pledge their support for promoting and developing renewable energy sources. As part of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008, attendees committed their nations, organizations and businesses to make significant gains in supporting renewable energy. Many of these pledges are aimed at growing therole of biomass in the world’s energy supply.

By Jerry W. Kram


policy


policy

he need for energy knows noboundaries, no class and norace. Whether it is cookingfire in a developing countryor a 1,000-horsepower dieselengine powering a modern

factory, the need for energy is a basichuman necessity. With a burgeoning popu-lation now topping 6 billion, traditionalfinite energy sources are stretched to thelimit. The impact of those sources on theenvironment are becoming increasingly evi-dent, and the global need to promote anddevelop renewable energy sources hasnever been greater. To fill the basic needs ofthe developing world and satisfy theengines of the economy in the developedworld, a universal commitment is needed tocreate and sustain energy sources that arerenewable and environmentally friendly.

Many countries, agencies, nongovern-mental organizations (NGOs) and busi-nesses are willing to make that kind of acommitment, says Reno Harnish, a princi-pal deputy assistant secretary in the U.S.State Department. Harnish was part ofmulti-agency team that organized theWashington International RenewableEnergy Conference (WIREC) 2008 inMarch. WIREC is the third in a series ofinternational conferences, the first wereheld in Bonn, Germany, in 2004 andBeijing in 2005. “The genesis of these con-ferences came from the renewable energycommunity, particularly the AmericanCouncil on Renewable Energy (ACORE),”Harnish says. “They believed the interna-tional community should come togetherregularly to encourage the adoption ofrenewable energy.”

ACORE raised the idea of bringingthe conference to the United States,Harnish says, and found a number of lead-ers receptive to the idea. Developingrenewable energy resources turned out tobe part of many of the policies being pur-sued by the government. “It fit in well withour climate change policy,” Harnish says.“It fit in well with our energy security poli-cy. That was the genesis of the idea, to

advance our goals on climate change, ener-gy security, and sustainable development bypromoting the rapid adoption of renew-ables.” Five or six agencies came togetherto plan the conference, Harnish adds.

Much of the world was represented atthe conference as 113 ministerial level rep-resentatives and more than 3,000 otherattendees shared their successes, challenges,policies and opportunities for promotingand developing renewable fuels. There werethree focal points of discussion during theconference—research and development,market adoption, and finance and ruraldevelopment, Harnish says. “We felt that animportant outcome of WIREC was that itbrought together the highest levels of gov-ernment with the highest levels of businessand the NGO community to discuss barri-ers and suggest solutions for getting overthose barriers to renewables adoption,”Harnish says. “But we said there has to besomething else: practical, tangible commit-ments.”

President George W. Bush addressedthe conference and reiterated that renew-able energy was not only a key part of pre-serving the environment but also a matterof economic and national security for thecountries involved in the conference. “Myjob, as the president of the country, is toput pro-growth policies in place,” Bushsaid. “But we're dependent upon oil, and soas our economy grows, it's going to createmore demand for oil—same with China,same with India, same with other growingcountries. … The dependency upon oil alsoputs us at the mercy of terrorists. If there'stight supply and demand, all it requires isone terrorist disruption of oil and that pricegoes even higher. It's in our interests to endour dependency on oil because it—thatdependency—presents a challenge to ournational security.”

Worldwide EffortOne of the goals of the conference

was to continue to build the politicalmomentum and institutional support forrenewable fuels around the world. One of

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the tools to commit governments, organi-zations and businesses to make significantchanges was the pledge process. Nearly 150pledges to increase the use of renewablefuels were made during and after the con-ference. “We regard the pledges as the heartof the matter,” Harnish says. “It’s turnedout to be a grand success.”

The pledges cover the gamut ofrenewable resources, from wind andhydropower to biomass and conservation.The commitments made also run thegamut. Businesses and communitiespledged to displace their current energyneeds with renewables. Internationalfinance groups pledged to boost their fund-ing for renewable development projects.Government agencies committed researchand development funding to create newrenewable resources. Governments vowedto change the laws in their countries to giverenewable energy industries a firm and con-sistent framework for development. TheU.S. government alone made 31 pledges,Harnish says. “You see in the pledges thatthe United States has in its climate policythat one size does not fit all,” he says.“National circumstances differ around the

President Bush addressed the WIREC 2008Conference in Washington, D.C. The presidentexpressed strong support for renewable energysources.

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globe. Feedstocks differ and the level of technology differs. So as wego to tackling the greenhouse gas problem we are very cognizantthat the U.S. will propose a plan that involves different mixtures ofenergy than say, Chile.”

Part of the follow-up to the WIREC conference will includemonitoring to see how well participants are doing to fulfill theircommitments. The U.S. DOE is doing an analysis of the commit-ments to calculate its impact on world energy consumption. “They

will calculate how many gigawatts over time the pledges will createas well as the greenhouse gases avoided,” Harnish says. “So we willbe able to say in a very practical way what was the impact of therapid adoption of renewables.”

Many of the pledges will have a significant impact on the adop-tion of biomass as an alternative energy source. “There was a strongfocus throughout the conference on biomass,” Harnish says. “The[U.S.] Department of Agriculture was a partner in creating this con-


policy

Cameroon

Progressively reduce or eliminate reliance on traditionalbiomass increasing the use of cleaner and affordablefuels such as methane from wastes, liquefied petrole-um gas, electricity (produced from renewables such assolar, small hydropower, etc), and increase energy effi-ciency in lighting, cooking, transport and industrial applications.

Ireland

The establishment of a grant fund of €58 million (U.S. $90 million) toprovide individual grants for new installation of ninerenewable technology categories in homes in the bio-mass, solar and geothermal areas with a goal of at least20,000 new installations over a three-year period.

Poland

Create a national program for agricultural biogas plants ableto use biomass and other agricultural residues for energy purposes inan optimal and effective manner. The program assumes that by 2020each municipality in Poland will have at least one agriculturalbiogas plant.

Paraguay

In 2005, Paraguay’s National Congress approved legis-lation to promote and provide incentives for the productionand use of biofuels in the country. The country pledged to improve thislegislation by including more incentives, especially fiscal incentives.The improvements will include more funds for research and develop-ment of new raw materials for bioethanol and biodiesel.Paraguay’s goal is to increase the use of biofuels from thecurrent 5 percent to 50 percent by 2013 and increase theexport of biofuels from the current level of zero to anexpected $500 million a year.

Kenya

Working with farmers and other partners in the publicand private sector, Kenya will promote the develop-ment of sorghum farming for grain, syrup and bagasseproduction. The grain will be used in food production andas a primary input into industrial production of alcohol. Thesyrup will be used in the industrial production of biscuits and other foodproducts. The bagasse will be used for making animal feeds and asboiler fuel for steam and electricity production. The project is expectedto result in the production of an additional 20,000 metric tons ofsorghum for food. Sorghum cane syrup to be used in alcohol produc-tion, and sorghum bagasse to be used in production of heat (and elec-tricity) should displace some 2 million liters (528,000 gallons) of oilwithin the first three years.

The Netherlands

The SNV Netherland Development Organization is pro-viding development services to implement national pro-grams on domestic biogas in Asia and Africa. The pro-gram has worked well in Nepal and Vietnam, and ini-tial results in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos andRwanda are also encouraging. Up to 2012, pro-grams in other potential development countries will bestarted as well. From 2008 to 2012, about 250,000 biogas plants willbe additionally installed by eligible households in the national pro-grams supported by SNV, directly serving about 1.5 million people.

Haiti

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency intends to provide$292,010 in funding to the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture for the firstphase of a feasibility study for a large-scale jatropha cultivation andbiodiesel production project using jatropha oil as feedstock. Theproject is expected to improve energy security in Haiti, createsignificant employment opportunities, stimulate domesticeconomic activity, and contribute to the environmentalrestoration of deforested watersheds.

Nearly 150 pledges were made at WIREC 2008 by national governments, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and private businesses to promote and develop renewable energy. Thefollowing are a few of the biomass-related pledges:

2008 WIREC Biomass Pledges


ference and the rural development themeby its very nature demands a certain focuson biomass.” Many of the significant bio-mass initiatives came from U.S. govern-ment agencies. The U.S. DOE reiteratedits goal to reduce the production cost ofcellulosic ethanol to 82 cents a gallon by2012 and reduce feedstock logistics costs(harvesting, storage, preprocessing andtransportation) to 35 cents a gallon. Theagency’s goal is to make the fuel cost com-petitive at a modeled cost of $1.33 a gallonin 2007 dollars.

The USDA committed millions ofdollars to develop biomass supplies in theUnited States. It will be making grants toencourage the use of woody biomass andto establish and manage cultivated energycrops. It will continue to manage a pro-gram that gives priority to biomass-basedproducts in government procurement pro-grams. U.S. agencies involved in foreigndevelopment highlighted a variety of ini-tiatives as well, from working with the gov-ernment of Haiti to plant jatropha forbiodiesel production and watershed pro-tection, to providing financing and insur-ance for exports of renewable energytechnology. “Looking at all that, I wouldsay that biomass will play a very strong andsubstantial role for the outlook of renew-ables in the future,” Harnish says.

Different Countries,Different Solutions

The commitment from the UnitedStates comes from the very top, Harnishsays, citing Bush’s comments at the confer-ence. That leadership will continue toaccelerate the progress seen in the imple-mentation of renewable energy projects inthe past decade. “The president asked acouple of times for the group to look atwhere we are today as compared with 10years ago,” Harnish says. “He said we can’teven imagine where renewables are goingto be 10 years hence. So he has a veryvisionary, strong and emphatic feelingabout renewables. I think that is going tomotivate our policy in the coming years.”

Many other countries also made bio-mass related pledges. Some, like Germanyand Lithuania vowed to increase the useand practicality of biomass energy in theirown countries. The Netherlands commit-ted to sharing its biomass technology withdeveloping countries in order to raise theincomes and standards of living in thosecountries. Paraguay committed to reform-ing its laws to change sections that are seenas impediments to a strong and sustainablebiomass industry. “These countries areinterested in the use of biomass, but withtheir technologies, feedstocks and otherthings, they are all looking at different solu-tions,” Harnish says. “One solution waslooking at thorn bushes to generate elec-tricity. So you have some very exciting andcutting-edge technologies here.”

The participants agreed that anotherconference to monitor the progress of thecurrent pledges and push the development

of renewable energy to an even higher levelwould be an excellent idea. India will hostthe next International Renewable EnergyConference, scheduled for 2010. “India isan important player in renewable fuels andclimate change questions,” Harnish says.“We are working with our internationalpartners to see that work is done and in2010 to continue the momentum for theadoption of renewables.”

Details of the pledges are available onthe Internet at www.ren21.net/wiap/wirec.asp. The Web site is maintained bythe Renewable Energy Policy Network forthe 21st century. The site also has informa-tion about the preceding InternationalRenewable Energy Conferences. BIO

Jerry W. Kram is a Biomass Magazine staffwriter. Reach him at [email protected] or

(701) 738-4962.

policy


japan


japan

BLENDING AESTHETICS &

E N E R G YJapan’s gorgeous cultural emblem has taken on a new level of meaning. Itwill help the resource-poor island nation generate more of its own energy.

By Eric Kroh


japan

very year in Japan, the blossoming of the sakura, orflowering cherry tree, is an occasion for rejoicing.The reveling begins in late March, when the sakuratrees in the southern island of Kyushu put forththeir buds. The celebration then spreads north withthe flowering of the trees until the last cherry trees

bloom on the island of Hokkaido in May.The flowering period for sakura trees is brief. Mere days

after opening, the flowers fall to the ground, carpeting the earthwith delicate pink petals. Yet the short-lived display is so spec-tacular that, upon sight of the first buds, the Japanese have beenknown to drop everything and head to the best viewing loca-tions to eat, drink and play music.

Moreover, wood from the cherry, a national symbol, is usedfor woodblock prints and magnificent furniture. This year, thesakura trees bear an additional gift for the Japanese—that ofrenewable electricity and heat.

As the cherries blossomed in March, Japan’s largest wood-gas-to-energy power plant began operations in the Yamagataprefecture, about 250 miles north of Tokyo. Located in the cityof Murayama, the plant runs exclusively on gasified wood chipsand tree trimmings culled from nearby forests that include tensof thousands of cherry trees.

The plant was installed by Yokohama-based JFEEnvironmental Solutions Corp., a subsidiary of the steel andengineering conglomerate JFE Group. Operating the plant iselectricity company Yamagata Green Inc. of Murayama, itself asubsidiary of Japan Biomass Development Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based renewable-energy development firm.

Small but SophisticatedWood biomass can help Japan realize its goal of reducing

its greenhouse gas emissions in compliance with the Kyoto protocol.

Under that 160-nation agreement reached in 1997, Japanhas pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 6 percent

below 1990 levels by 2012. Japan has also promised to reduce itsemissions of carbon dioxide to 1.056 billion tons by 2010,according to Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energyin the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

“This plant becomes a very important initiative in theJapanese renewable energy sector to help increase the biomassshare out of the total energy in Japan and to meet the targets inthe Kyoto Protocol,” says Yamagata Green Power PresidentMakoto Suzuki. The facility, he adds, can eliminate 9,000 tons ofcarbon dioxide emissions annually.

The power plant’s heart is two Jenbacher gas engines fromGE Energy’s Jenbacher business in Jenbach, Austria. (GEEnergy is a unit of General Electric Co. of Fairfield, Conn., inthe United States.) Most Jenbacher engines run on natural gas.The ones installed in the Murayama plant, however, aredesigned to run specifically on gasified biomass and produce acombined output of up to three megawatts of electricity.

That makes the Murayama plant small. Wood-burningpower plants typically produce more than 10 times as muchpower. Nevertheless, the Murayama plant is the most sophisti-cated of its kind in Japan and the only plant operating on a scalethat is economically viable, says Michael Zainer, distributor andagent manager at Jenbacher. The rest of the 10 or so plantsoperating in Japan are test plants on the order of 50 to 300 kilo-watts of output—a fraction of the size of the Murayama facil-ity.

Moreover, some of these smaller plants were shut downbecause the gasification technology didn’t work—mostlybecause the biogas could not be adequately cleaned. The factthat the Murayama plant is operational demonstrates that thetechnology is maturing, Zainer says.

The principal benefit of the gasification process is that it ismore efficient than other ways of producing electricity frombiomass material, says Martin Schneider, a spokesperson atJenbacher.

In the gasification process, the wood is heated to more than1,200 degrees. Fahrenheit in a low-oxygen environment. At thattemperature, the wood releases a mixture of carbon monoxideand hydrogen gases, which in turn is cooled and cleaned of tarand particulates using a gas-scrubbing method and a wet elec-trostatic precipitator.

The gas can then be burned like natural gas to spin a tur-bine in the engine that generates the power.

A plant the size of the Murayama facility can provide suffi-cient heat to meet the annual demands of 1,200 households,although the Murayama plant will not be used for heating.

The gasification process converts 28 percent of the availableenergy in the wood to electricity, according to Schneider—a sig-nificant improvement over power generation from directly burn-ing wood, which converts only about 18 percent to 22 percent.

E

The Muramaya plant and its staff are small.

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“The standard technology today is burning the wood in aboiler and producing some steam” to generate electricity,Schneider says. “But with the gasification and using the gas in agas engine, you can increase electric yield by 50 percent.”

Cost and CleanupEven so, the process is costly. Schneider estimates the typi-

cal investment for a biomass power plant to be between $7,500and $8,500 per kilowatt, or about $25 million for the Murayamaplant. Consequently, government incentives and significantdemand for heat need to be in place for wood gasification to bea viable source of energy, Schneider says. The process holds thegreatest promise in central Europe and Canada, where wintersare particularly cold and plenty of wood is available. Jenbacheralready has 10 biogas engines in operation in Europe, and saysanother 10 will be commissioned this year.

Murayama’s facility resembles a decade-old plant inDenmark. Both use updraft gasifiers developed by Danish bio-mass energy company Babcock & Wilcox Vølund A/S, whichlicensed the technology to JFE Environmental Solutions.

Another obstacle to commercial viability for wood-biomassgasification is the expense of gas cleanup, says Jacques Beaudry-Losique, manager of the biomass program at the U.S. DOE’sEnergy Efficiency and Renewable Energy division.

The Man Who Gave the Cherries

Japanese cherry trees line the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

Each spring, in parallel to the celebrations in Japan, hordes of tourists

descend upon the area around the Jefferson Memorial to see the trees

in bloom.

They date to 1912, when Yukio Ozaki, the mayor of Tokyo, pre-

sented 2,000 trees to the United States as a gift from the people of his

city. The trees replaced others sent two years earlier that turned out to

be diseased. U.S. officials burned them to prevent spread of the infes-

tation—and American diplomats worried about the reaction.

Ozaki, however, a consummate politician, responded graciously

with the repeat gift. It was a fitting gesture for a key figure in Japanese

politics known for his magnanimity. Ozaki was a founder of Japan’s

Progressive Party, which held that power in Japan should not rest

solely in the hands of the emperor. Serving in Japan’s parliament for

more than a half-century starting in 1890, Ozaki repeatedly tried to turn

his country from the militarism that led to its defeat in World War II.

Ozaki served the national government during tempestuous times

in various posts including education minister and justice minister, win-

ning the Order of the Rising Sun, one of Japan’s highest honors.

Nonetheless, his progressive ideas rankled nationalists. He was

imprisoned during both world wars and survived more than one assas-

sination attempt, including an arson attack on his home. The great-

hearted statesman actually praised one would-be killer’s patriotism.

The benefactor of the cherries died in 1954 at age 95, his nation

by then a democracy—and his cherry trees in Washington a lasting

legacy.


japan

Beaudry-Losique estimates that one-third of the capitalcost associated with biomass gasification plants is cleaning par-ticles and tar from the gasified biomass material. “Once youclean up gas so operating costs are reasonable, it will be a com-petitive technology,” he says.

He estimates that biomass gasification technology willeventually reach a point at which power plants can achieve anoutput of 25 to 50 megawatts, compared with the two to threemegawatts typical now. The scale of biomass-gasification plantswill be limited more by the availability of local feedstock thanby the technology itself, he says.

In Japan, wood is an attractive source for biomass energybecause of the abundance of supply, says Kazuyiki Takada, whoworks on the promotion and demonstration of biomass tech-nology at New Energy and Industrial Technology DevelopmentOrganization. NEDO was established by the Japanese govern-ment to develop alternatives to energy from oil. “Woody bio-mass resources are very important because they represent oneof the biggest potential utilizable biomass resources in Japan,”Takada says.

Nevertheless, collection and transportation is a challenge,says Takada. Forestry work has little appeal to the Japanese, whoseek better jobs in Japan’s usually vigorous economy. Too fewworkers are available to gather waste wood from forests and getit where it needs to go. “There is currently a lack of an estab-

lished, comprehensive system to connect upstream biomassenergy-conversion technology for collection and transport todownstream technology to utilize the converted energy,”Takada says.

Wood and other biomass could displace 1 percent of Japan’s total energysupply.

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That supply chain requires work on a regional level, con-necting local production with local consumption and involvingmunicipal governments and local citizens, Takada says. To thatend, NEDO promotes demonstrations of biomass energy toeducate people about the technology.

60 Tons Per DayThe Murayama plant is an example of how regional coop-

eration on biomass energy could work. The forests of Yamagatasupply the Murayama power plant with nearly 60 tons of woodchips daily to fuel the gas engines. Because the forests are nearby, wood transportation costs are minimal. The arrangement isalso beneficial for forest keepers, who would otherwise have topay to have the wood trimmings trucked out. Electricity fromthe Murayama plant supports plant operations. The rest is soldto industrial customers.

For now, however, wood-biomass energy is expensive.While the Murayama plant is fully operational, it was built withhelp from government subsidies. The Japanese government, viathe Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, covers one-thirdof the initial costs for biomass power generation facilities, notincluding construction costs. Takada hopes the growth ofregional biomass systems, as well as the development of high-performance forestry machinery, will decrease initial costs forbiomass energy producers and bring more plants on line.

Meanwhile, though, woody biomass plants aren’t economi-cally viable without government incentives, but the Japanesegovernment seems willing to support a network of plants in therange of three to five megawatts, Zainer says.

Under Japan’s current goals, ANRE predicts that biomassused for electricity and thermal energy will displace the equiva-lent of 1.7 billion gallons of oil per year, or about 1 percent ofJapan’s total energy supply. Historically, Japan has been depend-ent on oil for much of its energy needs. About half of the oiland coal used in Japan is converted into electricity. While thelignin content of wood makes it difficult to convert into biofu-els, which would directly replace oil in the energy supply, theproduction of electricity from wood via gasification couldreplace a significant amount the oil and coal that is convertedinto electricity.

The pleasures of the blossoming of Japanese cherry treesare fleeting—but biomass from the legendary sakura could con-tribute to development of a domestic energy supply that wouldprovide the country with long-term benefits. BIO

Eric Kroh is a Chicago-based journalist who writes and creates multi-media content about biofuels and the environment.

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n the past five years, developers,researchers, small production facil-ities and financiers of projects inthe biofuel industry argued in dif-ferent forums that it was importantfor the Mexican government to

enact a biofuels law to provide the cer-tainty needed for the development of thebiofuels market. It now appears that theold saying “be careful what you wish for,you may just get it” is completely applica-ble for this legislative development. TheLaw for the Promotion and Developmentof Biofuels, which was published Feb. 1,2008, in the Federal Official Gazette,became effective Feb. 6, 2008. Severalsurprises were offered for those sameadvocates of regulations and instruments.

The biofuels law clearly states in itstitle that its main objectives are the pro-motion and development of biofuels inMexico. However, it does not create adirect incentive for those that desire toparticipate in this nascent industry. Mostof the content of the biofuels law isaimed at describing the prerogatives ofdifferent ministries within the federaladministration to regulate the develop-ment of the biofuel industry in Mexico.

For example, the biofuels law man-dates the formation of an Inter-Ministerial Commission for theDevelopment of Biofuels with the partic-ipation of the following ministries:Energy (SENER), Environment &Natural Resources (SEMARNAT),Agriculture, Cattle, Rural Development,Fisheries and Food Supply (SAGARPA),Economy (SECON) and Tax Collectionand Administration (SHCP). Another ofits main objectives is to promote and reg-ulate the development of the agriculturalsector in Mexico. This law is aimed tofully expand on constitutional articles 25and 27 section XX that discuss the stateplanning tool of the federal executive toorient the economic development and thedevelopment of the rural sector inMexico. It’s also aimed at developing thenational policies for the promotion, mar-

keting and use of renewable energy.In the past, one of the main discus-

sions among potential developers ofbiofuel projects in Mexico was thepotential interference by the state-ownedoil and gas monopoly PEMEX in thedevelopment of this market. This wasthe consequence of the market not beingregulated and being open to anyone thatwould risk participating in it. There wasa lingering risk of the potential legalrecharacterization of biofuels as part ofthe traditional fuel market dominated byPEMEX.

The most positive aspect of thisbiofuels law is the fact that it generatesan independent legal definition for bio-fuels and a separate legal framework fortheir regulation that is not to be limitedby traditional fossil fuels laws beingapplied.

Biofuels are described as the “fuelsobtained from biomass derived fromorganic material in the following activi-ties: agriculture, cattle activities, forestryactivities, aquaculture, algaeculture, fish-eries products, households, commercial,industrial, from microorganism,enzymes, and derivatives of the forego-ing that are produced by technologicalsustainable processes that comply with

the specifications and quality normsissued by the competent authorities.”Further, this law defines biogas as the“gas produced by the biological conver-sion of biomass as a consequence of thedecomposition process.”

The regulation of this sector wouldin the medium to long-term allow ener-gy companies, producers and individualsto participate in the development of anew regulatory framework for a newalternative energy market.

It would be possible to develop sev-eral projects for mass production, distri-bution and marketing of biofuels inMexico after obtaining the applicablepermits.

SENER will be responsible foroverseeing the development of this mar-ket and it will effectively regulate thosecompanies and individuals that may pro-duce, store, provide transportationsservices, transport by pipelines and mar-ket biofuels in Mexico.

SENER has been empowered withthe exclusive authority to dictate the cri-teria for the acquisition of biofuels toPEMEX, its subsidiaries, the FederalElectric Commission and Light & PowerCompany. Further, it will be responsiblefor designing the introductory program

MEXICO

I


MEXICO

Assessing the Impact ofMexico’s Biofuels LawBy Raul Felix


for biofuels in Mexico that will allow theuse of ethanol mixed with gasoline anddirect distribution of biodiesel to thegeneral public. Companies that producea biofuel that may substitute a traditionalfuel may be authorized to produce, storeor market it in Mexico, and as long asthey secure all the applicable permits,they may freely enter and compete in thismarket.

SEMARNAT was expressly entrust-ed with overseeing the environmentalimpact of those facilities devoted to theproduction, storage, transportation, dis-tribution and marketing of biofuels. Thiseffectively expands the catalog of feder-ally-regulated activities contained in arti-cle 28 of the General Law ofEnvironmental Equilibrium andProtection. It will also regulate all activi-ties involving biofuels that may generateair emissions, wastewater or waste. Thebiofuels law expressly prohibits changingthe zoning from forestry to agriculturalfor the production of crops devoted tothis industry. Therefore the productionof crops for the biofuel industry will belimited to those areas where the priorauthorized use was agricultural, limitingthe expansion of potential biofuel pro-duction areas.

The incentives and programs to bedeveloped by federal, state or municipalauthorities under this law will be aimed at1) the development of the infrastructurerequired for the production of crops, 2)local farmers and crop producers, 3)individuals and companies that con-tribute to the development and modern-ization of the infrastructure required forbiofuel production, and 4) researchersand developers of technology for biofu-el production.

The biofuels law makes reference toother programs that are already beingdeveloped for the promotion of the agri-cultural sector, and it establishes theparameters and general guidelines to befollowed by the ministries that form partof the Inter-Ministerial Commission forthe Development of the Biofuels mar-ket, in coordination with federal, state

and local governments, to generate newincentives and benefits for project devel-opers.

It appears that Congress did notevaluate the potential impact of the bio-fuels law on projects that are currentlybeing implemented in Mexico that gener-ate, store or use biogas such as landfillprojects, manure treatment systems andmanagement of organic wastes (as pro-vided in article 3 and 24 of the biofuelslaw). This is especially relevant becausebiogas is considered to be part of thebroader definition of biofuels as provid-ed by the biofuels law. As a result, onceSENER publishes its guidelines and cri-teria for such permits, new biogas proj-ects should secure said permits.Consequently, the requirement to securea permit from SENER for the produc-tion or storage of biofuels may have anegative impact on biogas projects withregistrations pending under the KyotoProtocol's Clean DevelopmentMechanism.

This is especially relevant for thecurrent administration because morethan 80 percent of the CleanDevelopment Mechanism projects thathave received a letter of approval by theMexican Inter-Ministerial ClimateChange Commission are for capturing,storing or using biogas. As of Jan. 23,2008, the Mexican Designated NationalAuthority issued 154 of its 184 letters ofapproval to projects that would sequesteror reduce methane/biogas to the atmos-phere.

As part of the validation process, theDesignated Operational Entities that arecharged with verifying the CleanDevelopment Mechanism registrationand emissions reductions of qualifyingprojects may potentially require evidencethat the project developer has securedthe applicable permits from SENER.Fortunately, all five ministries that partic-ipate in the newly formed Inter-Ministerial Commission for theDevelopment of Biofuels are also part ofthe Inter-Ministerial Climate ChangeCommission and SENER play an active

role on both commissions. SHCP is aninvited member of the Climate ChangeInter-Ministerial Commission. SENER,if it so chooses, has the authority toexclude these projects of the permittingprocess by expressly exempting themfrom the licensing requirements in theregulations related to the licensingprocess (as provided in section IV ofarticle 12 of the biofuels law).

The biofuel law provides for the fol-lowing sanctions: 1) fines that rangefrom 1,000 to 100,000 days of minimumwage (approximately $5,000 to$500,000), 2) cancellation of the permits,3) temporary or definitive, partial or totalshutdown of the facilities.

Although Mexico has yet to partici-pate in large-scale biofuels projects, thereis a tradition in several areas of the coun-try and specific industries for the directuse of biomass and biogas. With theenactment of the biofuels law a first stephas been taken to assure predictability ofthe legal framework for this market.However, there will be a transitional peri-od during which each authority will setup its specialized teams and will worktogether on the commission and todevelop the regulations, guidelines andOfficial Mexican Standards for the oper-ation of this market. This adjustmentperiod may be confusing for both thefacilities that are already using biomassand biogas and for investors planning tostart-up new projects. Each authority willhave to face an adjustment or trial-and-error period until they effectively set upthe regulations, directives, requirementsand standards for biofuel projects. Theprevious could bring instability to deci-sion makers—instability that could causecertain investments to flee to othercountries.

The objectives of this law are laud-able. However, it falls short of deliveringimmediate incentives to promote thedevelopment of these alternative fuels inMexico.

Energy companies that have alreadydeveloped the know-how and technolo-gy abroad or in Mexico for biofuel pro-

MEXICO

duction and commercialization could clearly expand their hori-zons and consider Mexico as a viable market for mass commer-cialization, distribution or production of biofuels.

Further, Mexico will grant companies privileged access tothe North American, European, Japanese and Latin Americanmarkets. Prior to a regulation of biofuels in Mexico, the great-est fear among players in this sector was the potential re-inter-pretation of the existing norms for fossil fuels to expand theirscope to incorporate biofuels. This was particularly important,because prior to the enactment of the biofuels law, PEMEX, asthe preponderant player in the national energy market, couldeasily hinder the marketing of biofuels substitutes to its tradi-tional fuel portfolio. Under this independent legal structure,other energy companies and start-ups could directly participatein the development of the biofuel market as long as their prod-uct proves to be competitive compared with the current fossilfuels offered in Mexico.

Mexico has a wide array of topographic and climatic con-ditions that range from tropical forests in the southern part ofthe country, vast coastal areas, a mild climate in the central partof the country, and mountainous areas and arid regions thatwill allow the adaptation of several varieties of crops that havebeen used in other latitudes for successful biofuel projects. Inaddition, Mexico has already issued a law that will regulate theuse of genetically modified organisms (the Biosafety Law for

Genetically Modified Organism) that may potentially open thedoor for the use of specific types of energy crops under con-trolled conditions.

Mexico’s current administration has established as part ofits National Strategy on Climate Change the need to diversifyits fuel alternatives and to introduce the use of biofuels. It hasalso evidenced that, due to the fact that biofuels do not have aconstitutional limitation for the participation of private invest-ment, it wishes to open this sector to both national and foreigninvestment.

The biofuels law, notwithstanding its shortcomings, pro-vides a foundation for the development of a viable alternativeenergy market in Mexico. Unlike the traditional fossil fuel sec-tor that depends on the state-owned companies in Mexico, thebiofuels law is setting the basis for the establishment of a dif-ferentiated legal framework for biofuel projects, which mayopen the door to the creation of new incentives that shall gen-erate the direct participation of private developers, with thefederal government serving as a regulator and promoter for thedevelopment of this market. BIO

Raul Felix is the coordinator of the Climate Change & RenewableEnergy Practice in Mexico for Baker & McKenzie. Reach him at

[email protected] or +52 (656) 629 1300.

MEXICO

IN THE

LABozens of companies and research labs are rac-

ing to produce biofuels from algae. Most are

focused on extracting oil from green algae for

biodiesel, but two University of Texas

researchers are taking a different track. They

have fused new genes into cyanobacteria

species to make them prodigious producers of

cellulose and sugars, an attractive prospect for the ethanol indus-

try.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria often referred to as

blue-green algae. They grow even more rapidly than green algae,

doubling in just four hours compared with 24 hours. Some of these

organisms produce cellulose, but R. Malcolm Brown and David

Nobles Jr. took a species that doesn't normally produce cellulose

and added genes from an Acetobacter species that allowed them to

synthesize cellulose. “We have been studying cellulose biosynthe-

sis for 40 years, and the idea was to get the cellulose biosynthesis

into the cyanobacteria that normally do not make cellulose,” Brown

says. The researchers also created modified organism strains that

secrete sucrose and other simple sugars.

When they analyzed the results, Brown and Nobles found that

the cellulose produced by the cyanobacteria was easier to convert

into biofuels than the cellulose produced in plants. The organisms

produce a gel-type of cellulose instead of the crystalline type found

in the cell walls of plants. “There are a lot of other things in trees,

such as lignins and hemicelluloses that need to be removed,”

Brown says. "The more crystalline they are, the harder they are to

break down. So when we found our cellulose had zero crystallini-

ty and very low molecular weight, that made it easier to break

down.”

The cyanobacteria can grow in either fresh or briny

water, Nobles says. They only require a few micronutri-

ents and fixed nitrogen to thrive. Unlike green algae, the

cyanobacteria produced the desired products with little

environmental manipulation. “We have to tweak a few

things, but nothing that inhibits their growth and nothing

costly,” Nobles says. In the lab, the cultures were able

to produce large amounts of cellulose from carbon diox-

ide in the atmosphere, but it may be possible to increase

their productivity by enriching them with additional car-

bon dioxide, he added.

Nobles says another advantage of using the cyanobacteria is

that they secrete the cellulose and sugar into their surroundings

where it can be harvested without sacrificing any of the organisms.

Green algae has to be collected and their cells broken open to get

at the oil inside. “You don’t have to harvest the cells, and you don’t

have to put any energy into the extraction,” Brown says. “You elim-

inate the two most costly steps in the production.”

The next step for the researchers is to scale up their work in

the lab to a larger facility. “We are working right now to get this out

of the laboratory and into a demonstration-scale facility,” Brown

says. “No one is going to invest a huge amount in this, and the fed-

eral government isn’t going to be that interested until they know it

really can work at a demonstration level.” There are many options,

but the researchers say they may consider using photobioreactors

to forestall objections to growing a genetically modified organism in

open ponds. “It is likely that we will also require a closed system

because we will be growing an organism that is secreting sugars,”

Nobles says. “That would create problems in an open pond.” BIO

—Jerry W. Kram

Seeking Cyanobacterial Cellulose

D


Brown, left, and Nobles pose with one of the cyanobacterialstrains that produces cellulose and glucose.

PHOTO: RICHARD SANTOS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

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EERCUPDATE

naerobic digestion is an old technology that has recently generated renewed interest because ofincreasing energy costs and efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Historical records indi-cate that biogas derived from anaerobic digestion was used to heat bath water in Assyria duringthe 10th century B.C. More recently, anaerobic digestion has been used for more than 100 yearsfor the treatment of municipal wastewater treatment sludge and industrial wastes and wastewaters.

It is also the process that converts municipal landfill solid waste to biogas.The Energy and Environmental Research Center has conducted numerous projects utilizing anaerobic

treatment, ranging from anaerobic digestion of waste potatoes and animal manure, enhancing the digestion ofmunicipal wastewater sludge, to anaerobic treatment of gasification condensates and agricultural processingwastewaters. The key point to understand is that anaerobic processes are carried out byliving organisms in the absence of molecular oxygen. Anaerobic digestion to produce amethane-rich biogas involves a symbiotic relationship between two different types of bac-teria. Acid-forming bacteria convert complex organic matter (carbohydrates, proteins andfats) into low molecular weight compounds including acetic acid, hydrogen and carbondioxide. Methane-producing bacteria then convert acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon diox-ide into methane.

A careful balance must be maintained between the acid-forming and methane-pro-ducing bacteria to ensure stable biogas production. This requires careful control of tem-perature, pH and substrate (digester feed material) loading rate. Because acid formers havea much higher specific growth rate and are more tolerant of changes in temperature, pH and loading rates,their intermediate products (organic acids) can rapidly accumulate, resulting in inhibition of the slower-grow-ing methane-producing bacteria, which ultimately results in process upset and loss of methane production. Aproperly maintained anaerobic digester, however, is capable of producing a methane-rich biogas that can beburned to produce heat, used in a boiler to produce steam, used in an internal combustion engine or turbineto produce electricity, or cleaned up and sold to a gas pipeline company.

A key niche for anaerobic digestion is the conversion of organic waste materials to biogas. Waste materi-als often have high water content that reduces their potential for combustion processes because the energyrequired to dry the materials exceeds the value of the energy recoverable through combustion. Anaerobicdigestion reduces both the volume and mass of the waste materials and typically produces a product that isreadily dewatered. The character of the waste material (chemical and physical properties) must be consideredwhen the suitability of anaerobic digestion is evaluated. Substrate composition is a key factor in determiningthe methane yield and methane production rates from the digestion of biomass.

In an upcoming issue, we’ll discuss a new EERC project, funded through the third funding cycle of theXcel Energy Renewable Development Fund, which will test and demonstrate a novel biotechnology at a dairyin Minnesota. The technology is aimed at enhancing anaerobic digestion of dairy manure to generate a bio-gas having increased methane content and significantly reduced hydrogen sulfide to produce heat, steam orpower. BIO

Dan Stepan is a senior research manager at the EERC in Grand Forks, N.D. He can be reached at [email protected] (701) 777-5247.

Stepan

AThe Breakdown on Anaerobic Digestion

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Biomass Magazine - June 2008