Apres le Deluge: This May be the Best We Can Do

To produce and refine hydrocarbons, a certain level of intelligence and technological sophistication is required in the host society -- either that, or the technological talent is imported from the outside. Safe nuclear power requires an even higher level of technological sophistication, due to the more complex science that underlies nuclear reactions. In primitive societies, hydrocarbon pipelines are sabotaged and destroyed in attempts to steal fuel. Chemical and hydrocarbon refineries too often erupt in huge explosions -- something much more likely when tended by primitive and unsophisticated workers. And imagine an advanced nuclear power plant being watched over by primitive tribesmen of the third world.

The conversion of biomass to energy and liquid fuels is less efficient than the use of hydrocarbons and nuclear power. But fields of biomass can only burn, they will not explode violently, or melt-down leaving thousands of years of radiative contaminants.

Here at the Al Fin Institutes of Advanced Energy, we not only look at energy technologies -- we also look at long term societal trends. And the long term trend for societal sophistication -- on a global scale -- is downward. Humans are becoming less intelligent and less sophisticated, on average, as a result of long term demographic trends that are unlikely to be reversed for at least several decades.

This means that biofuels and bioenergy -- the use of biomass to generate power and to produced liquid fuels -- may be the best that the humans of the future will be able to do.

Here is one of the best approaches to the production of biofuels from biomass:

Researchers at Auburn University and North Carolina State University have shown that using a simple pretreatment process—torrefaction—improves the quality of bio-oil produced via catalytic fast pyrolysis.

In a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels, they reported that the combination of the torrefaction pre-treatment and shape-selective catalyst (H+ZSM-5) resulted in highly deoxygenated liquid product that was favorable for aromatic hydrocarbons. The total carbon yield from catalytic pyrolysis of torrefied biomass was 1.45 times the total carbon yield from catalytic pyrolysis of untreated pine.

Recently, a simple thermal pretreatment process, torrefaction, has been applied to improve the properties of biomass. Torrefaction is a thermochemical process that occurs around 200−300 °C in the absence of oxygen. During torrefaction, biomass undergoes partial decomposition with the release of volatiles, which results in overall mass loss. Furthermore, the fibrous structure of the biomass is lost as a result of torrefaction mainly because of the decomposition of hemicellulose and depolymerization of cellulose. In addition, torrefaction results in a significant loss of oxygen from the biomass, which in turn reduces the oxygen content, increasing the calorific value of pretreated biomass while decreasing the energy required for grinding. The grinding energy for untreated pine chips and forest residues could be as high as 237 kWh/t compared to 23 kWh/t for similar biomass when torrefied. ...

Aromatic hydrocarbons were significantly produced as a result of torrefaction, and temperature and catalyst enhanced their production. Among the findings were that torrefaction resulted in more of lignin derivatives—guaiacols, phenols—and less of holocellulose derivatives. The presence of catalyst resulted in the formation of naphthalenes due to its size selectivity. _GCC

Fourmilab Global IQ: 1950 to 2050

While torrefaction + catalytic pyrolysis of biomass cannot compete with cheap natural gas, it one removes hydrocarbons and nuclear power from the equation, the new and advanced bioenergy and biofuels approaches begin to make sense.

Which means that biomass to biofuels and bioenergy will begin to make sense for the primitive third world -- and for isolated locations within the biozone -- before too many decades pass.

And if you take a look at the Fourmilab projections of global IQ from 1950 thru 2050, you may begin to understand why bioenergy and biofuels may be the best we will be able to do -- apres le deluge.

Refurbished Former Paper Mill in Maine to Send 500,000 Tons of Torrefied Biomass to Europe Each Year

Over the next 10 months, the team at Thermogen will engineer the plans for the mill to house the necessary infrastructure for five to six Rotowave units, each of which can process 100,000 tons of woody biomass per year. The torrefied product will then be shipped to Europe, Cyr said. _Biomass

Image Source

Torrefaction of wood creates a type of "bio-coal" which is more energy dense, water resistant, and more easily co-fired with coal, than ordinary wood pellets or briquettes. The Rotowave technology used in the Maine torrefaction plant

The technology, created by U.K. firm Rotowave Ltd., uses a series of simultaneous electromagnetic frequencies in combination with a ceramic drum to maximize heat transfer throughout every biomass particle in the unit, making the process of pyrolysis used to turn woody biomass into a biocoal product more efficient. Richard Cyr, senior vice president for Cate Street Capital, said the licensing agreement between Rotowave and Thermogen happened after years of extensive research and planning, and by November 2012, Thermogen hopes to have roughly six Rotowave torrefaction units up and running at a biomass facility in Maine.

...While the goal of the company is to export its biocoal product by the end of 2012, Cyr also said the Rotowave technology has never been scaled up and the facility in Maine will act as a testing ground for the microwave technology. Cyr, however, isn’t at all concerned about the uncertainty surrounding a commercial version of the technology that, according to Rotowave, creates a product that has a bulk density of 750 kilograms per cubic meter, energy density of 18 gigajoules per cubic meter, and an electrical output of 6.67 megawatt hours per ton.

...The Rotowave process can reduce moisture content to less than 4 percent by weight and increase the energy content in the biomass by 30 percent, according to the company. The process is referred to as a Targeted Intelligent Energy System, and overcomes the inhibiting effect of thermal conductivity in biomass by using the microwaves to interact with the bimoass’ molecular structure. So, the company explains, “the size of the particle has no influence on the reaction time or on the degree of pyrolysis which is aimed exclusively at attaining the necessary increase in calorific value of the solid.” _Biomass

NewBiomass
The above chart illustrates the superior energy characteristics of torrefied wood when compared to ordinary wood pellets. Another way of looking at torrefied biomass is as a clean and renewable type of coal, which can be produced anywhere that biomass can grow.

More about torrefied wood:

Grinds Similar to Coal. Torrefied material grinds similar to coal. It can be ground in many existing facilities, easing its integration into existing coal facilities. By comparison, wood pellets are difficult to grind, effectively preventing their use in most existing coal plants without the addition of specially designed grinding and handling equipment.


Burns Similar to Coal. While torrefied wood is a renewable, carbon neutral resource, it burns similar to coal. Certain volatiles and other compounds (hemi-cellulose material contained in wood) are largely eliminated in the torrefaction process, making torrefied materials easier to co-fire in power plants originally designed to use only coal. The change in the chemical composition of wood during torrefaction not only increases the energy density, but also improves the manner in which the wood burns in a coal gasifier, permitting more of the energy to be converted into electricity. This makes the energy content of torrefied wood more valuable. By comparison, wood pellets contain volatile organic compounds that release smoke when burned. These volatiles can create slag or ash in existing coal power plants and restrict the use of wood pellets in such plants. _NewBiomass

Obama Uses EPA to Shut Down More Energy and Jobs

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced last month, will affect coal-fired electric plants in at least 27 midwestern and eastern states. Set to take effect next year, the rule could shutter up to a fifth of the nation’s generating capacity. _NYP

New EPA rules define carbon dioxide as a pollutant. This erroneous definition allows the US government agency to adopt drastic and economically damaging new emission rules. The destructive new rules are driven by high-level carbon hysteria -- the fear of carbon dioxide. They are also driven by the antipathy of Mr. Obama and his administration toward coal, and toward large scale energy consumption of US society in general.

Mr. Obama has always intended to bankrupt coal plants and coal mines, forcing them to shut down and fire workers. The short video above is from a campaign appearance in San Francisco, appealing for funding from wealthy backers with faux environmentalist tnedencies.

If these regulations were actually about coal-caused pollution, many of the plants which are due to be shut down could be converted to burning torrefied biomass -- as opposed to conventional biomass -- at minimal or no cost of conversion.

“If you have a 500-MW plant, to retrofit it to also use wood pellets would cost about $300 million,” Morihara says. “If you use torrefied biomass, there is no retrofitting cost. For its Btu content, torrefied biomass may cost 20 percent more, but it has 20 percent more energy so the cost is actually very similar.” _Biomass

A large number of coal plants in Europe are beginning to use torrefied biomass, as well as cofiring conventional biomass with coal. US plants are ramping up experience to do the same. But the impetuous plant closings by the EPA, with the consequent energy shortages, price increases, and economic slowdowns which will result, will make it more difficult to transition to biomass and torrefied biomass. How much easier if the EPA had cooperated with industry to facilitate a smooth transition?

In other words, if the EPA rules and regulations were about cleaning the environment and reducing coal burning, the EPA could have scheduled the rules to allow the biomass and torrefaction industries to scale up to displace coal consumption.

Terrabon Announces 70 gal / ton bio-gasoline from Waste

Through an advanced bio-refining technology, MixAlco® converts materials such as municipal solid waste (MSW), sewage sludge, forest product residues such as wood chips, wood molasses and other wood waste, and non-edible energy crops such as sweet sorghum into a wide array of chemicals and secondary alcohols that can be further refined through separate, well-established processes to produce renewable gasoline, jet fuel or diesel. The gasoline produced through the MixAlco® technology is not ethanol. In fact, it has a higher energy value than ethanol and can be blended directly with gasoline produced from hydrocarbons. _Terrabon

TerrabonHouston based Terrabon creates advanced gasoline-like biofuel from mixed waste biomass, including sewage and solid waste. The company utilises a non-sterile anaerobic digestion for this versatile feedstock mix.

Terrabon’s MixAlco process is described by Luce as a linkage of biological fermentation and chemical processes. It begins by treating the feedstock with lime to enhance its digestibility, and then fermenting the biomass using a mixed-culture of microorganisms to produce a mixture of carboxylic acids. Calcium carbonate is added to the fermentation to neutralize the acids to form corresponding carboxylate salts, which are then dewatered, concentrated, dried and thermally converted to ketones. The ketones are then hydrogenated to alcohols that can be refined into renewable gasoline, diesel or jet fuel blendstocks.

“When we have those ketones, we use parts of the zeolite and hydrogenation catalysts,” Luce said. “Once we get through the organic acids, we actually create a whole series of secondary alcohols and then we use the same zeolite catalyst structure. The research with CRI that we’ve done is making sure the catalyst structure is set up in a way to optimize through the mix of ketones that we create.”

Terrabon’s cellulosic gasoline product, according to Luce, is a viable drop-in renewable gasoline blendstock that looks similar to cracked gasoline that comes off the fluid catalytic cracking conversion process, a pathway commonly used by today’s petroleum refiners.

“It ends up being a subcomponent of RBOB, which then ethanol can be put on top of to fulfill the RFS2 mandate,” Luce said. “What we’re hoping is that as we begin scaling it up that we can take on the next generation of catalysts to actually make it into a finished product, blend it with ethanol and make E85 straight to the retail station. But, that’s probably version three or four in our vision of what we’re trying to do. First, we want to show we can economically make a drop-in biofuel and use existing infrastructure and satisfy some of this RFS2 mandate.”

Terrabon’s work isn’t satisfied at stopping at this milestone. The company is in the process of engineering scale-up strategies in hopes of bringing its first commercial production plant online. “We’re looking at two regions of the country—one in Texas and another in the Pacific Northwest—to figure out where the best economic position is to put our first commercial facility,” Luce said, adding that the company is targeting an annual production output ranging between 5 MMgy and 25 MMgy. “We’re hoping if we stay on track with what we’re trying to do, then by the end of this year we’ll be breaking ground on either of those two sites for our first commercial facility.” _CheckBiotech

Houston—Terrabon, Inc., announced today that it has been successful in the production of an economical cellulosic gasoline fuel blend stock by leveraging CRI/Criterion’s renewable fuel catalyst technologies.

The use of catalysts are necessary to efficiently convert inedible feedstocks like garbage, sorghum, corn stover or woodchips into renewable cellulosic gasoline, diesel and jet fuel using Terrabon’s patented acid fermentation technology, MixAlco®.

These catalysts have enabled Terrabon to capture yield improvements from the MixAlco® acid fermentation process at its Bryan, Texas demonstration plant, known as Energy Independence I.

In fact, Terrabon actually exceeded the target yield threshold of 70 gallons of green gasoline per dry ton of garbage that it received from the cafeteria dumpsters and paper shredders at Texas A&M University.

Normally, this garbage would have been shipped to a landfill for disposal. _BiofuelsJournal

Seaweed is being viewed more widely as a valuable feedstock for biofuels production. Seaweed has many advantages over terrestrial biofuels crops -- including prolific growth rates, low lignin levels, and the ability to grow in salty and brackish water over most of the Earth's survace -- land and sea.

Japan is pushing ahead with 100% biomass-fired power plants. Torrefied biomass can be crushed and fired like coal. Gasification plants are preferable due the minimal waste resulting. Torrefied biomass -- either woody or grass -- can also be co-fired with coal with modifications to combustors. Biomass can also be co-fired with natural gas via gasification or pyrolysis -- using specially designed mixing chambers or nozzles and combustors.

Torrefaction Plant for Salt Lake City? Comments on Khosla

Torrefaction is the controlled "roasting" of biomass to remove moisture, increase the energy density, and to induce superior burning, transport, and long-term storage properties. Radian Bioenergy is based in Salt Lake City, and has engineered a torrefaction system which it believes will work -- at least for woody feedstock.

Salt Lake City-based Radian BioEnergy has completed preliminary engineering on a commercial-scale proprietary torrefaction system, which can convert wood and other biomass feedstocks into biochar or “green coal.”

“It’s a top-fed system where the wood enters the top and warm inert flue gases are used to do the torrefaction,” said Radian BioEnergy CEO Ben Phillips.

The technology leverages Radian’s existing biomass gasification reactor configuration. “It basically readies us to be able to supply this type and scale of torrefaction system to perspective commercial buyers.” Phillips said the company would either license the technology to potential buyers or sign a contract to sell the equipment and then have it manufactured.

“The development of our torrefaction technology will further enhance our product offerings in the biomass energy sector, enabling us to supply major equipment or turn‐key solutions to customers seeking a solution for biomass upgrading,” Phillips said.

The Radian torrefaction system will produce approximately 200 tons per day of biochar, ranging in energy content from 9,000 to 11,000 Btu per pound depending on operating conditions and product yield goals. The biochar burns similar to coal so that it can be integrated into coal‐fired power plants. Phillips said the initial design was based on wood, and additional biomass types will be evaluated in the future. _CheckBiotech

As torrefaction technologies become more efficient, portable, and closer-to-the-source of feedstock, the ability to make economic use of more forestry waste, agricultural waste, and other cellulosic feedstock will grow.

The primary problem with biomass energy schemes is the low energy density of the biomass. As better means of densifying biomass are created and made inexpensive enough to bring to the local site of biomass production, the costs of biomass energy will drop.

Vinod Khosla's table of biofuels technologies (via Greentechmedia) is an extremely useful shorthand reference to the expected timescales to production and viability of production for a wide array of approaches to biofuels. In general, Al Fin energy analysts, engineers, and technologists are in agreement with Khosla's basic thoughts.

One particular area of disagreement involves the gasification of biomass and F-T catalytic synthesis of fuels and chemicals. Khosla asserts that such an approach will probably not work economically. But with the arrival of technologies such as the Velocys microchannel F-T reactors, plus the improvement of on-site densification of biomass and scalable plasma gasifiers, it is possible that we will see small to medium scale gasification plus F-T fuels within 5 years -- according to Al Fin analysts.

Torrefaction Strategy Will be Key for Bioenergy

Torrefaction is the process of roasting biomass to remove moisture content and increase its energy density. Torrefied mass is often referred to as "bio-coal."

Torrefied Biomass facts and properties:

- Hydrophobic nature: the material does not regain humidity in storage and therefore unlike wood and charcoal, it is stable and with well defined composition.

- Lower moisture content and higher calorific values as compared to unprocessed Biomass.

- Exhausts less emissions when ignited in end user applications and can be produced in a desired shape and form.

- Higher density and similar mechanical strength compared to the initial Biomass.

- Suitable for various applications as a fuel - in the steel industry, combustion, and gasification.

- Torrefied products can substitute charcoal in a number of applications such as fuel for domestic cooking stoves or residential heating.

- Raw material for manufacture of improved solid fuel products such as fuel pellets, compacted fireplace logs and barbecue briquettes for commercial and domestic uses. Torrefied briquettes have superior combustion characteristic as compared with ordinary briquettes.

- Fuel for industrial uses. Important advantage of Torrefied wood compared to wood is its uniformity. It is as a predictable, flexible fuel with optimum combustion and transport economies. Due to the low moisture content of Torrefied wood, the transport cost is lower and the quality as a fuel better. It is easily packaged and transported thru traditional mechanisms, and thus constitutes an efficient fuel. _Bioenergy

Torrefaction is just one of many methods of densifying biomass for more efficient transport, storage, and utilisation.

Mobile Wood Torrefiers for Carolina Bio - Coal

North Carolina doesn't have significant coal deposits. But it does have large amounts of forest, with massive concomitant wood waste. This wood waste can be converted into "Bio-coal" using mobile wood torrefiers that can be transported to processing points within the forest itself. Torrefied wood weighs only 1/3 the full weight of wood waste, but still contains 80% of the energy. This densification of biomass energy allows for less expensive transport to coal-firing power plants, where the torrefied wood can be co-fired along with coal to provide vital electric power and heat energies.

Woodchips are abundant in North Carolina while coal is all imported from other states. More importantly, woodchips are a carbon neutral source of energy. For a state that spends more than $4 billion a year importing coal, use of torrefied wood could result in an economic windfall.

Hopkins explains that nearly half of the state's forests are not adequately thinned because landowners lack a market for small diameter trees, rotten or unusable trees and logging residue. That land could be producing more valuable wood products if it was managed more effectively, he says.

If woodchips were collected and sold to help fire North Carolina's energy generating plants, the state's tax base could be increased by nearly $400 million a year, Hopkins estimates. Since the torrefier machine is small enough to transport, it could be set up close to forest-clearing operations, making the process even more efficient. _NCSUNews

The same economics applies to any region that contains appreciable forest area. Massive quantities of wood ends up rotting in forests around the world, releasing large amounts of carbon without providing any useful service. By densifying and transporting waste biomass to power plants -- preferably IGCC plants with CHP -- the inevitable release of carbon will be accompanied by significant productive use, and displacement of the use of more polluting coal.

Serious-minded persons understand that modern humans must use fossil fuels in order to bridge into a more sustainable energy future. But the sooner we can begin shifting the burden onto biomass and other renewables, the sooner our energy future can be placed on a firmer foundation.

Torrefaction of Biomass: Useful Bio-energy Densification Strategy Growing Slow and Sure

Torrefied biomass:

* has a much higher energy density than raw biomass
* it allows for a dramatic increase in the distance over which the biomass can be transported to the plant (some studies show distances can be squared)
* because torrefied biomass is hydrophobic, it can be stored in the open, for long times, in the same infrastructures as those used for coal
* it requires less energy to crush, grind or pulverise torrefied biomass than it takes to crush coal, and the same tools can be used
* given its excellent combustion properties, the fuel can be readily co-fired with coal

Torrefaction of biomass takes place at temperatures of 200 to 300 degrees C, with little or no oxygen. 90% of the energy is retained, while eliminating roughly 20% of mass, including moisture. Torrefied biomass can be co-fired with coal in unmodified coal plants.

At this time only one biomass torrefaction plant is active on the planet Earth. A new plant is on the boards for North Carolina, with 10 other US torrefaction plants at various stages of planning.

During torrefaction the molecular structure of the wood is altered, enhancing some of the wood’s physical properties. Torrefaction liberates water and releases volatile organic compounds (VOC) through the devolitization of primarily the hemicelluloses and extractants. The lignins are loosened and have limited devolitization while the cellulose is nearly unimpacted at these temperatures. As the hemicellulose, which binds the cellulose, is burned away, the wood is unbound making it more brittle. This increases the grindability of torrefied wood and makes its handling properties more like coal. This unbinding also releases the last of the water not stored at the cell level, leaving the wood hydrophobic. During the torrefaction process most of the energy value of the wood is preserved with the product losing 20-30% of its mass while retaining 90% of its energy. The calorific value of the wood increases to 9,500-11,500 Btu per pound.

So far, there is only one commercial torrefaction plant operating in the world, located in the Netherlands. It supplies torrefied biomass pellets to large coal-fired power plants, who get a green credit for each ton of biomass they burn. Integro Earthfuels is now planning to open a similar plant in Roxboro County, North Carolina. The $12 million plant will have an initial capacity to produce up to 84,000 tons of torrefied biomass annually:

Currently, Integro is finalizing off-take agreements with local utilities and Universities with their own heat and power plants to provide them with a majority of the supply beginning in 2009. Integro will build 10 additional facilities over the next 6 years to meet the demand from coal-fired electricity producers.
_Bioenergy

The logic behind biomass torrefaction is quite sound. If the moronic Democratic Party controlled congress along with an eternally posturing Obama administration could get over their distaste for large-scale energy, perhaps they would drop the carbon hysteria that they have allowed to paralyse US energy production. The best thing for the fatuous morons would be to simply GET OUT OF THE WAY!

Oynklent Green is keeping tabs.

Quick Energy

Brian Westenhaus of New Energy and Fuel points out that using LEDs for lighting could reduce US electricity demands by 10%. His discussion about new affordable LED technologies for lighting is worth a look.

Brian Wang at NextBigFuture points to this article about a new thermoelectric material that should help recover much of the waste heat lost from combustion processes. In a typical gasoline engine, up to 60% of the energy of combustion is lost as heat.

Torrefaction of biomass is a method of roasting biomass in an oxygen-free atmosphere at temperatures of about 300 C. This process allows biomass to be co-fired with coal in power plants, and makes biomass far more practical and economical to transport and use. Much biomass is wasted every year, often requiring expensive disposal. By converting biomass into a useful form, what was garbage can become useful energy.

Expanding Use of Bio-Coal, Torrefied Biomass

The process of biomass torrefaction is an excellent way of concentrating the energy of biomass into a smaller bulk. The simple heat processing of solid biomass allows much easier use of such "bio-coal" in coal-fired boilers and CHP systems.

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - RWE AG. said it is taking a 25 percent stake in the Netherland's Topell, a company which converts biomass into coal pellets....The German utility's renewables unit RWE Innogy is seeking to take stakes in start-ups that develop new renewable technologies, and has to that effect budgeted funds of 50 million euros for 2008.

Topell has developed a technology to convert biomass such as roots and grasses to coal pellets that can be co-fired in coal-fired power plants.

The company plans to start operating a site for the commercial production of biomass-based coal pellets in 2009. __Forbes

Biomass is a sustainable form of solar energy, with its own built-in storage. By torrefying biomass-including wood, straw, grass, waste, etc--small regional processing plants can provide a high energy, renewable source of heat and power to local, regional, and more distant energy consumers. The more compact form of energy allows for easier and more economical transportation to point of use.

Biomass Gasification for Electricity, Liquid Fuels

Image Source

Biomass gasification is the most versatile approach to bioenergy at this time. The gas produced by rapid pyrolysis can fire gas turbines to generate electricity, process heat for industry, or can be turned into liquid fuels for transportation and heavy machinery. Iowa's Frontline Bioenergy plans to use corncobs to replace natural gas, in the production of maize ethanol. Given natural gas prices lately, that substitution should certainly help the bottom line.

Chippewa Valley is owned by 980 farmers, so it's natural that the company wants to make its ethanol using a natural resource that is grown close to home.

"We're looking at harvesting 5,000 acres of cobs next fall" for use at the plant, Lee said.

The biomass gasification technology developed by Frontline BioEnergy uses a thermochemical process to break down wood residues, corncobs or prairie grasses into a substance known as producer gas.

Producer gas is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane that can be burned like natural gas.

Frontline provides a proprietary process called Cleangas that allows producer gas to be piped to several locations within an industrial facility without the typical hydrocarbon condensation concerns associated with conventional biomass gasification.

Besides providing a source of heat, Frontline BioEnergy's biomass gasifiers will be able to produce synthesis gas that can be converted to ethanol through catalytic or biological methods, the company said. __Source

The chemistry of pyrolysis gas was worked out a century ago or more. The work being done now is to adapt the process to different types of waste biomass feedstocks, such as corncobs, grasses, garbage, etc.

The main problem is the lack of developed infrastructure in farming country, to take low energy density, distributed biomass, and pre-process it into higher density, more compact biomass. Bailing, pelleting, briquetting, torrefaction, and other processes are being perfected to accommodate that need.

The US has never had as incompetent a US Congress as now. The Congress is doing everything possible to reduce the ability of the US to become more energy self sufficient. Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] officials are monitoring the situation closely.

Biomass on the Rise in N. America, Europe, UK

New projects for biomass gasification to generate power and CHP (combined heat and power) are being installed in the US, Europe, and the UK, as the possibilities of this technology are growing more clear to municipalities, utilities, power co-ops, and independent entrepreneurs. Biomass gasification can be used to drive steam turbines for power generation, or it can be used to create bio-oils, synthetic gasoline/diesel, and bio-alcohols--as well as synthetic chemicals for the chemical, plastics, and cosmetic industries. The versatility of this process combined with the near-ubiquitous nature of feedstock, makes it a logical approach to power, CHP, bio-fuels, and bio-chemicals over large parts of the Earth.

While biomass can be treated by the torrefaction process to create bio-coal--replacing coal in power plants--biomass can also be used for remediation at the sites of former coal mines.

Todd's proposal outlines four stages of recovery and development. In the first, healing is the primary focus. Drawing on his extensive experience with "living machines"—biological technologies that echo natural systems to produce clean water and environmental clean-up—Todd foresees plant-based systems that will detoxify the vast lagoons of coal slurry in the region, build new healthy soils, and yield raw products for economic purposes.

"Coal miners and some of their machinery could be employed in the process," he notes.

In the second stage, reforestation begins. Some reclaimed land will be dedicated to short-rotation fast-growing woody crops to be harvested for biomass. Other long-standing forests will capture carbon from the atmosphere, slowing global warming.

In the third stage, the economic benefits of the biomass emerge. "Already suitable Appalachian wind sites have been discovered that can provide competitive sources of energy," Todd writes, "paired with another renewable energy source like woody biomass from willows and poplars, a viable energy system can be developed."

And this biomass can be used not just for electricity but for "refining fuels, and manufacturing a wide range of products ranging from plastics to polymers and adhesives," he says.

In the fourth stage, succession is at work not just in the land but in human communities and management of the land. Initially, philanthropic organizations would purchase damaged sites and shepherd their recovery. These restored lands would be passed along to new capitalized corporations that would develop forestry and other businesses there. ___Source

There are many approaches to biomass and bioenergy that have yet to be explored. Some of these unexplored approaches will probably work well for your locality or region.

The greatest promise of bioenergy is the economic and eco-regenerative promise to small localities and regions. By keeping economic control of their own energy economy, local regions in both the third world and the developed world can create more of their own destinies. A movement from central control of energy and bio-resources to a local control of those resources is a movement of political and economic power from the big to the small.

Biomass can easily be turned to "bio-coal" carbon. Now, that biomass carbon can be used to drive fuel cells. The only output is pure CO2--the favoured food for plants!

Last year, the director of the Department of Colloid Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Prof Dr Markus Antonietti, developed an innovative technique with which any type of biomass can be converted into renewable and climate friendly 'designer coal'. Uses for the carbon are plenty, but professor Antonietti confessed that he and his researchers are part of a growing group of scientists who dream of a Direct Carbon Fuel Cell (DCFC) and a green carbon economy. As its name implies, a DCFC converts elemental carbon into electricity directly, and in a hyper-efficient way - the cells have almost twice the efficiency of most other types of fuel cells and double that of fossil fuel power plants.

...The reaction yields 80 percent of the carbon–oxygen combustion energy as electricity, yet no burning of the carbon takes place. DCFCs for stationary applications provide up to 1 kilowatt of power per square meter of cell surface area — a rate sufficiently high for practical applications. Some developers are designing DCFCs for mobile applications that can deliver energy densities in the range of 1,000–2,000 Wh/kg, far higher than any advanced battery.

...DCFC technology has several potential benefits over other fuel cells. First, it can use a wide variety of very abundant low cost carbonaceous fuels including coal, coke, tar, biomass and organic waste. Conventional fuel cells typically operate on gaseous fuels. The fuel (natural gas, propane, ethanol, etc.) is reformed to a hydrogen syngas, which is fed into the fuel cell stack. The DCFC, however, can operate directly on solid carbon fuel, which is stable, easy to store, handle and transport. DCFCs don't require the construction of an entirely new and expensive infrastructure - which is the case for hydrogen - nor do they lose the energy needed to turn fuel into gas.

Secondly, unlike hydrogen or methanol fuel cells, DCFC use no catalyst or costly noble metals like platinum. This cuts costs, and should increase reliability.___Biopact

This development has all the makings of a fuel cell revolution. Hydrogen has always been a bad bet for mobile and de-centralised fuel cell applications. It is time to grow out of that childish hydrogen fantasy.

Cross-posted from Al Fin