Dutch Researchers Develop Catalyst to Get Oil from Biomass

John Davis

utwenteoilResearchers in The Netherlands have developed a catalyst that helps get more energy from biomass to more closely match more conventional sources of oil-based energy. This article from the University of Twente says the new, simple catalyst improves the quality of this oil before it is even transported to the refinery and was selected as part of the follow-up technology from CATCHBIO, the national research program looking to make sure Europe acheives 20 percent of its fuel from renewable sources by 2020.

The oil in current-generation biofuel does not come from fruit or seed, such as palm or rape seed oil but, for example, from plant residues, pruning waste and wood chips. As a result, there is no longer any undesirable competition with the food supply. Converting plant residues, which take up a lot of space, into oil simplifies transport considerably and the product can go directly to a refinery. Blending with crude oil is already possible. However, the quality of this oil does not yet equal that of crude oil. It has a lower energy content per litre, is acid and still contains too much water. The catalyst developed by Prof. Leon Lefferts and Prof. Kulathuiyer Seshan’s group Catalytic Processes and Materials (MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology/Green Energy Initiative) significantly improves the quality and energy content of the oil.

This is realized by heating the oil in nitrogen to 500 degrees Celsius and by applying a simple catalyst: sodium carbonate on a layer of alumina. By using this method, the energy content of the oil can be boosted from 20 to 33-37 megajoule per kilogram, which is better than crude oil and approximates the quality of diesel. The technology, recently defended by PhD candidate Masoud Zabeti, is already being tested by KIOR in Texas, USA, on a small industrial scale, with a production of 4,500 barrels of oil per day. The quality of the oil can be improved even more by adding the material caesium, as well as sodium carbonate. “By doing so, we can, for instance, also reduce the aromatics, which are harmful when inhaled”, says Prof. Seshan.

The technology is being studied in cooperation with several other European universities and research institutes.

biomass, International

ADOMANI EV Bus Approved in California

Joanna Schroeder

You may soon begin to see children in California heading to school in an all electric bus (EV). The California Highway Patrol has approved the ADOMANI all-electric Blue Bird school bus for use. The bus was developed through a partnership between the Gilroy Unified School District and ADOMANI and the result is a solar fueled EV 50 passenger type-D school bus. The converted school bus will debut this fall.

The Gilroy Unified School District provided ADOMANI with a 2007 Blue Bird All American diesel school bus, and by replacing the engine with their patented electric conversion kit, ADOMANI returned a plug-in electric. The bus has an overall range of 40 miles in between charges, tailored to meet the district’s need of a 22 mile route. ADOMANI can supply a school or commercial bus with enough battery power to travel 100 miles.

ADOMANI EV busADOMANI chose to utilize the same plug as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, making its buses adaptable to universal charging stations. The Gilroy Unified School District’s charging station has been supplemented with solar panels, making the bus a zero emission vehicle.

Verbal approval of ADOMANI’s converted school bus came one day after initial inspection. Recent ADOMANI board member addition and school bus industry expert Jim Reynolds said, “That is by far the fastest I have seen approval come in. I was anticipating a few months of processing.”

This is ADOMANI’s second converted Blue Bird school bus. ADOMANI has created a conversion kit specialized for the All American Blue Bird school bus that can be installed in a couple weeks. Ninety percent of the OEM parts are retained, allowing mechanics to remain familiar with parts like the transmission, compressor, radiator, alternator, etc. With the quick success of the project, the company plans to move their headquarters from Florida to California.

“After the conversion for Gilroy, moving to California seemed like the right fit, though we plan to retrofit vehicles throughout the country,” said Edward Monfort, the founder and CTO of ADOMANI. “I am thrilled to be working with school buses and to have an opportunity to enter a market that can improve lives and the environment.”

Alternative Vehicles, Electric Vehicles

Economist Still Opposes RFS Despite Livestock Recovery

Cindy Zimmerman

bivi-nc-meyerDespite the fact that livestock margins have made a dramatic recovery in the past few years as availability of feed has increased and prices have decreased, a leading livestock economist still opposes the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“We’ve thrown billions of dollars at this industry already and it ought to have to stand on its own,” said Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, during an interview last week at an event for pork producers. “It has a place in the fuel business as an oxygenate and as an octane enhancer, it’s not going away from there.”

Meyer, who has always been an outspoken critic of U.S. energy policy, says his beef with the RFS is that it caused ethanol production to increase too much too quickly. “The trend yield on corn is up about two bushels per year. If you had grown the ethanol business at a rate equivalent to that, I wouldn’t have been able to gripe too much about it,” he said. “But it was far faster than that …. and the economic impact of that was very negative for (livestock) producers.”

However, the tide has turned dramatically to the point where demand and prices for livestock and poultry are riding high and there is almost record high feed availability with manageable prices. “We’re not going back to $2 corn and $180 bean meal but we’re at the lowest levels on costs in five years,” said Meyer. “We’re not increasing corn usage for ethanol every year like we were, it’s pretty much flat. It’ll grow a little bit but not much and we can probably keep up with that with trend yield growth on corn.”

Despite that, Meyer thinks the RFS needs to go away. “I don’t hate ethanol,” he says he tells corn producers. “I just don’t like subsidized, mandated ethanol when I’m the alternative user of the input.”

Interview with Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics
Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, livestock, RFS

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFThe Provo Office of the Bureau of Reclamation completed a ground mount, 96 panel solar energy system in a former unused grassy area on the south side of their building located at 302 East 1860 South in Provo this summer. Local company, TRA Snow and Sun, Inc. of American Fork, Utah, manufacturer of solar mounting systems and snow retention systems, supplied the ground mounting for the panels and Intermountain Wind and Solar was the integrator.
  • Solectria Renewables, LLC, a leading U.S. PV inverter manufacturer, announced today that it will supply 69 SGI 500XTM’s to Entropy Solar Integrators for seven projects in North Carolina. These projects are part of a portfolio being built by Entropy Solar Integrators and financed through affiliates of Entropy Investment Management.
  • Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC, a leading private investment firm focused on energy infrastructure, has announced that an affiliate has completed agreements to finance and construct its second wind farm, a 165 Megawatt (MW) project 45 miles south of Lubbock, Texas. The Stephens Ranch II project, which represents the second of two phases that will total 377 MW, will use GE 1.7-100 turbines and be built by Wanzek Construction, with completion scheduled for mid-2015.
  • MENA Clean Energy Forum will be take place in Dubai on December 9, 2014. The MENA Clean Energy Forum will bring together stakeholders interested in investing, financing, developing and operating clean energy projects in the regions. The summit will provide a platform for networking, knowledge transfer and new business development with decision makers within the clean energy Industry.
Bioenergy Bytes

Biogas Opportunities Roadmap Published

Joanna Schroeder

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have published a new report that outlines new federal initiatives to support growth in the private biogas/waste-to-energy sector. The Biogas Opportunities Roadmap concluded that developing a viable biogas industry in the U.S. can boost the economy as well as provide a reliable, distributed source of renewable energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Blue Sphere Corporation logoThe report found that today there are 2,000 biogas sites operating and with opportunity for another 11,000 additional biogas systems to covert waste to energy and co-products. However, to make way for these additional biogas systems, there must be support from federal agencies, significantly more investment, increased research and development and expanded markets for biogas, according to the report.

In the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap, the federal agencies identify programs that will promote biogas utilization and help the private sector take advantage of the full potential of biogas system without legislation. These programs include:

  • Using existing agency programs to leverage over $10 million in research funding.
  • Fostering investments in biogas systems including reviewing government procurement programs for products of biogas systems.
  • Strengthening markets for biogas systems and system products including by modernizing existing Federal incentives.
  • Improving communication and coordination by establishing a Biogas Opportunities Roadmap Working Group that will include participation from DOE and EPA, as well as the dairy and biogas industries.

“The potential for biogas to increase renewable energy production, reduce landfill waste, benefit the environment, and spur economic growth in the U.S. is significant. We are very pleased to see the U.S. government publish a report that outlines these benefits and opportunities,” said Shlomi Palas, CEO of Blue Sphere Corporation, a company specializing in biogas technology.  “Bluesphere is actively working in several U.S. states to develop biogas facilities. We have brought our global expertise in building and operating waste-to-energy facilities to the U.S. market and we’re finding very strong interest in the value proposition we have to offer. We are eager to expand our operations in the U.S. in conjunction with some major partners and to capitalize on biogas opportunities.”

Bluesphere has begun design and engineering work, and is scheduled to break ground in 2014 on a 5.2 MW waste-to-energy anaerobic digester in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company is also developing in a 3.2 MW waste-to-energy project in Rhode Island and has a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a 5.2 MW waste-to-energy project in Massachusetts.

biogas, Renewable Energy, Waste-to-Energy

Empower Energies Completes Mass Solar Project

Joanna Schroeder

Empower Engeries has completed and commissioned a 3.3 MWDC solar project in Shirley, Massachusetts. The ground mounted installation features 13,047 6.5′ by 3′ PV solar panels and is located on 27 acres of Shirley Water District land. The project was co-developed with Washington, DC-based EPG Solar. It will deliver over 4.9 million kWh of electricity annually to the contiguous Devens Utilities Department.

Empower Energies PV Solar Project - Town of Shirley - Aerial View 03Jim Moore of the Devens Utilities Department said that Mass Development was originally looking to add renewable energy into their portfolio with facilities built behind their meter, but ultimately opened the bidding up to power supply coming in from outside Devens, ‘if someone could work out the details’.

Empower Energies Manager of Business Development Micah Stanley credited the ingenuity of Robert Babcock, a Managing Partner with EPG Solar, and his team, for initiating the project. “His inventiveness enabled us, essentially, to put two separate and distinct projects together, and then enabled us to cross utility grid lines,” Stanley said.

“From the beginning, this project has been a model of perseverance and creativity for all of the parties involved,” Babcock added. “We worked diligently in cooperation with all of the constituencies – the Town of Shirley Energy Committee, the Water District, and the Devens Utilities Department – to best represent the interests of the people they serve.”

Len Jornlin, CEO of Empower Energies, added “It is exciting and humbling to ‘flip the switch’ after so many moving parts have come together. Projects like this one are characterized by a complex set of transactions, and the collaboration of so many stakeholders. We were thrilled to serve as the hub of all this effort. It enabled us to connect the dots, and help our co-developer, EPG Solar, to get the project over the finish line for Green States Energy and the Town of Shirley.”

Empower Energies and EPG Solar selected Green States Energy, Inc., to be the investor/owner of the solar system.

Electricity, Renewable Energy, Solar

MIT Researchers Convert Lead to Solar Power

Joanna Schroeder

Researchers at MIT are recycling materials from discarded car batteries into long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions free power while keep lead out of landfills. The system was described in the journal Energy and Environmental Science and was co-authored by Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammon along with graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others.

The system is based on a recent development in solar cells that makes use of a compound called perovskite — specifically, organolead halide perovskite — a technology that has rapidly progressed from initial experiments to a point where its efficiency is nearly competitive with that of other types of solar cells.

“It went from initial demonstrations to good efficiency in less than two years,” said Belcher, the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT. Already, perovskite-based photovoltaic cells have achieved power-conversion efficiency of more than 19 percent, which is close to that of many commercial silicon-based solar cells.

Initial descriptions of the perovskite technology identified its use of lead, whose production from raw ores can produce toxic residues, as a drawback. However by using recycled lead from old car batteries, the manufacturing process can instead be used to divert toxic material from landfills and reuse it in photovoltaic panels that could go on producing power for decades. In addition, because the perovskite photovoltaic material takes the form of a thin film just half a micrometer thick, the team’s analysis shows that the lead from a single car battery could produce enough solar panels to provide power for 30 households.

As an added advantage, the production of perovskite solar cells is a relatively simple and benign process. “It has the advantage of being a low-temperature process, and the number of steps is reduced” compared with the manufacture of conventional solar cells, Belcher explained.

Those factors will help to make it “easy to get to large scale cheaply,” added.Read More

Alternative energy, Electricity, Solar, Video, Waste-to-Energy

Albion Community Power Funds Biogas Project

Joanna Schroeder

Albion Community Power logoAlbion Community Power (ACP) has funded the development of a small scale landfill gas engine in Docking, Norfolk (UK). The project will be developed in conjunction with ACP’s biogas partner AlphaGen Renewables who will oversee the installation and operation of a 50kW microgeneration landfill gas engine. The project will generate power from the landfill gas resource at the site under a 20 year agreement with Norfolk County Council. The Docking projects represents the first project with AlphaGen Renewables and the first Biogas project in the ACP portfolio.

Richard Tipping, Chairman of AlphaGen Renewables said, “We are delighted to be partnering with ACP on this project, which is set to deliver strong returns. Renewables such as biogas are playing a growing role in the UK’s energy production.”

ACP undertakes projects in biogas as well as projects incorporating wind, hydro and solar energy. The company is looking to build a portfolio of similar, high yielding, landfill projects going forward.

David Gudgin, Head of at Renewables at Albion Ventures added, “Biogas is an increasingly popular area of renewable energy and we are looking forward to working with AlphaGen both on this project and others in the future.”

biogas, Electricity, International, Waste-to-Energy

Ethanol Safety Seminar Heads to Mass

Joanna Schroeder

There will be a free Ethanol Safety Seminar held on August 26-17, 2014 in Westfield, Massachusetts. Co-hosted by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Fore River Transportation Corporation there will be a session from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm on Aug. 26, followed by a 10:00 am to 3:00 pm session on Aug. 27. Certificates will be awarded to attendees at the completion of the course, although interested participants should note that registration is limited. This seminar is the last to be funded this season by a Federal Railroad Administration grant through TRANSCAER.

eerc“I’m excited. The RFA seminars offer both rail and emergency response professionals a venue to meet and plan for future events together,” said Paul Ruscio, general manager at Fore River Transportation Corp. “Rail has proven to be a safe and efficient mode of transportation for renewable fuels in the States. Being prepared for potential rail incidents by engaging responders makes good sense for us and our communities. The dialogue that ensues from these seminars creates educated teams that have the means and know-how to handle potential incidents. In my experience, a little preparation and coordination before a team faces a task usually proves beneficial.”

The Ethanol Safety Seminar was developed to give first responders, emergency management agencies, and safety personnel an in-depth look at proper training techniques needed when responding to an ethanol-related emergency. A majority of this training is based on the “Training Guide to Ethanol Emergency Response,” a training package created by the Ethanol Emergency Response Coalition (EERC) that has been distributed throughout the United States and to several countries worldwide.

The course focuses on numerous important areas of ethanol safety including an introduction to ethanol and ethanol-blended fuels, chemical and physical characteristics of ethanol and hydrocarbon fuels, transportation and transfer of ethanol-blended fuels, storage and dispensing locations, firefighting foam principles and ethanol-blended fuel, health and safety considerations for ethanol-blended fuel emergencies and tank farm and bulk storage fire incidents.

biofuels, Ethanol, RFA, safety

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFDessler Media has announced the launch of their nationwide television commercial campaign that is structured to provide solar companies around the nation with exclusive pre-qualified residential solar leads and pre-qualified in home appointments. The participating solar companies have a choice of either having Dessler’s call center set an in-home appointment after qualifying the caller or to set up a telephone appointment after qualifying the inbound lead.
  • Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Institute has announced that nominations are open for the 2015 Resonate Awards. The awards are designed to bring attention to unheralded innovators with provocative ideas that contribute to long term sustainability. These include meeting the world’s energy needs sustainably, providing water and food for a growing world population, cleaning the environment, improving people’s access to the natural resources they need to live a productive life, and many others.
  • Solar Power Mid-Atlantic, a new regional event highlighting the strong solar industry in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, will be taking place September 9-10, 2014 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event is presented by Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). The two days of programming will offer in-depth sessions and keynotes on the challenges and opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic solar market, as well as exhibits and demonstrations from solar firms and networking events.
  • Denver-based SunShare has it has contracted with Adams County to provide the regional government with clean, reliable energy from Community Solar Gardens. Adams County will be the first county in the nation to power its buildings with privately developed Community Solar energy. SunShare is one of the nation’s first Community Solar providers.
Bioenergy Bytes