An energy source made from biomass that’s touted as “magic coal from the steam cooker” will make its debut at the Energy from Biomass and Waste conference January 26-27, 2010 at the Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference Centre in London, England.
This press release says “Green Coal,” invented the German company the G+R Technology Group, will be produced at the first industrial production plant for biocoal:
It took nature millions of years – by means of simple chemical processings mankind is in the meantime capable to solve the issue within just a few hours: biowastes, crop residues and organic wastes result in highly efficient combustibles, at the same time offering a profitable benefit to the environment. Compared to brown or black coal, the “Green Coal” Gco(c) is completely CO2-neutral and will contribute to a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions.
Fossile energy sources such as gas, oil and coal are finite, expensive, make us dependent and strongly impact the environment. Renewable energies therefore presently face a boom, also in the UK. The green active coal might be a genuine alternative to solar cells, wind turbines and others. The Green Coal Gco(c) production process was for the first time described in 1913 by the German chemist and Nobel laureate Friedrich Berguis. Recently it was rediscovered by the Max-Planck-Institute and is currently considered as alternative hope for the future when it comes to climate. The production process – the so-called Hydrothermal Carbonisation (HTC) in technical terms – is simple in principle and reminds you of cooking: all kinds of organic biomass are put into a kind of steam cooker, water is added as kind of converter and finally the mixture is heated. After a couple of hours the Green Coal Gco(c) emerges.
G+R Tech also says the Green Coal method could be applied to all organic residues and biowastes, even animal wastes and sewage sludges.
If anyone has a chance to see this technology next week in England, let me know if this is what it seems to be on the surface.