Using Ike’s Biomass to Produce Power

John Davis

There is some actual good that will come out of the devastation of Hurricane Ike.

This story from Greentech Media says Biofuels Power Corp. has announced plans to build a 4-megawatt power plant the will produce electricity from the woodchips and other debris from the storm:

The Woodlands, Texas-based company, traded over the counter using the symbol “BFLS,” on Friday signed a preliminary agreement with a wood-waste storage operator, DSMC, and with a consulting firm, Texoga Technologies Corp., that will retrofit abandoned oil wells for carbon-dioxide storage.

Biofuels Power and DSMC will each hold a 30 percent equity stake in the project, while Texoga will get 10 percent. Other undisclosed investors will own the remaining 30 percent. Texoga spun off Biofuels Power in 2007.

The pilot project will make use of wood chips and refuse left behind by the powerful Hurricane Ike, which swept through the Gulf Coast in September. A lot of the material will be coming from Galveston, Texas, which was particularly hard hit by the hurricane, said Robert Wilson, a spokesman for Biofuels Power.

DSMC, based in Humble, Texas, has handled a bulk of waste disposal from the hurricane cleanup effort.

While the debris from Hurricane Ike eventually will be burned up, the article did point out the the Gulf Coast has plenty of hurricanes every year, so at least potentially, there would be plenty of feedstock.

biomass