BIOGAS

Rwanda works to power up with clean energy

2011-01-29T07:37:00.002-08:00

Six years ago, a drought nearly snuffed out the tiny flicker that is Rwanda's electricity supply.

The country relies mainly on hydropower. The rivers ran low, perhaps a preview of climate-change impacts to come.

"We almost came into darkness," said Albert Butare, minister of state for energy. The temporary fix? Flying in expensive diesel-powered generators.

"They are hard lessons," Butare said. "We need to look ahead."

Rwanda and Iowa share a goal of developing clean, sustainable power. Iowa, now heavily dependent on coal, seeks a shift to wind, solar and biomass while ramping up energy efficiency.

In Rwanda, only 8 percent of households have electricity. It seeks to build its first nationwide grid largely with renewable energy sources, along with hopes to tap a bubble of methane under Lake Kivu.

If Rwanda can power up with clean, diverse energy sources, it could become a model for the developing world. That's important for Iowa and the rest of the developed world amid fears about climate change.

The Copenhagen climate change talks, which wound down last week, underscored the tensions between developed and developing economies over who will sacrifice most to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has remained a steadfast supporter of an agreement to cut emissions.

His interest isn't academic. He believes shifting weather patterns could ruin Rwanda's agriculture, and he hopes Rwandans could make money selling carbon credits as the nation plants trees. Iowa farmers share similar interests in climate change impacts and the potential for reaping rewards from planting grass or reducing tillage.

Rwanda didn't set out to become an international model of diverse energy sources. Circumstances forced it. The country doesn't have coal and oil supplies — or the money to import massive amounts of them as Iowa does.

Rwanda is just now poking around under Lake Kivu to see whether oil and natural gas might have pooled. So the government is looking for other ways — methane from cattle, landfills and the lake bubble, plus propane for cooking, solar, geothermal, biofuels, maybe wind — to provide energy for 10 million people and a growing commercial sector.

Today, Rwanda's biggest source of energy is wood burning, which pollutes the air with haze. Hydropower is the main electricity source.

A single wind farm in Iowa generates more electricity than the 72 megawatts feeding Rwanda's few power lines.

The lack of power in Rwanda poses a central challenge as the economy surges, 15 years after genocide killed nearly 1 million of its residents.

Rwandans aren't looking to power flat-screen TVs or refrigerators. Here, most people would just like to have lights in their homes. Eventually, the federal government's push for a tech-savvy population might bring a move to computers.

Still, power needs are soaring. International and local companies are building hotels, communication systems and industrial facilities that suck up electricity. The government has allocated $350 million to increase power. It hopes to add 350,000 more connections by 2012, which would mean 16 percent of homes would be wired.

"What gives us hope is that it took from 1963 to 2005 to get 70,000 connections, but from 2005 through October 2009, we reached 130,000," Butare said.

That does not mean the people can afford the power, which is expensive at 23 cents per kilowatt hour. Iowa's average retail price was a shade over 11 cents this summer.

The government is looking to subsidize the industry.

"We're working to go green and cheaper," with a goal of 10 cents to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, Butare said.

Part of the challenge is rural Rwandans' preference for living in tiny villages in the hills, where utility extensions are virtually impossible.

"People prefer to live up in the mountains with their little family, but that would be hard to connect," Butare said.

So the government has a program called "imidugudu," or "living together," a campaign to encourage people to live in more larger villages.

For the next several years, the country will increase power largely with hydro expansions and burning methane. Two-dozen hydroelectric projects will build on a system of 300 already in place. Many are small-scale, meant to serve a specific village or area.

The methane will come from rotting garbage, manure and the unusual giant bubble between the waters of Lake Kivu and the lake bed. The lake is in the country's volcano region, along the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, which also will get power from the project.

Skeptics in Rwanda think messing with the methane bubble is asking for an explosion or a dangerous release to the atmosphere. A 1986 carbon dioxide leak from a lake suffocated at least 1,700 in a Cameroon valley, adding to Rwandans' fears today.

Lake methane pilot projects have been encouraging. Workers are extracting the gas, then reinjecting water in an area that had methane. The government estimates lake methane alone could produce 10,000 times as much power as Rwanda generates nationwide now.

The government also wants to burn methane extracted from the Nyanza landfill to generate power. And it wants every farmer with cattle or other livestock to have a system that converts methane from the manure, to be used to produce power. Farms in Iowa are experimenting with similar systems.

"We are encouraging every farmer to have a biogas plant," Butare said. "It's very much enough to cook. Some get lighting, if they have enough cows."

The government is offering loan guarantees and subsidies for biogas systems. There are 450 now, and 300 are under construction.

By 2013, more than half the country's power will come from methane drawn from the lake, landfills and farms, Butare said.

Lots of other work is under way. By 2012, regional health clinics will be on the power grid or have their own solar panels. And more than half of schools within reach of the grid will have power, Butare said.

The country is looking to burn peat, and it has a fledgling biodiesel industry, using jatropha trees and shrubs as feedstock.

The government is studying geothermal, and there are plans to turn organic trash into diesel fuel.

All those options seem to bode well for light bulbs across the country, but growth in the population and the economy presents a formidable challenge.

"We have to run fast" to meet the new demands, Butare said. "Every night, I get a report on reserves on my cell phone, and it is not enough."

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Brisbane Business Icon Trisco Converts Manufacturing Waste into Biogas

2011-01-29T07:37:00.001-08:00

Trisco Foods, one of Brisbane’s oldest family-owned businesses, is paving the way to reduce manufacturing waste with the installation of a high rate anaerobic digestor and co-generation plant which converts the firm’s waste into biogas for use within their factory.

Trisco Foods is one of Australia’s leading manufacturers of food solutions for fast food establishments and franchise systems and produces a wide-range of products for companies like Heinz, Hungry Jack’s, Dunkin Donuts and Coca-Cola Amatil.

However, the nature of the firm’s manufacturing and production process, whereby vats must be cleaned after each use produces large volumes of water high in sugars. Traditionally the firm has relied on costly downstream treatment facilities.

Trisco Chief Operating Officer Mike Tristram said the firm has implemented a range of water saving initiatives including a comprehensive Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP) but wanted a system which further reduced their reliance on external resources and facilities.

“We investigated a range of solutions from to reduce the waste stream but ultimately decided a small scale anaerobic recycling plant was the most effective way as it not only dealt with the waste but converted it into bio gas,” he said.

The plant was built with the assistance of a Federal Government Re-tooling for Climate Change grant and assistance from the University of Queensland’s commercialisation unit UniQuest.

It works by converting the sugars in the wastewater directly into methane, which can be directly burnt for heating purposes, replacing natural gas, which is currently used. This reduces natural gas consumption by more than 20 percent.

The plant will directly reduce the firm’s carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Flint's Swedish Biogas truck on display at Detroit auto show

2011-01-29T07:35:00.000-08:00

Swedish Biogas International, located on the campus of Kettering University in Flint, is part of the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The company's new biogas truck is being featured within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation display at the show, according to a news release from The Spencer Agency.

The truck can be fueled by biomethane gas — a renewable alternative fuel that will be produced at Swedish Biogas’ plant at the city of Flint’s wastewater treatment plant.

In addition to the truck, a video also produced locally by The Spencer Agency, will be looped as part of the exhibit, the news release says.

Last Summer, Kettering converted a 2500HD Silverado to run on a dual-fuel system, including biomethane gas.

Odours from dump to be reduced again Plan is to capture more of gases emitted

2011-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

The construction of a second phase of a biogas collection system that has been successful in removing odours from a Pierrefonds landfill has just started.

City officials were on hand at Les Entreprises Environmentales de Pierrefonds Inc. this week as the company officially launched the second phase of work on the biogas collection system.

The first phase was installed in 2007 and has been considered very successful in eliminating almost all odours at the source. The system became necessary because of theaccumulationof drymaterialattheOakwoodSt. quarry and the emanation of odours in the neighbourhood.

"The sulphuric gas that collects there smells like rotten eggs," said Pierrefonds-Roxboro councillor Bert Ward. "When the gas is absorbed in conduits, a lot of the odours can be eliminated."

The construction of the network of underground pipes that collect the gases should be completed in four to six weeks. The work may produce temporary odours in the air, but all possible measures have been taken to ensure the installation takes place quickly and with the goal of minimizing inconveniences.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Punjab’s agro-processing sector cheers as investments flow in

2011-01-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

The union ministry of food processing industries must be sulking for investmnets in the sector but for Punjab the story is certainly different. With Rs 300-crore investment proposals coming in the agro-processing sector, the state is looking forward to potential employment opportunities and growth in the state’s economy.

The investment proposals that came in the state’s agro-processing sector included setting up of two textile units, expansion of barley processing plant, union food processing ministry's mega food park and a biogas-plant in the state.

“The screening committee of the Punjab government has cleared these projects,” a senior official of the state-owned Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC), said.

Punjab offers incentives such as exemption in stamp duty on buying land, electricity duty, etc, on setting up a mega project with an investment over Rs 25 crore in the state.

The UB Group's subsidiary, Maltex Malsters, has proposed to expand its barley processing into malt capacity from 20,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes per annum in the next 12 months, at a cost of Rs 31 crore. The company had a unit in Patiala and it uses malt for its distillery business.

Another project proposal in the offing is the state's first mega food park, conceptualised by the union food processing ministry, to be set up at Fazilka with an investment of Rs 132 crore, offering 5,000 jobs. The ministry has assigned this project to International Fresh Farm Products Limited.

The park will have a state-of-the-art infrastructure meant for agro or food-processing sector along with value chain from farm to market that would help in attracting investments in food processing and fetch remuneratives to the farmers.

Another company called Sampuran Agri Ventures has proposed to set up a paddy straw- based biogas generation plant at Fazilka, entailing an investment of Rs 62 crore, with a processing capacity of 105 tonnes per hour.

Punjab has received investments worth Rs 5,000 crore in farm processing units in the last four years.

Srinivas Kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

The power of waste

2011-01-29T07:29:00.000-08:00

MANGALORE: Come February, and Mangalore City Corporation will become the first urban local body in Karnataka to have a biogas generating plant running on the `Nisargaruna' technology of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Work on the 2-tonne capacity plant at Urwa market started on December 28 and is scheduled for completion in 60-days. The plant would start generating 200 units of power each day shortly thereafter.

What makes this venture taken up by MCC at an estimated cost of Rs 20 lakh special is that the plant would feed on bio-degradable waste generated not only in the market, but nearly 500-households in its vicinity. MCC on Monday launched a pilot initiative to collect bio and non-biodegradable waste from households and commercial establishments in the area and such segregated biodegradable waste would be used at the plant.

The nuclear agriculture and biotechnology division of BARC has developed Nisargaruna technology and a plant of above capacity will generate 150-to 170-metre cube of biogas each day. This amount of gas, not MCC commissioner K N Vijaya Prakash is sufficient to generate 200 units of power each day. "Some of this power will be used to electrify the market and MCC is looking at commercially exploiting the rest," he told TOI.

Executing the biogas project for MCC is Wipro Eco Energy arm of IT giants Wipro Limited. Wipro Eco Energy has already built such plants at its Sarjapur campus, at the Taj Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, and one each at Sriperambadur and Noida. Wipro Eco Energy as per the contractual agreement will also maintain this plant and the power-generating unit for the next two years before it hands over the same to the civic body.

BARC on its website says one of the economic ways to deal with biodegradable waste would be to raise community biogas plants based on biodegradable waste as its accounts for environment friendly disposal of waste. There is generation of fairly good amount of fuel gas as well as generation of high quality manure. It would reduce the menace of street dogs and other nuisance animals. Biogas is colourless, odourless and inflammable.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Baiting Biogas

2011-01-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

A recent study by the Great Plains Institute illuminates the enormous potential of biogas projects in the U.S., but also illustrates the lack of incentives or support to develop them. On both the federal and state levels, existing and proposed policies could use changes or a push to jump-start a robust biogas industry and new proposals could use a champion.

One of the main problems with current policy is the fact that the focus for biogas projects lies almost solely in electricity generation, but the resource can be used for combined heat and power, natural gas replacement, transportation fuel and chemical production, according to Amanda Bilek, GPI energy policy specialist and author of “Spotlight on Biogas: Policies for Utilization and Deployment in the Midwest.” Specifically, the Business Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) gears its 30 percent credit only toward electricity-generating facilities. “What stakeholders would like to see is a way to open up this tax credit so that projects such as natural gas can also qualify,” Bilek says.

The grants in lieu of the ITC program, U.S. Department of Treasury’s Section 1603, could also use some revision, according to both Bilek and the newly formed American Biogas Council. As of September, only 0.1 percent of a total $5.2 million allocated to renewable energy under the program was awarded to anaerobic digestion biogas projects, according to the council. Those grants are only available, if not re-authorized, until Dec. 31.

Industry stakeholders would also like to see changes in USDA’s Business and Industrial Guaranteed Loans program that would allow flexibility in the means of demonstrating business viability. The program does cover some biogas projects, but the main obstacle is the fact that it requires a traditional lender and businesses must provide balance sheets in order to obtain one. “Some new businesses don’t necessarily have access to balance sheets from previous years to help secure that traditional lender,” Bilek explains.

As money always seems to be a development hang up, stakeholders say changes to state net metering rate policies allowing more payments for renewable electricity at retail rates would also lend a helping hand to biogas development. “It does help improve the economics for biogas projects,” she says of the retail rate. In addition, state renewable portfolio standards that include a resource carve-out for biogas projects would help significantly.

Changes to such policies will allow biogas to step into the spotlight and become part of our energy future, Bilek says, but she does not expect advancements until the new Congress convenes in January. “I doubt action on any of these policies is going to happen in the lame duck session,” she says.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Wisconsin college installs biogas CHP plant

2011-01-29T07:26:00.001-08:00

n roughly six months, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh will host a unique biogas cogeneration plant that will provide its campus with heat and power.

While the biogas plant itself is being designed by BIOFerm Energy Systems, project partner 2G-Cenergy is responsible for the technology that will convert the biogas to heat and power. Both German companies, BIOFerm and Cenergy have installed hundreds of similar systems in Germany, but this particular system will be unique to the U.S., said Cenergy CEO and President Michael Turwitt. “We have done different biogas projects in the U.S. with typical anaerobic digesters, also landfill operations and wastewater treatment plants, but this is the first dry anaerobic digester plant in the U.S.,” he said. “There are a few more coming in the future, but this will be the first one that will be operational.”

The difference between traditional anaerobic digestion systems and Cenergy’s design is that traditional systems are considered wet and utilize waste streams such as manure, requiring the addition of liquid to facilitate constant movement for fermentation. In contrast, dry systems don’t need the addition of liquid to create a fluid mixture that can be pumped through the system. Rather, dry fermentation works via a batch process in which organic waste is loaded into individual fermenters of the biogas plant on a 28-day cycle.

Construction of the 370 kilowatt-hour facility, which will be owned and operated by UWO, is underway, and when operational will use about 8,000 tons of yard and food waste annually.

Turwitt estimated the entire project, which is being partially funded with a $233,000 grant from Wisconsin Focus on Energy and a $500,000 federal government grant, will cost about $3.5 million. He said the unit should be fully operational by the beginning of May.

Srinivas Kasulla

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Qualco Energy biogas project is paying off

2011-01-29T07:25:00.001-08:00

Located in Washington’s Tualco Valley, the Qualco Energy Corp. anaerobic digester project in Snohomish County has come a long way since the project was conceived in 2003. At the Pacific West Biomass Conference & Trade Show held in Seattle, attendees got the opportunity to see the fruits of its labor up close and personal.

Qualco Energy, a nonprofit organization formed jointly by representatives from the Sno/Sky Agricultural Alliance, Northwest Chinook Recovery and the Tulalip Tribes, officially began operation of the digester in 2008. The digester was first proposed to help consume waste from local dairy operations and to prevent runoff into local salmon streams on land that formerly housed a correctional facility, which closed in 2002 after 60 years of operation.

According to Daryl Williams, environmental liaison for the Tulalip Tribes, Qualco Energy uses a modified mixed plug flow mesophyllic digester capable of producing 600 cubic feet-per-minute of biogas that powers its 450-kilowatt generator. Manure is collected from 1,400 cattle at Werkhoven Dairy’s three dairy farms and is piped to Qualco’s 2 million gallon digester tank. Although manure is its primary feedstock, Williams said the digester can also take in expired beer and soda and waste trap grease.

“We’re producing a lot more gas than I thought we would before we built the facility,” Williams said. “Now that we’re using more [feedstock] in the digester I think it’s paying for itself.”

Qualco Energy sells its electricity to utility provider Peugeot Sound Energy Corp. and is negotiating a power-purchase agreement with the Snohomish County Public Utility District. Excess biogas that doesn’t go to the utilities is burnt off. Williams said about two-thirds of the company’s biogas gets released. The company is also selling carbon credits, Williams continued.

The solids leftover from the anaerobic digestion process, according to Williams, are collected and stored in a building where they are used as compost material. Although Qualco Energy currently gives its digestate material away for free, Williams said they will charge a fee once a market is found for it.

“We’ll hopefully sell the solids for about $10 per yard,” Williams said.

Waste liquid from the digester gets piped to a nearby lagoon where it’s held until the summer when it will be utilized for irrigation purposes.

Qualco Energy was able to leverage state and federal funding in order to launch the project. The company received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. DOE to conduct an environmental assessment and economic feasibility study in 2005. Additionally, the company received $500,000 from the USDA to help pay for the digester.

Williams said the economic and environmental impact of the anaerobic digester has been a tremendous boon for the county, adding that Qualco Energy intends to expand operations to include additional generators and installation of solar panels.

“This is an exciting benefit for the county,” Williams said. “We’re intercepting waste and diverting it for use as renewable energy. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

AD plant permitted for South Carolina

2011-01-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

Columbia, S.C., will soon be the home of an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility that will process organic waste streams from a multitude of industrial sources to eventually generate 3.2 megawatts of clean power. The project has just received its final solid waste permit from the State Department of Health and Environmental Control.

South Carolina-based developer W2E is a small technology business looking to establish applications of the system all over the Eastern United States. For its Columbia location, the company has feedstock contracts in place with Walmart, Quest Recycling, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvest Hope Food Bank, Pontiac Foods, Farmers’ Market and many others. The organic waste will consist of food, grease, produce and yard waste among others. In phase one of the build-out, the facility will take in about 26,500 tons of organic waste per year and produce 1.6 MW of electricity, working its way up to 50,000 tons per year and 3.2 MW, according to W2E CEO Daniel Rickenmann.

The power will be sold to the grid through a variety of users, Rickenmann said, and power purchase agreements are being negotiated. With its solid waste permit in place, W2E is only waiting for the county to finish its construction permit before beginning construction. “Then we can actually start digging some dirt,” he said. “We’re looking to be able to start accepting waste at the end of the year.”

Besides power, the facility will also produce a soil amendment that will be used in local agriculture as well as commercial and residential landscape applications, according to the company.

Although AD plants are capital intensive to build, they provide a two-pronged solution to the alternative energy arena, according to W2E. They reduce pressure on landfills and produce biogas that can be used for electricity or green products. W2E is moving along in the development of two other similar facilities, one in Gastonia, N.C., and the other in Baton Rouge, La. Rickenmann said the company is three-quarters of the way finished with permitting in Louisiana and is just beginning in North Carolina.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Practice Makes Perfect

2011-01-29T07:19:00.000-08:00

Hoffland Environmental Inc. has operated a 1-megawatt (MW) hog waste-fuelled power generation facility on the Island of Cyprus in Europe for the past three years. Marking the company’s U.S. debut is a second anaerobic digestion (AD) project currently underway in Fremont, N.C., near Goldsboro at White Oaks Farm.

Chemical Engineer Guy Weismantel says the 10-acre farm site hosts about 5,500 pigs, but manure from that operation alone will not be enough meet the electrical capacity goal of 2 MW without supplementary poultry waste or manure from nearby farms. Corn silage was originally considered as a partial feedstock, he adds, but is currently too expensive.

Hoffland is now working to firm up the feedstock requirements of the project, which will be implemented in two phases—first producing 1 MW of electricity, the second doubling capacity to 2 MW. Weismantel says when evaluating feedstock requirements, it’s not only necessary to look at the number of animals in an operation, but also the kind and size of animals, such as farrow-to-wean. “Animal units are important to consider,” he says.

A power line going through the project site belongs to an area power cooperative, with which the company is working to sell all of the electricity to the grid, Weismantel says.

On incentives, the $15 million project is subject to receive renewable energy credits under the state’s renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolio standard, but Weismantel says the main driver is North Carolina’s Senate Bill 3, requiring 12.5 percent renewable electricity by 2021; 0.2 percent of that amount must be generated from swine waste by 2018, after rising each year prior. “For the whole state of North Carolina, that amounts to about 14 MW in 2011,” Weismantel says.

Hoffland has also applied for Section 1603 funds, as the project qualifies as an open-loop biomass project.

Weismantel says that what sets Hoffland’s AD process apart from others is that it’s a unique, three-step process that involves a certain amount of recycling of “seed bugs” that optimize the mesophillic reaction. “So we are getting more biogas off the digester,” he says. “This gas is methane in nature and is nominally 600 Btu per cubic foot in heating value.”

There are a number of additional aspects that sets the process apart from other AD technologies, such as the sulfur removal system, which is undergoing patent writing, Weismantel says. “HEI fabricates much of the equipment in its own shop utilizing and maximizing clarifier performance, manure handling, manure measurement and key process control functions that interface simplified on-line measurements to optimize performance.”

He adds that hardware and process performance complications have been ironed out during the three years of performance at the Cyprus plant. “It has provided an excellent learning curve,” he says.

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

newsnews RSS Text Size Print Share This Home / news / Farmer uses chicken waste to start energy project

2011-01-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

OATES, SC --

A farmer in Darlington County is planning to keep the waste from his chicken farm from going to waste.

Lamar Collins, owner of Collins Chick Farm in Oates, has been farming for more than 30 years, the last 15 or so as a chicken farmer.

Collins plans to put the chickens’ manure to use by constructing the first Biogas System Facility on his farm.

The facility will turn the manure methane gas, or biogas, and use it to produce electricity and soil enhancer, or fertilizer, in liquid form.

The whole concept came from a conversation Collins had with Green Energy Solutions Inc. president Julian Cothran a few years ago.

Cothran had been overseas on business and seen many European countries using biogas systems in agriculture and asked Collins if he wanted to try it here.

The idea couldn’t have come at a better time, Collins said, because he was quickly becoming a victim of rising energy costs.

“It was costing me just as much if not more for the energy (for the farm) as I was growing in birds,” he said.

The Biogas System Facility, designed by Green Energy Solutions, uses anaerobic digesters to decompose organic materials from confined livestock to create methane gas (biogas).

The methane gas is then used to fuel a combustion engine with a generator to create “green” electricity and heat. In turn, the farm can use the generated electricity on site or sell it.

When the biogas facility gets up and running, Collins will be able to generate 540 kilowatts (kw) per hour using the generator. A normal household uses about 10 to 15 kw per day.

“We take the waste from the farm that has little to no value and we turn it into energy, both electrical and heat,” Cothran said. “This brings new revenue streams into the farm.”

Collins said the excess energy will be sold and the methane gas will be used in lieu of propane to heat and cool the chicken houses.

Other farmers in the area also stand to benefit because Collins can buy farm waste such as wheat straw from them to turn into methane.

Collins said he’s excited to be able to help other farmers like his next-door neighbor, a wheat farmer. After harvest, the wheat straw that is left usually goes to waste.

“I can give him another income from buying his waste,” Collins said.

The facility, which is under construction, is scheduled to be complete this summer and is expected to serve as a model for others in the agriculture industry.

So far, Collins said, there are 12 other such facilities scheduled to be built across the United States.

Green Energy Solutions Inc. also is working with the town of Lamar to build a manufacturing facility that could create 125 jobs.

“The biggest thing is being able to help other farmers and becoming energy independent. That’s the best part,” Collins said.

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas Growth

2011-01-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

A Chilean water utility will install a GE Jenbacher biogas engine as part of a wastewater treatment plant expansion and effort to clean up the municipal water supply along the Mapocho River near the capital city of Santiago. Elsewhere, a leading waste-to-energy developer in the Philippines inaugurated the country’s first landfill gas power plant in December, also using a GE Jenbacher biogas engine.

With such installations all over the world, GE has a unique view of the global biogas industry and can offer a snapshot of its trends and growth. The company’s global marketing leader, Michael Wagner, says wastewater treatment and landfill gas applications have been booming in Western Europe for the past 10 to 20 years. “Meanwhile, we see this trend that these applications become global, driven by trends to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to utilize renewable and alternative energy,” he says.

Wagner sees significant growth in the 27 European Union member countries, driven by the region’s goal to reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent and increase renewable energy consumption by 20 percent by the year 2020. Specifically, the number of biogas applications is increasing quickly in countries such as France and the U.K. In most European countries, the biogas boom stems from good incentives such as feed-in tariffs, and green certificates. “Investors need incentives and a long- or mid-term guarantee that over the payback time the investment will be feasible,” he says, adding that the U.S. needs similar incentives before it can realize meaningful growth.

Germany, for instance, has some of the best incentives in place to spur biogas project development, and therefore sees bigger growth in the industry, he cites. The country has more than 5,000 biogas production plants in both rural and urban areas, creating tens of thousands of jobs, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The industry flourishes there because of a carbon tax, carbon cap-and-trade-system and feed-in tariffs.

Besides the EU, significant development is taking place in Southeast Asia, Wagner says, but not because of beneficial incentives. “There, it’s simply the availability of biomass,” he explains, citing a tremendous amount of organic waste streams.

Because of the logistics of biomass feedstock, the applications GE has contributed toward are small and decentralized, around 1 megawatt, avoiding significant fuel transportation issues. Wagner expects the EU biogas industry to continue to grow, but also sees tremendous potential for anaerobic digestion systems in the U.S., as demand increases. “We see a trend in the U.S. with increasing [interest] in decentralized power,” he says.

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Microturbine CHP plant for German biogas park

2011-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

Germany’s biogas plant supplier, WELTEC BIOPOWER, has ordered a microturbine CHP plant from Greenvironment, also based in Germany, to be installed at a 24,000 m2 biogas park being developed in Barsikow, Brandenburg, Germany.

Incorporating a Capstone CR600 microturbine and a remote monitoring system, the CHP plant will be combined with the biogas processing plant.

The thermal energy contained in the exhaust flow of the microturbine will be used as process heat for the plant.

The biogas plant will, from this summer, produce an annual volume of about 8.4 million standard m3 of biogas and 3 million standard m3 of biomethane from input substances – maize, whole plant silage, and dry chicken manure.

The objective is to achieve a self-sufficient heat supply of the processing plant by means of a heat-controlled CHP plant with integrated microturbines.

The electrical energy generated will be fed into the grid of the local energy supplier. The quantity corresponds to an electrical output of 2.2 MW.

In its capacity as general contractor, WELTEC BIOPOWER is responsible for the overall planning, turnkey set-up including the infrastructure, approval planning, production and installation, as well as the operational launch and subsequent biological supervision of the biogas park in Barsikow.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Research and Markets: India Needs To Increase Its Power Generation From The Current Level Of 1,60,000 Megawatts To About 8,00,000 Megawatts By 2030-20

2011-01-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

India is currently achieving an unprecedented growth in economic and socio-economic transformation. Periodically India was achieving the economic growth at the rate of 8-9%. However, during 2007-2009 the growth was lower than the average growth of last five years, and subsequently in fourth quarter of 2009 growth rate picked up again around 8 percent.

As the second fastest growing economy of the world, India is facing a lot of challenges in its efforts to ensure reliable and affordable energy to fuel its economic growth. India's growing dependence on energy imports exposes it to external shocks. Acquisition of energy assets and supplies from overseas and efforts to promote infusion of new emerging technologies in the energy sector in both conventional and non-conventional areas is an essential part of its energy planning. As per the Planning Commission of India, to sustain economic growth of over 8 percent , to eradicate poverty and to meet its human development needs, India needs to increase its energy supplies by 4 times and an increase in power generation from the current level of 1,60,000 megawatts to about 8,00,000 megawatts by 2030-2031. That needs huge investment from both private and public sectors. Indian government has made convenient and investor friendly policies for entry of private sector in the energy segment.

This report is an indispensable guide for investors to get a clear idea on different energy segment of India and will get an insight of what are policy benefits and investment potentiality. This report also provides consumption and production data of different energy segments for the historic and forecast periods. A clear demand and supply analysis of this report will help to get a clear idea on the market size and potentiality of Indian energy sector.

This unique report from Lucintel will provide you with valuable information, insights and tools needed to identify new growth opportunities and operate your business successfully in this market. It will also save hundreds of hours of your own personal research time and will significantly benefit you in expanding your business in this market. In todays stringent economy, you need every advantage that you can find.

Features of This Report:

To make business, investment, or strategic decisions, you need timely and adequate information. his market report fulfills this core need and is an indispensable reference guide for multi-national material suppliers, product manufacturers, investors, executives, distributors and many more, who are dealing with the composites market. Some of the features of this market report are:

Indian energy market breakdown by various segments in terms of value shipment.
Economic and risk analysis of Indian energy sector
Demand and supply analysis Indian energy sector
Projection on various energy indicators of Indian energy sector.
Global economic trend in Indian energy sector
Growth drivers and challenges in Indian energy sectors.
Growth opportunities in Indian energy sector

Benefits of Lucintel Report:

The author's core competency is in market research and management consulting. In last 10 years, the author has worked on hundreds of market research studies. Lucintel's market report offers following benefits.

It saves you money, as compared to doing research in-house. ($50,000+)
It saves you time. Lucintel delivers the report in hours vs. months of in-house data collection and report writing.
It is an un-biased source of industry facts, intelligence and insights.
It helps you make confident business decisions quickly.

Who Can Benefit From This Report:

This study is intended for material suppliers, parts fabricators, OEMs, investors, executives and consultants. This multi-client market study is used by small to multi-national Fortune 500 companies and utilized for a variety of reasons as follows.

Business development
Strategic planning
Business presentation
Determination of market size and trend
Competitive analysis
Personnel training
Budgeting
Investment Decision

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary
Economic Background
3 Overview of the Energy Sector
Overview of Indian Electricity Market
Overview Indian coal
Overview Indian Natural Gas
Overview of Indian Oil Sector
Overview of Indian Nuclear Energy
Overview of Indian solar energy
Overview of Indian Bio-Gas
India Energy Sector: Where should I put my Money?
List of Figures
List of Tables

Methodology:

The author has been tracking this market for the last 10 years and has used the following sources for the completion of this valuable report.

Personal, Telephonic and Email based market survey for all major manufacturers in energy sector across the country.
In-depth research on top Indian Energy Market.
Extensive search of current published literature, market and database information including news, articles published in Composites-Week newsletter.
A compilation of the experiences, judgments, and insights of Lucintel's professionals, who have analyzed and tracked this market over the years.

The author collects a lot of unintelligent data from variety of sources and converts into intelligent data as follows. The intelligent data is used by our clients for making confident business decisions

srinivas kasulla

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Print Email Save Share Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association Welcomes Organic Waste Market Study

2011-01-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

ADBA, the trade association for Anaerobic Digestion, has welcomed the announcement of a market study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), supported by Ofwat, looking at the market for treatment of organic waste.

The OFT decided to launch this study after considering a proposal and request from Ofwat. The OFT will lead on the study and utilise its experience in conducting market studies and of the municipal, commercial and industrial organic waste sectors. It will be closely supported by a team from Ofwat who will provide expertise of the sewerage sector.

Commenting, ADBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton said: "This is an important study and ADBA welcomes its wide remit - especially the broad focus on incentives and encouraging investment in Anaerobic Digestion, both inside and outside the water industry."

"We need to make the most of organic waste, to reduce waste to landfill, counter climate change, generate renewable energy and preserve resources. As WRAP's independent study has already shown, AD is the technology which makes the most of these organic arisings." Morton added.

The study, supported by the UK's energy regulator Ofwat, will look at:

Whether price regulation of sewage-sludge treatment, recycling and disposal services remains appropriate, what scope there is to encourage greater competition, and what implications this may have for economic regulation
Whether there are any barriers specific to efficient investment in and use of 'co-treatment' where waste from a variety of different sources is treated at a single facility
What might be done to encourage efficient investment in advanced treatment techniques across the economy more widely.

According to Morton, Defra's ongoing Framework Document process should decide a strategy for the industry which maximises its contribution to the Government's climate change, renewable energy and resource preservation targets.

This study could contribute to the next step: ensuring incentives and investment are in place to support this strategy and meet the Government's commitment to a 'huge increase' in AD.

Heather Clayton, OFT Senior Director of Infrastructure, said: "Advanced organic waste treatment techniques like anaerobic digestion offer tremendous opportunities to produce clean energy and reduce unnecessary waste. We need to make sure that the conditions are right to maximize the potential for these technologies to benefit the UK."

A final report is expected in July 2011.

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Learning from the German biogas experience

2011-01-29T07:05:00.000-08:00

Farmers in Germany have led the way in the production of biogas over the past decade, and UK farmers could learn from their experience. Paul Spackman reports.

2010 was a record year for the German biogas sector. Some 1200 new plants were constructed last year, taking the country's total number of agricultural and industrial plants to around 6000.

"It is a genuine boom and this trend will continue," Hermann Garber from the VDMA Agricultural Machinery Association told an international biogas conference hosted by Claas at its Harsewinkel headquarters last week.

Uptake has been largely driven by the high levels of support available under the federal government's feed-in tariff scheme, and this model has been adopted by other countries worldwide, including the UK last April.

"There are extensive government support measures in Germany and the goal is to double the contribution of bioenergy [to total energy needs] by 2020," Dr Garber said.

But the main support scheme was due to be reviewed by the German government next year, and many people feared the favourable payments for generating electricity and heat would be reduced.

As a result, improving the technological efficiency of biogas production had taken on even more importance. "This includes everything from crop production, to transport, processing and the conversion into energy in the form of electricity, heat and fuels."

Speakers outlined a number of areas crucial to the maximisation of biogas production from systems that use a combination of energy crops and livestock wastes. "Efficiency of a biogas plant means generating maximum power and heat using minimum resources – materials and expenses," Helmut Buckel of RUF/R+R Biogas said. "This means gathering and analysing operational data on a daily basis."

Dominik Grothe from Claas said about 50% of total biogas production costs related to the plant itself - gas production, electric generation and residue storage - while substrate production (seeds, fertiliser, harvest, handling etc) made up most of the remainder.

"After the decision on the concept and construction of the plant, the economic adjustment screws are mainly in substrate management," he said. "This requires intensive planning."

Key steps to maximising biogas efficiency

Feedstock

• Good quality feedstock is crucial – poor silage can reduce biogas yield

• Gas yields vary between crops – sugar beet with leaf and energy maize can produce higher energy yields per hectare than grain silage or beet roots alone

• Energy maize silage is often chopped shorter than feed maize to maximise surface area for micro-organisms and gas production

• Don't harvest too late – higher dry matter can make it harder for micro-organisms to work

• Minimise energy loss in the clamp with fast filling, good compaction and an air-tight cover

• Minimise losses once clamps are opened – consider narrower clamps

• Consider silage additives and use of micro-organisms in the fermenter to boost gas yield

• Ensure correct temperature and pH range is maintained

Technology

• Investigate new plant technology available and match to your farm and feedstocks

• Seek plenty of advice and visit working systems

• Mixers – shredding feedstocks with high-speed rotary cutters could increase gas yield

• Control systems vary in complexity – identify how much input you want and what degree of computerisation/data recording is needed

Record keeping

• Daily recording and analysis of feedstock data for all substrates used (maize, grass, etc)

• Condense daily substrate data into a monthly comparison against average gas yield (m3) and power generation (kW) – colder months can reduce gas yield

• Record engine performance data (operating hours, fuel consumption)

• Compare generated power output (monthly settlement via the electric utilities) with monthly gas yield

• Record digestate production and use for relevant authorities

• Monthly inventory to show depreciation for financial accounting

• Monthly recording of meter readings for heat emissions and plant power consumption

• Document monthly gas leak tests and monitoring of surface drainage

• Other documents – electrical safety checks, accident procedures, maintenance schedules, pest control, etc

Case study: Farm biogas

Stefan Tiggemann set up a 250kW biogas plant on the family's mixed arable and pig farm near Beelan in northwest Germany last year. The unit was constructed by PlanET Group and runs on slurry from 4500 fattening pigs, plus a combination of maize, grass and rye silage grown on the 290ha of mainly sandy soils.

It has just completed its first full year of operation and Mr Tiggemann is happy with how it has performed, although he acknowledges it has been a steep learning curve. "Ours is a fairly simple system, but we still have to take time and care to look after it. The first three or four months were especially difficult."

Mr Tiggemann's system features two 2000m3 capacity digesters, both heated via the walls and floors to the optimal 40oC. Around 90% of total gas output comes from the primary digester, while the second is mainly for storing digestate, with a small amount of gas collected.

Daily feedstock requirement is about 10m3 of pig slurry, 8-10t of maize silage and up to 4t of grass or rye silage, depending on the season. "Forage rye is harvested just as the head comes out in early May, so we usually feed it [into the digester] in June to October. After the rye is cut we plant the maize."

Biogas yields using maize silage are 20% higher on a dry matter basis than when using grass or rye silage, largely due to the relatively high water content of the latter, he notes.

The biogas produced supplies a Scania engine modified to run on biogas and biodiesel by Bavarian company Schnell. It uses around 110-115m3 of biogas per hour, plus some biodiesel. "We get around 41% efficiency on electric output with our engine, whereas many biogas-only engines average 38-39%," he says.

Electricity is sold to the national grid, and the farm receives a payment of 21-22 cent (18-19p) per kWh under the government's feed-in tariff scheme. This payment, fixed for 20 years, is made up of a basic payment, plus various bonuses for using slurry, home-grown feedstocks and innovative technology.

Mr Tiggemann says grid connection wasn't a big problem because a 10kV cable runs past the farm, so just a transformer was needed. It cost about €45-50,000 (c£40K) to connect to the grid in total.

He estimates a total project cost of €3500 (£2965) per kW of electric produced, with a payback of about six years (excluding interest payments). "We didn't get any grant funding, so it was all paid for by bank borrowing and our own money," he says. He expects the digesters to have a lifespan of 20 years, the engine nearer four to five years (35-45,000 hours) and the digester roof nearer seven years.

The heat produced by the CHP engine is used to warm the pig unit, farmhouse and digesters. "We still have more heat than needed," says Mr Tiggemann. "We've considered supplying a small office across the road from the farm, but I don't think it'll justify the extra cost."

Around 6500m3 of digestate is also produced by the plant each year, which is stored on the farm until it can be used. "From October to January we're not allowed to spread, so we store the digestate on the farm before spreading it in April, just before planting the maize."

Mr Tiggemann advises any farmers considering investing in biogas production to do their costings carefully and not to underestimate the work required, especially in the early stages. But once the system is established, he reckons less management time is needed - about an hour a day in his case; half of which is spent filling the feedstock hopper and half spent checking equipment and maintaining the engine.

In addition detailed records of feedstock use, power and heat output must be kept, as these are checked by an auditor and the electricity provider before the electric payment is made.

German biogas support

• Covered by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz - EEG)

• Tariffs vary depending on energy output – four bands: up to 150kW, 150-500kW, 500kW-5MW, and 5-20MW

• Tariffs are fixed and paid from the time of commissioning for 20 years

• Tariffs for installations commissioned after 2009 are lowered on 1 January of each following year by a fixed percentage (1% degression rate)

• Total payment includes basic tariff (9.5-11.5 cent) plus a range of possible bonuses for: complying with lower emissions (1 ct/kWh); using at least a 30% share of slurry as feedstock (1-4 ct/kWh); using combined heat and power (3 ct/kWh); using innovative technology (1-2 ct/kWh)

• EEG is due for review in 2012

Farm details

• Family farm, run by Stefan Tiggemann and his father

• 4500 fattening pigs on two sites

• 290ha cropped land – sandy soil

• Crops grown – maize, rye, barley, triticale, potatoes (20-25a) grass

• 3-4 full time staff

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Food Waste Anaerobic Digester Under Construction in Cambridgeshire, UK

2011-01-29T07:03:00.000-08:00

Green energy company Local Generation has started building a food waste Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant in Cambridgeshire, UK.

UK based provider of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology and services, Monsal are providing the technology for the 30,000 tonne per year plant, which when completed later this year will be the largest of its type in the region.

Monsal says these types of facilities need to be flexible to deal with the high variability in feedstocks found with multi food waste contracts, and that the plant will provide valuable recycling and renewable energy capacity for the region.

Managing Director of Monsal, Aidan Cumiskey said: "We have got the expertise to deal with a large variety of food waste and from our operational experience on other UK sites, we are well positioned to target solid, slurry and liquid food waste with high levels of contamination.

Lord Redesdale, Chairman of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association added his congratulations, saying projects like Local Generation's plant in March should be part of the vanguard for achieving the Government's promise of a 'huge increase' in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.

Nick Waterman, Director of Local Generation, says: "We are really looking forward to seeing our plant take shape. I would like to recognise the excellent support and specifically the Capital Grant received from the Waste & Resources Action Programme in helping us to progress this exciting project."

Monsal says it is working with developers and waste management companies to establish a number of food waste recycling and energy centres across the UK.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Small Scale Anaerobic Digestion to Boost Biogas Markets

2011-01-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Small scale, distributed anaerobic digestion plants could offer an environmentally and economically stable solution for locally produced biogas.

In Germany government incentives have led to the development of over 6000 anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities, generating twice as much power as all of the country's waste to energy facilities combined.

However many of these are large scale, 1 MW plus facilities, and the proliferation of such plants has affected both tipping fees for food waste - which have fallen from between Eur 60 to 80 per tonne down to Eur 10 to 20 per tonne - and biocrop prices to such an extent as to put many at risk of becoming economically unviable.

According to Craig Benton of Composting and Recycling Consultants, mini-biogas facilities could offer the ideal solution for farm waste.

Speaking at the Energy from Biomass and Waste Conference in London today, Benton claimed that most vendors of anaerobic digestion and biogas equipment offer systems starting at around 250 kW. In most farm applications, such systems lead to a dependence on importing feedstocks from the surrounding area which can be economically risky.

However, Benton claimed that a new system from Austrian firm, Bio4gas could offer the ideal solution. Available in two sizes - 20/25 kW and 50 kW - the system enables farmers to use animal slurry from their own farm to generate heat, power and digestate.

At the heart of the product is the patented 'Thermal Gas Lift' - a passive mixing system that Benton said offers reduced energy consumption through the use of gas pressure to force the slurry mixture through holes in the bottom.

The smaller of the two systems features a 220 cubic metre tank that is dug into the ground and holds 180 cubic metres of material. In addition a double chamber digester produces more biogas than a single tank.

According to Benton the advantages offered by a more distributed approach to biogas are significant, with potential returns on investment ranging between 12.5% and 16.4% based on conservative figures.

Benton added that small scale biogas production could free the operator from the "whims of the market", insulating them from rising biocrop prices and the prospect of falling tipping fees.

Additionally, as all of the feedstock is sourced from the host farm itself, the digestate can be used to fertilise the farmer's own land with no solid waste permit or license is required.

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Karnataka villagers from INDIA reduce carbon emissions by using biog

2009-12-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

Doddapalli (Karnataka): At a time when the world pressure is on India to rein in its 'carbon intensity', a non-descript village in Karnataka has set an example by choosing biogas over the conventional firewood hence, unknowingly pitching in its bit towards reducing carbon emissions.

The lives of the residents of Doddapalli village located in Bagepalli sub-division of Kolar district in the state have changed drastically after opting for biogas.

At present around 80 biogas plants are operating successfully in the village and more are being set up.

Earlier the women in Doddapalli had to go to the nearby forest area everyday to collect firewood for cooking but today, after the installation of biogas plants in their backyards, they are happy with this cleaner fuel and also to help save the environment.

"Well, the government has been extending all assistance to us in setting up of these bio-gas plants. Thanks to the biogas, no more the trees are felled for firewood and thus they are saved. As for the hygiene and health aspects, we do not have smoke bothering the eyes," said Gowri, a villager.

"Earlier we had to endure lot of problems, ranging from headache and burning of eyes due to smoke from the burning of firewood. But now all those worries are over. Back from working in the fields, be it coffee or meals, every item is prepared in a neat way. The utensils are soot free. A great benefit, I must say," said Kamala, another villager.

Apart from the cooking needs, the residue of the livestock dung from the biogas plant is also ideal manure for the fields.

It also reduces the risk of diseases like pneumonia, cataract, tuberculosis which are quite common in households using firewood stoves.

After switching to biogas and getting rid of smoke from the conventional stoves, the health of the villagers has also improved tremendously.

Presently around 80 biogas plants are functioning at Doddapalli and more residents from here as well as other villages are eager to set up similar non-conventional energy plants.

Subsidies extended by the government have further encouraged the villagers to come forth to set up the biogas plants in the backyards of their abodes.

Central Government has also initiated a project to equip the rural households with efficient cooking stoves in an effort to reduce air pollution.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com
09004689601

Biogas from Cows Could Help Save New York City Water Supply

2009-12-22T04:31:00.000-08:00

New York City is fighting to save its drinking water supply from potential contamination by new natural gas drilling operations, and some unlikely heroes may be ambling to the rescue. Dairy cows are being recruited to provide sustainable manure-derived methane biogas to power homes in New York State. Along with other alternative energies, renewable methane could reduce the demand for natural gas, and forestall the potential danger to water supplies posed by unsafe natural gas drilling operations .

New York City is fighting to save its drinking water supply from potential contamination by new natural gas drilling operations, and some unlikely heroes may be ambling to the rescue. Dairy cows are being recruited to provide sustainable manure-derived methane biogas to power homes in New York State. Along with other alternative energies, renewable methane could reduce the demand for natural gas, and forestall the potential danger to water supplies posed by unsafe natural gas drilling operations.

The statewide methane biogas project was kick-started this fall at New York State’s Dairy Power Summit. The initial goal is somewhat modest: by 2020, the state’s dairy farmers hope to produce enough methane to power about 32,000 homes. The real punch is in the involvement of future thinking GE Energy with other innovative dairy industry partners in the effort, which promises to transform the humble dairy farm into the central feature of hundreds of bioenergy communities across the state and elsewhere in the U.S.

Cow Power and Renewable Methane Biogas

The New York State program will be modeled on Vermont’s successful Cow Power renewable biogas program, which collects manure in anaerobic digesters (enclosed tanks). In an anaerobic digester, a natural process breaks down the organic matter in manure, producing usable methane gas. New York State hopes to have enough digesters up and running by 2020 to process 40% of the manure from the state’s dairy farms.

Cow Power in Overdrive

In a boost for family farms, hobby farmers and other small scale farms, the Dairy Power summit also yielded goals for developing an anaerobic digester system for small scale farms that would be cost-effective to run with as few as two cows on the property. More than a dozen other projects are included in the summit’s action plan, including the development of a method for producing diesel-grade compressed methane biogas for use in vehicles.

Natural Gas, Biogas, and Safe Drinking Water

Like its twin sister mountaintop coal mining, natural gas drilling has evolved into a new, more destructive form in order to tap supplies that were previously not economical to exploit. The current method, hydraulic fracturing, involves thrusting millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground, where it can potentially leach into local aquifers and reservoirs. Though farm operations can also be problematic for nearby water supplies, the methane biogas solution could provide a cost-effective platform for improving the collection and sequestering of manure. Anaerobic digestion also yields a natural soil booster that could help reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, so the overall biogas production process could very well pay for itself, and even become an important value-added feature of a financially successful dairy farm.

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

09004689601

Environment Agency price hike proposals anger industry

2009-12-22T04:28:00.001-08:00

PROPOSALS by the Environment Agency to increase the price of new environmental permits has provoked an angry response from the industry.

The NFU is vowing to fight the price hikes it says will affect farmers and growers involved in on-farm composting and those spreading materials such as compost to their land.

Under the proposed changes a new system of standard permits will be introduced for waste management activities currently carried out using chargeable, notifiable exemptions. This will result in a ‘huge jump’ in fees, according to the NFU.

Changes include:

A new permit for waste composting, which is currently free, with charges of £1,590 per application and a £760 annual subsistence fee.
A new permit for landspreading waste, increasing costs from around £575 per application and a £434 renewal fee to £1,590 per application fee and a £760 annual subsistence fee.
A proposed fee of £1,590 and £1,540 for application and subsistence for new permits covering on-farm anaerobic digestion plants.

The agency is, in addition, proposing to increases its baseline charges by one per cent, while there will be changes to the groundwater, water abstraction, IPPC and radioactive substances charging regimes.

It is also creating a new standard permit for disposing of sheep dip which has been treated with enzymes to destroy toxic compounds.

NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond said the union had ‘very strong concerns’ about the ‘substantial’ proposed price hikes for many farmers and growers ‘at a time when they can ill afford them’. He said the NFU had responded to the consultation ‘in the strongest terms’.

“There is a real fear that small-scale, commercial on-farm composting units will not be able to sustain the increase in charges and this could ultimately drive them out of business. This goes completely against Government policies which are supposed to be encouraging the addition of organic matter to farm soils,” he said.

He said the proposed sheep dip permit goes against the agency’s commitment to provide a worthwhile financial incentive for the environmentally-friendly act of treating sheep dip.

Higher charges for on-farm Anaerobic Digestion go against Government efforts to encourage farmers to reduce emissions and produce green, clean energy, he added.

An EA spokesperson stressed that the proposed changes had not yet been agreed.

“We recognise that times are hard,” she said. “That is why we have proposed limiting the increases for most of our charges to 1 per cent for 2010/11. This is well below projected inflation of 2.5 per cent.

“But we have only just finished consulting and until we have reviewed everyone’s feedback - including the NFUs - nothing has been set in stone.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com
09004689601

Alkane Energy and TEG in anaerobic digestion collaboration for UK

2009-12-22T04:27:00.001-08:00

Alkane Energy PLC (AIM: ALK) and TEG Group PLC (AIM: TEG) announced in separate statements a collaboration which will see them will jointly bidding for a range of anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. Alkane will provide the gas handling, gas engines and grid connections and TEG will be responsible for the construction and operation of the anaerobic digesters and waste handling.

Alkane owns and operates power generation plants using coal mine methane as fuel, while TEG develops and operates organic compositing and energy plants.

Under the terms of the collaboration, TEG and Alkane will bid for AD projects throughput the UK in the waste sector. TEG will lead the bids and secure contracts with Local Authorities and other waste customers with the parties investing jointly in those facilities that are developed. TEG will fund, construct and operate the waste management and digestion plants and will produce methane to be managed by Alkane. Alkane will fund, construct and operate the energy plants, including the engine and gas handling plants and grid connections.

The parties have already submitted joint bids for the current round of Welsh Assembly tenders for AD facilities. They are also developing other projects together, where planning and permitting is being progressed with the aim of moving into the construction phase as soon as practical after the permitting process is complete.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com
09004689601

$300,000 plan to save $10 million?

2009-08-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

HICKORY - The Hickory City Council has decided to spend $300,000 in an effort to save $10 million.
The $300,000 will be spent to alter existing plans for the city's Northeast Wastewater Treatment Facility upgrade at 310 Cloninger Mill Road. The expenditure was approved at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
The original plan called for the construction of new structures atop existing ones. The plan cost about $1.29 million to produce and about two-and-a-half years engineering work to put together, said Kevin Greer, Hickory's Assistant Public Services director.
The goal was to expand the plant's treatment capacity for waste treatment and ability to remove nutrients from the water — for $30 million or less.
"Thirty million dollars has been our projected cap all along," Greer said. "It's a project that's indispensable."
Several bids for the original plan were submitted to the city April 20. The low bid for the job came in at nearly $7.5 million more than the city's $30 million limit. On June 16, Hickory City Council voted to reject all bids.
"When it came in at 7-and-a-half-million dollars over our maximum budget, of course it was disheartening," Greer said. "The last thing we want to do is go out there and spend 7-and-a-half-million dollars if we don't have to."
Council voted to hire AECOM Inc. to modify the design. The goal is to reduce the project's cost from $37 million to $27 million, resulting in a $30 million estimated completion total when contingency costs are included.
The city's goal is to save $10 million by spending $300,000.
The new plan will allow the upgraded facility to occupy the same 15 acres it occupies now, Greer said.
It will not call for building facilities atop existing ones and will seek to renew and resurface as many of the existing tanks and plant infrastructure as possible in an effort to save money.
"We've got to do it to get the project cost down to something that's buildable," Greer said.
Greer said he expects the design modification to take about 30 engineers two to three months to complete and will take about 3,700 man-hours. (A person working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks would work 2,080 hours.)
The facility upgrade will allow the city to rebuild its 21-year-old pump station. Greer said the pump station is outdated and cannot handle the additional load during heavy rains.
He said city engineers must craft replacement parts for the pump station when parts fail because new ones are no longer being manufactured.
Greer said updating the wastewater treatment facility is vital to avoid wastewater contamination into Lake Hickory. The upgraded facility will be equipped to remove ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorus from the newly treated water before it enters the lake.
Greer said his goal is to have the new plan completed by mid-October.
The city plans to fund the project with a $17 million loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Funds, to be repaid in 20 years at 2.5 percent interest, and fund the remaining portion through the sale of bonds.
"In a perfect world this project would be approved in December and under way in February," Greer said.
In other business the council voted to:
• Adopt a joint resolution with Conover to levy an additional 1 percent Room Occupancy and Tourism Development Tax.
• Re-appropriate $32,000 of General Fund Balance to Hickory Fire Department's Maintenance and Repair of Buildings fund to complete renovations to Station 2 to enable the activation of a second ladder company.
• Appropriate $84,000 of Water and Sewer fund balance and budget for the purchase of two sludge trailers for the wastewater treatment plants to replace two trailers that were deemed to be unworthy of road travel.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Vegetable waste plant gets go-ahead

2009-08-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

A village farm has been given the green light for a pioneering plan to generate electricity using vegetable waste.
And, Boston Borough Council's planning committee was told that the anaerobic digestion plant at Staples in Wrangle has already been given the backing of the Government.
The plant will see waste such as miss-shapen vegetables, leaves and stems burned in two digesters to create bio-gas to power a 1.4MW engine that, in turn, will produce 11,565MWh per year.
Staples production director George Read told councillors half the energy produced would be used to provide electricity for the firm's Marsh Farm complex with the rest going into the National Grid.
He said similar plants had already been successfully "tried and tested" in Denmark and Germany.
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Mr Read said the whole process would be carried out in a "contained, sealed environment" to prevent any bad odours being generated and revealed waste material created would be used as fertiliser.
He added the scheme had been backed by the Government, which had designated it an "exemplar project" with the hope that it would lead the way for other such projects elsewhere in the UK.
Councillors unanimously voted in favour of the plan that included the plant itself with a 21 metre high primary digester, a smaller secondary digester and a plastic-coated steel framed portal building to house the engine as well as new walls and security fencing.
Cllr Mike Brookes explained: "This is an environmentally friendly scheme which ticks all the boxes. It is using vegetables that would otherwise be left to rot and is also low odour."
Mayor of Boston Cllr Maureen Dennis, who represents Wrangle on the council, said the plant would be a 'showcase' for the area, while committee chairman Cllr Alison Austin described it as "an excellent first for the borough".

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Researchers Convert Textile Waste to Compost

2009-08-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

A new report published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution finds that waste from the textiles industry could be transformed into rich, agricultural compost, with the use of earthworms and animal manure.
Indian researchers Vinod Gard, Renuka Gupta and Priya Kaushik of the Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology have found a particular species of earthworm to be productive in converting the huge volumes of solid sludge produced by the textiles industry into compost.
The earthworm, known as Eisenia foetida, tends to thrive in rotting vegetation, animal waste and compost, making it a commercially grown species for composting.
Solid textile mill sludge is difficult to dispose of, as landfilling and incineration are not viable options given the expense and environmental concerns. Indian textiles industries are under pressure to find sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to the disposal of this industrial waste.
Textile manufacturing produces large amounts of wastewater which, when treated, creates a sludge as the water is removed and the pollutants are concentrated.
Earthworms are added to the sludge mixture, along with urine-free cow and horse dung, beginning a process that changes the physical and chemical properties of the mixture significantly.
The researchers found the vermicompost process created a compost-like, homogeneous mixture after 180 days.
The earthworms thrive in the manure-enhanced textile sludge, lowering the pH of the alkaline sludge, decreasing the ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the material and increasing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous available for aided plant growth.
The successful tests with vermicompost in textile sludge can prove extremely useful in countries like India which manufacture large amounts of textiles for export. Research has shown other means of treating post-industrial textile waste, including anaerobic digestion, to be successful as well, often producing gases that can be used as fuel.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Manchester waste PFI secures 23 sites

2009-08-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Viridor Laing Manchester Waste PFI consortium has had all 23 sites approved to build 36 separate plants across Manchester.
Planning permission took two years to secure all sites, and work can now begin on the 25-year waste and recycling contract, which is the largest of its kind in Western Europe.
Chair of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA), Councillor Neil Swannick stated “We have secured all 23 planning applications for our facilities in Greater Manchester. Tthis is an incredible success especially within this timeframe, this shows strong commitment and excellent partnership,” he said.
The following will be built at the 23 sites:
6 Transfer Loading Stations will receive both recyclable and non recyclable waste from local collections, ready to be sent on for reprocessing.
2 Green Waste Shredding Facilities will shred green waste and prepare it for efficient transport to a composting facility, helping Greater Manchester divert more of its waste from landfill.
4 In-Vessel Composting facilities to treat garden and kitchen waste.
1 Materials Recovery Facility to sort kerbside collected recyclable materials.
17 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), there will be major overhaul of the current network of HWRCs including proposed new sites and modernised facilities.
5 Mechanical Biological Treatment with Anaerobic Digestion facilities for dry recyclable materials and will help Greater Manchester generate green energy and divert more waste from landfill.
1 Thermal Power Station, residual waste that cannot be recycled will be processed into a fuel for use by a North West major chemicals producer Ineos Chlor to provide energy for its plant at Runcorn, Cheshire. The fuel will feed a new combined Heat and Power plant which will produce electricity and steam to replace energy currently generated from non-renewable sources.
The new plants will create some 5,000 jobs and improve recycling levels and recovery of household waste in Greater Manchester.
New infrastructure should be complete by 2012 and will reduce waste diverted to landfill by 75% and 50% of all waste will be recycled or composted.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas: is your council about to waste your waste?

2009-08-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

Biogas - a methane-rich fuel made from rotting food waste or sewage - has huge potential as a clean, green fuel for the UK. But a perverse web of subsidies, rules and contracts could mean UK councils are about to kiss goodbye to the real power of waste...
When David and Ruth of The Archers decided to set up an anaerobic digester to make biogas from farm waste, they quickly ran into trouble. Intended to produce electricity for the national grid and heat for their polytunnels, the project was defeated by boardroom bust-ups and NIMBY protests led by local battle-axe Linda Snell. But the would-be energy entrepreneurs of Ambridge don’t know the half of it. The real-life obstacles to anaerobic digestion (AD) are massively greater, the unintended consequence of perverse British subsidies, EU deadlines and local authorities scrambling to sign long term PFI waste contracts. As a result, the potential of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of organic waste to produce sustainable energy and mitigate climate change could be squandered for up to 25 years. Clean and greenUnlike most biofuels, the climate credentials of biogas are uncontestable. The AD process involves feeding organic wastes into a digestion plant that excludes oxygen, where microbes break it down to produce methane-rich biogas for energy, and a nutrient-laden ‘digestate’ that can be used to make fertilizer or compost.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Lancashire company take environmental innovations worldwide

2009-08-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Lancashire firm Kirk Environmental is defying the economic downturn with its award winning innovations in waste management – and is currently working with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to take their environmentally friendly technology worldwide.The Nelson based company design, supply and install environmentally friendly Biodomes® which store methane produced from the breakdown of waste from manufacturing, farming or domestic use. This can then be converted into heat or power which can be used on site or signed up to the national grid and sold on.
The company have successfully completed Passport to Export – UKTI’s flagship programme for new and inexperienced exporters – and currently have a £3 million export turnover, with orders flying in from Ireland, Australia, America, Malaysia and Korea.
They have now signed up to UKTI’s Gateway to Global Growth, a 12 month, individually tailored programme to provide more experienced and innovative exporters with the training and support they need to increase their overseas sales.
Kirk Environmental design, supply and install anaerobic digesters which can be used by almost any organisation and work equally well for large municipal organisations and independent businesses – from utility companies to factories and from local councils to farmers.
With global concern about climate change and a desire to find cost effective and yet low carbon solutions to waste management, as well as the need to find alternative sources of energy production, Kirk Environmental’s range of digesters have a ready made market worldwide - and the firm is working with UK Trade & Investment to find the right contacts to help them deliver their products overseas.
Kirk Environmental first became involved with UKTI in 2005 when they joined the Passport to Export programme. At the time the company had a turnover of £3 million and no exports. They worked with UKTI to research markets in Ireland and America, and visited Ireland in December that year when they secured their first export order of €500,000.
Since then they have accessed UKTI assistance to attend further trade shows in Ireland and to research the USA and visit the market. Today the company has an £8.5 million turnover, with exports accounting for £3.0 million.
Flagship projects now include a palm oil plant in Malaysia which own 8 plantations and is partnering Kirk to deliver an anaerobic digester to provide electricity for their factory and local houses, and Cannington Coldstores in Somerset who use electricity produced by Kirk’s digesters to run their cold store where they keep yoghurts and milk. One of their main customers in Ireland is Drogheda County Council, who us Kirk’s Biodomes® to process municipal waste, and in America Gill’s Onions in California is home to a biogas storage unit which converts waste products into electricity to run their factory. Managing Director Gary Little says,
“The market for our Biodomes® and anaerobic digesters is unlimited, as almost any organic material can be processed with anaerobic digestion, including waste paper, food leftovers, sewage, animal waste and all crops.
“We have grown quickly in the last 5 years thanks to this new technology, and have gone from around 10 to 80 employees. Biogas is a clean fuel which produces 80% less hydrocarbon emissions than diesel, and is a renewable energy source which will never run out as long as there are humans and animals on the planet.
“We are expecting to expand in Malaysia, the USA, Virgin Isles and Mexico in the next few years, and are being inundated with enquiries, so we are now in the position of having to make strategic decisions about where to target next, which is where we hope UKTI can help.
“We believe that export sales have the potential to eclipse UK turnover, and we are only limited at the moment by time and staff availability. We are hoping that UKTI can help us find the right partners and agents overseas who really understand the technology and can efficiently close contracts in new markets.”
Terry Southam, International Trade Adviser for UK Trade & Investment, says
“Kirk Environmental is an excellent example of a North West company that is using innovation and advanced technology to continue to expand their business despite the current economic situation.
“The company’s anaerobic digesters can be used wherever rubbish is thrown away and are ideal for government organisations, utilities companies and independent businesses, all of whom can save money and reduce carbon emissions while solving the problem of waste disposal and spiralling fuel costs.
“Kirk has recently signed up for UKTI’s Gateway to Global Growth programme, which is designed to help companies employing less than 250 people and with between 2 and 10 years export experience, and provides a variety of services including an in-depth review of your company, access to training, specialist advice, information and support, match funding of up to £1000 to help develop your international strategy and the opportunity to apply for a free British Airways Club World or Club Europe return flight..
“Kirk Environmental is also continuing to work with UKTI on an individual basis to conduct research and identify opportunities and potential partners overseas to help them make the most of their opportunities.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Community Plans Combined Heat, Power System using Digester Gas

2009-08-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

This spring, energy and environmental reform assumed political center stage. In March, the EPA rolled out a draft Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which was followed shortly by a recommendation to President Obama that greenhouse gas emissions be treated within the context of the Clean Air Act. Congress also weighed in on the matter, first passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with a considerable green bent, and then releasing the draft Clean Energy and Security Act in the House.
But in Western Massachusetts, a small city is waiting for neither regulatory rulings nor legislation to implement energy and environmental reform. Pittsfield, MA., recently completed the preliminary design for an upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant that addresses the issues of renewable energy and energy efficiencies.
The wastewater treatment plant features an anaerobic digester in which some of the digester gas being produced is flared. With the proposed modifications, a combined heat and power (CHP) system will be installed, using three 65-kW rated, skid-mounted microturbines for a total rating of 195 kW. The microturbines will be fueled by the digester gas.
Along with reduced environmental impact, the city will benefit from a reduced utility bill, since the digester gas will be used to generate both electricity and heat for on-site use. In addition, the plant will generate approximately $45,000 a year in revenue through the Renewable Energy Credit market.
Preliminary Design
The preliminary design for the upgrade includes installing a brick and block building to house the entire CHP system, as well as space provisions to add a fourth microturbine in the future. Also included in the preliminary design is the furnishing and installing of a 400A, 480/277V distribution panel sub-fed from the main switchboard in the pump and power building to run the CHP system.
Other key recommendations from the preliminary design include:
Furnishing and installing three proposed double-disc digested sludge transfer pumps to replace the existing pumps.
Replacing the existing shell and tube sludge heat exchanger with a single 1.2 MMBTU/hr spiral heat exchanger.
Installing sufficient instrumentation to monitor sludge and hot water temperatures, as well as pressure drops across the sludge heat exchanger in the sludge and water lines.
Installing instrumentation to automate sludge mixing through use of a timer and through interlocking mixing operations with sludge pumping.
Sludge Processing
The solids processing infrastructure at the wastewater treatment plant includes primary and waste activated sludge pumping; gravity belt thickeners; thickened waste activated sludge pumps; secondary and primary anaerobic sludge digesters; belt filter presses; and dewatered sludge pumps.
Anaerobic digestion at the facility is a two-stage process. The first stage uses active heating and mixing to facilitate destruction of volatile solids. Mixing is accomplished by re-circulating compressed digester gas from the headspace of the primary digester to the bottom of the vessel through lances. Heating of the primary digester is accomplished by re-circulating sludge through a heat exchanger in the digester building.
A byproduct of the anaerobic sludge digestion process is digester gas, which is primarily comprised of methane (approximately 62 percent by volume) and carbon dioxide. Under the current system, the digester gas (which has a heating value of approximately 620 BTU/SCF) is used as fuel for boilers located in the plant’s pump and power building. The boilers are used to heat a water loop, which then heats the sludge in the digesters and maintains it at the optimal temperature for anaerobic digestion. Excess digester gas is used to heat the pump and power building in the winter or is flared through a waste gas burner located on the top of the digester building.
Under the proposed CHP system, the amount of digester gas flared would be minimized significantly, with much of it being diverted toward a fuel gas conditioning system that removes contaminants from the digester gas – including water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, and siloxanes – and boosts the pressure of the gas to the microturbines. There, the digester gas would be used to make electricity and heat to meet the plant’s baseload demands.
The waste heat created in the exhaust of the CHP system will be used in a heat exchanger to produce hot water. This will be for heating the sludge in the primary digester and as building heat in the digester building. Use of the existing boilers in the pump and power building for sludge heating and building heat may still be required, as there may not be enough heat generated to meet the peak sludge heating requirements under design winter conditions. Nonetheless, the microturbine system is expected to make the boiler system more efficient, as there would be a reduction in the volume of required diesel fuel and process heat.
Conclusion
A feasibility study concluded that a CHP system at the Pittsfield wastewater treatment plant will lead to an estimated 30 percent reduction in the plant’s electric bill – saving taxpayers over $200,000 a year – and have a payback period ranging from five to eight years.
But aside from the beneficial financial and environmental outcomes of this project, there is the potential for Pittsfield to become a model for other municipalities considering similar projects. At the moment, only one other community in New England uses microturbines and digester gas to produce electricity for a wastewater treatment plant: Essex Junction, Vt. which installed two 30-kW rated microturbines back in 2003.
With the reality of greenhouse gas regulations right around the corner, wastewater treatment facilities across the U.S. may be wise to consider environmentally sensitive retrofits and upgrades. And those plants will have to look no further than a small, environmentally conscious city in Western Massachusetts that’s proving that with the right changes “going green” can be a win-win for all.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Food waste plant sites examined

2009-08-04T03:05:00.000-07:00

A food waste plant to recycle scraps from homes across south west Wales may be built in either Felindre in Swansea or Nantycaws in Carmarthenshire.
Five local authorities in the region are looking at joining forces to commission the treatment plant.
It would use bacteria to break down the food waste and reduce its bulk, cutting down on material sent to landfill.
The councils say they have considered more than 150 possible sites but stress that no final decision has been made.
The South West Wales Regional Waste Management Committee is looking to introduce an anaerobic digestion (AD) treatment works.
It would process waste from Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Bridgend, with the Vale of Glamorgan also requesting some capacity.
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process similar in some ways to composting as it uses bacteria to break down organic matter and reduce its bulk.
The committee said it took into account factors such as public ownership, brown field site status and proximity to major roads in identifying potential sites.
Waste reduction
An outline business case has been put together but has to be agreed by each council and the Welsh Assembly Government.
It states that Felindre in Swansea and Nantycaws in Carmarthenshire are the preferred sites, but no final decision has been made.
The committee said current facilities accommodating food waste treatment in the south west Wales area are close to capacity.
Councillor John Hague, Swansea council's environment cabinet member said: "These facilities will be crucial if we're to improve the way in which our food waste is treated.
"Advanced treatment of food waste will not only help us reduce the amount of waste we currently send to landfill but will also help tackle climate change and improve our local environment.
"No decisions on sites have been taken but detailed discussions with key stakeholders could soon take place if cabinet decides the outline business case should go to the Welsh Assembly Government for formal approval."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

COW PIE POWER: Southern N.M. plant to convert dairy-farm waste into biogas

2009-08-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

Fifty-thousand dairy cows in southern New Mexico figure into PNM's plans to meet the state's renewable energy requirements.The utility plans to add biogas to its portfolio by purchasing methane gas derived from manure and send it by pipeline to natural gas-fired power plants, starting with the Luna generating plant near Deming."I find it really exciting," said Cynthia Bothwell, manager of PNM's Integrated Resource Planning Department. site."That's basically what the natural gas is we use in our plants -- methane gas that is trapped underground. This one is above ground," Bothwell said. "It actually resolves some environmental problems the livestock industry has been having as well." R-Qubed president Eddie Rodriguez, an attorney and former chief operating officer with the El Paso Electric Co., said the firm is getting funding squared away, which will be a combination of private investment and financing. The first of the plant's four "quadrants" should be under construction by early next year and operational within 12 months. When fully built, it will employ 50 to 60 people.
Fertilizer and compost Anaerobic digestion technology is a relatively new concept in the United States, Rodriguez said. "But is not a new concept in Europe and in other parts of the world," he said.One of the companies working with R-Qubed, Austria-based Entec Biogas GmbH, has more than 30 years' experience in the digester business, building commercial applications in such places as Germany, Spain and Belgium, according to Rodriguez. Reynolds Inc. of Indiana is R-Qubed's other partner, providing the engineering know-how to build the waste-treatment and pipeline systems for the plant.
"I think effectively all the methane we produce PNM will take," Rodriguez said.Any of PNM's natural gas plants could use the methane, Bothwell said, but Luna is the closest to the R-Qubed site and the one that's operated the most. None of the plants would require modification. "Instead of buying renewable energy, we're buying a renewable fuel and using that in our existing power plants to generate electricity." PNM estimates the biogas production would generate the equivalent of 7,000 megawatt-hour renewable energy credits in 2010, growing to 62,000 megawatt-hours in 2012. That could power 1,060 and 9,400 households, respectively.Like most renewables, methane gas is more expensive than traditional sources and PNM would pay a premium for the gas, subject to approval by the state Public Regulation Commission.According to testimony submitted to the PRC, that premium for the cost above natural gas is estimated at $205,000 in 2011. The utility is allowed to recover that cost from ratepayers."We don't need the commission's approval just to buy the gas; we need it for the renewable premium we're paying for that gas," Bothwell said. "As soon the facility is complete, we will purchase the gas." Digestion start-up The methane gas would come from R-Qubed Energy Inc. of El Paso, a start-up company that plans to build a $72 million soilenhancing liquid fertilizer and compost plant amid the dozen or so dairy farms strung along Interstate 25 between Las Cruces and El Paso.Pipeline quality methane gas would be produced at the 60-acre site through a complex process in which bacteria break down organic materials in the absence of oxygen and produce "biogas" as a waste product.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Royal Welsh 09: Farmers group to buy incinerators

2009-08-04T02:50:00.002-07:00

Increasing numbers of farmers are cutting their costs of livestock disposal by grouping together to buy a single incinerator.
That's the view of Addfield Environmental Systems from Hednesford, Staffordshire, which sells a range of units for different sizes of carcass including the £12,500 SBAB which will take sheep or calves and the £18,000 TBAB which can take a dairy cow.
"Livestock farmers are commonly paying £4000-£5000 a year in knackers-yard fees and big producers can be spending £10,000 a year on fallen stock costs," says the firm's managing director Steven Lloyd.
"We're finding that typically three farmers will group together to buy one unit. In fact 25% of what we sell now goes to a group." Often the incinerator will be mounted on a flatbed trailer so that it can easily be moved from farm to farm.
The incinerators are DEFRA-approved and an afterburner that re-burns the smoke minimises any smell. The heat isn't wasted either, says Mr Lloyd - many farmers now fit a water jacket to provide hot water and there's also a heat recovery system that supplies blown hot air for livestock sheds.
The firm says it also has two farmer customers who plan to use methane from their anaerobic digestion plants to provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to the diesel/lpg/kerosene that normally fuels the incinerator.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Vegetable firm given green light to produce own power

2009-08-04T02:50:00.001-07:00

VEGETABLE waste will be used to refrigerate buildings at one of the area's largest food producers.
The radical plans submitted by Staples at Marsh Farm, Wrangle, were last week given the green light by Boston Borough Council.The firm wants to use vegetable waste and foliage from its 3,000 hectare site to create electricity to run and refrigerate the existing buildings and also provide heat for the office farm building.In order to do this the company needs to build an anaerobic digestion plant.The application stated: "The development includes the erection of a plastic coated steel framed portal building approximately 16 metres by 22 metres with a maximum height of 6.8 metres."This building would accommodate the engine that produces the electricity, the heat recovery plant and the offices from where the system is managed. The development also includes silage storage bays, tanks, primary and secondary digesters (which resemble silage towers) and perimeter walls and fencing. The primary digester would be 21m high."The firm also has plans to grow maize as an alternative energy crop source for the out-of-season months.The application received one letter of objection from a local resident who was concerned about smells

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Water projects in the works

2009-06-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

Pottawatomie County is pouring $1.3 million into improvements at a treatment plant to remove iron from drinking water.
Holton will invest $164,000 in native plants and a rain garden to subdue erosion in a storm water drainage area.
Topeka is preparing a $55,000 study to determine whether a wastewater treatment facility can be outfitted with “green” technology to conserve energy.
Each of these projects is financed with $54 million in federal economic stimulus money earmarked for city and county water upgrades in Kansas.
“This funding will not only help create much-needed jobs but will have a major impact on communities in need of these important infrastructure projects,” said Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
He said passage by Congress of the national recovery act provided money for at least 65 projects that otherwise would have taken years to develop.
Karl Mueldener, director of KDHE’s bureau of water, said the state had to work through the fine print of requirements set forth by Congress. One tricky element was a mandate that states distribute the money in the form of grants. However, KDHE had no formal mechanism to issue grants.
“What we’re doing is making a loan and forgiving the principle,” he said.
The state didn’t comply with last week’s deadline to have half of the work under way, Mueldener said. The full slate of water projects should be in the construction phase or beyond by a February deadline, he said.
Kerry Wedel, chief of the state water bureau’s watershed management section, said 20 percent of the federal financing was earmarked for green infrastructure, water and energy-efficiency improvements, and other environmentally innovative projects.
“It’s basically practices that maintain or restore natural hydrology,” Wedel said.
He said $394,000 would be allocated to stabilize erosion at five sites along the Delaware River. Trees will be planted in an attempt to reduce sedimentation in Perry Lake.
The Center for Child Development at Kansas State University is to deploy $454,000 for installation of a porous pavement to harvest rainfall. At Johnson County Community College, $867,000 in federal aid will modify a large parking area to mimic more closely natural hydrology. That includes constructing wetlands, rain gardens and infiltration basins.
In El Dorado, $200,000 will be applied to the installation of a hydroelectric generator on a city water pipe to generate about 100 kilowatts of energy for use at a treatment plant.
Bill Carr, who coordinates a public water supply program at KDHE, said the federal aid would improve the quality of water people drink in Kansas.
Water for human consumption in Goodland exceeds the standard for nitrates, but $4.5 million will allow construction of a pipeline to blend water from different supply wells to boost quality.
Lakin will benefit from the building of a $3.5 million water treatment plant. The uranium content in the city’s drinking water supply exceeds safety standards.
Ron Geisler, KDHE water bureau’s chief of municipal programs, said the largest project made possible by economic stimulus legislation was a $15.6 million endeavor in Johnson County.
A central goal is construction of better facilities for handling sludge at a wastewater treatment plant. That includes a new storage basin for fats, oils and grease; expansion of an anaerobic digestion system for sludge; and a new power production unit that burns digester gas to produce electricity.
“Their prediction is they’ll generate 100 percent of their on-site energy needs,” Geisler said.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Case study: FOG Solution Provides Biogas to Power Ken's Foods Plant

2009-06-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Expansion, a solution for problematic high-strength organic content wastewater, and a power source bonus—that's what Ken's Foods' plant in Marlborough, Mass., got when it upgraded its wastewater treatment facility with an ADI-AnMBR (anaerobic membrane bioreactor).
The anaerobic treatment technology uses submerged membranes for biomass retention and solids-liquid separation. The system maximizes biogas production and increases solids digestion while handling the large-volume food manufacturer's wastewater, which has a high content of fats, oil, and grease (FOG). The company converted its existing low-rate anaerobic reactor to operate as the reactor portion of the new AnMBR. The combined system produces 200,000 to 300,000 cubic feet of biogas per day. This captured byproduct provides 100 percent of the wastewater treatment plant's heating requirements as well as enough residual biogas to power more than 50 percent of the company's manufacturing facility.
ADI Systems (ADI) in cooperation with Kubota Corporation of Japan developed the AnMBR technology.
The Original Problem
Ken's Foods' wastewater originates from wash-down of cleaning mixers, filling machines, and other process equipment used to produce its salad dressings and marinades. The wastewater is screened and pumped into an equalization tank and then moves to the low-rate anaerobic reactor. Before the upgrade, effluent was polished using an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The plant was designed to treat a maximum flow of 550,000 gallons per week and 100,000 gallons per day. Due to production increases, excessive solids overloaded the SBR.
Dale Mills, chief operator for the Marlborough plant, explained, "We were manually monitoring the SBR decant to the city and stopping it when the water quality was not good enough." The city limits the concentration of suspended solids effluent to 600 mg/l.
"The SBR aerobic system was never the bottleneck," said Dwain Wilson, director of Process Operations for ADI Systems, which was hired to manage the problem. "The solution was to increase the capacity of the anaerobic reactor, and we suggested an anaerobic MBR application."
AnMBR is a high-rate anaerobic contact process providing a near-absolute barrier to solids. The biogas continually cleans the membranes during operation via a gas scour system.
"The anaerobic MBR increases the solids retention time within the system, reducing the amount of biomass that will require disposal," Wilson said. "It also allows the development of specialized bacteria that can acclimate to unusual organics."
The system has four anaerobic basins, each equipped with seven submerged membrane units. Removable geomembrane covers provide a gas-tight seal over each basin, allowing for the capture of biogas in the headspace above the cartridges and its return to the gas scour system for reuse.
The wastewater treatment system upgrade began construction in April 2008 and was fully commissioned by July.
The total suspended solids (TSS) concentration exiting the AnMBR averages less than 1 milligram per liter; biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) averages less than 25 mg per liter; and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal is greater than 99.4 percent. The ADI-AnMBR system at Ken's, which has been in operation for more than nine months, is the first installation of this technology in North America and the largest in the world.
The upgrade has eliminated solids loading to the SBR, and clean effluent from the AnMBR flows into the SBR, which has been re-purposed as a sulfide oxidation and nitrification tank.
The new plant also removes and renders 36,000 gallons of FOG per year and reduces 500 tons of dewatered residual solids. The quality of water in the SBR is clean enough for automated release, allowing the maximum 100,000 gallons per day to be decanted, eliminating the manufacturing interruption previously caused by the treatment system.
The Added Benefit
"We capture the biogas produced in the anaerobic digester to heat the processing building and the reactor with it," said Mills. "We
Ken Foods wastewater AnMBRhave no fuel costs for heating the treatment building or the reactor, which is kept at 95 degrees F. We also have a considerable amount of extra biogas that we flare, between 200,000 and 300,000 cubic feet per day."
ADI provided a complete biogas recovery and utilization system encompassing gas collection, treatment, storage, compression, and delivery systems.
"We are evaluating the feasibility of using the flared biogas for co-generation of electricity in our manufacturing facility," said Mike Kolakowski, engineering manager for the plant. "The amount of biogas that is generated from the reactor will reduce our draw from the utility grid by well over 50 percent."
Kolakowski noted that the multi-million dollar investment in the AnMBR has had an immediate impact on plant operational costs. "In terms of wastewater plant operational costs alone, we've realized a direct savings of over 50 percent, a return on investment of more than 5 percent in the first nine months."
"Although this was a new technology in our application, we had confidence in ADI's design and operational expertise and liked the potential for savings," Kolakowski said.
"We've not only realized our capacity goals but are exceeding savings projections through reduction of biomass removal. Alternative solutions would have required the use of incremental chemicals for flocculation and precipitation, and increased the amount of residual for disposal or further processing. We have averted all three and eliminated the need for biomass removal for the foreseeable future."
ADI Systems Inc. is a technology and design-build company that provides a wide range of wastewater treatment systems to industrial companies around the world. It is part of the ADI Group, which has 23 offices throughout Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

FEW: Producing biogas from thin stillage can reduce costs, carbon footprint

2009-06-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

To reduce ethanol production costs and also their carbon footprints, ethanol producers might consider using anaerobic digestion to process thin stillage to produce biogas, which can be used to replace natural gas and to provide a cleaner effluent for use during fermentation, according to Eberhard Veit, research and development manager for Eisenmann AG. Veit gave a presentation outlining Eisenmann's process at the 25th annual International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo in Denver. Eisenmann’s patent-pending EtOH-TS anaerobic digestion process technology can be used to process thin stillage, a byproduct of the ethanol production process that is normally recycled to be reused during fermentation, to improve water and energy balance at an ethanol plant and to improve the performance of the plant’s fermentation process, Veit said. He said the EtOH-TS process produces both biogas—which can be used in place of natural gas for drying distillers grains or used to generate electricity—and also a clean effluent, with fewer solids and organic acids, which can be recycled to be used in the fermentation process at the plant. The process removes 100 percent of the lactic acid, glycerol, and waste ethanol, as well as 94 percent of the acetic acid from the thin stillage, which is six times less than the threshold where the acid begins to inhibit yeast, he said. The process also removes as much as 78 percent of the total solids from the thin stillage, 52 percent of which are organic solids.
A typical 50 MMgy ethanol plant that produces 80 gallons per minute of thin stillage might produce as much as 24 million Btu per hour of biogas using EtOH-TS, Veit said. He said the biogas is 62 percent methane and the load on the ethanol plant’s evaporator might be reduced as much as 21 percent. Because thin stillage is an acidic byproduct, Veit said Eisenmann had to find a neutralizer to control the pH. To avoid increasing capital or operating costs, Eisenmann developed specialized ammonia-adapted microorganisms for use in its anaerobic digesters so that ammonia—a product ethanol producers already store and handle—can be used as a neutralizer. Veit said the ammonia used in the digester is recycled and reused in the effluent, providing nutrition for the yeast during fermenation. Micronutrients are also fed to the digester to aid the microorganisms with digestion. An additional benefit to having a thin stillage anaerobic digestion system, according to Veit, is that during ethanol plant maintenance, the thin stillage tank can be dumped into the anaerobic digester to produce more biogas. Veit said the system can be used to process any mix of syrup and thin stillage. He said the payback period for installing a system is five years or less. Eisenmann has over 50 industrial biogas systems and over 800 water treatment systems installed worldwide.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

San Jose Inches Closer to Reaching Goal of 100 Percent Energy Independence

2009-06-18T11:29:00.002-07:00

The bio-gas facility, planned to be constructed and operated by Zanker Road Biogas, will be based on a 40-acre site near the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plan. The proposed facility would also be bound on either side by two solid waste recovery and recycling facilities owned and operated by Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd.
The MOU, which was authorized today, will set forth the guidelines and work-plan for the potential lease terms of the bio-gas project. Pending successful negotiations for the MOU, San Jose will issue a lease to Zero Waste Energy Development Company, Inc., a partnership between GreenWaste Recovery and their sister company, Zanker Road Resource Management.
This project would also see the cooperation of GreenWaste and Harvest Power, Inc., a company that provides leading technology and project development capabilities for harnessing the renewable energy in organic waste.
The Zanker Road Biogas facility would be the first facility in the U.S. with the technology to turn organic waste into bio-gas, keeping San Jose at the forefront of clean technology innovations. The technology that would find its home at the San Jose facility would use a process known as dry anaerobic fermentation to generate renewable bio-gas and high-quality compost. This technology has already been made popular in Europe.
All of the existing anaerobic digestion systems in common use in the United States currently process wet waste. By contrast, the technology for the proposed Zanker Road Biogas would use the dry fermentation technology specifically designed to process the relatively dry organic waste found in the municipal solid waste stream which is difficult to recycle without extensive pre-processing and currently ends up in a landfill.
This anaerobic digestion system technology has been commercially demonstrated in Europe by BEKON Energy Technologies, which has built 12 facilities in Germany and Italy and has 13 additional facilities scheduled for construction in 2009.
“This project not only demonstrates San Jose’s leadership in the production of renewable energy but will help us meet the economic development, zero waste and energy goals of our city’s Green Vision,” said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.
That “Green Vision,” which is responsible for San Jose’s success in being a leader on the green frontier, includes goals of receiving 100 percent of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources, diverting 100 percent of its waste from landfills and converting waste to energy.
The facility surely would help San Jose meet zero waste and energy goals. Capable of taking in 150,000 tons of organic waste per year to process and produce energy will no doubt help clear up land fills. It is likely that the energy produced would be used to power the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant. Excess energy could be sold to the regional electric grid.
The Zanker Road Biogas project would be developed in three phases, each phase designed to increase capacity by 50,000 tons per year of organic materials—a combination of primarily food waste and the organic portion of the municipal solid waste stream—and produce two products: a renewable bio-gas containing methane and high-quality compost.
Paul Sellew, CEO of Harvest Power commented, “We applaud the City of San Jose for its proactive effort in making renewable energy from organic waste a reality. Our organic waste project will be a major step in moving the City to 100% renewable energy while at the same time enriching local soils with our high quality compost product.”
During development and construction, the facility could employ 30 to 40 workers and it is anticipated that it will employ 50 to 60 jobs during full operation. “Creating green jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas is essential to rebuilding our local and state economy. Through projects like this, San Jose is becoming the world center for clean tech innovation. The proposed Zanker Road Biogas facility can be a model for other municipalities, showing how this technology can help solve their energy challenges,” Reed said.
With the completion of the proposed facility, San Jose would become the first city in the states with such capabilities. And we can only hope that other cities across the nation will adopt such facilities in the near future.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

San Jose Inches Closer to Reaching Goal of 100 Percent Energy Independence

2009-06-18T11:29:00.001-07:00

That “Green Vision,” which is responsible for San Jose’s success in being a leader on the green frontier, includes goals of receiving 100 percent of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources, diverting 100 percent of its waste from landfills and converting waste to energy.
The facility surely would help San Jose meet zero waste and energy goals. Capable of taking in 150,000 tons of organic waste per year to process and produce energy will no doubt help clear up land fills. It is likely that the energy produced would be used to power the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant. Excess energy could be sold to the regional electric grid.
The Zanker Road Biogas project would be developed in three phases, each phase designed to increase capacity by 50,000 tons per year of organic materials—a combination of primarily food waste and the organic portion of the municipal solid waste stream—and produce two products: a renewable bio-gas containing methane and high-quality compost.
Paul Sellew, CEO of Harvest Power commented, “We applaud the City of San Jose for its proactive effort in making renewable energy from organic waste a reality. Our organic waste project will be a major step in moving the City to 100% renewable energy while at the same time enriching local soils with our high quality compost product.”
During development and construction, the facility could employ 30 to 40 workers and it is anticipated that it will employ 50 to 60 jobs during full operation. “Creating green jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas is essential to rebuilding our local and state economy. Through projects like this, San Jose is becoming the world center for clean tech innovation. The proposed Zanker Road Biogas facility can be a model for other municipalities, showing how this technology can help solve their energy challenges,” Reed said.
With the completion of the proposed facility, San Jose would become the first city in the states with such capabilities. And we can only hope that other cities across the nation will adopt such facilities in the near future.

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

San Jose Inches Closer to Reaching Goal of 100 Percent Energy Independence

2009-06-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

San Jose, CA - Achieving a goal of 100 percent energy independence is a little closer for San Jose thanks to a momentous move by the City Council today. The City Council authorized the City Manager to negotiate and execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop potential lease terms and guidelines for developing an organics-to energy bio-gas facility.

The bio-gas facility, planned to be constructed and operated by Zanker Road Biogas, will be based on a 40-acre site near the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plan. The proposed facility would also be bound on either side by two solid waste recovery and recycling facilities owned and operated by Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd.
The MOU, which was authorized today, will set forth the guidelines and work-plan for the potential lease terms of the bio-gas project. Pending successful negotiations for the MOU, San Jose will issue a lease to Zero Waste Energy Development Company, Inc., a partnership between GreenWaste Recovery and their sister company, Zanker Road Resource Management.
This project would also see the cooperation of GreenWaste and Harvest Power, Inc., a company that provides leading technology and project development capabilities for harnessing the renewable energy in organic waste.
The Zanker Road Biogas facility would be the first facility in the U.S. with the technology to turn organic waste into bio-gas, keeping San Jose at the forefront of clean technology innovations. The technology that would find its home at the San Jose facility would use a process known as dry anaerobic fermentation to generate renewable bio-gas and high-quality compost. This technology has already been made popular in Europe.
All of the existing anaerobic digestion systems in common use in the United States currently process wet waste. By contrast, the technology for the proposed Zanker Road Biogas would use the dry fermentation technology specifically designed to process the relatively dry organic waste found in the municipal solid waste stream which is difficult to recycle without extensive pre-processing and currently ends up in a landfill.
This anaerobic digestion system technology has been commercially demonstrated in Europe by BEKON Energy Technologies, which has built 12 facilities in Germany and Italy and has 13 additional facilities scheduled for construction in 2009.
“This project not only demonstrates San Jose’s leadership in the production of renewable energy but will help us meet the economic development, zero waste and energy goals of our city’s Green Vision,” said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.
That “Green Vision,” which is responsible for San Jose’s success in being a leader on the green frontier, includes goals of receiving 100 percent of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources, diverting 100 percent of its waste from landfills and converting waste to energy.
The facility surely would help San Jose meet zero waste and energy goals. Capable of taking in 150,000 tons of organic waste per year to process and produce energy will no doubt help clear up land fills. It is likely that the energy produced would be used to power the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant. Excess energy could be sold to the regional electric grid.
The Zanker Road Biogas project would be developed in three phases, each phase designed to increase capacity by 50,000 tons per year of organic materials—a combination of primarily food waste and the organic portion of the municipal solid waste stream—and produce two products: a renewable bio-gas containing methane and high-quality compost.
Paul Sellew, CEO of Harvest Power commented, “We applaud the City of San Jose for its proactive effort in making renewable energy from organic waste a reality. Our organic waste project will be a major step in moving the City to 100% renewable energy while at the same time enriching local soils with our high quality compost product.”
During development and construction, the facility could employ 30 to 40 workers and it is anticipated that it will employ 50 to 60 jobs during full operation. “Creating green jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas is essential to rebuilding our local and state economy. Through projects like this, San Jose is becoming the world center for clean tech innovation. The proposed Zanker Road Biogas facility can be a model for other municipalities, showing how this technology can help solve their energy challenges,” Reed said.
With the completion of the proposed facility, San Jose would become the first city in the states with such capabilities. And we can only hope that other cities across the nation will adopt such facilities in the near future.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Poet prepares for second-gen biofuel push

2009-06-18T11:28:00.001-07:00

It may still be about two years away from launching its first large-scale facility for producing fuel made from cellulosic material, but that has not stopped US biofuel giant Poet beginning the search for suitable supplies of the waste organic matter it will need to run the plant.
The company, which is currently the largest producer of ethanol in the world, announced yesterday that it has launched a new division dedicated to managing the development of the new feedstocks that will be required for so-called second-generation biofuels.
Chief executive Jeff Broin said the new Poet Biomass division would be tasked with developing the harvest and transportation logistics required to ensure second-generation biofuel plants – such as Poet's planned 25 million-gallon-a-year Project Liberty facility in Iowa – are supplied with corn cobs, waste wood, and other forms of cellulosic material.
The new division will have a critical role in the success of the plant, according to Scott Weishaar, head of the new biomass division.
"Poet's cellulosic ethanol goals depend on a steady supply of a reliable feedstock: corn cobs," he said. "Poet Biomass is here to make sure farmers have everything they need to play their important role in fueling our nation with both grain-based and cellulosic ethanol."
Supporters of second-generation biofuels based on waste materials argue that they are far more sustainable and deliver deeper cuts in carbon emissions than biofuels made from food crops, which have been accused of indirectly contributing to deforestation and food shortages.
Poet is one of a number of firms investing heavily in the development of second-generation biofuels, and following the successful launch of a 20,000-gallon-a-year pilot facility in South Dakota the company now aims to complete its commercial-scale Project Liberty plant by 2011.
The launch of the new division came on the same day that Poet announced it had successfully trialled anaerobic digestion technology at its South Dakota plant, which will use liquid waste from the ethanol production.
The company said the methane produced by the anaerobic digestor was being flared, but that it aimed to install the system at the Project Liberty plant, where the methane would be captured and used to generate energy for the facility.
"This technology will cut fossil fuels out of our cellulosic ethanol production process and further improve the benefits of grain-based ethanol," said Broin. "Over the long term, Poet would like to eliminate the use of fossil fuels at all our plants through a variety of alternative energy sources."
In related news, a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that while global food prices have largely stabilised as a result of the recession, long-term trends suggest price rises will continue throughout the next decade.
The report warned that the combination of increased demand from developing countries and the fast-expanding biofuels market mean that average crop prices will rise by between 10 and 20 per cent by 2018.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Where there's muck, there's brass!

2009-06-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

Times are tough and we are all "making do". So, thrift and frugality have become the latest buzzwords and belts – tight ones – are back in vogue. As they are wont to do, fashions are turning like the proverbial worm and economy has once again taken over from excess.
We're growing our own and pickling and bottling with a passion that would have pleased our grandparents. Indeed, the suggestion this week that we may all soon be expected to keep a slop bucket for food waste under the kitchen sink would have delighted my gran. She "made it through the war", and separating out potato and carrot peelings, not to mention eggshells and spent teabags, for the compost heap would have seemed to her plain, old-fashioned common sense.
Saving all that organic kitchen rubbish from methane-belching landfill is hard to argue against. But if the thought of it made you gag on your breakfast coffee, and roll your eyes at the thought of yet another labour-intensive recycling task, you can rest easy. I've been doing some digging and the future of smelly garbage looks sweeter than you might think.
Stringent environmental directives, punitive taxes for failing to meet waste reduction targets and rising landfill taxes have for some time been pushing local councils to rise to the challenge of dealing with all our kitchen scraps. From Mid-Beds to Argyll, and West Devon to Nottingham, about a fifth of our councils have food-waste collection schemes, providing small six-litre caddies for the kitchen and large, lockable bins for weekly kerbside collection.
I know. All those boxes and bins cluttering up the front garden or garage, each for a different recyclable, are already taking over your life. And grappling with a timetable of alternate weeks and differing days for collection can be more testing than a schedule of competing after-school activities for a class full of pre-schoolers.
You may already feel overwhelmed by complex council disposal systems. But bear with me – despite fears both of the smell and the time it might all take, when it comes to recycling food waste, it is surprisingly hard to find a critic.
Natasha Epstein, the head of waste management at my neighbouring borough of Hounslow in west London, is evangelical. In line with national averages, kitchen waste makes up about a third of all the rubbish Hounslow collects. As you might expect, she recognises that times have changed and that "food waste is a big thing nowadays".
Unfazed by the low take-up of its free composting bin scheme, Hounslow recently delivered small kitchen and larger outdoor bins to its 96,000 homes and started weekly kerbside collections. And if it expected negativity from residents already feeling the irritating burden of council directives, it has received very little. In fact, a couple of months into the scheme, the results are way beyond their expectations.
It's surely not normal to be envious of your friends' refuse collection arrangements, but I am. For Pernilla Ranson, a mother-of-two, food recycling fits happily with her commitment to recycle as much as possible. And it has unexpected benefits: "In a black bin liner, food might stay for three or four days in the kitchen, but by emptying the little caddy every couple of days, there's just no smell," she says. She lines the bins with newspaper or buys compostable bags and adds that the big bin locks, "so we don't have to worry about animals, either".
By comparison, Lawrence Norfolk, a near neighbour, writer and inveterate user-upper of food, admitted to initial scepticism. Partly, I suspect, because he thought there would be almost nothing to throw out. Now he says that he's been "struck by how much of it there was". He's happy that his bin no longer smells and – despite the effort involved – he's also proud of the fact that "by separating food, plastic, tins, bottles and paper for recycling, we now have half a bag of general rubbish a week – if that".
Norfolk's view that "it's a good thing if it's cost-effective" goes to the heart of the matter. Lagging far behind other northern European countries, Britain has only limited capacity for food-recycling. We collect only about a sixth of all we waste. So the vast proportion is still rotting in landfill.
With a fair wind, that's about to change. On Monday, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, the announced new grants for developing the "cutting-edge" technology of anaerobic digestion. As the BBC's Countryfile programme highlighted this weekend, the town of Ludlow in Shropshire is ahead of the game, taking food waste in its virtuous stride. For two years its council has been collecting scraps from its 8,500 homes and processing them in its a local anaerobic digester, providing enough electricity not simply to run the plant and all its collection vehicles, but to power 300 homes into the bargain.
In truth, anaerobic digestion is simply a technological, high-capacity application of the ancient practice of composting and it's been used by sewage companies for decades. It works by mashing food waste into a pulp, liquidising it into a thick soup and warming it just enough to encourage it to rot. Fast. The methane produced is harnessed, burnt and converted into electricity that can be plugged straight into the grid. Better, its bi-product is a bio-fertiliser rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus: potential food for farmland without the need to burn oil for inorganic fertilisers.
The good citizens of Ludlow are so used to the scheme that they seem to take it for granted, but Kim Nicholas, a nursery assistant with three children, says it has also saved her money. "When you see it mounting up like that you soon realise how much you're wasting. It's made me more conscious of what I throw away and these days it's usually only half full come collection day ... sometimes I was cooking too much and the left-overs ended up in the bin. I've stopped that now – the kids get what they can finish and I cook the right amounts or save it. I think it's a great system. You really feel like you're doing something positive for the environment and you save money too – my shopping bill is £30 less per week."
Richard Swannell, the director of the recycling organisation Wrap, confirms that food waste collection is growing rapidly and that more money is being put into processing. The big water companies and specialist waste management companies, already with a foot in the door, are investigating the benefits of anaerobic digestion. If, or when, the resulting bio-fertiliser is reclassified from a "waste" to a properly regulated commercial product, smaller digesters may also provide profitable means of diversification for our cash-strapped farmers.
Even when recycling of food waste is made so easy that it becomes part of daily life, the jury is out on whether the very sight of all that wasted food encourages us to buy less and use it up more effectively. Kim Nicholas is not alone in swearing that the process has challenged her to change but we'll have to wait for the results of Wrap's continuing research to find out the truth behind those general assumptions.
In the meantime, there's no getting away from the truth of the old adage: where there's muck, there's brass. In short, buying less up-front means cash savings and less waste. There's big bucks to be made in the processing of what can't be saved and – if we can divert more (much more) of it from landfill, we'll be giving the planet a breather, too.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Anglo-German partnership to "revolutionise" anaerobic digestion

2009-06-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

A German technology firm has linked up with a British food waste collection firm in a partnership they claim will "revolutionise" the UK anaerobic digestion sector.
Saria Bio-Industries and PDM Group say they will create the UK's "most advanced and comprehensive food recycling network", generating energy from food waste that would otherwise go to landfill.
South Yorkshire firm PDM Group, which has its background in food waste disposal, is already developing its first AD plant at its headquarters in Doncaster, after securing planning consent in February.
The 2MW project now becomes the first facility under the joint venture with Saria Bio-Industries, a venture being called ReFood UK.
More ReFood UK plants are in the pipeline, with the companies stating that a network of digesters will generate renewable energy from food waste collected by PDM Group from the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's.
Philip Simpson, commercial services director at PDM, said ReFood would take anaerobic digestion technology in the UK "to a new level".
He said: "As a nation, we are lagging behind our European counterparts when it comes to anaerobic digestion technology. PDM's joint venture with SARIA ensures industrial scale recycling capabilities with advanced, clean and efficient technology."
Network
Four ReFood plants already operating in Germany currently generate energy from food collected from 60,000 points across the country, using 14 logistics centres.
Like the German network, the British version will also use collection points located across the country, supported by the network of AD plants.
Anaerobic digestion involves organic wastes or energy crops being used to feed bacteria, which under controlled conditions generate a biogas that can be put through an internal combustion engine or burned to generate heat and power.
Mr Simpson said the ReFood technology was "very advanced" compared to other AD technologies available in the UK since it was designed around using food waste as a feedstock, rather than an adaptation of technologies using sewage sludge or farm wastes.
"As a result, the ReFood system is able to focus on recycling greater quantities of this type of material," he said.
Franz Bernhard Thier, a member of the board of Saria Bio-Industries, said: "ReFood has been operating on an industrial scale successfully in Germany for a number of years. We're delighted to be teaming up with PDM to bring both our areas of expertise together to create an offering that is really going to support food waste recycling and renewable energy generation in the UK."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Granville firm moves to reassure local community

2009-06-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

SCIENTISTS and environmental experts from the UK and Europe have been drafted in by a Granville company in a bid to reassure people living close to a proposed £18 million anaerobic digestion plant that they have nothing to fear from the development.
Representatives of an opposition group in the area contacted the Tyrone Times last month to voice their deep concerns that a Phase 2 planning application by Linergy - which aims to generate renewable energy from organic waste - posed significant health.
and environmental risks.The group, which represents farmers and young families living in the vicinity of the Linergy plant, claims emissions from the proposed development would be extremely harmful to human, animal and plant life.However, in a direct challenge to these concerns, the firm in question - which already processes animal by-products, food processing waste and fallen stock to produce renewable fuels - has thrown down the gauntlet to any member of the public to come and visit the plant and see exactly what is planned.Linergy insists that, far from being a threat to the environment, the new plant will divert as much as 500,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill over a ten-year period, and save more than 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Mayor of London unveils plans to turn London's food waste into eco-fuel

2009-06-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today launched a major initiative to convert London’s food waste into eco-fuel to cut landfill rates and carbon emissions (Wednesday 10 June).
Every year, London produces a nearly three million tonnes of organic waste, mainly from food. Nearly two thirds of this waste is currently burnt in incinerators or buried in landfill, which produces potent climate change gases. Launched at a major waste industry conference, the Mayor’s ‘Foodwaste to Fuel Alliance’ will bring together developers, food producers, energy companies and others key parties to provide the new infrastructure needed in London to extract the fuel from the capital’s leftover food. This will act as an alternative to fossil fuels to produce a greener energy to heat and power homes and power public transport and other vehicles.
The Mayor wants the Alliance, supported by London’s Waste and Recycling Board, to deliver five exemplar new ‘bio-fuel’ plants in the capital by 2012. This could include the development of anaerobic digestion plants to produce renewable energy*, bio-diesel refineries, (bio-diesel is a renewable transport fuel made from cooking oil to fuel buses, taxis and minicabs), hydrogen from waste or the use of compost material for the city’s allotments. The Board has £84million to spend over the next three years to reduce waste and boost recycling with £31million earmarked for projects that will create energy. It is hoped that the Olympic Games will also offer opportunities to convert its food waste into energy.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘London is currently throwing away valuable food waste that could be used instead to produce an eco-fuel for businesses and homes. Whilst we can all take steps to throw less food away in the first place, it is extraordinary that we are losing this resource by simply chucking it out. I am absolutely determined to see that London’s reservoirs of used oil and mountains of leftovers are converted into a greener fuel saving millions of pounds off energy bills. This will also save tonnes of the climate changing gases that are damaging the planet. Three cheers to the forward thinking businesses that have signed up today to solve this problem and I urge others to now come forward to do the same.’
BAA, Keystone and Sainsbury's are the first to join the Foodwaste to Fuel Alliance to help deliver a step change in the way London deals with its food waste. BAA and Sainsbury's are working with the Mayor to investigate the possibility of developing anaerobic digestion facilities in and around London. Heathrow airport produces around 8,000 tonnes of food waste each year and BAA is keen to investigate whether it is feasible to convert this into bio-gas to generate low carbon energy or as a fuel for vehicles. Sainsbury's is keen to help deliver an anaerobic digestion plant in the London area, as part of a planned wider portfolio of waste facilities that will help the company deliver its ‘zero waste to landfill’ goal.
Emma Alexander, Head of waste and water at BAA, said: 'Heathrow is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. We have strict aims to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2020, as well as increasing recycling to 70 per cent. We are always looking for innovative ways to achieve our aims and that is why we are delighted to be working with the Mayor and the London Waste and Recycling Board to support solutions such as anaerobic digestion for managing airport food waste.'
Alison Austin, Sainsbury’s environment manager, said: ‘We began investing in waste to energy technology over a year ago. Progress has been so quick that by the end of this summer, all of the food waste from our 500 supermarkets around the country will be connected to our Zero Food Waste to Landfill network, meaning it will be diverted from landfill and used to generate electricity. We are pleased to see that many other companies are starting to follow our lead. Food waste is a valuable resource and if it is fully used, it can cut down on fossil fuel consumption as well as use of landfill.’
Bryan Jones, managing director of Keystone Distribution, said: ‘As McDonald's dedicated food distributor, we have pioneered the conversion of McDonald's delivery fleet to bio-diesel made by recycling its used cooking oil. In London alone this has cut McDonald's distribution emissions by over 50 per cent and stopped around 750,000 litres of used cooking oil going to landfill.’
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Established in September 2008, the London Waste and Recycling Board has up to £84million to spend over the next three years to improve the way that we deal with London's waste through increased recycling, producing less rubbish and developing more environmentally-friendly ways to manage it. London's 33 boroughs remain statutorily responsible for the collection and disposal of waste in the capital. For more information on the Board, visit: http://www.lwarb.gov.uk/
The Food to Fuel Alliance will consist of a steering group including representatives from the London Waste and Recycling Board , the London Development Agency, the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and London Food.
Heathrow is the world's busiest international airport, owned and operated by BAA. BAA manage waste from the terminals, airport retailers and caterers, aircraft cabin waste and property tenants. This amounts to just under 30,000 tonnes per year. Approximately 90% of the total is generated by the companies and passengers using the airport. Heathrow currently recycles over 45% of airport waste, with a commitment to recycle 70% by 2020 and to send zero waste to landfill. The airport already provides a waste cooking oil collection service to all retailers at the airport which is converted to biodiesel off site. Recycling bins are in place for passengers to segregate their waste in all terminals at Heathrow. 100% of landscaping waste is composted on site and re-used as compost - 1,200 tonnes last year. Feasibility studies are already underway on plans to collect food waste from retailers in one of the airport terminals.
Bio-diesel is one of a number of initiatives that McDonald's is developing to convert food waste into eco-fuel. For further enquiries contact Natalie Kirby, Head of Media Relations, McDonald's UK Press Office (020) 8700 7320 during office hours, (0870) 241 3300 out of hours service: ask for the duty press officer.
London produces 2.7million tonnes of organic waste each year - this represents 13 per cent of the total waste produced in London. 40 per cent is land filled; 19 per cent is incinerated and remainder is either composted or treated in industrial processes to produce oils and fats.
In landfill, food waste decomposes to produce methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. If London's organic waste were diverted to anaerobic digestion plants rather than landfill, it would save nearly 500,000 of carbon per year, and London's municipal recycling and composting rate would be 58% - energy generated from this could produce enough energy to heat 30,000 homes.
Fats and oils contribute significantly to blockages in sewer systems and can result in flooding and pollution of water sources.
The Mayor was speaking at an event supported by Futuresource 2009 - this is a major new exhibition and conference for the sustainable waste, recycling and resource management sector, organised by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management in partnership with the Environmental Services Association. It will feature over 100 speakers, including key Government and Opposition ministers and industry experts, who will be looking at some of the most challenging issues facing the waste sector today. For more information, visit: http://www.futuresourceuk.com/.
* Anaerobic digestion is a proven renewable energy technology. It can reduce green greenhouse gas emissions by capturing methane from the decomposition of organic materials, such as food waste. Harnessing the natural process whereby the organic matter is broken down by bacteria in the absence of oxygen in a closed vessel enables production of biogas that can be used as renewable energy source for both for heat and power. Alternatively, the carbon dioxide and other impurities can be removed to produce bio-methane, which can be used as a transport fuel or injected into the gas grid. It is estimated that anaerobic digestion can save up to 250 kg of carbon per tonne of waste treated.
Bio-gas, which is typically made up of 65 per cent methane and 35 per cent carbon dioxide, can be used to run internal combustion engines, generating heat and power, fuel vehicles or converted into hydrogen. It can be cleaned and injected into the national gas network.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Dairy UK Welcome Anaerobic Digester Project

2009-06-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

UK - Dairy UK has welcomed news that member BV Dairy is to trial technology that turns waste into power.Dorset-based BV Dairy is receiving government funding for a demonstration anaerobic digestion project, which should supply a significant part of its energy requirements.BV makes a range of fresh dairy products at its Shaftesbury dairy. Dairy UK Environment Manager Fergus McReynolds said: “I’m delighted to see this project going ahead. Anaerobic digestion technology can play a major role in reducing the dairy sector’s environmental impact. It is also a key part of processors’ commitment under the Milk Roadmap.“Dairy UK will help to disseminate information about the project and encourage members to visit the site once it is up and running. We are also supporting other AD projects and hope there will be more announcements of this sort soon.”BV’s digester is being built by Clearfleau and will be capable of generating 30,000 kWh of heat and 45,000 kWh of electricity each week from effluent. The funding is being made available under WRAP’s Environment Transformation Fund.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Wakefield Waste to Finally Reach Financial Close

2009-06-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

The £700 million waste management PFI contract between the Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and VT Group will finally reach financial close in the next week, two years after selection of the preferred bidder.Funding has finally been put in place without the assistance of the Treasury Infrastructure Fund, as was also the case with the recently finalised deal for Cumbria County Council’s waste management programme.The 25 year contract will see more than 200,000 tonnes of waste processed per year via facilities that will include an anaerobic digestion and autoclave plant

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Harper Adams University to install anaerobic digester

2009-06-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

Harper Adams University College will install an anaerobic digester at its Shropshire campus which it claims will offset its carbon emissions more than three times over.
The £3million-plus project will generate heat and power from farm and foot waste by first breaking it down into biogas.
Paul Moran, estates and facilities manager at Harper Adams, said: “This waste-to-energy project meets many of the criteria set out in the Government’s 2007 Energy White Paper and has the potential to greatly benefit both Harper Adams and the wider community.
“Instead of being left to degrade in landfill or elsewhere, leaking methane into the atmosphere, food and farm waste can be digested in the AD unit and recycled into three useful by-products… Our calculations show that the project will create ongoing carbon savings of 11,229 tonnes a year – which is 3.4 times the current emissions from campus buildings, meaning that Harper Adams will become more than three times carbon neutral.”
The University College is one of three higher education institutions in England to win a share of a pot of £10 million for “transformational" projects under the Revolving Green Fund set up by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Salix Finance.
As reported on bsdlive.co.uk, the government is to fund five new anaerobic digestion projects which will generate energy from organic waste.
The grants are being awarded under the £10 million Defra Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Programme. It is hoped that the technology will highlight the benefits of anaerobic digestion to a range of industries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

GRANT FUNDING FOR THE BIOGAS VISION

2009-06-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

THE successful projects set to receive Government grants to develop anaerobic digestion (AD) technology were announced by Defra this week, with a number of projects set to trial on-farm digestion.
Grants are being awarded under the £10 million Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Programme and are aimed at trialling cutting edge technology which Defra hopes will extend to the rest of the food and farming industries.
The grants will go towards the building costs of the projects, many of which will be carried out on farms.
Announcing the projects, Defra Secretary Hilary Benn said: “This new technology will provide a source of renewable energy while reducing methane emissions from agriculture and landfill by diverting organic waste.”
Defra’s plan is to encourage on-farm AD plants, with the aim of having 1,000 on-farm digesters in operation by 2020 and the latest project is aimed at trying out new technologies and showing farmers what can be achieved.
Liz Goodwin, chief executive of the Waste and Resources Action Programme said the projects were ‘ground-breaking’ and would demonstrate what can be achieved throughout the food industry to cut waste and produce renewable energy.
One of the successful applicants was GWE Biogas – set up by two East Yorkshire farmers – will see food from retailers and local authorities used to produce energy, with the digestate produced being pumped to local farms for use as a fertiliser.
The news was welcomed by Dairy UK this week, which said the project at BV Dairy would help show how the industry can work to reduce its environmental impact.
Dairy UK environment manager, Fergus McReynolds said: “I’m delighted to see this project going ahead. Anaerobic digestion technology can play a major role in reducing the dairy sector’s environmental impact. It is also a key part of processors’ commitment under the Milk Roadmap.
“Dairy UK will help to disseminate information about the project and encourage members to visit the site once it is up and running.
“We are also supporting other AD projects and hope there will be more announcements of this sort soon.”
The successful applicants
Various projects will be carried out linking farmers, retailers, local authorities and local businesses to establish new Anaeobic digester plants in five locations:
Biocycle South Shropshire
Blackmore Vale Dairies
GWE Biogas Ltd
Staples Vegetables
United Utilities and National GridThe technology can be used to break down organic waste – from food straight from supermarket shelves to agricultural waste such as slurry – into biogas, leaving behind a digestate which can then be used as a fertiliser.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

New energy initiative for Erie and Huron County

2009-06-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Janus Initiative starts with the landfill gas harvesting plan.

The gas produced from the land fill is methane which is basically natural gas and instead of using it for electrical generation it has many other useful benefits. It would create much more of a savings for the county, and cities if it were compressed (CNG Compressed Natural Gas) and used as auto, truck, and heavy equipment fuel. The more the price of gas rises the more this fuel saves us. So while electrical generation is a good idea.....using it as a replacement for gasoline and diesel would benefit us more. Plus you get alot more carbon credits this way. Plus you need only look to the Parker town quarry as a huge potential customer. This can fuel the blacktop plants there and give those companies so much needed carbon credits and cheap fuel....which also translates into potentially cheaper roads.

Here is where the NASA Property comes in.
Biogas is Methane which is Natural gas and Biogas plants are profitable and need no subsidies.
Here is a link
Biogas plant
There are many different types of Biogas plants and a company named Microgy is the foremost constructor of Biogas plants in the United States.
Here is a video link example of a town that runs on a biogas plant Town on biogas.
Links to Engine Conversion companies
Diesel Conversion
Gas Conversion

Natural gas furnaces can be set up to burn this fuel to provide heat to all government buildings.

By putting a Biogas plant on the NASA site just off of Mason Road you can justify a county wide food waste recycling program. The recycling trucks can be powered by the Methane making this look very profitable.
Farmers will benefit as this is a place where they can dispose of their silage and horse, cow, pig, and chicken manure. Instead of Sandusky flushing its raw sewage into the lake and taking time to treat it it can be used at the biogas plant to produce methane.
School buses, police cars, tractors, school buildings, taxis, and ambulances would all benefit from the cheap fuel produced in combination with the Land fill and Biogas plant.

Converted vehicles then can run on either fuel as they still retain their traditional tank.

Possible Sources of Biogas:
Routh Packaging
Multiple city sewage plants
Restaurant waste
Curbside food recycling
Dairy Farms
Slaughter houses
Pig Farmers
Horse Farms
Chicken Farms
Fish Scraps
Silage
Grass Clippings.

After the biogas is harvested from the waste products then the remaining organic material is a nutrient rich organic fertilizer which is better than regular fertilizers as they do not produce any toxic runoff. This fertilizer is another source of income for the county and cities.

By having a large production of biogas you can entice Ferry companies to move their entire fleet from Port Clinton, Marblehead, and Catabwa Island. (Jet Express and Miller).
Free fuel is a heck of an enticement and it will kick start the largest city in the counties economy.

Working with marinas to make powerboating look more attractive by converting boats over to methane. Its cheaper and cleaner and can be a self serve pump at the unlike gasoline or diesel as any type of spill evaporates into the air.

Warm water and cheap electricity make Biogas plants run more efficiently and cheaply.

So as I have suggested before by creating a 100 to 200 acre raised bed scraptire farm on the NASA site that is maintained by prisoners to produce food to offset their cost of incarceration the farm will benefit from the fertilizer produced by the Biogas plant. See the tie in.

Topsoil and clay will need to be excavated for the raised bed scrap tire farm. So a 100 acre lake could be created at a 17 foot depth to be used to irrigate the tires from the earth that was needed to fill them. This lake could be created at the end of the airport runway as a fire deterrent in a crash situation.

This lake can be used as a Geothermal lake to help warm the water for the Biogas plant. Just like at Sherman Hospital in illinois. Prison Labor could be utilized in the construction of the geothermal lake.

Just these projects alone could immensely benefit the community and the sale of gas could pay for the airport and terminal........but lets look at even more profit and benefit!!!!

The geothermal lake on the property can be used for cooling four Hyperion Power modules that will produce no CO2 and are buried underground. This would result in a more consistent temperature of the lake all year round as it would more than likely never freeze over and be a huge attraction for anglers. The increased temperature benefits the biogas plants geothermal furnace used to heat the water in the production of methane and the water helps irrigate the onsite work farm.

Each Hyperion module will power 20,000 houses at a price of $.10 per kilowatt hour and will be ready for sale in 2013. We need to get the permit process going now.

Since the Lake is warmer than the air in the winter time we can use a horizontal windmill (most efficient and best ROI in the world)(produced in the USA) placed over the lake to take advantage of the updraft created by the warm lake and by the natural wind present on the property. These are Helix windmills and by adding them as needed we will generate a large surplus of cheap electricity that can power all the government buildings, schools, and street lights for free.

The Janus Initiative will make Erie County the new center for industry and tourism in the midwest by having cheap power, clean air, and a much cleaner Sandusky Bay.

Erie County, Avery, Perkins township,NASA Plum Brook, and the city of Sandusky need to consider the Janus Initiative.

The Landfill, The Biogas Plant, The Geothermal Lake, The Farm, The Airport all inter-relate.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

New composting system could control barn odours

2009-06-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Stinky cattle operations down the road from small-town Saskatchewan -- or even in the middle of Saskatoon -- may come up smelling like roses, with a new bagged manure composting system being tested at the University of Saskatchewan.
At the same time, livestock operations and landfills could benefit from a new sustainable energy source, emanating from the organic waste material. And, at the end of the process, a high-quality compost is expected to emerge, saleable to consumers.
U of- engineering master's student Holly Annand is working on the project, in conjunction with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI). PAMI plans to integrate the composting system with an anaerobic digester -- a biological fermenter that works without oxygen to create more methane.
"The primary goal is the biogas, to capture biogas and use the methane and burn it, essentially to supply heat and electricity from it," Annand said in an interview. "That's kind of the big push on it."
The methane could potentially power production of ethanol at feedlots, she added.
The digester project, now under construction, should start producing biogas before next year, with feedlot manure coming from the Western Beef Development Centre.
Annand spent much of Friday morning stuffing 76 tons of feedlot manure into 200 feet of plastic bag. The composting bag controls odour better, and is less expensive, than traditional wind-row composting. Wind-row composting involves turning the manure and releasing more gases -- and therefore odours.
While odour control is not the first objective, it is certainly a useful aspect to the system.
Feedlots can smell a great deal, "especially every year when they clean the pens out," said Annand. "Here at the U of S, every spring, there's kind of a week or two where it doesn't smell that great and the university gets quite a few complaints.
"The reason we did this little trial here (Friday morning) is twofold -- the first being that we're going to be using a similar system to make this anaerobic digester work, and also, this is a good way to compost with less odour, because you're controlling the atmosphere."
Before the anaerobic digestion, an aeration pipe blows oxygen constantly through the bagged manure to speed up the natural composting process. It was developed in the United States by a company called Ag-Bag, and Annand and PAMI brought the system in from B.C.
"It's definitely new to Saskatchewan, though. No one has ever done in-vessel (in-bag) in Saskatchewan. We attracted quite a bit of interest today from the city and from campus" and others, she said.
What's new about this project is applying the in-vessel process to the anaerobic digester. In addition, and unlike other projects, Annand is using the densest solid waste available, and avoiding any stirring or mixing of the waste.
"There's lot of research going on in Germany, China on similar projects. We're trying to put our own spin on it."
The project has attracted $1 million in funding, said Annand.
Other partners in the project include Western Economic Diversification Canada, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Natural Resources Canada.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Manchester's manure to fill gas grid from 2011

2009-06-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester's toilets will soon be contributing to the local gas network under a green energy project planned by United Utilities Group Plc and National Grid Plc.
In a UK first, the two companies plan to turn a by-product of the wastewater treatment plant at Davyhulme in Manchester, northwest England into gas for the local network and fuel for a fleet of sludge tankers.
The Mancunian biogas will be upgraded to remove carbon dioxide and trace elements, leaving biomethane which will be conditioned with propane and odorants before being pumped into the network and back into their homes.
"Biomethane is a fuel for the future," Janine Freeman, head of National Grid's Sustainable Gas Group said. "Not only are we reusing a waste product, but biomethane is a renewable fuel, so we helping to meet the country's target of 15 percent of all our energy coming from renewable sources by 2020."
Biogas is produced through a process called "anaerobic digestion" when wastewater sludge is broken down by the action of microbes.
The 4.3 million pound ($7.10 million) project should be operational by early 2011 and supply enough gas for about 500 homes. The overall potential of biomethane from a plant like Davyhulme would be to supply about 5,000 homes, National Grid said.
Unlike electricity generated from wind turbines, biogas offers a steady stream of green energy.
"Sewage treatment is a 24-hour process so there is an endless supply of biogas," Caroline Ashton, United Utilities biofuels manager, said.
"It is a very valuable resource and it's completely renewable. By harnessing this free energy we can reduce our fuel bills and reduce our carbon footprint."
One of United Utilities' sludge tankers has already been converted to run on the gas and the company expects to save hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in fuel costs with the 24 tankers it aims to convert initially.
It was not clear whether Manchester's home-made gas suppliers will get a discount on their own bills for their efforts.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Human sewage to power thousands of homes

2009-06-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

Human sewage will power thousands of homes under a revolutionary projected being trialled in Manchester.
The £4.3 million scheme will see enough methane gas from human waste to provide fuel for heating and cooking for up to 5,000 homes by 2011 Photo: GETTY
The £4.3 million scheme will see enough methane gas extracted from human waste to provide fuel for heating and cooking for up to 5,000 homes by 2011.
The project is the first of its kind in Britain and the biomethane is being hailed as a "fuel for the future" because of its green credentials.
It will be run from the city's Davyhulme waste water treatment works, which is Britain's second biggest sewage works, and the gas will be supplied through the local pipeline network.
Further plants are expected to be built in the future, bringing the renewable fuel to hundreds of thousands of British homes.
United Utilities, the energy company behind the scheme, won financial backing from Defra on Monday through its Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
Caroline Ashton, United Utilities biofuels manager, said: "This funding will give the project a huge boost. The people of Manchester will soon be using `poo power' to heat their homes."
Biogas is produced when wastewater sludge is broken down by the action of microbes in a process known as `anaerobic digestion'.
The biogas then needs to be upgraded to biomethane, which is a renewable fuel with similar properties to natural gas.
Biomethane can be safely compressed for use in vehicles or injected into the gas grid.
The gas produced at Davyhulme will also be used to power the utilities firm's sludge tankers and burned to provide electricity to the plant.
Mrs Ashton said: "Sewage treatment is a 24-hour process, so there is an endless supply of biogas.
"It is a very valuable resource and it's completely renewable. By harnessing this free energy we can reduce our fuel bills and reduce our carbon footprint."
The scheme is being run in collaboration with National Grid. Janine Freeman, its head of Sustainable Gas Group, said: "Biomethane is a fuel for the future.
"Renewable electricity from sources such as wind power is already available, but this is the first time we will be able to supply renewable gas to consumers.
"Not only are we reusing a waste product, but this is a renewable fuel, so we are helping to meet the country's target of 15 per cent of all our energy coming from renewable sources by 2020.
"This pilot project should supply gas to about 500 homes, and the overall potential of biomethane from a plant like Davyhulme would be to supply a small town of about 5,000 homes."
Several plants in Europe are already using the method to power homes and businesses.
Dr Richard Swannell, director of retail and organics at Wrap, said: "The project aims to be the first in the UK to process and inject biomethane into the gas grid on a commercial scale.
"By using biomethane as a fuel for sludge tankers, it could also help our country make more widespread use of renewable energy."
The pure methane produced by the plant will be clear and almost identical to the gas that comes from the North Sea.
Like raw North Sea gas, it will also be odourless and will have to be given an artificial 'gas' smell before it is piped into people's homes.
It is hoped the project will be up and running by 2011.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

UK's FIRST INJECTION OF BIOGAS INTO GAS NETWORK SET FOR EARLY 2011

2009-06-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

The nation's first injection of biogas into the gas pipeline network looks set to take place early in 2011, with a £4.3 million pilot project now getting underway in Manchester, writes James Cartledge.
Water firm United Utilities was confirmed a beneficiary of the government's new £10 million Demonstration Programme for anaerobic digestion (AD) technology last week
Today, it is unveiling the details of its plans, which will see biogas from AD facilities at the Davyhulme sewage treatment works diverted into an upgrading plant for injection into the natural gas network, and for use in vehicles.
Working with transmission firm National Grid, United Utilities is expecting the pilot plant to process about 250 cubic metres of biogas per hour - the equivalent of enough gas for 500 homes.
Of the 167 cubic metres of clean biomethane produced each hour, 76 cubic metres will then be used as a transport fuel for 24 of the water company's sludge tankers, with 87 cubic metres being injected into National Grid's local gas distribution network.
United Utilities said the overall potential of the Davyhulme site, one of the largest wastewater treatment works in the country, was sufficient to eventually supply enough gas for 5,000 homes. The site currently has CHP facilities generating about 3MW of power from its biogas, but produces 40,000 cubic metres of the renewable gas each day.
Biogas cleaning
Anaerobic digestion involves bacteria feeding on organic material to generate an energy-rich biogas. This is usually put through a combustion engine or burned to generate electricity and heat in AD plants, but this is not the most efficient use of the biogas, since a proportion of the energy is wasted in conversion.
Experts now believe it should be possible to clean up the biogas - removing contaminants like carbon dioxide - and use it in the same way that natural gas from the North Sea is used, distributing it through the same gas pipelines.
National Grid said there were no fundamental technical difficulties to injecting biomethane into the gas distribution network. Several plants in Europe have demonstrated it as a safe way to deliver renewable gas, it said.
Johnny Johnston, project manager for National Grid, said the biogas in the Davyhulme project would be cleaned up to the standard as set out in the Gas Safety Management Regulation of 1996.
He said the carbon dioxide and other contaminants would be removed from the biomethane, and a small amount of propane gas added in order to match the natural gas in the grid. The gas being injected would also have an odour added, as required by gas safety regulations.
National Grid produced a report back in January suggesting as much as half the UK's domestic gas supplies could be sourced from biogas (see this New Energy Focus story), although industry and government see the figure as fairly optimistic.
Demonstration
The Davyhulme pilot project will be available for engineers and politicians to visit from around the world as a condition of its government grant. The project will include the installation of upgrading equipment and a pipeline link to the local gas distribution network for the injection.
The project will also see a gas compression and fuelling station to ready the biomethane for use in the vehicles.
Importantly, it will allow United Utilities and National Grid to compare the relative efficiency and cost effectiveness of the three main uses for biogas - onsite combined heat and power generation, gas grid injection and vehicle fuel.
Caroline Ashton, biofuels manager at United Utilities, told New Energy Focus today that it would allow United Utilities real data to determine its future strategy for its AD plants, which currently see much of its sewage sludge used to generate combined heat and power.
Ms Ashton said it would depend on the finances involved whether her company would install biogas injection facilities to its other sites, or whether it would continue with its CHP approach.
"We'll have to do individual appraisals for each site, but there will always be a place for CHP - you need the heat to run the anaerobic digestion," she said.
The government's forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive subsidy scheme, expected in April 2011, will be a major factor in determining whether companies like United Utilities use their biogas for injection into the grid, or for electricity generation, the company said.
If successful, the gas injection project could also pave the way for the widespread adoption of grid injection facilities for other companies operating biogas plants in the UK.
This could play an important contribution to the government's renewable heat ambitions, since the UK has a highly developed gas network, with some 90% of homes heated via the gas mains.
Just as important for United Utilities will be the use of biogas for transport fuel, since its strategy for treating sewage sludge is to drive the material from smaller, rural treatment works into centralised sites for use in AD facilities.
The company would benefit from the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation subsidy scheme in using the biomethane transport fuel. It has already been preparing for that side of the pilot project by converting a tanker to a dual-fuel system running on natural gas.
The dual-fuel system - which will be used with the biomethane - uses diesel to get the engine started, before a computer switches the system over to running the gas fuel.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Upturn for Ener-g’s CHP boilers

2009-05-19T11:17:00.001-07:00

ENER-G, a UK-based manufacturer of combined heat and power (CHP) and biogas generator units, has opened a new factory in Salford to help it keep up with increased demand.

The factory is the company’s third and will increase its capacity by 50%. It is adjacent to a factory the company opened last year. It is also building a training centre for installation and maintenance engineers.

Energy CHP units can run on either natural gas or biogas. The company claimsit can reduce carbon emissions by 20% and electricity bills by up to a third. It has installed over 120 MW of biogas generation, mainly from landfill. Its technology is also used at several wastewater treatment plants for anaerobic digestion.

The company’s CHP units can be found at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as well as hospitals, leisure centres, supermarkets and other public buildings.

Earlier this month, Ener-g waste-to-energy subsidiary Energos obtained planning permission for a new plant in Merseyside, which will use advanced thermal energy conversion technology to generate energy from Liverpool’s refuse. Over the next year it will begin construction on other sites in Scotland, Lincolnshire and Newport and two more projects are planned in Londonderry and Derbyshire. A facility in Norway is being built at present.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Anaerobic Digestion Can Be Best Overall Including Being Cheapest Overall

2009-05-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

I guess that if you are a long term subscriber this headline will not be a surprise, but it is good to report that others think so too! Read on and find out why.
Processing food waste using anaerobic digestion technology is not necessarily as expensive in relative terms as some councils may think, consultancy Eunomia has claimed.
Speaking at the AD In the City event held in the UK by BiogenGreenfinch last month, senior consultant, Dr Adrian Gibbs, said that using AD to process food waste collected separately could work out cheaper than processing commingled food and green waste together in an in vessel composting plant.
Dr Gibbs explained that a report by Eunomia had found that sending food waste to AD and green waste to windrow composting cost UK councils £9.50 in gate fees per household per year, whereas sending commingled green and food waste to IVC cost £10.80 per household. He also said that just collecting food waste alone and sending it to AD cost £5.50 per household over the same period.
Dr Gibbs admitted that average gate fees for AD facilities - around £55 per tonne - were higher than IVC - which, he quoted as £45 per tonne, but said that "overall AD is cheaper". He also claimed that separate food waste collections also worked out cheaper than mixed collections and said that the number of local authorities which were implementing separate collections had risen from 11 in 2007 to 54 in 2008.
He told the London borough council officers who attended the event, which was set up to explore ways to introduce more AD capacity in London, that - "AD is better than IVC, it's the way to go and it is the one I would watch."
Anaerobic digestion treats food waste in an oxygen-free environment and produces biogas - which can be converted into energy - and a nutrient rich digestate which can be used on farmland. It also has the potential to provide combined heat and power (CHP).
IVC treats green and/or food waste and sometimes card in an enclosed but oxygenated and aerated environment and produces compost. It does not generate energy.
A number of strengths and weaknesses were highlighted for both separate and mixed collection. The plus side to mixed collections included - only needing to use one vehicle, only one bin required and quick and cheap collections.
However, Dr Gibbs explained that the seasons significantly affected what was collected, with garden waste levels dropping significantly in the winter, meaning that feedstock was inconsistent. He also said that the waste had to be processed in an enclosed environment due to Animal By-Product Regulations and this ups the cost of green waste.
Dr Gibbs also pointed out that green waste and food wastes required different collection frequencies. In addition, not all homes have gardens and collecting green and food waste together prevented councils charging for green waste collection. He claimed that separate AD collection reduced net costs for councils and allowed local authorities to charge for garden waste. He added that there is a large quantity of food waste which could potentially be picked up.
Dr Gibbs said AD had a number of strengths, including -
* Internationally proven technology * Anaerobic Digestion has strong government support in the form of ROCs, a Task Group and feed-in tariffs * It is a carbon positive technology * Valuable outputs - biogas and digestate - and * Leaves green waste to go through the cheaper windrow process.
He said Anaerobic Digestion's only weakness was the lack of facilities in the UK, adding - "AD wins hands-down for organic waste."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Price surge for recyclable materials should encourage more efficient energy from waste

2009-05-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

As reported in the FT over the weekend, the price of waste in the UK has surged this year. Good news for recycling, but what about the energy from waste (EfW) sector?
Higher prices for recyclable materials should reduce the volume of waste that is incinerated. On the other hand the higher value of specific materials is likely to encourage the more effective sorting of waste, which in turn will encourage more efficient EfW technologies such as anaerobic digestion to flourish.
Creating energy from waste remains controversial, because the energy is usually extracted by incineration. Environmental groups tend to oppose incineration because of the harmful dioxins that are emitted into the atmosphere during combustion, as well as the resulting fly ash, which in some cases qualifies as hazardous waste.
An alternative EfW technology is anaerobic digestion of food and other organic wastes, from which it is estimated that 1.45 TWh electricity could be generated in the UK. Anaerobic digestion avoids some of the environmental problems associated with incineration.
However, anaerobic digestion requires that biodegradeable waste is separated from other wastes (for example through household food collections) - a mixed bag of rubbish cannot be treated using this technology.
Higher prices for recyclable materials encourages the separation of waste, particularly because high quality recovered material (with few impurities) commands a price premium. In turn this means the barriers to anaerobic digestion are reduced, making it a relatively more attractive EfW technology in comparison to incineration.
Based on this analysis, the increase in prices for recyclable materials sends the right market signals. Because some types of waste have a high economic value it encourages the sorting of waste. This allows recyclable materials to be recycled, and biodegradeable materials to undergo anaerobic digestion. A much lower volume of residual wastes can then be either incinerated or sent to landfill.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

LGA attacks European biowaste green paper

2009-05-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Local Government Association (LGA) has attacked the European Commission's suggestion that councils could be forced to introduce separate collections of garden waste to help boost investment in composting and biogas facilities.
LGA chairman Margaret Eaton claimed that, if councils were expected to introduce separate collections of garden waste it could prove "extremely costly" for them. And, she called for the final decision over exactly how biowaste was collected to remain with local authorities.
Her comments come in response to a Green Paper that was published for consultation by the EC in December 2008 to examine the current system of biowaste - biodegradable garden, kitchen and food waste - management and assess the need for future legislation governing it (see letsrecycle.com story).
In the paper, the EC suggested that investment in new facilities could be encouraged by "strengthening" the supply of "clean" bio-waste, which would "require organising national, regional or local separate collection of (selected) bio-waste".
But, Cllr Eaton said: "It shouldn't be up to someone in Brussels, or even Whitehall, to decide whether a person in Birmingham needs a separate bin for their garden waste. It should be up to local councils to decide on what bin collections local people need."
"Councils know their area and they operate the bin collections that are best for local people. That might be alternate weekly collections or it might be separate bins for different types of recycling. In some places, people will want a collection of their garden waste but clearly that's not going to be the case everywhere."
She added: "Compulsory collections of garden waste would be extremely costly for councils. Extra bin collections would have to be laid on and new bins would need to be provided.
"In the last five years the amount of waste councils collected that can be composted has more than doubled. Compulsory collections aren't the answer."
Expensive
In its response to the EC consultation on the Green Paper, which ended on March 15, the LGA said that some local authorities had invested significantly in technologies that treat mixed waste and claimed that imposing separate collections would be prohibitively expensive and potentially environmentally damaging.
It also questioned the need to strengthen the exisiting Landfill Directive or create additional legislation, claiming that such measures could "jeapordise long-term strategies and investments and did not take into account the impact of local conditions on biowaste management".
Defra
In its response to the consultation that was published last month, Defra expressed concern that the plans in the Green Paper could discourage the uptake of anaerobic digestion technology - because it is not clear as yet whether food turned into biogas will count towards the 50% household recycling target

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Framework Directive "could incentivise” composting over AD

2009-05-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Thursday 19 March 2009 Organics News
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has warned that the revised Waste Framework Directive could discourage the uptake of anaerobic digestion technology - because it is not clear as yet whether food turned into biogas will count towards the 50% household recycling target.
In it's response to a consultation on the European Commission's green paper on the future of biowaste management, the department said that, if biogas recovered via AD did not count towards the 50% recycling target, it could provide a "perverse incentive" to compost organic waste.
The green paper was published in December 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story) for a consultation that closed on Sunday (March 15) and aims to look at the current system and assess the need for future legislation governing biowaste, in particular in relation to waste prevention, treatment, energy recovery and standards for both compost and digestate.
Commenting on the WFD target, which all EU member states are expected to meet by 2020, Defra said: "As matters stand, it is not clear whether all such waste sent to AD will count as having been recycled, where part of the output of the AD is biogas from which energy is recovered."
"We trust that a commonsense interpretation will prevail, otherwise the 50% household waste recycling target in the revised WFD will act as a perverse incentive to compost organic waste - therefore losing its energy potential - rather than sending it to AD," it added.
The department said that the issue showed the need for "careful consideration" to ensure consistency between renewable energy and recycling targets, and called for the "earliest possible clarification" from the Commission on the point.
Defra has strongly voiced strong support for using AD to reprocess food waste, and in February 2009 announced plans to make it an established technology in the UK by 2020 (see letsrecycle.com).
Compost
Despite its support for AD, Defra stressed in its response to the EC green paper, that "composting still has an important role to play to treat biodegradable waste that includes green waste".
And, it came out in support of the establishment of EU-wide minimum standards for both compost and digestate, though stressed the need for member states to have flexibility, as well as the need to ensure markets for the materials once they had been produced.
"An appropriate approach could be for the framework for developing compost/digestate standards to be set at EU level, but that within this individual member states should set the values for each parameter appropriate to their own case," it said.
"Each member state would be free to set one or more standards, but the minimum standard should specify when the compost is no longer considered a waste," it added.
Landfill bans
In response to the question of measures being taken to limit landfilling of biowaste, Defra warned against changes to existing landfill diversion targets under the EU Landfill Directive, claiming that: "Changes now could adversely affect the final investment decisions being taken on projects to achieve the original targets."
However, it also said that "we have an open mind on the possibility of other changes to the national regulatory framework, such as bans or restrictions on the type of wastes which could be disposed of in landfill."
"We are considering the possible role of such restrictions on certain organic wastes in helping to drive the creation of a market in renewable energy from waste and we are evaluating the evidence," it added.
AFOR
In its response to the consultation, the Association for Organics Recycling (AFOR), which represents the UK's organics recycling sector, advocated the introduction of an EU Biowaste Directive.
Explaining its reasons for this, it said: "The formation and implementation of a biowaste directive from the Commission is essential if member states are to implement improvements in the collection and treatment of biodegradable waste.
"This should be formulated in such a manner as to allow an element of flexibility by members to accommodate their individual needs but could act as a primary driver in establishing a minimum target at a European level," it added.
In particular, it said this could have a key part to play in raising the profile of home composting, explaining that: "Home composting is not currently included as part of national diversion targets (LATS); this is misleading and should be changed as soon as possible. An EU Directive would assist in making this happen."
It added: "Since home composting is such an important part of biowaste management, the Association recommends that there is a formalised reporting structure on its efficiency and diversion capacity across all member nations."
AFOR echoed Defra's support for AD as a means of recovering energy from biowaste, and also agreed that no stricter landfill diversion targets should be set "for the time being".
LARAC
In its response to the consultation, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), questioned the definition of biowaste in the green paper, and in particular asked for a "rationale" for the exclusion of paper and card from the definition included in the document.
"This exclusion almost implies that the paper and card fraction is now seen as a resource instead of a waste, conversely implying that the remainder of biowaste is still a waste rather than a resource. LARAC is of the opinion that all waste should be seen and treated as a resource," it said.
"Or, possibly, there is an implication that the best environmental treatment option is different for paper and card than it is for biowaste as defined - but this will depend on circumstances, and indeed different treatment options may be preferable for different types of biowaste," it added.
Claiming the green paper also raised uncertainty on whether cooking oil and overproduction in the food industry was included, it concluded that all non-hazardous biodegradable waste should be counted as biowaste.
As well as supporting the use of AD, LARAC said that it "strongly supports" biogas being fed into gas grids, adding that it "would welcome the development of a heat distribution network".
And, it suggested that "some consideration" be treating food waste with AD after it had been disposed off through macerators into the sewerage system - a practice which is said was widely practiced in the US and Australia.
NEXT STEPS:
The Commission's work on biowaste is now expected to see it compiling an impact assessment on any potential legislative proposal for biowaste management, basing the options that it assesses on the results of the green paper consultation, which closed on March 15.
Within this project it has said it envisages holding at least one consultation, which is "tentatively scheduled" for August or September 2009.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

National Grid calls for major AD and gasification investment

2009-05-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

The National Grid has called for a multi-billion pound investment in anaerobic digestion and gasification facilities to turn biodegradable waste streams including food waste and wood waste into biogas to heat up to half of the UK's homes.
The power network has published a report today (February 2) which claims that using waste to produce biogas requires an additional investment of £10 billion on new waste infrastructure, on top of the £20 billion ‘sunk cost' the UK already requires to tackle "diminishing landfill capacity".
And, it calls for the development of a "comprehensive" waste policy and introduction of incentives to ensure that turning biogas produced from waste into heat is a more attractive proposition for councils and renewable gas producers than using it to produce electricity.
Commenting on the report, Janine Freeman, head of the National Grid's sustainable gas group, said: "Biogas has tremendous potential for delivering large scale renewable heat for the UK but it will require Government commitment to a comprehensive waste policy and the right commercial incentives."
"Biogas has benefits on so many fronts. It is renewable and could help to meet the target of 15% of all our energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. It provides a solution for what to do with our waste with the decline in landfill capacity and it would help the UK with a secure supply of gas as North Sea sources run down," she added.
Demands
The National Grid study, which was produced for the energy provider by analysts Ernst and Young, claims that, by 2020, waste streams including food waste, biodegradable waste, food waste and agricultural waste could be used to meet up to 18% of the UK's total gas demands, and up to 48% of its residential gas demands.
However, the report stresses that, for this to happen, action would need to be taken as soon as possible to ensure councils use anaerobic digestion (AD) or gasification technology, and not the other waste-to-energy options available to them.
The report said: "A comprehensive waste policy and regulatory framework is required to ensure that each local authority directs its waste streams towards the most appropriate renewable gas technology and that the waste is appropriately sorted at source to facilitate maximum renewable gas production.
It added: "This needs to be done quickly to ensure that Local Authorities which are currently examining waste management programmes do not enter into inefficient electricity generation schemes - e.g. incineration plants where the heat is not captured and utilised."
To this end, it advocated the introduction of a commercial subsidy or incentive to reward renewable gas producers for injecting their biogas into the gas grid and not using it to produce electricity.
Currently, the only incentives available to biogas producers relate to electricity generation - the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme - and producing transport fuel - Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation Certificates.
The study claims that, whereas using biogas to produce electricity operates at efficiency rates around 30%, injecting the gas into the gas grid - after it had been cleaned to produce a biomethane gas suitable for the purpose - would operate at a 90% efficiency rate.
And, while there are powers now available for the introduction of an incentive for using the gas to produce heat, the report warns that it might not be introduced soon enough, leading to a "missed" opportunity, as waste producers and councils instead signed long-term incineration contracts.
Technology
Despite its support for using both AD and gasification technology, the report acknowledges issues with both options, describing AD as "not without its challenges", but highlighting that it is "a very well established technology".
At the same time, while admitting that gasification is "less well developed for use on waste", it added that it was "progressing and developing apace with demonstration plants being built in this country and around the world."
AD has received significant governmental support as a waste treatment option, receiving ‘double ROCs' to encourage its use in electricity generation, as well as the establishment of a Quality Protocol reclassifying the digestate it produces as a product and not a waste
And, Manchester-based waste treatment technology firm Energos last year achieved ROC accreditation for its pioneering gasification facility on the Isle of Wight Explaining why AD and gasification should be favoured over incineration as options for waste treatment, the report claimed: "Both AD and gasification do not face the same kind of environmental, air pollution issues as incineration which is the main alternative for processing waste as landfill capacity declines."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Planning reforms on the way for small-scale renewable energy

2009-05-17T02:04:00.000-07:00

The government will consult this summer on a new planning system for small-scale renewable energy systems for businesses, communities and farms.
Energy minister Mike O'Brien said on Friday that he wants to see a system of "prior approval" brought in for low carbon energy projects under a certain size.
It would allow a farmer, school, hospital, community or business to submit a planning application for a wind turbine, solar system or anaerobic digester - and assume it has consent if the local planning authority has not actively refused the plan within a certain time period.
Potentially, the system could take effect for systems under 5MW in size - those included within the feed-in tariffs subsidy scheme being introduced from April 2010.
The prior approval system, which already exists for some developments, looks set to be proposed for energy systems in a consultation before the summer recess.
It would follow on from last year's Permitted Development Rights granted for some types of renewable energy generation equipment for households.
But, whereas under that system equipment like solar panels do not need planning permission to be fitted to homes, for non-domestic buildings under a Prior Approval scheme a full planning application would need to be presented to local planners.
Local people would be able to object to a proposal if they had concerns, Mr O'Brien said on Friday.
Green Energy Bill
The minister was speaking in Friday's debate of the Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill, a private members' bill put forward by former Tory shadow environment minister Peter Ainsworth.
Mr O'Brien said: "Prior approval works on the basis that consent from a local authority is deemed to have been given if nothing is heard from the authority after a certain period.
"It is particularly of benefit to farmers, who can carry on their business within minimal recourse to their local authorities," added the minister.
The minister said that for projects to be included under the planning reforms, installers and equipment would have to be properly certified. He also confirmed that anaerobic digestion plants would be part of the proposed reforms.
The consultation looks likely to come alongside the expected public consultation on the government's Renewable Energy Strategy, which has slipped back from this Spring.
The minister said on Friday that the strategy would not be presented just before Parliament breaks for the summer holidays.
Wind turbines and heat pumps
As he addressed Parliament on Friday, Mr O'Brien said the summer's consultation would also look at how wind turbines and heat pumps are dealt with by the planning system. Currently, these are not included within Permitted Development Rights for householders.
One of the key issues is the potential noise pollution these technologies can cause. Mr O'Brien suggested that this summer's consultation would propose a 45dB limit for these technologies to be included in planning reforms.
The minister said the system could be brought in within six months of Mr Ainsworth's Green Bill being adopted by Parliament. Having gained initial government support, the Bill could complete its passage through Parliament this October.
"This issue has been hanging around for too long. It needs to be resolved," the minister said as he was discussing the noise concerns about wind turbines and heat pumps. "We should therefore be looking to bilge the government not so much to consult as to legislate, perhaps within six months of the Bill going through."
Mr Ainsworth's Green Bill, which applies only to England, would force the government to review its microgeneration strategy, devise incentives for small-scale renewables, and review permitted development rights for microgeneration.
Mr O'Brien suggested most of the Bill's requirements are already being dealt with through the government's existing plans, but confirmed that the Bill's requirements on planning would be taken forward through this summer's consultation.
Opportunities
Commenting in Friday's debate, Mr Ainsworth said the opportunity for farmers would be significant if planning rules are eased for renewable energy projects.
The MP for East Surrey said: "A report from the Carbon Trust last year suggested that the rural potential of small-scale wind power is more than four times that of the potential in urban areas. But if we can harness the potential of anaerobic digestion on farms, linking biogas up to the gas grid, the consequences could be hugely beneficial as a result of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from farming and creating sustainable energy from waste."
The microgeneration industry thanked the minister on Friday for lending support to the Bill, and particularly welcomed the government's pledge to take another look at wind turbine and heat pumps within the planning system.
Dave Sowden, chief executive of the Micropower Council said: "The government promised to Parliament over a year ago that it would set the noise threshold for these technologies at 45dB, the level recommended by the World Health Organisation to avoid sleep disturbance.
"Companies have invested considerably and created hundreds of jobs against this promise, so it is crucial that the forthcoming consultation restates this strongly; any failure to do so could see businesses fold, will almost certainly cost jobs and have serious implications for industry's and its investor's confidence in government policy on microgeneration," Mr Sowden added.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Generating more heat from waste "real challenge" for DECC

2009-05-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

Waste should be better used as a low-carbon source of heat, government officials said yesterday, as they revealed their work to encourage it.
Speaking at the conference yesterday, an event organised by New Energy Focus and the Renewable Energy Association (REA), the Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was particularly keen to see how the UK could source more of its heat from waste.
The Department is currently shaping a new Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, which has already been subject to an initial consultation and should see a more detailed version emerge this autumn.
This summer should also see publication of the government's Renewable Energy Strategy, in which heat will be a significant issue for the UK to tackle to reach its 15% renewable energy target by 2020.
Energy-from-waste plants often generate waste heat as they produce electricity, and the government is keen to make use of that waste heat.
However, planning considerations often leading to energy-from-waste plants being located far from domestic or commercial demand for heat, it can be difficult for such projects to find a market for waste heat generated in the production of electricity.
Hergen Haye, head of distributed energy and heat policy at the Department called the issue a "real challenge", but added that his Department was keen to find an answer.
He said: "We have a waste problem in this country and everyone needs heat - how can we bring these two together, and use waste to make heat for our residents?"
Biomethane
One possible solution discussed later in the event yesterday was to turn waste into biogas and clean the biogas into biomethane, which could then be put into the national gas pipelines.
Michael Feliks, who works with Mr Haye as part of DECC's distributed energy and heat team, said the biomethane approach was "particularly attractive", with around 90% of domestic heating currently provided by natural gas.
He explained: "It doesn't need us to build a new network for heating, we can use the existing gas networks."
While National Grid's research published earlier this year suggested nearly half the nation's gas supplies could eventually be supplied by biomethane, the government officials suggested a more realistic level would be about 10%.
The forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive - a feed-in tariff style subsidy system - would be a "powerful weapon" to tackle the financial barriers to such technologies, Mr Feliks told the industry audience, when it is introduced in April 2011.
John Baldwin, whose company CNG Services Ltd has come from the fossil fuel gas side to lead the move towards biomethane uptake, said cleaning up biogas produced from wastes and injecting it into national gas pipelines was commonly done in the rest of Europe.
He said cleaning it - removing the carbon dioxide that represents around 35% of biogas, and the trace hydrogen sulphide contaminants from the 65% methane - was no more difficult than cleaning the natural gas from the North Sea before it can enter the national pipelines.
Citing figures from Defra, Mr Baldwin said injecting biomethane into the grid generated considerably more carbon emissions savings than other uses of biogas, like burning it for electricity generation.
He said: "Biomethane going into the gas grid gives around double the renewable benefit of local electricity generation even with some use of waste heat."
With an industry task group currently looking at the regulatory framework for opening the gas grids up for biomethane injection, Mr Baldwin said the sector now needed an early signal from government as to what kind of level the Renewable Heat Incentive would be from 2011.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Sainsbury's expands biogas-powered vehicle trials

2009-05-17T02:00:00.001-07:00

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is expanding its trials running vehicles on biogas made from landfilled waste, with an order for five more of its vehicles to be converted.
The company has been running one of its Mercedes-Benz Axor lorries since August, fitted with "Dual-Fuel" technology allowing it to use a combination of diesel and biomethane.
Clean Air Power, the company that pioneered the technology, reported today that the supermarket has ordered five more of the Genesis Dual Fuel installations.
The firm said the order from Sainsbury's represented an "ongoing commitment" by the supermarket chain to reduce its road transport emissions.
Clean Air Power, which has its head office in High Wycombe, says its technology allows up to 50% of a vehicle's diesel to be replaced by natural gas or, in this case, biogas.
The Sainsbury's "Running on Rubbish" trials have involved the Mercedes vehicle running on a 500km round trip between the chain's new "green store" in Dartmouth, Devon, and a depot in Bristol.
Biogas used in the trials has been supplied by Warwick-based company Gasrec Ltd, produced from landfill gas emitted by a site in Surrey run by waste firm SITA UK.
Understanding
Gary King, Sainsbury's logistics operations support manager, said: "Sainsbury's is keen to continue the evaluation of this product in order to gain a better understanding of the use of this type of fuel within our operation.
"The purchasing of the Genesis units demonstrates our continued commitment of respecting the environment by seeking alternative sustainable fuels," Mr King added.
Clean Air Power claimed the supermarket would cut emissions from converted vehicles by 30% using the biogas/diesel dual fuel. And, it said there would be "significant" savings on fuel costs, while engine performance and efficiency would be maintained.
Clean Air Power chief executive John Pettitt said: "We are pleased that such a respected and well known group has been impressed with the trial of our technology over the past few years and we hope that this order will lead to further orders in the future with our new products."
Volvo
While the Sainsbury's order will see the Genesis system retrofitted to existing vehicles, last month saw Clean Air Power agreeing to work with Volvo to develop new vehicles that incorporate the Dual-Fuel system from the outset.
This could see the substitution of methane in heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles rise to a rate as high as 90%, the firm suggested.
The agreement could see a formal contract signed later this year, with the first commercial products anticipated to be available in late 2009 or early 2010.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas news round-up

2009-05-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

Southern Water biogas plant turns CHP
A sewage sludge biogas plant at Southern Water's Budds Farm site in Hampshire has been converted to generate renewable electricity.
Slough-based Finning Power Systems fitted a combined heat and power system based on a Caterpillar G3520C generator, to produce 2MW of electrical power. The biogas produced by digestion tanks at the site was previously being used as a fuel to dry sewage sludge, but generating electricity will allow Southern Water to claim Renewables Obligation subsidies. Recovered heat will be used to keep the digesters at the optimum temperature.
Finning Power systems has agreed a 10-year operation and maintenance deal for the plant. Martin Ross, carbon policy manager with Southern Water, said: "Southern Water is using CHP technology from Finning across several of its sites. The solution delivered by Finning has proved extremely reliable."
AD firm calls for "balanced" feed-in tariffs
Anaerobic digestion company BiogenGreenfinch called for government to take a "balanced" approach to setting new feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity and heat.
The company that has biogas plants in Bedfordshire and Shropshire said it would be "madness" to set tariffs that encourage AD operators to use inefficient electricity generators and ignore potential for local heat use. Speaking at Thursday's REA tariffs conference in London, chief executive Dan Poulson also warned against encouraging the injection of biogas into the national gas pipelines if it meant local areas would not benefit from the heat potential.
Most importantly, the Biogen Greenfinch chief said new tariffs should be stable in the long-term and should be brought in quickly. Mr Poulson said: "We need tariffs and we need them soon. If you wait until April 2010 and 2011 we have lost up to 20% of the time to deliver these before the 2020 renewable energy target."
Consent for Dorset biogas plant
Dorset company Eco Sustainable Solutions has won planning permission to build a 700kW anaerobic digestion facility at Piddlehinton, near Dorchester.
The company is to take about 25,000 tonnes of food waste from Dorset county council and about 12,000 tonnes of commercial organic waste each year from local businesses as a feedstock for the facility. Construction on the 2.5 acre site on the Bourne Park Industrial Estate is expected to begin in about a year, with the facility expected to be up and running in two years' time.
Trelawney Dampney, managing director of Parley-based Eco Sustainable Solutions, said: "We have to find an alternative fuel to oil. Generating energy from food waste is the most economically and environmentally sustainable way of doing it."
Biffa planning second anaerobic digestion plant
Waste management firm Biffa is hoping to build a 4MW anaerobic digestion facility at Cannock, Staffordshire.
It is developing a project that would use 80,000 tonnes of organic waste a year to generate renewable electricity and 2MW of heat. Biffa, which already runs a digestion facility at Wanlip in Leicestershire, is hoping the project will be operational by 2011.
Andre Horbach, Biffa chief executive, said: "This is a step towards achieving our stated ambition to develop Biffa's energy-from-waste activities. It will build on the novel and unique expertise that Biffa has through the development of the UK's first operational municipal solid waste AD plant in Leicester in 2003, which in itself generates 1.3MW annually."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

National Grid says biogas could provide half domestic gas supply

2009-05-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

National Grid has said half the country's household gas heating could come from biogas made from waste - providing a reliable source of energy as North Sea reserves run down.
The transmission company published a report today looking at the use of biodegradable waste streams including sewage, food and wood to make biogas that could be injected into the national gas pipelines.
Compiled by analysts from Ernst & Young on behalf of National Grid, the report suggested that biogas could offer 18% of the UK's total gas consumption, 48% total domestic gas demand and 10% of the overall UK energy demand.
Such a scenario would require £30 billion of capital expenditure, the report suggests, but adds that £20 billion investment is needed anyway in the UK's waste management infrastructure.
A small quantity of energy-rich biogas is already being made around the country in a growing network of anaerobic digestion facilities. Biogas is also being produced from many of the nation's landfill sites.
However, at the moment almost all of this biogas is burned to generate electricity.
But National Grid said this "valuable resource" could be used much more efficiently by injecting it into the gas grid by removing contaminants to produce biomethane. The company said biomethane is already being injected into gas pipelines in Europe.
The UK government is currently pushing for more anaerobic digestion plants to be set up to produce energy from food waste, and new technology is being developed that could also turn materials like wood or other energy crops into biogas.
Janine Freeman, head of National Grid's sustainable gas group, said: "Biogas has tremendous potential for delivering large scale renewable heat for the UK but it will require government commitment to a comprehensive waste policy and the right commercial incentives."
National Grid said today that producing biogas could be carried out at a "similar price to other renewable energy sources", but said there would be less disruption to consumers because the UK already has an "extensive" gas grid.
"No insurmountable difficulties"
The National Grid report said there were "no insurmountable difficulties" to delivering biogas through the national pipelines.
The main hurdle, it says, is getting the right commercial incentives in place to drive biogas injection, rather than electricity generation.
Currently, the major incentives for biogas producers is the Renewables Obligation, which is only available for electricity generation, or Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation Certificates for the few projects turning biogas into transport fuel.
There are new Renewable Heat Incentive proposals being developed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, but experts fear these could be two years away. Feed-in tariffs proposed by the government to support small-scale electricity generation could still persuade biogas producers to stick with electricity generation.
National Grid said it had passed on its report to energy secretary Ed Miliband.
Biogas organisations have already been meeting with government officials over the winter, to discuss the requirements for injecting biomethane into the grid. The issue is likely to be included within the government's expected Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy, which is due for a first consultation later this year.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

German biogas firm commits to UK anaerobic digestion market

2009-05-17T01:55:00.001-07:00

German biogas technology specialists MT-Energie has committed to the UK anaerobic digestion market with the opening of an office in Reading, Berkshire.
The firm started out on a family farm in Lower Saxony in the early 1990s and now claims to have provided one in five of Germany's anaerobic digestion plants. It has appointed biogas specialist Hardy Radke to run MT Energie UK Ltd.
The company offers project development, design, planning and construction services for anaerobic digestion facilities - including both farm-scale plants and at a larger scale for municipal or industry waste-to-energy applications. It also offers post-installation support.
MT-Energie already operates in North America as well as Continental Europe, but said it was now drawn to the UK market because the government's promotion of the technology.
As of the start of this month, anaerobic digestion facilities qualify for double subsidies under the government's renewable energy incentive scheme, the Renewables Obligation (see this New Energy Focus story).
Dr Holger Schmitz, managing director of Zeven-based MT-ENERGIE GmbH & Co, said: "We see a considerable commitment to biogas in the UK. The government has clearly declared themselves in favour of the expansion of renewable energy.
"We have repeatedly demonstrated in the past that we are able to establish ourselves very quickly to significantly contribute to a new market. We are convinced that our proven biogas technology will appeal to our British clientele as well," added Dr. Schmitz.
Two-stage system
MT-Energie offers a two-stage anaerobic digestion system involving a digester as well as a second "post digester" it says means 20% more biogas can be extracted from the organic waste or energy crop feedstock. This model, which also includes a storage tank, is offered at a 500kW scale and for larger commercial-scale plants.
The company also offers a smaller, 150kW system that involves a single digestion stage.
Mr Radke told New Energy Focus yesterday that his company serves both the on-farm market and the municipal/commercial waste market "extensively". It is already developing a 1MW project at an as-yet undisclosed location in the UK, which should be commissioned later this year.
He explained: "With our biogas plants, components and services we not only serve the agricultural market, but also the expanding organic waste market. Our product portfolio includes biogas plants treating organic waste from public and private sector sources, providing solutions for waste management infrastructure programmes in Great Britain."
As well as biogas production and storage systems, MT-Energie also offers technology to "upgrade" biogas to remove non-methane contaminants to make it suitable for injecting into gas pipelines. The company also offers injection systems, although the UK is still to develop its regulatory framework for injecting the renewable gas into the national pipelines.
With anaerobic digestion requiring a careful balance of input materials to maximise biogas output, MT-Energie also offers laboratory analysis of input and output substrates.
The company will be exhibiting at this year's Royal Show at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire from July 7-10.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Cumbrian farmers to generate own energy through biogas plan

2009-05-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

Farmers in Cumbria are teaming up to develop anaerobic digestion facilities to generate their own renewable energy from agricultural waste.
Community Renewable Energy North West (CoRE NW), a group based in Workington, plans to set up a number of co-operatives to develop the plants, which will produce electricity and heat from farmers' manure and silage.
The first plant is to be developed at Middle Farm in Silloth, in the north west of the county, and could secure planning permission next spring. A feasibility study is currently under way, with 10 farmers interested in getting involved.
Hopes are that the £3.5 million digester could be commissioned by the end of 2010, producing just under 1MW of power - around seven million kWh units a year, or enough electricity to supply about 2,000 homes.
Plans are to use heat produced by the facility in the farm's four large chicken sheds, as well as to the next-door cement block factory.
Social enterprise NRG NorthEast Renewables Group is to supply and install the digester, subject to planning permission, with technology expected to be supplied by German biogas company Biogas Hochreiter.
The project will see local farmers owning the new anaerobic digester along with CoRE NW itself, while NRG will be a minor stakeholder.
Core NW has set up an energy supply company (ESCo) to manage energy sales, with expectations that the facility could bring in £1.2 million a year, achieving payback in around six years. Profits from the project - around £100,000 a year - will go towards setting up three more anaerobic digestion plants in the area, as well as supporting other community renewable energy projects.
Research behind the project has suggested that farmers involved in an anaerobic digestion scheme could see an annual income of £20,000, along with up to £16,300 for supplying materials and dividends averaging £10,000 a year.
Digestion
Anaerobic digestion involves bacterial feeding on organic material in large tanks, producing a methane-rich biogas that can be used to generate energy, as well as a residue that can be used as a fertiliser.
It is seen as a particularly attractive technology for north west Cumbria, since the region has a high density of dairy farms, which produce a considerable amount of manure and slurry, which is difficult to deal with under new legal controls.
CoRE NW said digestion plants could effectively double the profitability of dairy farmers.
Mike Pearson, who owns the farm where the first digester is being proposed, said: "We think this a great way forward for Cumbrian farmers. As well as increasing our income, it also means we reduce our usage of chemicals and produce renewable energy."
Initial work on the Middle Farm project was funded by West Cumbria social enterprise project The Hub, which is run by Lancashire-based industrial and provident society Co-operative and Mutual Solutions.
Feedstock for the plant is likely to inclure 20,000 tonnes of slurry, 10,000 tonnes of silage from currently unproductive land and 3,000 tonnes of chicken manure. Some 10,000 tonnes of food waste from Lakeland Creameries and other local sources could also be used in the plant.

SUPPORT:
Local councillors are supporting the digester being proposed for Middle Farm, with the member for Silloth, Cllr Tony Markley, saying: "I am delighted to see this proposed development.
"The use of natural resources must play a role in producing energy for the future without being detrimental to the area. I am pleased that the farming industry can improve its profitability using natural resources that will help to benefit the community and environment," added Cllr Markley.
CoRE NW said it would now work with other interested communities to set up renewable energy systems, including wood heating, solar panels and water turbines as well as anaerobic digestion technology.
Keith Richardson of CoRE NW explained: "We will take a stake in the Middle Farm digester and use the profits it generates to help more farmers set up others in Aspatria, Kirkbride and Southwaite."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas-Powered VW Sciroccos Debut at STCC

2009-05-17T01:48:00.000-07:00

Sweden
E.ON, a German producer of biogas and provider of biogas refuelling equipment, has partnered with Volkswagen Motorsport to enter two 100% biomethane powered Sciroccos in the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) for 2009. The team celebrated a successful race debut for its season-opening event, held at Mantorp racetrack in Mjölby, on May 2nd, in what is reputedly the toughest racing event for standard cars in Sweden. In the first of the two races the best Scirocco was in the 11th position, in the second race in the 9th position -- in both races 16 seconds behind the winner after a 14 lap race at the 3.1 km long circuit.
With further work on the new VW cars the biogas team is confident of performance improvements throughout the nine event season, held across venues in Sweden with one race in Norway. "The purpose of our effort is to demonstrate the potential of biogas - the Swedish climate-smart fuel, " says Håkan Buskhe, CEO of E.ON, adding they want to show that biogas is like any other fuel -- only better.
The (almost) 280 hp, 4-cylinder, 1998 cc Scirocco reaches 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and has a top speed of 240 km/h, with output of 310 Nm. The two vehicles were built by Volkswagen Motorsport in Hanover.
Driver Fredrik Ekblom, who has completed nine STCC seasons (three championships, three silver and a bronze), and Patrik Olsson, who has raced in the Volkswagen Polo Cup, are enthusiastic about their vehicles. Ekblom said, "For me, this is a significant challenge. After nine seasons, to start with a whole new racing concept with clean, green fuel feels new, fresh and incredibly exciting."
The next race is at Gelleråsen on May 23rd.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Croatia to build largest biogas production plant in Europe

2009-05-17T01:47:00.000-07:00

VUKOVAR, May 14. (Hina). A cornerstone laying ceremony was held on Wednesday at Ovcara farm outside the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar for the construction of the future largest biogas production plant in Europe.
The 30 million EUR project has been initiated by the Vukovar-based "Bionergija" company, established by the local Vupik agribusiness and several Croatian and foreign entrepreneurs.
The future plant, which should be built by the end of 2010, is expected to produce 10 megawatts of electrical energy and 11 megawatts of thermal energy daily.
According to a consultant of the Bienergija company, about 700 tonnes of biomass should be ensured daily from agricultural crops on Vupik-owned arable land for the production in the biogas plant.
The factory is to employ some 200 people.
Croatia is expected to raise the biofuels' share in transport fuels to 5.75 percent by 2012 and to 20 percent by 2020, parliamentary deputy Petar Mlinaric said at the ceremony.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

US Environmental Power and Xergi Collaboration Extended

2009-05-17T01:44:00.000-07:00

Environmental Power, the US a developer which is an owner and operator of clean energy production facilities, which currently through their facilities generates significant quantities of tradeable carbon offset credits, has announced a new deal with Swedish renewables/ anaerobic digestion company Xergi.
The company is dedicated to producing energy that is clean, reliable and secure. Energy that uses waste materials instead of precious resources. Energy that is cost-effective, and available today. Energy that transcends conventional notions of what is possible, and that is for example - anaerobic digestion and biogas.
In their press release they tell us:
Environmental Power Announces Investment by Technology Provider Xergi A/S and New Cooperation Agreement
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., April 28, 2009 – Environmental Power Corporation, a leader in the renewable bioenergy industry, today announced that Xergi A/S of Denmark has entered into a new technology and financial agreement with them better reflecting EPG’s build / own / operate business model.
Under the terms of the new agreement, EPG and its wholly owned subsidiary, Microgy, Inc., will continue to have exclusive licensing rights for Xergi’s anaerobic digester technology in North America, while reducing the license fees on Microgy’s current and future projects. In addition, EPG and Xergi will continue to collaborate on development and use of other technologies and techniques such as the use of micro-organisms and enzymes, which enhance the production of biogas from manure and other organic substrates.
“This investment and agreement demonstrate Xergi’s continued confidence in Environmental Power’s business model and its commitment to support the company’s growth in the renewable energy market in North America. Together with Xergi, they will continue our work on technological advancements that will increase energy production from existing feed stocks, while lowering capital and operating costs for large-scale renewable energy projects,” said Rich Kessel, President and CEO of Environmental Power.
“We look forward to developing innovative solutions that maximize renewable energy from agricultural and other waste organic feed stock.”

“Environmental Power and its subsidiary Microgy have established themselves as the leader in development and commercialization of RNG® projects in North America,” said Frank Rosager, President and CEO of Xergi.

“We look forward to learning more about how to produce the equivalent of Environmental Power’s RNG® product in Europe while supporting Environmental Power’s continued growth in North America. This is truly a mutually beneficial relationship.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas Plant Plan - Cumbrian Farmers to Generate Own Energy

2009-05-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

Cumbrian farmers to generate own energy through biogas plan
Farmers in Cumbria are teaming up to develop anaerobic digestion facilities to generate their own renewable energy from agricultural waste.
Community Renewable Energy North West (CoRE NW), a group based in Workington, plans to set up a number of co-operatives to develop the plants, which will produce electricity and heat from farmers' manure and silage.
The first plant is to be developed at Middle Farm in Silloth, in the north west of the county, and could secure planning permission next spring. A feasibility study is currently under way, with 10 farmers interested in getting involved.
Hopes are that the £3.5 million digester could be commissioned by the end of 2010, producing just under 1MW of power - around seven million kWh units a year, or enough electricity to supply about 2,000 homes.
Plans are to use heat produced by the facility in the farm's four large chicken sheds, as well as to the next-door cement block factory.
Social enterprise NRG NorthEast Renewables Group is to supply and install the digester, subject to planning permission, with technology expected to be supplied by German biogas company Biogas Hochreiter.
The project will see local farmers owning the new anaerobic digester along with CoRE NW itself, while NRG will be a minor stakeholder.
Core NW has set up an energy supply company (ESCo) to manage energy sales, with expectations that the facility could bring in £1.2 million a year, achieving payback in around six years. Profits from the project - around £100,000 a year - will go towards setting up three more anaerobic digestion plants in the area, as well as supporting other community renewable energy projects.
Research behind the project has suggested that farmers involved in an anaerobic digestion scheme could see an annual income of £20,000, along with up to £16,300 for supplying materials and dividends averaging £10,000 a year. Digestion
Anaerobic digestion involves bacterial feeding on organic material in large tanks, producing a methane-rich biogas that can be used to generate energy, as well as a residue that can be used as a fertiliser.
It is seen as a particularly attractive technology for north west Cumbria, since the region has a high density of dairy farms, which produce a considerable amount of manure and slurry, which is difficult to deal with under new legal controls.
CoRE NW said digestion plants could effectively double the profitability of dairy farmers.
Mike Pearson, who owns the farm where the first digester is being proposed, said: "We think this a great way forward for Cumbrian farmers. As well as increasing our income, it also means we reduce our usage of chemicals and produce renewable energy."
Initial work on the Middle Farm project was funded by West Cumbria social enterprise project The Hub, which is run by Lancashire-based industrial and provident society Co-operative and Mutual Solutions.
Feedstock for the plant is likely to inclure 20,000 tonnes of slurry, 10,000 tonnes of silage from currently unproductive land and 3,000 tonnes of chicken manure. Some 10,000 tonnes of food waste from Lakeland Creameries and other local sources could also be used in the plant.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Hear Best Practice Case Studies from 14 Biogas Producers

2009-05-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

London, UK: 1 - 2, July 2009 Strategies & Challenges in Scaling up Biogas Production5th International Biogas networking event Key players in biogas project development, finance and policy will meet in London at Europe’s must attend biogas meeting to examine growth strategies, investment opportunities and technological advances in biogas production.
Benchmark your projects with best practice case studies from 14 biogas producers, including: E.on, National Grid, Veolia, Viridor Waste Management, Dalkia, Gruppo Hera, United Utilities, Greenstar, Essent Warme, Naturgas Energia, GWE Biogas and Göteborg Energi
Identify the key success factors in raising finance for your projects
Understand the latest policy initiatives and developments in the regulatory framework
Learn about new developments in biogas production from agri, waste, landfill, sewage and wastewater
Hear updates in grid distribution, electricity generation, cogen, heating & transport
Benefit from international insight and hear experiences from 9 countries including the advanced markets of Germany, Austria & Sweden
Hear expert advice in planning on-farm AD installations during a focused workshop led by Farming FuturesWith over 20 producers already confirmed to attend, this event will provide an excellent platform for knowledge transfer and for setting up new business deals.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

UK Tonnages of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Waste to be Made Available

2009-05-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

Those involved in anaerobic digestion will no doubt all welcome this information. For the first time the magnitude of the potential AD market in digestion of these wastes will be clear, however, it will be interesting to see how much wastage the food industry and supply cain will eradicate once awareness is raised! (BlogMaster)
New research led by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and Envirowise will calculate the total amount of fresh fruit and vegetable waste by product in the UK retail supply chain for the first time - and identify how to reduce it. A key outcome of the project is the development of detailed ‘resource maps’, which will identify the amounts of fresh produce and packaging waste generated for eleven products at key points in the supply chain1 - and calculate the equivalent carbon and economic impacts. Best practice guidance will be produced covering storage, handling and packaging, and reports will be made available for companies to benchmark themselves against the aggregated data. Opportunities for achieving environmental benefits and cost savings will also be identified. WRAP and Envirowise are urging the sector to take part in the research to help provide a detailed understanding of the waste produced across all components of the supply chain - from packhouses through distribution to back of store. Data collection will include a comprehensive industry literature review as well as company-specific waste prevention reviews carried out on-site. Charlotte Henderson, Retail Supply Chain Programme Manager at WRAP commented: “Understanding where and how much fresh produce food and packaging waste is generated at all points in the chain on a product by product basis will help to identify and develop the best solutions to reduce it. Implementing these solutions will enable considerable benefits to companies operating across the supply chain – economic and environmental – to be delivered and we would actively encourage companies to be part of this research.” The project is to be undertaken by research specialists Cranfield University, working with food and grocery supply chain experts IGD and the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), representing the fresh produce sector. “This partnership brings together expertise and knowledge of the complexities in the retail and wholesale supply chain in the UK,” commented Dr Leon Terry of Cranfield University. “We are delighted to carry out this essential research.” Nigel Jenney, Chief Executive of FPC, said: “We are encouraging our members, including retailers, wholesalers and distributors to participate in the project, which will provide valuable information for the fresh produce sector on how to quantify and reduce both food and packaging waste.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

New Biogas Information Pack

2009-05-10T04:38:00.001-07:00

UK - Due to the increasing interest in on-farm biogas production, Staffordshire-based EnviTec Biogas UK Ltd has produced a new information pack as a first step for farmers wishing to investigate this process further.
It contains a general description of the principles of anaerobic digestion process and its benefits to the environment.A comprehensive booklet provides detailed information on the contribution biogas production can make towards renewable energy production together with four examples of on-farm plants, ranging from family farms to large-scale energy suppliers.It also presents facts on EnviTec's parent company EnviTec Biogas AG - which recently completed the largest biogas production plant in the world, capable of producing 20MW.In addition, technical facts, a schematic setup for a biogas facility, and details of the services provided by EnviTec are provided.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas Nord Builds Fruit Waste Biogas Plant

2009-05-10T04:37:00.001-07:00

Project must have already installed.
GERMANY - Biogas Nord AG is to build a biogas plant at the Stute food factory in Paderborn, one of Europe's leading producers of fruit juices, jams, and preserves.
Rather than make use of renewable raw materials, the planned biogas plant is to run exclusively on waste organic matter from the Stute food factory, which it will transform into energy. This involves using the energy-rich waste residues from various fruits and vegetables as substrate for the biogas plant. The waste is placed in sealed fermenters, from which oxygen is drawn out.The aim is for the Stute production plant to use all the biogas that is recovered in this way.The biogas is to be used to generate the electricity and heat required to run the plant, and to act as a substitute for conventional natural gas."Our own in-house biogas plant will allow us optimise material flows and use the potential savings to offset rising energy costs," said Andreas Stute.The plant has been designed to provide one megawatt of heating capacity. Construction work is to begin in this month, with completion envisaged by the end of the year."We see enormous further potential in this sector of the market," said Gerrit Holz, board chairman at Biogas Nord. "The use of biogas technology is especially attractive for a company that runs an energy-intensive operation, as it allows it to use its own production waste as a cost-neutral substrate for the production of biogas."

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Finding Methods to Reduce GHG Emissions

2009-05-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

DENMARK - Increased use of biogas and production of willow chips are two areas in agriculture where it would make most sense from both the management and welfare-economic viewpoints to increase efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. These are the conclusions of a report from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries to which the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences has made important contributions.

A stronger focus on biogas can help reduce greenhouse gas emission, according to a new Danish report from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and to which the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences has made important contributions.Agriculture can make important contributions to reducing Denmark’s total emission of greenhouse gases.By concentrating on transforming animal manure to biogas, producing willow chips, using straw in CHP (combined heat and power) stations and restoring cultivated wetlands, agriculture can help reduce greenhouse gas emission by 2.7 million ton CO2-equivalents per year.These are the facts set out in a report from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.The ministry had requested an analysis of agricultural means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the consequences for management and economy of using these means.The potential of the four means mentioned for reducing greenhouse gases corresponds to just short of 70 per cent of the reduction potential for the15 means that were analysed in the report.Biogas and willow chips are particularly interesting according to one of the report’s authors, research professor Jørgen E. Olesen, Department of Agroecology and Environment."Both are means with positive effects on the environment as well as on reducing greenhouse gases. Biogas reduces nitrogen emission and odour problems, while willow production reduces pesticide use and nitrogen losses on land that is converted to willow growing," he said.Compensation Using Catch Crops
Using straw for fuel in CHP stations is emphasized, because energy production from the straw can replace that from fossil fuels. "Burning straw reduces input of carbon and nitrogen to farmland, which will reduce nitrous oxide emission and soil carbon storage," said Jørgen E. Olesen.However, the storage of carbon in the soil can be compensated by growing catch crops.Restoring cultivated wetlands is an interesting possibility, because the potential yield from these areas is relatively low. There is also the possibility of major environmental bonuses in the form of reduced nitrogen leaching and increased biodiversity.The report states that using the fibre fraction in animal manure in combined heat and power plants and anaerobic digestion of slurry for biogas production is interesting for agriculture, because of the scope for reducing the present land area requirements per livestock unit."The potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning the fibre fraction is moderate and the calculations show that the welfare-economic costs are relatively high. Since burning animal manure – just like the burning of straw for energy production – reduces soil carbon storage, the method must be considered less interesting from a climate policy point of view," added Prof Olesen.The methods have been selected on the basis of four conditions, i.e. reduction potential, welfare-economic reduction costs, environmental benefits in addition to greenhouse gas reduction, and effect on food production.The analysis was carried out by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at Aarhus University and the Institute of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Aquafuel tests new biogas cleanup technology

2009-05-02T01:49:00.000-07:00

A new biogas cleanup technology has successfully passed first-phase trials conducted by United Kingdom-based Aquafuel Research Ltd. The technology offers a low-cost treatment for landfill gas used in diesel engine electricity generators. Landfill gas, like sewage gas and other biogases, contains corrosive hydrogen sulfide which shortens the life of the lubrication oil in the engines used for electricity generation. Aquafuel’s technology doubles the life of the engine’s lubrication oil resulting in reduced oil consumption while reducing downtime and operational costs. Paul Day, Aquafuel CEO, explained that the company’s system reduces costs by treating only the portion of acidic sulfur gases that ends up in the crankcase – or about 5 percent of the total gas. “It’s [in the crankcase] that the vital damage is done by degrading the lube oil,” Day said. “This is where we protect, rather than scrubbing the whole incoming fuel.” The company estimates the process will work for one-tenth the capital and operational cost of conventional biogas scrubbing systems. Aquafuel’s technology also senses and remotely monitors hydrogen sulfide levels in incoming gas, and automatically matches the dosing.
Aquafuel has run over 1,000 hours of trials at a European site with very high levels of hydrogen sulfide in the incoming gas flow. Lube oil consumption was reduced 57 percent in the trials. The engine was independently examined after the trials to verify no adverse effects occurred. Due to longer gaps between oil changes, the associated engine downtime was reduced by about 50 percent. Aquafuel is continuing second-phase trials on the same site to validate its automatic system monitoring the doses of consumables used to cleanup the gas. Detailed running costs will be calculated at the end of the full trial, but preliminary results indicate the final total savings will be around 30 percent, Day said. All phases of the trial are being monitored and verified by an independent consultant, and a full report will be available on completion. The company expects its technology to be commercially available in the third quarter of 2009. “Landfill gas is an important energy source worldwide. Unlike natural gas its electricity is renewable, and it prevents emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas,” Day said. “Our cost effective technology makes electricity from landfill gas, bio gas and sewage gas more competitive by dramatically lowering operational costs.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

California adopts renewable fuels, vehicle plan

2009-04-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

The California Energy Commission has voted to adopt the state’s first Investment Plan for the Alternative and Renewable Fuels and Vehicle Technology Program, which allocates a total of $176 million over the next two years to stimulate green transportation projects and encourage innovation to help meet the state’s aggressive climate change policies. The Investment Plan seeks to expand the use of low-carbon fuels and cleaner vehicles that are available today, while opening the market for more exotic technologies that will be required in the future. Over the next two years, the plan allocates $12 million for advanced ethanol fuel production facilities and E85 fueling stations. Of that $12 million, $3 million is expected to support ethanol feedstock and project feasibility studies for new plants, $5 million will support the establishment of E85 fueling stations, and $4 million will be allocated for fuel production incentives for existing ethanol production plants and new pilot plants. “This program will provide an economic stimulus to create California jobs and businesses by encouraging the invention and in-state production of the fuels, technologies and services necessary for the future transportation system,” said Energy Commission Vice Chair James Boyd.
The Energy Commission’s first grant solicitation, released April 22, is focused on those who are applying to the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the funding of transportation projects. A public workshop will take place April 27 at the Energy Commission in Sacramento to discuss the solicitation’s objectives, process, timeline, and the potential projects that could be funded. For more information on the Investment Plan, please see “California Energy Commission to invest in ethanol.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Powerbase Energy to commercialize waste-to-energy technology

2009-04-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Canadian government is contributing up to $480,500 in repayable funding to Powerbase Energy Systems Inc. a company that designs, markets and services renewable energy systems in Carleton Place, Ontario. The funding, allotted over a three year period, will help Powerbase Energy train employees, and cover the cost of equipment and other eligible expenses related to the commercialization of its 250 kilowatt (kW) modular power-generating units that convert agricultural waste into energy. "We are very pleased to have the financial support of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the rollout of our Synergy Biogas product line. We are creating jobs locally and economic opportunities for farmers with renewable energy technology," said Rob Morley, president of Powerbase Energy. The company’s Synergy BioPower System involves a two-part process that transforms livestock and crushed oilseed waste into heat and electricity. Each modular system is capable of generating enough electricity to supply the electrical requirements of 200 homes. Each system also produces approximately 1 million British thermal units of heat energy per hour, which can be captured and utilized for a variety of on-farm applications. Excess electricity can also be sold to the Ontario power grid.
Commercialization of the Synergy BioPower Systems will provide farmers with additional income through the sale of surplus power to the Ontario power grid and will help reduce or eliminate their electricity costs. In addition to energy savings, other benefits include reducing greenhouse gases, manure odors and other pathogens in the environment, and simplifying the manure handling process. The compact Synergy BioPower System is manufactured in a factory and shipped to customers as a finished product to be commissioned and coupled with a Powerbase Energy designed and constructed anaerobic digester, according to David Robinson, manager of sales and marketing at Powerbase Energy. The company is also in the process of developing bio-oil produced from seed and bean crushing equipment. The $480,500 investment falls under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agri-Opportunities Program, a $134 million five-year program aimed at increasing market opportunities for the Canadian agriculture industry.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivakasulla@gmail.com

Her Majesty’s Biogas

2009-04-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

With natural gas production and landfill capacity declining, the U.K. is looking at converting waste to biogas and synthesis gas for heat, power, and fuels on a large scale

The natural gas fields in the North Sea, the body of water between the English Channel and the Norwegian Sea, are an important fossil fuel resource for the U.K. However, natural gas production there peaked in 2000 and has been declining sharply since 2003, according to the U.K.’s Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform in an October 2007 report titled “U.K. Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Production and Reserves.” Meanwhile, landfill capacity has also been declining. A common sight in London is a Thames River barge laden with rubbish-filled containers destined for landfills elsewhere. Alongside minerals, waste is among the two major types of freight cargos delivered to the wharves in greater London, according to an April 2007 report by Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd. titled “Assessment of Boatyard Facilities on the River Thames.” The report says one major waste disposal company employs 200 people and operates a fleet of six purpose-built tugs and 47 container barges to transport more than 600,000 metric tons of waste by river each year. This is despite the fact that the Waste Strategy employed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has managed to decrease the total waste delivered to landfills by one-fifth from 80 million tons to 65 million tons between 2000 and 2006, according to DEFRA’s waste strategy progress report for 2007-’08. Londoners now recycle 20 percent of their waste and send the rest to landfills or incinerators at rates of 57 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

DEFRA’s efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle are in support of the U.K.’s Climate Change Act, which became law Nov. 26, 2008, and which sets targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.K. by 80 percent of the 1990 level by 2050 and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 26 percent by 2020. DEFRA’s efforts also support actions at the European Union level, including the EU Landfill Directive, which aims to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfills by 35 percent of the 1995 level by 2020. “Local authorities in the U.K. all collect green waste for compost, but they have an obligation to divert as much biodegradable waste as possible from the landfill and so food waste is the next key element that needs to be captured and treated,” says Jeremy Jacobs, managing director of the Association for Organics Recycling, a trade organization for the biological waste management industry in the U.K. “Some will capture that with the green waste, but most of the work that is being done shows that collecting food waste separately gives you better capture rates and better participation by householders. [Also], you’ve got back-of-the-store wastes from the major supermarkets and you’ve got processors who are dealing with food waste all of the time who have the opportunity to provide significant volumes of this material consistently.” DEFRA’s efforts also support the EU’s goal of sourcing 20 percent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020. For the EU’s goal, the U.K. will need to increase its share of renewable energy from 1.5 percent in 2006 to 15 percent by 2020. The U.K. is expected to publish its renewable energy strategy this year. Energy From Waste To help the U.K. lessen its dependence on natural gas and to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills, National Grid, an international utility that delivers gas and electricity to households in the territory of Great Britain and the northeastern U.S., commissioned Ernst & Young to look at the potential for using anaerobic digestion and gasification in the U.K. to produce biogas and synthesis gas. The report found that up to half of the country’s domestic gas heating could be generated from manure, sewage, food waste and wood waste. The January 2009 report, titled “The Potential for Renewable Gas in the U.K,” has been delivered to the U.K.’s Department of Energy & Climate Change. “After we published the report, the phones were red-hot with waste companies and local waste management authorities contacting us,” says Isobel Rowley, press officer for National Grid. “It certainly rang a bell.” According to the report, a small quantity of biogas, approximately 1.4 billion cubic meters, is currently being produced in the U.K. from landfills and sewage plants. For the most part, the biogas is being used to generate electricity at a 30 percent efficiency rate. Jacobs says since BERR announced in June 2008 the department’s intentions to change how many Renewables Obligation Certificates it will award to renewable electricity producers based on the technologies they use, more companies are looking at using anaerobic digestion or gasification to earn double ROCs beginning in April 2009. “The appetite is greater now than it has been in the past because of the financial incentives,” Jacobs says, “and also because the price of energy has been extremely volatile. [In the current financial climate], proving the bankability of these projects is absolutely imperative; I think that the double ROCs will provide that. People who have been skeptical in the past now say that this is something which makes sense and payback is fairly quick.”

However, instead of using these technologies to generate electricity, National Grid says it would be more efficient—as much as 90 percent efficient—to scrub biogas and syngas to pipeline specifications and to inject the gas into the gas network, a practice already being deployed in Germany, France and Austria, and also by National Grid in Staten Island, N.Y. “Because we are basically running out of landfill, a lot of local authorities are looking at tying up long-term contracts for their waste disposal. Our concern is that it doesn’t all just go for incineration or for electricity generation, but that a good portion of it actually goes for biomethane, which we feel is a more efficient use of it,” says David Pickering, development manager in National Grid’s Sustainable Gas Group. The company says as much as 50 percent of the U.K.’s residential gas demand could be met with renewable energy if every person and business in the U.K. sorted and directed their waste to anaerobic digestion and gasification plants throughout the country. In London, a city that will host the Olympics in 2012, Dow Jones Architects LLP and the professional services firm Arup Group prepared a report for the Greater London Authority titled “Rubbish In—Resources Out: Design Ideas for Waste Facilities in London” that includes conceptual designs for anaerobic digestion and gasification facilities within the city.

The report supports London’s municipal waste management strategy, first published in 2003, that envisions that by 2020, 85 percent of the city’s waste will be managed within the city, up from 60 percent currently. The architects estimate that 328 hectares (811 acres) of land within the city will need to be utilized for 297 facilities, including 25 anaerobic digestion units and 11 gasification plants and supporting infrastructure. The architects suggest the facilities should be “bold and visible,” like little Wren churches built for practicing the renewable energy religion. Nationally, the cost to build the infrastructure to support using anaerobic digesters and gasification plants to produce enough biogas and syngas to satisfy 50 percent of the demand in the U.K. is £10 billion ($14 billion), National Grid says, or about £100 ($140) per megawatt-hour, which the company says is similar to the cost of generating electricity using off-shore wind towers. Policies Needed The key to building a biogas and syngas industry in the U.K. is government policy and regulation, National Grid says. Producers must be given a commercial incentive to inject gas into the grid rather than use it to generate electricity. National Grid proposes a “biomethane injection incentive” which would provide enhanced returns to producers when biogas or syngas is injected into the grid rather than used to produce electricity. “We’re working closely with DECC, which published a consultation paper back in February called the ‘Heat and Energy Saving Strategy’ for the U.K., which is about providing the right incentives for a whole raft of energy conservation measures, in particular, heat. [The consultation] specifically mentions biomethane as a contributor to the renewable energy mix. We’ll be responding to that consultation positively,” Pickering says. “Presently, the playing field is somewhat tilted against renewable heat technologies and toward renewable electricity technologies,” Pickering continues. “One of the things that we’ve argued for is this thing called the renewable heat incentive, [which will be determined] by April 2011 at the latest. We’re hoping to get some kind of reasonably firm indication from the government on the level of the incentive well before then so that projects can take it into account.” The “Heat and Energy Saving Strategy,” published jointly by DECC and the Department for Communities and Local Government, lays out the U.K. government’s vision for actions that should be taken through 2020 for “de-carbonizing” the way Brits heat their homes and businesses. The strategy is a request for input from the British people, which closed May 8. “It is clear that without financial support, renewable heat will not be forthcoming on the scale we need,” the strategy says. “We already provide such support for renewable electricity and renewable transport fuels.” The government says it plans to provide the incentive to all eligible renewable heat producers at all scales, from household- to industrial-scale generators. However, because renewable heat technologies vary widely in the amount of financial support they require to make them attractive, the renewable heat incentive will be applied differently for various technologies. The incentive amounts will be shared for consultation later this year. The incentives will be funded through a levy on fossil fuels used for heating.

In addition, National Grid says policies need to be in place to direct wet and dry wastes to appropriate facilities for conversion to energy. Finally, gas network owners who control the pipeline must be provided with incentives to connect the pipeline to biogas and syngas resources. National Grid says the government must continue to support research and development to improve biogas and syngas production and upgrade technologies. Government Action Meanwhile, the U.K. government is working on policies to support biogas production through anaerobic digestion. In February, DEFRA published shared goals for the anaerobic digestion industry in the U.K., which is supported by farmers, technology providers, supermarkets, water and energy utilities, waste handlers, and the food products industry, as well as government officials and regulators. A DEFRA task group will develop an implementation plan for the shared goals, which are to make anaerobic digestion an established technology in the U.K. for converting food waste to biogas, including both post-consumer food waste and industrial food waste. This includes a pledge from the Food and Drink Federation, the voice of the food and beverage industry in the U.K., to send zero food and packaging waste to landfills by 2015. DEFRA’s Milk Roadmap includes establishing anaerobic digesters at 30 dairy farms by 2010. For the farming sector in general, anaerobic digestion will be used to process food waste, crop residues and energy crops, in addition to manure. The ultimate vision is to have 1,000 farm-based anaerobic digesters in place by 2020. The implementation plan will include recommended regulations for encouraging growth in the use of anaerobic digestion.

To kick-start anaerobic digestion in the U.K., DEFRA is working with the Waste & Resources Action Program, a private nonprofit organization backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to construct three to six anaerobic digestion demonstration plants under the £10 million ($14 million) Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Program, which is being jointly funded by DEFRA and BERR through the Environmental Transformation Fund. WRAP has set aggressive targets for turning waste into energy. The program wants to divert 8 million metric tons of waste using anaerobic digestion and other approaches, with the goal of providing government, businesses and consumers with £1.1 billion ($2.2 billion) of economic impact by 2011. WRAP’s business plan for 2008-2011 includes developing a market for the solid digestate produced from anaerobic digestion. To this end, WRAP and The Environment Agency have developed a draft Quality Protocol, applicable for England and Wales, for the collection, storage, transport and use of digestate. The draft protocol was published in January and will be reviewed by the European Commission’s technical standards committee this year. “[The protocol] provides confidence in the market,” Jacobs says. “If you’re going to be using digestate in the future, you need to be sure that it meets a standard. It also means that this material will be a product—and not a waste—and so when it is spread to land, waste regulations don’t apply. It makes use of the digestate or the liquor fraction much easier for the processors.” Challenges Ahead Renewables obligation certificates, the proposed renewable heat incentive and the quality protocol for digestate will help to bring more anaerobic digester projects for converting food waste into biogas to fruition in the U.K. However, space and financial considerations will continue to be stumbling blocks. “We live in a small, crowded island in the U.K.,” Jacobs says, “and we have the issue around finding sustainable markets for digestate. I think planning is important in speeding up delivery of projects, because it seems to take an awfully long time to get anything built in this country. “They say a green waste composting facility takes 12 to 18 months and an industrial composting facility maybe two years and above,” Jacobs continues. “I suspect an anaerobic digestion facility would not be dissimilar. It should be quicker than that, because we need significantly more infrastructure to comply with our landfill directive obligations and our diversion targets.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

U.K. anaerobic digestion companies merge

2009-04-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

Two anaerobic digestion technology companies in the United Kingdom – Biogen Ltd. and Greenfinch Ltd. – will merge to form BiogenGreenfinch. The newly formed company will be supported by a $28 million investment from Bedfordia Group PLC, the parent company of Biogen, according to Dan Poulson, chief executive officer of BiogenGreenfinch. Established in 2005, Biogen funds, builds, and operates anaerobic digestion plants that convert food waste and animal manure slurry into biogas and fertilizer. Greenfinch is a process engineering company with more than 30 years of experience providing anaerobic digestion technology for the processing of sewage, manure, and food waste. Together, the companies have developed 12 anaerobic digestion plants throughout the U.K. The new company BiogenGreenfinch will employ 43 people. “Interest in anaerobic digestion has increased enormously over the past two years,” said Michael Chesshire, founder of Greenfinch and technology director of the new company. “BiogenGreenfinch brings together the expertise and resources of two pioneering companies which have invested heavily in the development of the technology.”

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Anaerobic digestion activities abound

2009-04-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Several projects centered on developing anaerobic digestion technology have emerged within the United States and United Kingdom in the past month. Michigan State University will utilize $3 million in state and foundation grants to construct an anaerobic digestion research and education center where technology could be developed for small-scale farms to turn animal waste into heat, electricity and other products. Researchers at the facility, to be colocated with the university’s farm animal and environmental research complex, will seek to develop and commercialize turnkey digesters and microturbine modules to address issues concerning food contamination, pollutant runoff, odor and greenhouse gas emissions from animal manure at small- to mid-sized farms. Additionally, MSU plans to test related equipment and processes, so the center can generate its own electricity. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2009. Pennsylvania-based Philadelphia Mixing Solutions introduced its Momentous Flow, a mixing technology for anaerobic digestion in wastewater, biofuel and agricultural markets. The system has a rotating component but no baffles to release trapped gas in the upper part of the vessel, creating a centrifugal force that pushes methane bubbles from anaerobic digestion to the center of rotation. They coalesce and escape from the liquid in a collection cap, thus the methane is harnessed to power digestion operations. The company said the technology significantly reduces or eliminates the need to power equipment from the grid. It also offers faster installation, lower operating and maintenance costs, and efficient generation of reusable energy from methane.
In the U.K., the government-funded Waste & Resources Action Program announced the launch of two funding opportunities offering the waste and recycling sector a total of £26 million ($33.8 million) to support various programs throughout the country. The Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Program will provide £10 million ($13 million) to support three to six projects in England focusing on the development of commercial-scale anaerobic digestion technology to maximize positive environmental impacts and cost-effective biogas production. Through the Organics Capital Grant Program, £16 million ($20.8 million) will be available to facilitate the development of a food and waste recycling infrastructure, such as in-vessel composting or anaerobic digestion. The program will be open to projects in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, aiming to increase the country’s capacity to convert landfill waste into approximately 400,000 metric tons of quality products by March 2011.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Biogas projects gain traction

2009-04-25T23:40:00.001-07:00

While the biogas market in Europe is well-developed, it has taken longer for the industry to gain a foothold in North America. However, recent biogas project announcements suggest this may be changing. In October, QuestAir Technologies Inc., a Canadian-based developer and supplier of gas purification systems, announced the company plans to focus largely on the biogas market. “We’ve been in a couple of different markets but really saw a great growth opportunity in biogas,” said Andrew Hall, QuestAir’s president and chief executive officer. The company uses a modular pressure swing absorption technology that separates impurities, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, from methane. The result is a renewable natural gas suitable for injection into natural gas pipelines or for use as compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation fuel. The technology can be applied at landfills and in combination with any entity making methane gas in anaerobic digesters, including wastewater treatment facilities and livestock operations. To date, QuestAir’s technology has been utilized in five biogas projects in North America and five in Europe. California-based Hilarides Dairy is using the technology to produce CNG, which is used to power milk trucks. Near Cincinnati, the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill is using QuestAir’s technology to purify landfill gas, which is then injected into a preexisting natural gas pipeline.
Biogas can also be used to produce electricity. In South Carolina, Allied Waste Industries Inc., a nonhazardous solid waste management company, and Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, have partnered to develop a biogas-to-electricity project at the Anderson Regional Landfill. The power generation facility began operating Sept. 1 and has the capacity to produce 3.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 1,500 homes. Biogas projects have continued to gain traction in Europe, as well. In October, Climate Change Capital Private Equity, a €200 million ($260 million) fund dedicated to clean technology, announced it would make a €6 million ($7.8 million) investment in England-based Renewable Zukunft Ltd. The funding will allow Renewable Zukunft to partner with farmers and other organizations to develop anaerobic digestion plants, each capable of producing 10 million kilowatts of electricity annually. In addition, U.K.-based Biogas Nord recently constructed a 370-kilowatt-per-year biogas plant in the U.K. The plant’s feedstocks include liquid cattle manure, corn and grass silage.
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

World Bank loans money to China for biogas project

2009-04-25T23:39:00.001-07:00

The World Bank has announced that it will invest $120 million in China’s National Rural Biogas Program to use anaerobic digestion to process waste to produce biogas for cooking. The grant will help farmers in China’s Anhui, Hunan, Guangxi and Hubei provinces and Chongqing municipality residents improve their living conditions by using anaerobic digestion to process human, livestock, plant agricultural, and organic household waste to produce biogas for cooking. The $120 million loan from The World Bank will be used to build the digesters, which will be 2,000-gallons to 2,500-gallons (8-10-cubic-meter) in volume apiece, and to pipe the biogas to individual homes. The loan will help improve kitchens to include gas-burning stoves and the funds will also be used to build animal sheds and household toilet facilities. A portion of the funding will go to train and equip farmers and technicians to maintain and fix the anaerobic digestion and biogas delivery systems. The World Bank said the general benefits of the project include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the combustion of methane and the reduced burning of coal and firewood for cooking. Rural Chinese households will benefit directly from a decrease in respiratory and eye ailments associated with smoke from traditional fuel stoves, as well as from a decrease in the overall quantity of pathogens in their homes. Farmers will benefit from using the effluent from the digesters as fertilizer and Chinese women, especially, will benefit from reduced labor associated with collecting firewood for cooking.
The World Bank said China has invested more than $375 million in its National Rural Biogas Program. Launched in 2001, the program has helped approximately 7.2 million rural Chinese households begin cooking with biogas. Previous biogas campaigns in the 1950s and 1970s encountered difficulties with immature technology and inadequate support systems, according to The World Bank.

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Schmack Biogas to build second of 20 proposed biogas plants

2009-04-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

German-based Schmack Biogas has signed an agreement with Italian power plant operator Fri-El Green Power to build a 1-megawatt biogas plant near Rivigo in northeast Italy. Construction was slated to begin in January. This would be the second of 20 proposed biogas plants that Schmack agreed to build with Fri-El in a letter of intent signed earlier this year. The first plant, located in Codroipo, Italy, has begun production and is expected to be fully operational by mid-2009.
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Residents oppose proposed biomass power plant

2009-04-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

Given the rough economic times, one would think that communities would welcome a company or business planning to bring new jobs to the area. Despite the potential for economic benefits, some residents are wary of new biomass projects. Residents of Russell, Mass., a town of about 1,650, have recently reiterated their long-standing opposition to the construction of a 50-megawatt woody biomass power plant on the banks of the Westfield River. The project has generated concerns since Russell Biomass LLC unveiled its plans in 2005. Although Russell Biomass has indicated the plant will have numerous benefits including lowering taxes and electricity bills, creating 50 direct full-time jobs and 200 additional indirect jobs, funding for an annual student scholarship and reducing fossil fuel consumption, some people have reservations, particularly about the amount of water it will draw from the Westfield River for cooling purposes. On a Web site (http://www.concernedcitizensofrussell.org/) created for residents who oppose the plant, it says that “many believe that the river simply cannot remain as healthy and clean as it is if Russell Biomass withdraws 800,000-plus gallons of water daily, with about 100,000 gallons returned to the river warm and polluted.” The Web site also says the river has been experiencing historically unprecedented drought conditions. Numerous other reasons are listed as to why the plant should not be built in its proposed locations
Water use wasn’t an issue with the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency, however, as it granted Russell Biomass a Water Management Act Permit early last year, which is valid until 2012. Prior to the issuance of the permit MEPA received more than 200 letters of concern regarding the plant. The agency balances a variety of factors before they grant water permits, including reasonable protection of existing water uses, land values, investments and enterprises; reasonable conservation consistent with efficient water use; reasonable protection of public drinking water supplies, water quality, wastewater treatment capacity, waste assimilation capacity, groundwater recharge areas, navigation, hydropower resources, water-based recreation, wetland habitat, fish and wildlife, agriculture, and flood plains; and reasonable economic development and job creation. So what role does water play in biomass power plants, does it differ with the type of plant, and does it have a profound effect on the environment? Peter Flynn, a University of Alberta professor and biomass power plant expert, explained that different types of biomass power plants use different amounts of water, but the method used to cool the water is something to seriously consider. The Russell Biomass power plant will be a single-cycle, stand-alone facility. The company said DEP regulations permit the withdrawing of 55 million gallons per day from the river, but the plant will withdraw less than half of that amount. One question that has risen among critics of the plant is that the company has chosen to use water when there is air cooling technology available. “Why would someone choose water over air?” Flynn said. “It’s cheaper, there’s better heat transfer, and on a hot day your efficiency of power generation depends on how cool your cooling medium is. If it is 100 degrees Fahrenheit and you’re trying to cool steam against air, you might only get the steam down to 120 degrees and that’s a much higher pressure than there would be on a winter day, when it’s minus 20 and you can cool to zero. Also, you need more surface area to transfer the heat down, so it’s a bigger capital expense.” Flynn said when using water for cooling, the next thing a company must decide is whether the plant will be a once-through system, which is rare and tough to get permitted, or if a cooling pond will be built, where water is sent to release heat into the atmosphere before it is returned to the water source. “Most stand-alone power plants have cooling ponds—they’re using only a tiny bit of make-up water.” Other devices for cooling may be used, as well. The Russell Biomass plant will have a mechanical draft evaporative cooling tower which will withdraw water from the Westfield River via an existing intake structure. “A cooling tower sucks air through warm water to cool it down,” Flynn said. Russell Biomass said the company will increase the river temperature at the site by one-fourth of a degree on average and by no more than 1 degree on the coldest winter day. DEP regulations allow for a temperature increase of 5 degrees, at the proposed location. Can warmer water affect fish and other water-dwellers? “It’s really a site-by-site type of question,” Flynn said. “Warm water holds less oxygen than cold water. If you had the Amazon River going by, and put a 5,000 megawatt power plant nearby, you’d never even know.” Despite the opposition, the plant will be built. A company spokesman told Biomass Magazine that the company expects to have all necessary permits in order by October, and begin construction in late summer 2010.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

SDTC, North Carolina fund biomass projects

2009-04-25T06:23:00.001-07:00

Several biomass projects in the U.S. and Canada have received grants to help accelerate their biomass projects. In the U.S., the Biofuels Center of North Carolina awarded $584,000 to three biomass-to-liquid fuel-related projects within the state. The impetus behind the funding is help trigger the state’s renewable fuels standard, which mandates that, by 2017, all liquid fuels sold in North Carolina must come from locally grown and produced biofuels. The Biofuels Center is tasked to implement this initiative. Notable recipients of this funding include: ›Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park, N.C., which is developing technologies to remove tars and other impurities from biomass-derived synthesis gas. ›Abell Foundation, which is working collaboratively with energy crop research and development company Ceres Inc. and gasification technology company ThermoChem Recovery International Inc. to identify which energy crops could be grown in the state for thermochemical conversion to gases and liquids. The crops will be tested for their conversion potential at ThermoChem’s gasification plant in Durham, N.C. ›North Carolina State University in Raleigh plans to demonstrate the use of a viable torrefaction pretreatment process in conjunction with a gasification process to produce liquid transportation fuels from woody biomass.
In Canada, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a nonprofit that finances emerging clean technologies, awarded $53 million to 16 new clean energy projects, three of which involve biomass technologies. Recipients of this funding include: ›Alterna Energy Inc., which aims to develop a multimodule biocarbon production facility that will convert 121,000 tons of woody biomass into 27,500 tons of biocarbon. ›Performance Plants Inc. plans to demonstrate improved cellulosic ethanol conversion processes by advancing trait development technologies that break down cellulose efficiently into biofuels and biochemicals. ›Greenfield Ethanol Inc. intends to develop a biochemical technology process for lignocellulosic ethanol production using corncobs as feedstock. If successful, Greenfield Ethanol says it could produce approximately 70 MMly (18 MMgy) of cellulosic ethanol from corncobs by 2015.

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Covanta to build waste-to-energy plant in England

2009-04-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

New Jersey-based Covanta Energy Corp. has purchased land in Northwest England and submitted an application for planning approval to build a new waste-to-energy plant in Cheshire County, according to the North of England Inward Investment Agency. The North of England Inward Investment Agency is a British government-funded consultancy and UK-based inward investment agency, which advises and assists North American companies considering U.K./European expansion. Covanta’s new facility will convert Cheshire County’s residential waste into enough electricity to power up to 50,000 local homes. The company plans to utilize a mix of commercial and industrial wastes from shops, offices and other businesses in the region. In addition to employing about 300 workers during its construction, the facility will create 50 permanent jobs upon completion. Beyond providing residential electricity, Covanta will provide combined heat and power to British Salt, a major local employer. The company said it is also participating in ongoing discussions with other local businesses about using combined heat and power to see how they might benefit from the new facility. The Cheshire County project is the second U.K.-based plant Covanta has announced in recent months. In February, the company unveiled plans to build a 70-megawatt waste-to-energy plant in Merthyr, Wales, that will produce enough electricity to power up to 180,000 homes.
The $575 million plant will be linked to rail-operated waste transfer stations across Wales, including municipal, commercial and industrial landfill sites. The facility is expected to process 875,000 tons of waste annually. Covanta Energy currently operates 38 waste-to-energy facilities in North America, Europe and Asia.

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Taking Anaerobic Digestion by Storm

2009-04-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Ontario, Canada-based StormFisher Biogas is ready to cause a whirlwind of activity with its plans to develop up to 30 anaerobic digestion plants in North America within the next five years.

In the world of renewable energy, anaerobic digestion has swept across the globe like an epidemic. In today’s economy, alternatives to ever-volatile energy costs are being aggressively pursued. Although the concept of transforming what would normally be disposed of as waste into useable energy is not new, its applicability has expanded considerably. In addition to being a cheaper energy source, to some businesses it is a way to alleviate costly tipping fees associated with waste disposal. That‘s what StormFisher Biogas is counting on as it develops projects for up to 30 anaerobic digestion plants in North America. Although the company is only a few years old, it has set its goals high—and has $350 million in capital to fuel its efforts. Based in Ontario, Canada, StormFisher sees the value of being versatile. Leaning slightly away from the trend toward on-site farm animal manure digestion, the company is preparing to accept byproducts from beef, fruit and vegetable processing, brewing, winemaking and distilling, and ethanol, biodiesel, rendering and dairy operations that will be transported to strategically located digestion plants. Ryan Little, vice president of StormFisher business development, says the initial appeal for businesses to contract their waste with StormFisher is to gain access to a cheaper alternative than landfill disposal. From a consumer’s perspective, businesses would be seen in a more positive light, especially those involved in food manufacturing, if they are contributing to clean energy and sustainability, rather than adding to crowded landfills and emitting foul odors and pathogens.

Taking Off London, Ontario, will soon be home to StormFisher’s flagship project—the company’s first $15 million biogas plant. Construction is slated to start in July, and Little says it has been long awaited. “Initially, we had planned to be operational this year, but since it’s the first of its kind in Ontario the regulatory aspects are taking longer than we had anticipated,” he says. “There are lots of moving parts in this business—from feedstock to energy off-take to [carbon dioxide], construction strategy and regulations—all of it is coming together pretty nicely, but it has been a long haul for sure.” The London plant, which should be operational in the spring of 2010, will utilize approximately 140,000 tons of food processing waste from local grocery stores, meat processing plants and industrial bakeries. With an output of about 2.8 megawatts (MWs), Little says the plant will be able to supply power to about 2,800 houses. “That number could vary depending on whether they leave the lights on or run the dishwasher a lot,” he jokes. “But I use the proxy of one house per kilowatt—which is about the equivalent of 2,800.” StormFisher will construct, own and operate all of its plants, and sell the energy to the Ontario government for use in its power grid. Little says the company was formed partly in response to the province’s Standard Offer Program, a feed-in tariff that was put in place in Ontario at the beginning of 2007. Feed-in tariffs are incentives to encourage the adoption of renewable energy through government legislation. Regional or national electric utilities are obligated to buy renewable electricity at above market rates, which are set by the government, to help overcome any cost disadvantages of using renewable energy sources. According to the program criteria, biogas projects under 10 megawatts are paid 11 cents per kilowatt hour. Spain, the U.K. and Australia have all adopted feed-in tariffs. “My co-founders and I viewed the enactment of the tariff as a chance to level the playing field and let entrepreneurs, rather than utility companies that had been developing 120-megawatt wind projects before, gain access to this market,” Little says. “So that’s what got us started—our goal was to start something that was environmentally friendly, one way or another.” After extensive research and analysis of many different renewable energy technologies, Little and StormFisher co-founders, Bas Van Berkel and Christopher Guillon, believe that from an entrepreneurial standpoint, there is a huge opportunity for biogas, not just in Ontario but across North America. “It’s something that made sense—taking a waste product and being able to create something valuable, in terms of the energy and fertilizer,” Little says. “The three of us started that way, and attracted interest from a Boston private equity company (Denham Capital Management), which is supporting us for 30 projects over a period of five years. We’ve grown to a company of about 25 to 30 people, and now have our noses to the grindstone.” Development Methodology When selecting a site for a biogas plant, as with plants of any type, several logistical issues must be considered. “Really, it’s a soup of things,” Little says. “The first thing we look for is a location that is a willing host—a province or state that supports green energy and wants a plant. It makes things a lot easier if they are on our side rather than resistant; some places just aren’t keen on these types of things. We look at environmental regulations and whether they are supportive.”

Another key factor is power—and the potential to enter into a long-term, fixed-rate contract. “Ontario’s been great that way,” Little says. “The government will buy all the power we create at a fixed price for 20 years.” In the U.S., Wisconsin is considering a similar program that could kick in toward the end of the year, and there are 10 to 20 other states looking at feed-in tariffs. The next step is to analyze feedstock market dynamics. “It’s great if there is a huge food processing industry with tons of byproducts being generated,” Little says. “But if there are landfills nearby that take it for $10 per ton, it doesn’t work out as well. We look for places that need to responsibly manage these byproducts.” In many cases, tipping and transportation fees can be more than $100 per ton, he says. Feedstock logistics could influence not only the location but also the size of the plant. “It depends on how much feedstock is available in a certain area, because we don’t want to be trucking it in too far,” Little says. StormFisher’s 2.8 MW London plant will be one of the company’s smallest plants. The company also plans to build a second plant in DeForest, Wis., which will produce 5 MW and will likely be the maximum size of StormFisher’s plants. “If more feedstocks are available, we could go bigger,” he says. “We’d like to go bigger at some point, but five looks to be the maximum right now.”

Little says all materials will be transported via truck, but the hiring for trucking services will be done on a case-by-case basis. “A group using the same transport company for 30 years might want to maintain that relationship,” he says. In addition to the London and DeForest plants, StormFisher has developed a third project in Lethbridge, Alberta—a 3.2 MW plant that will power about 3,000 area homes. All necessary permits have been granted for this project, which is in its final stages of development and is slated to break ground in 2010. StormFisher’s plants will utilize a continuous digestion system, where organic matter is constantly added in stages to the reactor—rather than a batch system, where material is added to the reactor at the start of the process in a batch, and is sealed for the duration of the process. StormFisher doesn’t own its own technology and has no plans to develop one. The company prefers to work with technology suppliers on a plant-by-plant basis and hopes to emulate the successful biogas industry in countries such as Europe, where more than 5,000 biogas plants are in operation similar to the ones StormFisher is developing. Although the range of possibilities for plant locations is broad, StormFisher will focus on the most promising and welcoming areas. “Ontario, Wisconsin and Alberta are our current areas of focus right now,” Little says. “With being able to move ahead now—and the election of President Obama—it’s really an exciting time.”

SRINIVAS KASULLA

srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

The Value of Waste

2009-04-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

In 2007, only 2.6 percent of the nearly 29.2 million metric tons of organic waste generated in North America was recovered, due to inefficient collection processes. Organic Resource Management in Ontario, Canada, is on a mission to make sure that waste doesn’t go to waste.

In 1981, Charles Buehler set out to solve the “organics diversion” dilemma to find an alternative disposal system for liquid organic residuals rather than disposing of it in a landfill. The alternative he sought would deliver cost-effective, environmentally sustainable solutions for managing organic residuals and provide efficient customer service. Eight years later, Buehler established Organic Resource Management Inc. in Woodbridge, Ontario, which specialized in the infield composting process and direct-land application of processed waste, but he soon realized that the two processes were not enough to sustain the business. After attending a conference and tradeshow on biogas and touring an anaerobic digestion facility in Germany, Buehler decided to expand the company’s waste management services. Since then, ORMI has pioneered the collection, processing and management of liquid organic residuals, and has developed proprietary systems specifically for preparing and optimizing the energy value of organic residuals for reuse. Redirecting Organic Waste While ORMI was one of the first companies to dispose of organic residuals using the process of direct-land application, the company found that the process incurred regulatory issues with odor management that made it difficult to sustain. ORMI soon turned to anaerobic digestion as a low-cost, long-term recycling solution for organic waste. The company has since grown and now specializes in the collection of nonhazardous liquid organic residuals for delivery to recycling facilities and anaerobic digester locations for energy production and composting.
Industrial food and beverage processors such as restaurants, cafeterias and grocery stores typically generate large quantities of organic waste that must be removed from their wastewater prior to releasing it into the municipal sewer system. In most cases, grease interceptors and dissolved air flotation systems are not efficient enough, and other pretreatment technologies are required. ORMI provides its services to more than 8,000 food and beverage processing facilities in Ontario, Québec and Lower Mainland British Columbia that are challenged by managing wastewater effluent quality to meet sewer use bylaw limits. Using a fleet of specialized vacuum trucks, ORMI collects and transports liquid residuals to recycling facilities on a 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-a-week basis. The residuals are taken to the company’s processing facilities to remove any excess water and are then transported to recycling and anaerobic digester locations. In 2008, ORMI successfully demonstrated the process of converting organic residuals into valuable high-energy feedstock for the production of biogas. Armed with its financially viable technology for handling organic residuals, the company created the Organic Resource Recovery System. The process provides on-site management of solid organic food waste, grinding the material into slurry. The residuals are then stored on-site where they are hydrolyzed and acidified in preparation for anaerobic digestion. The system, which includes a mill, holding tank and vacuum truck, reduces total waste volume by an average of 5:1. Despite being developed and patented in 1995, the ORRS process is not yet fully commercialized. Buehler reports, however, that the ORRS system has been working well in terms of cleanliness and odor issues at its two generator locations at Loblaws grocery store and Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto. “ORMI has continued to grow its core business right up to and through our last quarter,” Buehler says. “We felt that with the anaerobic digestion world starting to move, it was the right time to completely focus on our core business, [which] allowed us to strengthen our balance sheet going into these uncertain economic times.” On-Farm Contracts ORMI has secured an exclusive 20-year organic residual supply agreement with four Ontario farm-based anaerobic digesters. The company supplies 5,000 metric tons per year of liquid organic waste to Clearydale Farms in Spencerville, Donnandale Farms Inc. in Stirling, and Ledgecroft Farms Inc. in Seeley’s Bay. The company pays a “tip fee” that is adjusted based on the amount of gas generated. ORMI also supplies 4,500 metric tons of organic residuals to Fepro Farms in Cobden. Of the 19,000 metric tons of off-farm feedstock supplied, more than 2,000 kilowatts of electricity are generated. “We have worked with ORMI for about two years now,” says Paul Klaesi of Fepro Farms who has owned and operated an on-farm anaerobic digester since the spring of 2003. “Before working with [ORMI] we were running on farm manure and producing about 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per day. Now we produce nearly 1,400.” On-farm anaerobic digestion of manure creates biogas, which is composed of methane and carbon dioxide and can be used to generate electricity and heat. The liquid organic residuals collected by ORMI have helped produce four to 10 times more biogas than manure alone, and is an ideal feedstock when used with manure for anaerobic digesters. “An important concept to remember, and one that often gets overlooked or its importance underestimated, is that ORMI significantly improves the value of an anaerobic digester and the organic residuals it collects,” Buehler says. “We are able to blend and control the type and quality of the feedstock, making the operation of the anaerobic digester much more efficient than if it were run using raw, unprocessed organic waste.” Using anaerobic digesters to process liquid organic residuals helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the reliance on landfills. The process also helps reduce odor and pathogens and improves the nutrient availability in the digestate, which can be used as an organic fertilizer to spread on farm fields.
Remaining Competitive According to ORMI’s 2008 annual report, the company says it believes that anaerobic digestion has not emerged previously in North America primarily because of an abundant supply of relatively low-cost energy. Anaerobic digestion has been successful in Europe due to its appropriately priced energy markets that support the purchase of electricity generated by the system, positioning organic residuals as a low-cost recycling solution. In Ontario, ORMI’s market, pricing regime and operational policies are slowly changing in favor of anaerobic digestion, but much progress is still needed. Currently, two government incentive programs exist in Ontario to drive the development of anaerobic digestion. The Ontario Biogas Systems Financial Assistance Program encourages the production of clean energy generating systems such as anaerobic digesters for biogas energy production within the province. The program assists farmers and rural businesses in formulating feasibility studies for the installation of biogas systems in addition to covering a portion of the construction and implementation costs. The Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program encourages the development of small renewable energy generators of clean, renewable electricity to contribute to the Ontario power grid. Generators can receive up to 11 cents per kWh.
Much of ORMI’s success depends on remaining competitive in the rapidly growing anaerobic digestion market. Competition in the nonhazardous liquid waste service industry has increased over the years from within the industry and other companies diversifying into the field. The challenge is for ORMI to overcome the capital cost of installing its ORRS equipment as compared with other collection alternatives. A lack of readily available, low-cost organic recycling alternatives in North America is another major constraint to the advancement of its system. ORMI also continues to build its knowledge base on various types of recycling and disposal alternatives. The company is working with the University of Guelph through the Ontario Centre of Excellence to conduct a project titled, “The Economics and Feasibility of the Co-Substrates Anaerobic Digest for Farms in Ontario.” The study investigates the costs and benefits associated with on- and off-farm waste streams and centralized anaerobic digesters, and helps determine strategies to control low-cost recycling and disposal alternatives within the organic waste market. ORMI sees a tremendous opportunity in the diversion of organic residuals from North American landfills, which combines both the concept of recycling and renewable energy through the process of anaerobic digestion. “We continue to forge ahead developing systems and infrastructure to position ourselves to take advantage of what we believe will be an unprecedented growth opportunity as the biogas renewable energy industry emerges in Canada and the United States,” Buehler says. “We believe that the convergence of organics recycling with renewable energy through anaerobic digestion will create an excellent opportunity [for the company as well as the biogas industry].”

SRINIVAS KASULLA
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Central Valley dairy farmer shows UN delegates how he got off the grid

2009-04-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Larry Castelanelli’s Holsteins on his Lodi-area dairy farm turn out 13,600 gallons of milk every day. And 160,000 watts of power.
Simply put, Mr. Castelanelli is using an on-farm manure digester to make methane gas which is used to power a generator that makes the electricity the farm uses.
The project was highlighted Monday when a delegation from the United Nations toured the farm as part of a two-day trip to the Central Valley to learn more about sustainable agriculture. Delegates came from Bangladesh, Portugal, the Republic of Congo and the Republic of Korea.
“I looked at the whole thing as ‘what’s the worst scenario,’” Mr. Castelanelli says in explaining why he went to the trouble and expense – about $800,000 – to put in the system. “It’d be nice to be self-sufficient and produce our own energy and get off the grid but the worst scenario was that if it didn’t work, we’ve still got a few things we can use here.”
The bottom line economics of the system are still up in the air, he says.
“I have no idea what it’s going to make. The rules and laws are still being changed,” he says. While feeding excess power back into the grid is a simple task for his system, the local utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., does not pay enough to make it worthwhile, he says.
The farm already has enough cows and the resulting waste to double its production of electricity, if there were adequate income, Mr. Castelanelli says.
A spokesman for PG&E on Tuesday said when a farm customer generates his own power, it can offset their regular electric bill, but the company is not permited by the California Public Utilities Commission from buying farm-generated excess power.
The concept of the system is a simple one, says Pete Dalla-Betta, an environmental scientist for RCM Digesters of Oakland, who designed the system.
The milking parlor and cow sheds are flushed with fresh well water three times a day. The effluent makes it into the power system.
“In the digester the manure can spend between 40 and 60 days, depending on the flush volume,” Mr. Dalla-Betta says. The digester – a pond with earthen walls 12 feet high -- covers two acres of land. The liquid is completely covered with a thick rubber sheet, strong enough to walk on.
“In that time period, about one-third of the organic matter is converted to biogas,” he says.
The system could be installed on dairy farms throughout the Central Valley if there were enough economic incentives and more encouragement from the government, says Vince Furtado, a field representative for Western United Dairymen in Modesto.
“With the demands we have for power in this state, I think we’ve got a valuable resource here than can help out in meeting our energy demands,” Mr. Furtado says. “If we can work with the utility companies to want to take some of the power that we can generate, it would be good for everybody,” he says.
The powerhouse where the generator runs around the clock sits below the berm. While loud, the generator is located nearly a mile from the nearest residence.
There are other advantages to the “flush system” used at the Castelanelli farm, says Kristen Hughes of Sustainable Conservation of Modesto and San Francisco.
“Flush systems may be ideal for reducing some of the volatile organic compounds and gases that are coming off of dairies. These gases can produce ozone,” Ms. Hughes says.
“So this system is not only reducing emissions from the lagoons, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s also set up so Larry can flush regularly and cut down emissions from the free stall area as well,” she says.
The Castelanelli power system was selected to be on the tour as a good example of technological improvements being tried by California farmers, says Robert Hodgen, vice president of J.D. Heiskell Holdings LLC of Tulare and one of the organizers of the tour.
“The methane digester here at the Castelanelli dairy we feel is an important part of sustainability and one of the more technologically advanced parts of agriculture here in California,” Mr. Hodgen says.
But getting to the point where his family farm is featured on a Central Valley tour of bigwigs has not been without its problems, Mr. Castelanelli says. In addition to the costs and the usual problems inherent in building anything new has come the disappointment in trying to sell his power to PG&E, he says.
Would he do it again?
“If I was getting paid what I should be getting paid for electricity, it’d be worth it,” Mr. Castelanelli says. “Because of the law and the way it is written, I’d question doing it again.”

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Tapping the Latent Power in What's Left Around the Barnyard

2009-04-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

In a sense, it is the ultimate renewable source of fuel. Weather anomalies can kill off corn crops, calm the winds, obscure the sun — but through rain or shine, gusts or stillness, cows and hogs and turkeys spew forth a steady stream of manure, one of nature's richest sources of methane, a principal component of natural gas.
And now, farmers and entrepreneurs are recognizing that this immutable fact can yield a steady stream of revenue and profit, too. Slowly, but steadily, they are replacing the malodorous lagoons used to treat the waste with machines that can wrest energy from excrement.
According to AgStar, a federal program that promotes the conversion of manure to energy, there are more than 100 anaerobic digesters — devices that create an oxygen-free atmosphere in which bacteria digest manure and release gas — operating in the United States today, with another 80 on the drawing boards.
"These are the only kinds of waste management systems that can actually put money in farmers' pockets," said Kurt Roos, program manager of AgStar.
There are a number of reasons for the new spotlight on what is called brown energy. Oil and gas prices have soared, even as environmentalists have sounded alarms about climate change. In the last two years, various state and federal agencies have subsidized purchases of digesters, since they capture methane — a potent greenhouse gas — before it escapes into the atmosphere. Many utilities operate in states that require them to include environmentally aware energy sources in their portfolios. They will often accept manure gas, since many farms have installed equipment to clean it.
In fact, more utilities are thinking of buying the gas outright. Pacific Gas and Electric has agreed to transport gas from a big digester that Microgy, a digester manufacturer, is building in California. Right now Microgy plans to sell the gas on the open market, but Robert Howard, vice president for gas transmission and distribution, said P.G.& E. may buy some gas itself. "This technology provides pipeline-quality gas and reduces carbon emissions, so of course we're in favor it," he said.
The environmental boons are many. According to Agstar, digesters are already keeping 66,000 tons of methane from escaping each year into the atmosphere, while generating enough energy to power more than 20,000 homes.
And technologies, some of which have been around for decades, have finally grown more reliable. "There's been a lot of time and energy spent on making these as effective and efficient as possible, so anaerobic digestion will be a growing business," said Daniel J. Mannes, vice president of Avondale Partners, a securities research firm that recently initiated coverage of the Environmental Power Corporation, the company in Portsmouth, N.H., that owns Microgy.
The potential market is huge. Agstar officials say that at least 70,000 dairy and swine farms are big enough to support a commercial digester and could collectively provide enough energy to power more than 560,000 homes, while keeping more than 1.4 million tons of methane out of the atmosphere.
"The business model of producing energy along with food will transform the economics of rural America," said Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, based in Washington.
Indeed, anaerobic digestion yields not just methane, but leftover liquids that farmers can use or sell as fertilizer, waste heat that can heat their homes and barns, and fibrous solids that make excellent bedding for cows. Farmers also save the costs of controlling odors and treating waste. "Two years ago I couldn't even convince farmers that digesters work," said Melissa Dvorak, marketing manager for GHD, a company based in Chilton, Wis., that sells digesters. "Now, all they ask is what the payback will be."
The deals are struck in different ways. In most cases, farmers buy digesters and either use the gas themselves, sell it to a utility, or use it to power a generator that feeds electricity to the utility's grid. In another model, the manufacturer owns the digester and sells the gas. In those cases the farmers provide the manure and the land, and get the fertilizer, bedding and a cut of revenues from sales of gas. Last year, for example, Hunter Haven Farms in Pearl City, Ill., paid $960,000 — half of it subsidized by state and federal grants — for a GHD digester that processes waste from 600 dairy cows. Hunter Haven then pipes its methane into a generator, and sells the resulting electricity to Commonwealth Edison for 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Douglas R. Block, Hunter Haven's president, said the farm was saving $60,000 annually by using fibrous solids from the digester as bedding, and sells $12,000 worth of bedding to other farmers. And he anticipates at least $16,000 in added revenue from carbon credits, the tradeable units for reducing methane emissions.
Five Star Dairy, a 900-cow dairy farm in Elk Mound, Wis., anticipates a similar profit stream from the $1.2 million Microgy digester it installed in 2004. Lee Jensen, Five Star's general manager, said the Dairyland Power Cooperative pays him about 5 cents per kilowatt hour for energy, and that he is saving money on bedding and fertilizer.
"We're not taking any risk, the reduction in odors is huge, and we're powering 600 homes with 900 cows," he said. "You've got to admit, that's pretty efficient."
The digester companies are betting their futures that more farmers will agree with him. Environmental Power is phasing out an older business in burning waste coal to focus on its Microgy subsidiary, which uses a technology that it licensed from Xergi, a Danish company. Microgy, whose digesters can accept used cooking grease as well as manure, has already sold three of its machines in Wisconsin, and is building one in Huckabay, Tex., that will process waste from 10,000 cows. It will own that one itself, and hopes to sell the resulting gas on the open market.
GHD is cutting back on its business of cleaning up pollution from underground gas tanks to concentrate on the anaerobic digestion patents it has held since the late 1990's. It has sold 15 small manure digesters and is building 6 more.
Intrepid Technology and Resources, based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, is discontinuing its engineering services business to concentrate on its digester processes. Dennis D. Keiser, Intrepid's chief executive, said that in five or six years, he expects Intrepid will be collecting manure from 100,000 cows on 50 farms, and generating enough gas to serve 40,000 homes. "We're not profitable yet, but in the next 12 months we will be," he predicted. That may yet depend on the utilities that accept the processed gas, particularly since Agstar and some states have cut back on subsidies.
"Digesters need to get at least 6 cents a kilowatt hour to break even, and too many utilities want to pay 2 cents," said George Sterzinger, executive director of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.
But utilities are coming around. Dairyland is taking enough manure-generated electricity from Microgy projects in Wisconsin to power 1,800 homes, and John M. McWilliams, the utility's resource planner, said he hoped to have 30 digesters linked to his grid soon. Mr. McWilliams called manure-to-energy systems one of the few environmental technologies that can offer guaranteed supply and stable prices.
"Wind blows intermittently, people don't want more rivers and streams dammed up, there aren't many new landfills to tap, and we're captive to railroads to transport coal," he said. "Manure digestion is probably the only way we can expand."
Central Vermont Public Service is letting its customers choose. In October 2004 it gave its 151,000 customers an option to pay a few cents more for "cow power," so that the utility could pay for the more expensive electricity generated from manure. More than 3,000 customers have agreed to do so, and David J. Dunn, a senior energy consultant at the utility, said more keep signing up.
The utility is buying gas from one farm now, but Mr. Dunn said two others are installing digesters, and two more plan to do so soon.
"We've already got more customers signed up than cow power to sell them," Mr. Dunn said. "Cow power is really a market-driven program."

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Workshop Discusses Alternate Practices for California's

2009-04-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sacramento - The Energy Commission explored alternative approaches to California's credit policies regarding new, re-powered, and renewable energy projects, at a workshop held June 27th. Participants included energy policy makers, financial managers, electricity utility representatives and other interested parties.
"Exploring alternate ways to reduce California's onerous credit polices for renewable energy projects will help California meet the Governor's goal of ensuring that 20 percent our electricity comes from renewable energy sources,"stated Joseph Desmond, Undersecretary of Energy Affairs of the Resources Agency.
Currently, credit requirements are imposed on new and re-powered electric generation projects, including renewable energy projects. The cost to build generation projects in California is twice the national average.
The workshop coincided with the release of the California Energy Commission consultant report, The Cost of Credit: A Review of Credit Requirements in Western Energy Procurement, which for the first time provided a comparison between different utility approaches for managing credit risk. The report found that investor owned and municipal utilities in California and electric utilities in other states do not have consistent generator credit policies. In addition, the report concluded that renewable development such as wind energy projects were generally penalized more than fossil fuel generation.
Credit policies have a significant impact on the cost of financing generation facilities, especially with smaller renewable energy projects. Credit requirements have been identified as a culprit in achieving the state's mandated 20 percent renewable energy generation by 2017. A spirited debate dominated the workshop focusing on the need to provide reasonable performance incentives without unfairly penalizing certain types of generation, including renewable generation. The objective is to have adequate and flexible financial protections that support a diverse and low cost electric generation fleet.
Workshop participants proposed a number of alternative approaches for refining California's credit policies, including the elimination of bid deposits, more flexible collateral options, and creative insurance products, including electric utility self insurance to address risk associated with third-party developer contracts.
The Commission is interested in building on the record developed in the workshop by facilitating the development of new credit policies and reducing the cost of capital for generation projects.
In a related action, the Energy Commission approved a $303,000 work authorization with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab at it's June 29, 2006 Business Meeting that will address operational and integration issues that delay or disadvantage renewable energy projects from coming on-line. Given the remote locations of several types renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar, transmission line access is key to the State successfully achieving the 20 percent renewable energy goal for electricity generation.

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Making money from Manureeeeeeee

2009-04-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

RUPERT � Idaho’s first and only natural gas “well” is expanding as a Rupert area farmer increases his dairy herd. The project has the attention of federal officials.Intrepid Technology and Resources Inc., is expanding its methane digester at Whitesides Dairy northeast of Rupert.Rep. Mike Simpson visited the facility Wednesday and Sen. Mike Crapo was there Thursday.The first company to produce pipeline-quality methane from cow manure, ITR, in partnership with Utah State University, is expanding its operation. Instead of utilizing about 30 percent of the dairy’s waste, it will produce natural gas from 100 percent of the manure from 6,500 cows.All of the gas will be put into a pipeline and sold to Intermountain Gas Company, according to ITR Vice President Brad Frazee.The expansion will include an additional eight digester tanks and will produce enough gas to provide gas energy to 5,000 homes, Frazee said.“We think this could be a very viable addition to natural gas availability in America,” said ITR President Jacob Dustin.“Each dairy in Idaho could become a source for alternative energy.”Plant manager Wayne Tolman explained how the manure is pumped into the large digester tanks and reheated to nearly the same temperature as a cow’s body heat. At that temperature naturally occurring bacteria starts the chemical action and methane bubbles rise to the top of the tanks.“It’s like a root beer float, with lots of foam right at the top,” Frazee quipped, as Simpson turned up his nose at the suggestion.Steve Whitesides told Simpson that because his cows are on a delicately balanced diet, there is little problem with changes in the chemistry of the manure.“When there are any changes, they are so insignificant that it causes little or no changes here,” Whitesides said, pointing at the digester tanks.Simpson learned that the cost of the facility, which has been privately funded, runs about $1,000 per cow.“It’s about the same as a plant that produces electricity would cost,” Dustin said.“It will take less than 10 years to regain our capital investment.”He said any dairy with 2,000 or more cows could produce enough gas to make such a project viable.

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com

Searching for a better-smelling, energy-efficient manure

2009-04-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

With the right amount of science, cow manure can smell like baby lotion. Yes, baby lotion.
That’s because WSU researchers are working on a network of machines that treat raw cow manure to reduce odor and also create an income from the biomass farmers now throw away. “I think students don’t understand how close dairy farms are to being bankrupt,” said Craig Frear, a biological systems engineering graduate student. “So, research like this is essential to maintaining the U.S. dairy farm and the U.S. dairy industry.” As The Daily Evergreen reported in September, the work to create energy from excrement is ongoing, and the outlook smells good. The project:
Frear is collaborating with other researchers and working on an anaerobic digester system that uses bacteria and different machines to convert cow manure into several things that can increase revenue for dairy farmers. Wei Liao, a biological systems engineering research associate who is also working on the research, said manure causes problems by creating odors and greenhouse gasses with the release of methane into the atmosphere. The digester solves those environmental problems while also producing material useful to the farmer.
WSU research:
The system is unique because it treats waste by separating it into three elements and treating the streams differently, said Shulin Chen, the leader of the Agri-environmental and Bioproduct Engineering Research Group that is working on several types of biomass-related research projects along with the pilot digester. Digesters currently in use by farmers only treat solid waste, and the liquid waste is dumped, Frear said. The system being developed at WSU attempts to treat all the waste with a fiber digester and the anaerobic digester. The fiber digester uses a system of trickling hot water through waste fiber that is separated from the liquid portion of the cow manure, Frear said. Usually the fiber is composted for about 120 days before it can be mixed with fresh straw and used again as bedding for the cow. The fiber digester has the possibility of taking the waste and making it reusable within a day. Now on farms, the liquid portion of cow manure goes into a lagoon where it sits until the lagoon is drained once a year and the solids produced by bacteria in the lagoon are taken out. This method gives off methane gas, which is 23-times worse than carbon dioxide in terms of greenhouse effects, Frear said. With a digester, the liquid manure, separated from the fibers, goes into the anaerobic digester as two streams – one being fecal matter and the other being liquid. Two types of bacteria – acetogens and methanogens – live in a mini ecosystem and digest the two streams. The liquid is treated within one to two days and the fecal matter stays for five days. End Products:
“With this anaerobic digestion system being in place, a dairy could conceivably sell milk, bedding, peat moss replacement, heat, electricity and fertilizer,” Frear said. “We’re trying to get basically so there is no waste product.” Farmers have responded well to the digester but are mainly concerned with the cost, Chen said. “Eventually we want to develop the technology and somebody will pick it up, build it and commercialize it,” he said...

srinivas kasulla
srinivaskasulla@gmail.com