Visualising a Robust Biomass Network

ImageSourceCompare the hierarchical network on the left with the widely distributed flat network on the right.  It should be obvious that the flat network is more resilient to the loss of any particular node than is the hierarchical network -- which can be rendered disconnected by the removal of the one central node!  Consider the vulnerability of the US petroleum industry created by its central focus on Gulf of Mexico ports and refineries. Every year during hurricane season, the nation holds its breath, hoping its petro-refinery infrastructure will not be damaged.

A national biomass network should resemble the widely distributed flat network on the right, more than the hierarchical network. Biomass can be grown almost everywhere, and can be densified by local fast-pyrolysis units, which are simple and inexpensive enough to be located close to where the biomass is aggregated. Pyrolysis oils can be cheaply shipped to the central nodes -- regional gasifiers and refineries (F-T etc) -- which will become inexpensive enough to be located near both medium and large population centers.

Biomass crops with ever-larger yields are being developed each year. Crops such as Giant King Grass can be harvested up to 4 times a year with yields up to 50 dry metric tons per acre.   The baled grass can then be transported a very short distance to the local pyrolysis plant where it is converted to pyrolysis oil. Pyrolysis oil has far higher energy density than raw biomass, and can be shipped via tanker (or pipeline) to regional gasification plants of various size. Some of these gasification plants will generate both heat and electricity (CHP) for towns, cities, or special campuses. Other gasification plants will be connected to bio-reactors and refineries to produce advanced liquid fuels or high value chemicals.

Gasifiers and gasification plants can be built to a wide range of capacities, to scale to different industrial and population needs.   The larger the underlying biomass network, the more reliable the flow of bio-energy between the nodes and at terminal ends.

A national network of this type will not arise overnight.   Other types of nodes will be added, such as torrefaction facilities, plants for producing biomass pellets, logs, and briquettes -- and doubtless a number of other ways of increasing the energy density of biomass very close to the source. Solid torrefied biomass can be co-fired with coal (as can liquid pyrolysis oil), and bio-syngas can be fired in gas turbine generators. So it is likely that the new bioenergy networks will widely overlap with pre-existing energy infrastructure, at least initially.

It is important that farmers, entrepreneurs, bankers, and planners at all levels of industry and government be aware of the types of bio-energy networks that are likely to grow up -- seemingly out of nothing.  The economic feedback within and between communities will be immense.

As has been stated before on this blog, bioenergy is not the same type of "get rich quick" energy scheme as fossil fuels have been.  But when integrated into robust networks of economic activity, bioenergy can be a huge and sustained boost to economies from rural to semi-urban to urban scales.

Taken from a previous post at Al Fin Energy

Bioenergy Poised to Become Largest Renewable

BiofuelsDigest
Comparing different sustainable energy sources, biomass and biofuels are clearly poised to come out on top. Hydroelectric is limited due to geography and climate -- as well as environmental concerns. Further investment into big wind installations is simply pouring resources down a sewer. Solar has potential, but it is limited by insolation to specific regions -- and badly needs cheap energy storage.

Visual aids help to get a better grasp of the different strengths, weaknesses, and potentials of different energy sources. Fuel alcohols production and biodiesel production are both growing exponentially. And while investment in new wind power is significant, the actual power output from all the investment in wind is not significant.

Biomass can be grown virtually anywhere on land and sea. Take the new method of seaweed cultivation, developed in Norway.

In Norway, Seaweed Energy Solutions has patented the first ever modern structure to enable mass seaweed cultivation on an industrial scale in the world¹s oceans. The structure, known as the Seaweed Carrier, makes a clean break with past seaweed cultivation methods that have all been based on ropes. The Seaweed Carrier is a sheet-like structure that basically copies a very large seaweed plant, moving freely back and forth through the sea from a single mooring on the ocean floor.

The Seaweed Carrier will allow seaweed cultivation to become a possibility in deeper and more exposed waters, opening the way for large scale production that is necessary to make seaweed a viable source of energy. According to SES, growing seaweed in farms covering an area of just less than 0.05 percent of Europe’s coastal regions would yield a yearly production of 75 million tons of seaweed. This biomass could be converted into an estimated 846 Mgy (3.2 billion litters) of ethanol, about 4.7 percent of the global ethanol production in 2008. _BiofuelsDigest

And one does not necessarily think of Poland as a bioenergy giant, yet giant French utility GDF Suez has chosen Poland as the site for a new 190 MW bioenergy plant.

Algae can grow in the desert, thriving on wastewater and brackish water. Various species of biomass and biofuels crops are adapted to cold, moderate, and very warm climates -- but using genetic tools, they can learn to thrive in virtually any climate.

Microbial fuels -- custom made to generate virtually any chemical or fuel -- are being adapted to mass production at any scale. Microbial production of fuels, chemicals, animal feed, materials, etc. will become more important to world commerce than petroleum.

First published at Al Fin Energy

Algae Industry Growing While You Sleep

Algal oils cost too much to use as fuels -- for now. But clever algae companies are devising other lucrative markets for their product, at the same time as they are improving the efficiencies and economies of production.

Algae is versatile and its benefits are diverse. Algae oil can be used in pharmaceuticals, plastics and jet fuel, without the environmental impact of petroleum. Algae biomass can replace corn, sugar or other oil-producing feedstock without destroying farmlands or rainforests and without keeping food from the hungry. Algae can also treat wastewater, bringing fresh water and sanitation to millions.

But perhaps most importantly, algae could be a game changer in energy production and deliver clean tech jobs. Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO explains: “Algae will be local. Unlike today’s centralized energy systems, algae will go wherever the CO2 is, and that’s everywhere.” _mnn

Innovative algae producers are experimenting to find the most economical and sustainable approach to growing the green micro-organisms. One clever approach is to incorporate the algae into a combined ecosystem, taking advantage of synergetic organisms to produce a multiple revenue stream.

Brune and colleagues developed a biomass cultivation model for a proposed 50-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant in Southern California. In the researchers' design, sludge-fed algae would be cultivated in large raceways. Paddle wheels would hasten reproduction by moving the water.

This is where the brine shrimp and tilapia come in. "The brine shrimp eat the algae and convert it into a consistent, high-quality protein and oil," Brune said. The tilapia consume the algae to prevent overproduction, reduce zooplankton and clean up algal waste to provide clean water.

The shrimp are harvested and separated into high-protein feeds and oils. The shrimp waste is collected and fermented in an anaerobic digester.

"If 100 percent of the algal biomass consumed by the shrimp were harvested and fermented, the resulting biomass production could replace 26 percent of the plant's natural gas usage," Brune said.

Another advantage of the system is that carbon dioxide generated by the plant can be fed to the algae. _midwestagnet

Similar schemes are being put into play involving fish instead of shrimp. The most aggressive approaches to growing algae seem to involve the use of high CO2 effluent gases from energy plants. Algae love CO2, and the atmosphere only contains about 0.04% CO2 -- as niggardly an amount of CO2 as any sane person might wish.

Oil producers want to grab as much CO2 from power plants as they can, to inject into deep oil wells for purposes of loosening the oil from the rock -- to increase oil production. And faux environmentalists . . . pardon me while I gasp for breath at their audacity . . . faux environmentalists want to take valuable concentrated CO2 and bury it underground for no purpose whatsoever! Imagine the waste, the idiocy!

Algae grow while you sleep, and while you are awake. Every day, every night, all year long. Whether algal oils will put the petro companies out of business, or whether that task will fall to other forms of microbial fuels, the handwriting of doom for oil is on the wall. It is only a question of time.

Synthetic Biology and BioSynthetic Fuels

The best time to work on alternatives to fossil fuels is while fuel prices are temporarily low. Better prepare now, because when those prices start rising again it may be too late to block another energy-recession.

Synthetic biology is in its early bloom. Soon, it will begin offering a greater abundance of products such as fuels, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other things unimaginable now. Unless the ever-lurking Luddites burn the bridges before they are built. That is a danger under the current political current. But the need for alternative fuels is so apparent, that it is possible the Luddites in political control will overlook this one shining promise.

Synthetic biology refers to both the design and fabrication of biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world, and the redesign and fabrication of existing biological systems. As tools are developed to hone and refine this technology, researchers across multiple disciplines are finding novel applications for it.

...One company that provides the raw material for the creation of biofuels is Agrivida, an agricultural biotech firm that creates renewable, biomass-based alternative fuels and raw materials. “We are working upstream, making plants that are more easily degradable, primarily switchgrass, sugar cane, and corn,” states R. Michael Raab, founder and president. “We are focused on nonfood crops and crop residues that are degradable into fuel.”

...Gevo develops advanced biofuels technology based on butanol and its derivatives. “The magic isn’t in the biology alone,” according to Pat Gruber, Ph.D., CEO. “It’s in the chemistry, fermentation, processing, and genetic engineering all together; knowing what tools you need, and having the tools to make it happen.”

Dr. Gruber points out that three critical pieces of technology have helped Gevo produce these on a commercial scale. “We have a group that’s been working on this for 20 years or longer. Metabolic engineering of suitable host organisms make it possible to use carbon and energy efficiently for fuel production. Process engineering makes it possible to lower product separation costs and chemistry to produce valuable hydrocarbons.”

...Two other companies working in the metabolic engineering space are Mascoma and LS9. Mascoma recently received $26 million in DOE funding, which will be applied toward the development of a cellulosic fuel production facility that uses nonfood biomass to convert woodchips into fuel. Mascoma’s production facility is expected to produce 40 million gallons of ethanol and other valuable fuel products per year.

LS9 developed new metabolic pathways that efficiently convert fatty acids to a broad portfolio of petroleum replacements. It also discovered and engineered a new class of enzymes and their associated genes that catalyze the efficient conversion of fatty acids to hydrocarbons. They recombinantly produce hydrocarbons (oxygen-deficient biocrudes), fatty acid alkyl esters (biodiesel), and a variety of industrial chemicals from sugars via fatty acid biosynthesis.

...Codexis’ technology enables solutions for cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally sound production of pharmaceuticals, transportation fuels, and industrial chemicals, reports David Anton, Ph.D., vp, bioindustrials R&D. The company focuses on biocatalysts—enzymes or microbes that initiate or accelerate chemical reactions. At Codexis, biocatalysis is used to design faster, less costly, and greener chemistry-based manufacturing processes in the life science and energy industries.

According to Dr. Anton, Codexis’ technology makes it possible to customize enzymes capable of selectively and efficiently performing a desired chemical process that doesn’t exist in nature.

...SunEthanol was recently awarded a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer Program contract. This award, made as a follow-up for successfully completing a year-long Phase I grant, will allow SunEthanol to continue pioneering a process that converts plant waste into clean ethanol fuel in one simple step, saving time and money over the traditional two-step cellulosic conversion process, the company claims.

... _GenEngNews

Several more companies are mentioned and linked in the above Genengnews article. It is impossible to keep track of all the research efforts in synthetic biology that will influence biosynthetic fuels development. Every university biology or agriculture department with a significant research program will be working on this problem, in all likelihood. Whether or not the world economy improves, fuel prices will rise. If the Luddites in control suppress energy technologies, energy prices will rise out of scarcity. If the Luddites are given a well-deserved boot in the arse, energy prices will rise as economies improve. Those who are prepared will prosper. Those who are not prepared, will dieoff.org. It is the harsh way of the universe.

Microbes to Energy

Image Source

Biotech company Amyris has opened a new "sugar cane to diesel" plant in Northern California. Amyris diesel is a higher quality than other biodiesels, and can be blended at up to 50 per cent concentration with regular petro-diesel.

"We're engineering the yeast, reprogramming it from making alcohols to making hydrocarbons," CEO John Melo said. "We started with E. coli (bacteria), which is what many other companies are doing, but we moved to yeast because we discovered that it was more scalable."

The company has also modified yeasts to produce chemicals; a sugar-derived jet fuel is planned for in about three years as well.

...Amyris' biodiesel can be blended at up to 50 percent concentration with petroleum diesel, higher than most biodiesel today, which means that it can be pumped through existing pipelines. Environmentally, Amyris' "renewable diesel" has lower carbon emissions than petrodiesel and burns cleaner, Melo said. _CNET

Other "green fuel" companies are hot on the heels of Amyris in the quest to produce high quality biofuels using microbial factories.

Solazyme, Sapphire Energy, Green Fuel Technologies, and Petrosun all use algae as the basis for their fuel production. By using algae, these companies are able to produce a wide variety of fuels that don’t contain sulfur, and don’t need anything more than CO2, sunlight and water to manufacture the fuels.

Like the modified yeast that Amyris uses, the algae used by Solazyme, Sapphire Energy, Green Fuel Technologies and Petrosun is genetically modified so that the algae produces the required fuel products.

Using Algae has several positive side effects. Except for water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide, no other ingredients are required. This means that corn, soy, and sugarcane can be used as food rather than to create fuel. The only land needed is that land that houses the algae greenhouses. _Source

And of course there are others in the race, just a bit further behind the frontrunners. Bioenergy will develop into an important source of energy and fuel, regardless of the outcome of current economic difficulties. The economics are sound--it is the technology that still requires a bit of tweaking and advancement.

Only a political disaster--such as the election of a carbon hysteric and environmental radical to the US presidency--could stop the impressive developments in new energy production. Already, the EPA is laying the groundwork for "energy starvation" in the US. Understanding the friendly relationships of US Democratic Party members with dieoff.org -minded individuals in environmental lobbies and trial lawyer constitutencies should allow smart persons to predict the short to medium term energy picture for the US at least. After they shut down coal, they may come after biofuels next.

Remind me again: Who is John Galt?

Previously published at Al Fin Energy

3% of Earth's Oceans Can Replace All Fossil Fuels

Image Source

Ricardo Radulovich has a plan to replace fossil fuels with energy from seaweed. He claims that only 3% of the oceans can grow enough biomass for energy conversion to replace the more polluting fuels. It sounds like an idea that should be looked into.

...where are the best areas to grow seaweed? “There are many places already identified where seaweeds can be properly farmed such as on the Pacific Coasts of North and South America, and in the Caribbean where there are currently several seaweed farms,” Radulovich says. In those places, the seaweed is grown primarily for food and fertilizers. “Actually, any place where seaweeds grow naturally may be good for farming. In fact, since farming implies using ropes and other means for seaweed attachment, many seas where seaweeds don’t grow naturally could also be good places for farming.” Radulovich emphasizes that if the seaweed can be tied for floatation or drifting, farming could be an option. “I think even the Sargasso Sea, with its extensive calm waters, could be used for this,” he says. In the future, he would like to explore the Sargasso Sea further, as it may provide a low-cost basis for large-scale seaweed cultivation.

...Radulovich says his experiments involve obtaining 2 percent recoverable oil content on a dry-weight basis. “This produced about 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of oil per hectare per year,” he says. The oil yield can be increased by selecting or developing seaweed strains that produce more oil.

After the oil is extracted, the seaweed biomass may be used for alcohol production. “Ethanol yield is expected at about 40 percent of the biomass yield on a dry weight basis,” Radulovich says. “Thus more than 20,000 liters (52,843 gallons) of ethanol per hectare per year can be obtained.”

After ethanol production, a considerable amount of residue is left, which can be burned to generate electricity. _BiomassMag

His conversion of litres to gallons appears to be a mistake, but you can get the general idea of his preliminary estimates.

Take wastewater that currently pollutes coastal areas. Divert it to ocean algal farms where it will promote algal growth. Turn the algae first into oil. Then turn what is left to ethanol, methanol or butanol. Then take the biomass residue, torrefy and compress it, and use it in place of coal in a combined cycle electrical generating plant. Be resourceful. Love your planet.

Saving the World, One Tree at a Time

Moringa is a miracle tree. It grows in most any climate, and it provides nutrition, medicines, and fuel for all. God bless the children, and cause the Moringa to grow.

Beyond its sheer endurance--the plant is drought-resistant, though it does not flourish in the most arid of rain-fed lands--Moringa's wide-ranging attributes have earned it quasi-superstar status in parts of the developing world and among nutritional experts in the West.

"Moringa leaves contain seven times the Vitamin C you find in the equivalent weight of oranges or orange juice, four times the amount of Vitamin A you'll find in the equivalent weight of carrots, four times the calcium you'll find in milk, three times the potassium you'll find in bananas," said Lowell Fuglie, the former West African regional head of Church World Service, who has worked assiduously in promoting Moringa in Senegal and elsewhere. "The plant satisfies many of the nutritional needs of an individual," he added in a recent interview in Dakar.

.... "Before, there was a lot of child malnutrition, but now it's really diminished," she said. "Because now women know Moringa is important. They plant Moringa in their homes." _Source

Here is more on Moringa:

Malunggay [moringa] is a source of moringa edible oil and biodiesel, but its vitamin A content which battles anemia, iron, calcium that was infused with the bread was found to have energized the sixty-four malnourished Grades 1 and 2 pupils from public schools in Mandaluyong City. The wonder bread is produced by PowerNut pastry shop.

Results of the 30-day feeding program and a research on the effects of malunggay on children showed that students who were diagnosed as anemic prior to the feeding program were discovered to have normal blood count, and the malady was gone. _Source

Moringa oilseeds produce a fine oil suitable for biodiesel, at a yield comparable to jatropha and pangomia. It is one more argument against the delusion of the "food vs. fuels crisis."

Moringa is not a product of bioengineering--unless you consider evolution by natural selection as a great bioengineering project on a larger than human scale. But it gives a small glimpse of what a bioengineered "Santa Claus Tree" might be able to toss off to children everywhere.

2nd Generation Biofuels

Popular Mechanics boils 2nd generation biofuels down to the basic essentials. There is a lot more involved, which will determine the big winners and losers in the biofuels jackpot. But it is looking more and more like it will be a matter of years, rather than decades, before biofuels will begin to make a difference in the global energy picture.

celluosic ethanol biological method
Process*: Raw biomass is typically ground up and pretreated in an acid steam bath before soaking in a massive hot tub for several days. Enzymes break down rigid cellulose into simple sugars like xylose, similar to the sweetener in toothpaste, which can be fermented by yeast or bacteria; it is then distilled into fuel-grade ethanol.
Bottom Line: Fermenting cellulose currently involves a lot of water and several time-consuming steps, adding to expense. The first commercial facility is expected to open in Iowa by late 2011.
Innovators: Iogen (backed by Shell), POET, SunEthanol, Verenium
Freshwater Usage:** 3 gallons
Energy Yield***: 66%


celluosic ethanol [chemical ] method
Process*: Cornstalks, garbage and even old tires are blasted with several-thousand-degree heat in an anaerobic chamber. With no oxygen, biomass can’t combust. Instead, feedstocks break down into carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This synthesis gas, or syngas, is cleaned, cooled and either ingested by bacteria or mixed with catalysts to produce ethanol and other alcohols.
Bottom Line: This method uses substantially less water and provides greater yields, but it has yet to be scaled to levels that compete with the ethanol fermentation industry. Plants are set to open in Pennsylvania and Georgia in late 2009.
Innovators: Coskata (backed by GM), Range Fuels
Freshwater Usage:** 1 gallon
Energy Yield***: 66%


algal biodiesel
Process*: Specially selected or genetically modified strains of algae are grown in enclosed bioreactors—tubes or plastic bags filled with water—and fed waste CO2 from heavy emitters like coal-fired power plants, cement kilns or breweries. The algae are then separated from water by centrifuge, and the oil is extracted with a solvent. It is then processed in
Bottom Line: Algae produce thousands of gallons more oil per acre than crops such as soy or palm, but growing and processing them at scale still present challenges. A number of U.S. facilities are slated to come on line by 2012.
Innovators: GreenFuel, HR Biopetroleum (backed by Shell), Solazyme, Solix
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 103%


green gasoline
Process*: Simple sugars—either derived from breaking down tough, cellulosic feedstocks or from sources such as sugarcane—are reacted over solid catalysts to remove the oxygen locked inside their molecules and form high-energy hydrocarbons. Like crude run through traditional refineries, raw sugar feedstocks are separated to create the range of molecules in the fuels we know as gasoline, diesel and jet.
Bottom Line: Green incarnations of today’s fuels are the holy grail, but until cellulose can be cheaply converted to simple sugars, domestic potential will be limited. Virent hopes to have its gas in car tanks by 2012.
Innovators: Virent (backed by Shell and Honda)
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 100%


biobutanol
Process*: Like ethanol, biobutanol is fermented by microorganisms from sugars, which are broken down from raw feedstocks and mixed with water. But for this process, the microbes have been genetically modified to produce an alcohol with a longer chain of hydrocarbons. Since butanol doesn’t mix with water at high concentrations, the finished fuel can be stored easily and transported within existing gasoline pipelines.
Bottom Line: Butanol is the rocket fuel of alcohols, but it has traditionally been derived from petroleum. Plants to produce it cheaply from renewable sources by 2012 are in the works in the U.S. and U.K.
Innovators: Cobalt Biofuels, Dupont (backed by BP), Gevo, Tetravitae Bioscience
Freshwater Usage:** N/A
Energy Yield***: 90%


designer hydrocarbons
Process*: By swapping out natural genes for synthetic ones, scientists trick microorganisms such as E. coli and yeast into converting simple sugars to diesel, gasoline and jet fuel instead of into fats or alcohols. As in traditional ethanol production, microbes ferment the sugars (in this case, from sugar cane) in a slurry, but since finished fuels don’t mix with water, the hydrocarbons are easily separated by centrifuge without expensive distillation.
Bottom Line: Designer fuels are ready to drop into engines, but unless they’re made in a closed-loop system, they’re water-intensive. The first commercial plant will be located in Brazil and is expected to start producing diesel in 2010.
Innovators: LS9, Amyris
Freshwater Usage:** 3 gallons
Energy Yield***: 106%


fourth gen fuels
Process*: Scientists have genetically engineered algae not just to turn CO2 into oil, but to continuously excrete that oil directly into the surrounding water. Since oil floats, harvesting it becomes simple work compared with the energy-intensive drying and extraction traditionally used for typical algae, which store oil within their cell walls. As with second-generation methods, the oil can then be processed into biodiesel.
Bottom Line: If they can perform at scale, these mutant algae may well be game changers. Synthetic Genomics hopes to have commercial amounts of biodiesel on the market within five years, though no plants have been built yet.
Innovators: Synthetic Genomics
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 103% _PopMech

These are not the only approaches to next generation biofuels out there. Finland's Neste Oil has a hydrogenation process it applies to plant oils that creates a better diesel than anything that comes from an oil well. Germany's Choren creates hydrocarbons from biomass using gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. And there is constant jockeying for the best ethanol feedstock between maize, wheat, cane, sorghum, cassava, beets, and other plants including cattail! Likewise the competition between oilseed crops for biodiesel is a strong race between soy, rape, palm, and latecomers jatropha, moringa, and pongamia.

Longshot biofuel sources include the "diesel tree" from Brazil, and a scattering of natural hydrocarbon excretors including euphorbias and other latex producers.

Genetic engineers all over the world are working on ways to create more feedstock for the scores of biofuels processes being developed. The huge brouhaha earlier in the year over "fuels vs. foods" was fueled by uninformed hysteria similar to the climate hysteria that Al Gore leads. It is to be expected at any time when a centuries old infrastructure is to be replaced by something new. It was no surprise, though, that it was Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and several Saudis from OPEC who were loudest in condemning biofuels.

Bioenergy is ready for local and regional production at this time. Within ten years, bioenergy will grow to the national and international scale. If you want to get in on the ground floor, this is the time to make your move.

Much more on bioenergy and other energy topics at Al Fin Energy

Microbes Rule the World, The Least They Could Do is Give Us All the Energy We Want

...historically, the study of microbes has focused on single species in pure culture, so understanding of these complex communities lags behind understanding of their individual members. NAS_New_Science_of_Metagenomics

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It is fortuitous that humans are finally learning the reality behind the community of microbes that rules the world, just at the time that we could use their help. Craig Venter and competitors are trying to create the perfect energy-making microbe. But growing single strains of microbes to make energy from sunlight, waste nutrients, and CO2 may not be the right approach. A community of microbes working together might do a better job. In fact, you might even say it takes a village of microbes to make a fuel.

Unlike the E. coli situation, using just one species may not work well for bioenergy, since, in nature, bacteria do not grow in isolation. In other words, no bacterium is an island. The very biodiversity that fills the Earth with bacteria and offers great bioenergy potential also presents a challenge for engineers. Even if one picks the ideal "bug," growing, maintaining, and optimizing conditions for its use in bioenergy applications remains a daunting challenge in terms of scalability and reliability.

"Microbial communities that are used to harvest energy must be resilient to fluctuations in environmental conditions, variations in nutrient and energy inputs and intrusion by microbial invaders that might consume the desired energy product," say the authors. The key to large-scale success in microbial bioenergy is managing the microbial community so that that the community delivers the desired bioenergy product reliably and at high rate.

In the absence of these molecular techniques, the authors state, our understanding of methanogenic communities progressed through slow, incremental advances over several decades. Today, society cannot wait decades for new bioenergy sources. Fortunately, an array of pre-genomic, genomic, and post-genomic tools is available to understand microorganisms involved in bioenergy production. Taking full advantage of these tools will greatly speed up scientific and technological advances, which is what society most needs.

Genomics provides the base sequence of the entire DNA in an organism, and the complete genome reveals all the possible biological reactions that a microorganism can carry out. In the past, complete genomes were only obtained for those microorganisms that could be isolated into pure culture, but it is now possible to sequence the genomes of uncultivated microorganisms using metagenomics.

To date, approximately 75 genomes are available from microorganisms that have a role in bioenergy production. These include 21 genomes from methane producing archaea, 24 genomes from bacteria that can produce hydrogen or electricity, and 30 genomes from cyanobacteria that are potential biodiesel producers. At least half of the completed microbial genomes that are relevant to bioenergy were released in the past 2 years, and more than 80 bioenergy-related genomes are currently being sequenced. __ScienceDaily_via_NextBigFuture

If you are not familiar with "metagenomics" you are not alone. It is less than a decade old, and like its siblings "synthetic biology" and "systems biology" it is still developing the new tools it will need to take off like a rocket.

The "community microbe" approach to bioenergy makes a lot of sense. One microbe can only carry so many tools to work with, and a robust approach to high-yield bioenergy will require several tools working simultaneously.

I once suggested using multiple microbes for biofuels production, grown individually in a series of bioreactors. I suspect that a combination of the two ideas may be most successful--a series of bioreactors, each containing specialised communities of microbes rather than single cultures. Working out the best ways of separating the desired product from each stage--for transfer to the next bioreactor -- may take some time.

Also, see Brian Wang's excellent overview of microbial approaches to bioenergy.

Oil Is Choking Africa, Biofuels a Better Fit

Africa is suffering from a lack of energy. Even South Africa--the jewel of sub-Saharan Africa--is forced to shut down vital industries due to lack of power.

From South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is said to have the potential to generate power for the entire continent, the shortage of energy to power growth in Africa has reached crisis proportions. _Source

Factional violence, government corruption, and abject poverty combine to impoverish Africa--even where oil and mineral wealth are abundant. Chinese workers and merchants are moving rapidly into Africa, but western industries are forced to hesitate for concerns over safety and the lack of infrastructure.

The answer for Africa's poverty, energy shortages, corruption, and lack of infrastructure lies in matching the resource to the population. Bioenergy--biofuels from tropical energy crops (both food and non-food)--offer a sustainable way of life for local and regional industry controlled by the local population--not by East Asians or Europeans.

The so-called second generation biofuels have recently gained praise as the solution to Africa's problem of eliminating the competition between biofuels and food production.

Jatropha which can be cultivated in semi-arid, arid, or sub-humid soils, appears to be the viable alternative although it then raises its own conundrum. Growth of such a crop would like a large scale movement of land from food crops or reclamation of forests into growing of fuel crops.

In Mali, Some 700 communities have installed biodiesel generators powered by oil from the hardy Jatropha curcas plant to meet their energy needs, according to Reuters.

Generation of biofuels could help provide solutions to transport costs and reduce expenditure on energy in rural areas by between 30 and 40 percent, argued Paul Ginies, managing director of the Ouagadougou-based International Institute for Water and Environment Engineering.

No matter what we say, today biofuels represent a pragmatic solution in light of the energy problems in relation to soaring oil prices,"

Meanwhile, some experts believe that the impact of biofuels in Africa, if well handled could have a dramatic effect on the millions of people who are adversely affected by the two major crises of our time, of oil and food scarcity.

Growing of biofuel crops like Jatropha could provide the necessary income that would enable farmers to afford the price of food.
__CheckBiotechBioenergy

The code word for adapting technology for the third world has always been "appropriate." The technology has to be appropriate for the third world region it is being adapted to. That is most important for Africa.

Africa cannot handle nuclear energy, the technology is not appropriate. Even large oil production and oil pipelines are not appropriate for Africa--given the propensity of local populations to illegally tap into the pipelines for fuel, often with catastrophic results. Pipelines are also destroyed in factional fighting, or held for ransom by militia groups in Africa. This technology is not appropriate for these parts of Africa.

Biomass and biofuels, on the other hand, are technologically straightforward, and can be adopted with simple machinery and basic skills. Local farmers can grow the energy crop, use the fuel to provide lighting and cooking fuel for the village, and sell the surplus fuel for cash to buy other amenities. Jatropha Curcus will grow well inter-cropped with food crops, improving the soil and keeping pests away from the food. Other oil seed crops--both edible and non-edible--grow very well in the tropics of Africa, and can be adapted cleanly to the local and regional small-scale economies of Africa.

Wherever there is large scale oil or mineral wealth in the third world, there is rampant corruption, violence, and poverty. For the "do-gooders" in the western world who truly wish to help Africans, it is important to see the problem clearly and act appropriately. Africa cannot handle the large-scale centralised technologies the western world depends upon. The underlying problems are too great. Its rulers are too corrupt. You cannot help Africa from the top down. You must empower Africa from the bottom and the middle up.

China is not in Africa to help Africans. China is in Africa to help China. Unless westerners wish to see the entire continent of Africa becoming "enslaved" to China and Chinese technologies, they had better help Africans to help themselves--and quickly.

90% Biomass to Electricity Efficiencies in the Pipe

UK researchers have combined two types of fuel cells, and made some important discoveries about the use of solid carbon--including biomass carbon--in efficient fuel cell power production.

Direct carbon fuel cells run on solid carbon fuel and typically use solid oxide or molten carbonate electrolytes to transport ions between the electrodes. John Irvine at the University of St Andrews and colleagues made a hybrid direct carbon fuel cell containing both types of electrolyte. They found that the binary electrolyte system enhanced carbon oxidation because carbon was oxidised not only on the electrode surface but also in the carbon-electrolyte slurry...

Solid carbon, which comes from various sources such as coal or plants, packs a lot of energy into a small volume, making it an attractive fuel. Irvine states that coal will be a major energy source in the future but, unless it can be converted into electricity more efficiently, will lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Fuel cells could be the answer, he says. 'Carbon fuel cells offer very high efficiency of conversion and, if implemented in the correct way, can yield two to three times the amount of energy for a given amount of coal compared to conventional thermal generation,' he explains. __Source_via_fuelcellworks

The carbon fuel cell appears to be an even more efficient means to produce cellulosic electricity than using the gasification to turbine (steam or gas) routes. Thermal generation from coal or torrefied biomass may achieve 30% to 40% electric generation efficiency (above 50% in combined cycle operation). Fuel cell generation efficiencies might reach above 80% combined cycle, eventually higher.

The promise of 90% or higher efficiencies from biomass electricity production is a potent goal. Keep in mind that combined heat and power (CHP) is the way of the future. Whether capturing waste heat from heat engine generators such as steam or gas turbines, or capturing waste heat from fuel cells, that added power generated from waste heat of power production can make the difference between an energy-rich "power to spare" society, and a brown-out society like Caw-lee-forn-ya.

Excerpted and modified from a previously published article at Al Fin Energy.

Hybrid California Power Plant 24 h Renewable

Two new hybrid power plants are to be built near Coalinga, California, to provide roughly 106 MW of renewable power 24 hours to an energy starved US state. It will be powered by the sun in the daylight, and by bio-gas powered steam at night.

The two planned solar thermal-biomass hybrid power plants - the first of their kind - will be managed by Martifer subsidiary San Joaquin Solar LLC and will provide enough power for nearly 75,000 homes in northern and central California. They combine solar thermal technology with steam turbines powered by gas made from locally available biomass (agricultural waste and livestock manure.)

When the sun is shining during peak hours, it will just be the solar facility. As the sun sets, biomass will be available to support the solar generation, and then at night the biomass will run purely on its own. - Andrew Byrnes, project developer __Biopact

This use of bioenergy as an after-hours backup power source for solar power plants is quite logical. Biomass and biofuels are simply another form of solar energy, containing their own built-in storage.

This is only one small step toward moving power generation back into the golden state from neighboring states that are less fastidious. Most of the new energy plants in California over the past 20 years are of an intermittent, non-baseload nature--solar and wind. That means that during long spells of energy shortages, one could not always count on California utilities to reliably provide needed service. As more ingenious ways of using bioenergy come online, expect it to find more of a place across North America--even in California.

Solar Powered Biomass Gasification

Biomass gasification is currently the most promising bioenergy approach, in terms of both small scale and medium/large scale power and fuel production. Bio-syngas can be used to fuel steam turbine power generators, can be converted into liquid fuels such as diesel/gasoline/jet fuel, or it can be used as a heat source (as in CHP).

In order to make the process of biomass gasification more efficient, scientists at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the National Renewable Energy Lab have collaborated to devise ways of using solar energy to achieve bio-gasification.

The large, 32-square meter (38-square yard) heliostat reflects sunlight onto the primary concentrator, which focuses the sun to a single point. “It’s basically similar to using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight to a point, although we use mirrors instead of lenses,” explains Carl Bingham, staff engineer at NREL. This concentrated sunlight, which has been reduced to a beam measuring 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter, is reflected a second time at a target area inside the test building where researchers run their experiments.

“The original intent was to see what we could do with highly concentrated solar radiation,” Bingham says. By tightening the focus of the sunlight or increasing its concentration, temperatures pushing greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,632 degrees Fahrenheit) can be reached. “The idea is that heating things with concentrated sunlight gets things very hot, very quickly,” he says. In addition to scorching temperatures, the furnace allows for the selective heating of the sample surfaces.

...“What we discovered was that at temperatures of about 1,200 degrees C (2,192 degrees F) the short, rapid pyrolysis or gasification in the presence of steam of the biomass, produced syngas with usage in excess of 90 percent of the biomass,” he says. This is significant, Weimer explains, because conventional gasification processes require a partial oxidation of the feedstock, which leads to yield loss. In addition, the very rapid heating for a very short time prevented the formation of tars. This eliminates the need for cleaning the syngas before it’s reformulated to fuel, which is a pricey capital cost for a biomass plant, Weimer says.

...As biomass flows through the tube, either by itself or with some inert gas or steam, the feedstock is heated to high temperatures for only a few seconds. The kinetics of this reaction are closely monitored for various feedstocks and used to develop mathematical models that predict how the solar reactors at NREL should behave. These models are then used to design the reactors that will be used for on-sun demonstrations.

This includes a secondary concentrator, which is a cone-shaped device that essentially wraps the sunlight around the reaction tube. The biomass is gasified as the tube absorbs the heat. “Our students build these reactors here in the shop in our department. They mount them on skids. They put the skids in the back of a pickup truck and drive up to NREL where they locate the reactors in the corner of the test building,” Weimer explains.

“With the biomass we’re really in the sweet spot,” Weimer explains. “The materials issues associated with the water splitting go away.” But there are other challenges. The biggest of these is finding biomass feedstocks independent of the food chain. “At the conditions that we operate, however, we can handle huge variability in feedstocks,” he says. Weimer’s team has gasified grasses, sorghum and even lignin. “Our feedstock could be lignin, sawdust, forestry waste, spent grains from a brewery, switchgrass, corn stover, sorghum,” he says. “It could also be municipal solid waste or paper. It could even be glycerin.” __Source

As the technologies for bioenergy conversions improve, the chorus of naysayers are looking more and more cut off from reality. Maize ethanol has provided some early benefits, but is only the beginning. Energy from grain is a first generation, nearly obsolete method for producing energy. Profit margins for corn ethanol are being constantly trimmed as commodities prices rise. Cellulosic biomass forms of energy production will come online slowly, beginning this year.

The various bioenergy production methods will experience a constant shakeout for the next decade or two as each new method tries to displace the currently reigning method.

Biofuels are Part of the Solution, Not the Problem

Hugo Chavez, dictator of Venezuela, is at the forefront of the war against biofuels. How pleased the blubbering fool must be that so many journalists and politicians of the developed world have joined him in condemning one of the best approaches to reducing dependency on oil tyrannies.

At bottom, the entire food versus fuel argument boils down to a Malthusian conceit—that there is only so much that can be grown, so if we grow more of one thing, we must necessarily grow less of something else. But this is simply false. Agriculture is not a zero-sum game. As illustrated in the bar chart below, there are roughly 2,250 million acres of land in the continental United States. About 1,600 million of those acres are arable. Roughly half of that land (800 million acres) is farmland, but only about a third of that (280 million acres) is actually being cultivated. Only about 85 million of those farm acres are presently growing corn, and just a fifth of that land—about 17 million acres—is growing corn that becomes ethanol. In short, there is plenty of farmland in the United States that could be used to grow more corn—or more of the other staple crops needed to meet domestic or international demand. Even more importantly, agricultural technology is constantly advancing. U.S. corn yields per acre have risen 17 percent since 2002, and the state of Iowa alone today produces more corn than the entire nation did in the 1940s. Applied globally, such improved techniques can multiply world agricultural yields many times.

...the two primary reasons for higher food prices are, first, higher demand, and second, higher fuel prices. The increased global demand for food ought to be seen as a very good thing: it represents hundreds of millions of people, especially in China and India, rising out of poverty and moving to more calorie-rich diets. Escalating fuel prices, however, are not good news: they drive up the cost of everything we eat. For example, consider the $3 box of cornflakes you might see in your grocery store. Farm commodity prices basically have a trivial effect on its price. A bushel of corn contains 56 pounds of grain, so at the current “very high” commodity price of $5 per bushel, a pound of corn costs 9 cents. So the 16 ounces of corn in that cereal box cost a total of 9 cents when bought from the farmer. But when the price of oil goes up, that increases the cost of production, transport, wages, and packaging—all driving up the retail cost of food.

And, in this regard, biofuels have already done more good than harm to the world’s poor. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Global production of biofuels is rising annually by the equivalent of about 300,000 barrels of oil a day. That goes a long way toward meeting the growing demand for oil, which last year rose by about 900,000 barrels a day.” The paper cites a Merrill Lynch analyst who “says that oil and gasoline prices would be about 15 percent higher if biofuel producers weren’t increasing their output.” So even though the world’s biofuels industry is still just aborning, it has already begun to bring down oil prices. __NewAtlantis

Oil prices are kept artificially high specifically by the actions of governments. Governments such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela etc. are oil tyrannies and push prices high for purposes of dictatorial survival. Governments such as the EU and the US push prices of oil, coal, and gas high out of the quasi state religion of CAGW, and other misguided policies.

Bioenergy is one of a constellation of sustainable solutions to the onerous dependency upon dictatorships for the energy of everyday commerce, transportation, and industry. It makes sense for Hugo Chavez to scapegoat bioenergy. What about you?

Cellulosic Electricity: The Most Efficient Biomass

One of the easiest ways to utilise biomass to produce energy, is to partially substitute biomass for coal in a traditionally coal-fired power plant. Yorkshire based Drax power plant intends to do exactly that, making Drax the largest biomass producer of electricity in the UK.

Executives from Yorkshire-based Drax signed a deal with Alstom to build a processing plant that could prepare 1.5m tonnes per year of biomass for use in the power station. Under the plans, biomass would be ground into a fine powder and injected directly into the power station's coal-fired furnaces. Building work for the processing plant will start later in 2008 and the first part of the facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

...Neil Crumpton, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said that using biomass in power stations or combined heat and power schemes is a better use of the resource than, for example, turning it into liquid biofuels for use by diesel-engine vehicles. "Co-firing with biomass is a reasonable way forward - it's a logical extension of what Drax is already doing and I've got no qualms with it on that score. If it helps build the sustainable biomass market in the UK, then all well and good."

...To test whether co-firing would work, Drax has used a 2-3% mix of biomass in some of its coal-fired furnaces for several months already. In their current experiments, the biomass fuel is mixed directly into the coal as it burns but this technique would not work for larger quantities of biomass.

"When you burn just a few per cent of biomass, you can afford to use exactly the same lines as coal," said Patrick Fragman, managing director of Alstom, the company that will build the biomass processing plant at Drax. But, for a higher percentage, he said, dedicated infrastructure is needed.

Peter Emery, production director at Drax, said that the new processing plant was a crucial part of the power station's attempt to scale up their biomass usage. He also added that it would be able to handle a wide variety of biomass fuels.

Different biomass materials burn in different ways, so the processing plant needs to be able to handle the materials accordingly. The resulting fuels then need to be inserted into the coal-fired boilers at different positions to ensure they burn properly. Engineers at Drax estimate that it will take 1.5m tonnes of biomass to replace the energy that comes from 1m tonnes of coal. __Guardian

Biomass CHP or cellulosic electricity, is clearly the most efficient way of producing energy from cellulosic biomass. The only reason for taking the less efficient route of producing liquid fuels (BTL) from biomass is that most of the transportation infrastructure cannot run without liquid fuels, at this time. It will likely require 20 years or more to achieve significant conversion of transportation from liquid fuels to electric drives running on stored electricity. Even fuel cells will probably need to run largely on liquid fuels such as methanol, for the next 10 to 20 years minimum.

Previously published at Al Fin Energy

Oynklent Green Adds Trial Lawyers to Official List of Approved Feedstocks

Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] has recently completed a study of tort reform in the US state of Mississippi, and concluded that trial lawyers can safely be added to its official list of approved feedstocks for thermochemical bio-energy production. Trial lawyers will be accepted as feedstock alongside corrupt politicians.

The law that eventually passed was every trial lawyers' worst nightmare...Almost overnight, the flow of lawsuits began to dry up and businesses started to trickle in. Federal Express invested $1 billion in a new facility in the state. Toyota chose Mississippi over about a dozen other states for a new $1.2 billion, 2,000-worker auto plant...Since the law took effect, the number of medical malpractice lawsuits has fallen by nearly 90%, which in turn has cut malpractice insurance costs by 30% to 45%, depending on the county.

...The Pacific Research Institute estimates that the tort system nationwide costs the economy about $7,000 for every family in America. The pols in Washington are sending out tax-rebate checks of up to $1,200 for married couples in hopes of stimulating the economy. But outside of Mississippi and a few other places, there seems to be little understanding of how frivolous lawsuits and greedy tort lawyers weigh down the economy....Thanks to Mr. Barbour, the state's unemployment rate is down to about 6% from nearly 9%. Last year, Mississippi's per capita income growth was 6.7%, third highest of the 50 states and well above the national average of 5.2%. Mississippi tort reform is making the poor richer, and the rich lawyers less fabulously rich. __WSJ__via__LibLeanings

Oynklent officials have concluded that trial lawyers represent an enormous liability to the welfare of any state, province, or nation. By using trial lawyers as feedstock for thermochemical bio-energy production, Oynklent Green will not only be providing a useful product to the community--energy--but it will also be removing a destructive and parasitic influence.

At this time, the two officially approved feedstocks for the Oynklent Green thermochemical bio-energy process are corrupt politicians and trial lawyers. Oynklent officials continue their vigilence in the search for viable bio-energy feedstock that will not drive the price of food higher. It certainly appears that they have chosen well, and that quality of life for everyone should begin to go up as soon as OG goes into full production mode.

Biofuels Not to Blame for Food Prices

Cooler minds have realized that high food prices are caused by a large medley of factors. Global speculation, high energy and fertilizer costs, rocketing demand for livestock feed by China, extraordinarily cold weather globally, and local political factors all play a much larger role in jacking up food prices.

In Canada, FAO officials said in Senate testimony that recent price rises for grains are the result of falling yields and drought, not biofuels, and noted that wheat prices have dropped by 50 percent and corn was showing signs of entering a price decline phase. __Biofuelsdigest

Cooler weather across many important growing regions of the globe have set back planting dates and reduced growing seasons and projected yields.

Biofuels play a very minor role in this medley, yet are being used as a political football by opportunistic politicians, journalists, and bureaucrats. They play a cynical game, when energy supplies are already being artificially restricted by the US Congress and other opportunistic groups of corrupted players. They try to blame biofuels, but

...proving a direct causal relationship of large-scale, worldwide production of biofuels on world food prices, for example, is hard if not impossible because there are many other intervening variables such as the price of oil, yearly weather changes affecting harvest yields, increased demand from emerging economy countries, and general economic inflation, to mention a just a few. Source

When the bulk of biofuels manufacture moves beyond the use of food feedstocks, to the use of biowaste cellulosic feedstocks and cellulosic crops grown on marginal lands, the impact of biofuels on food supplies and prices will be even less than it is today. Unfortunately, politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists want to kill the biofuels baby in its crib before it can develop into the substantial replacement for fossil fuels that it promises to become.

The Saudi Arabia of Cellulose?

Image Source

It is easy to see that no matter how much maize the US chooses to grow, China will be happy to buy it all to use as livestock feed. Corn ethanol will be abandoned not because of food shortages--which have little to do with corn ethanol--but because cheaper feedstocks for producing ethanol (and butanol) are being developed. Chief among these cheaper feedstocks is cellulose from waste biomass. Some parts of the world are particularly prolific in growing cellulosic biomass, and in their own way these regions may one day be considered the "Saudi Arabias of Cellulose."

“I heard recently that the Southeast will eventually be known as the Saudi Arabia of cellulose,” Tiller said of the region’s ease in growing native switchgrass and other potential supplies of biomass that could be used for cellulosic alcohol production.

In 20 years of research, UT has found that switchgrass — a biennial crop that takes two or three years to reach maximum potential with minimal fertilizer even on marginal soils — in one year can produce six to 10 tons an acre compared to hay, which produces one or two tons an acre and requires substantially more fertilizer.

New research may bring that to 12 to 15 tons an acre in the next few years, Tiller said. Research also is looking at ways to more densely pack switchgrass in bales, convert it to pellets, or even alter it genetically to start breaking down soon after harvest....

Tiller explained that the process under study uses a “steam explosion” — forcing heat and steam into the biomass and then drastically relieving the pressure — to coax the sugars out of switchgrass and other biomass, making the biomass “explode like popcorn.”

A lignin byproduct can be used to make biodiesel, other oils, carbon fibers and plastics, depending on the most efficient use and market demand.

And the cellulose and hemicellulose — aside from going to the fermentation and distillation process to make ethanol — also can be used to make biodiesel and other products, depending on economics and demands. __Source

The US consumes 400 million gallons of gasoline a day. Current US ethanol production would only provide about two weeks worth of fuel for the US. Clearly the US needs to rapidly scale up biofuels production--but not using corn. China would clearly outbid ethanol producers for any amount of corn US growers want to grow.

Until cellulosic biomass can be more cheaply converted to alcohols, the US will need to look to Brazilian cane ethanol, and other cheaper feedstocks such as sweet sorghum. Eventually, algae and other monocellular organisms are likely to provide better and cheaper feedstocks for biodiesel and bio-alcohol fuels. But algae still has a number of problems that need ironing out.

H/T NextEnergyNews

Biomass to Electricity: The Reliable Renewable

The world produces abundant waste biomass which humans could be using as fuel, instead of coal, oil, and gas. Forward-thinking engineers and entrepreneurs are beginning to act on this promise, without waiting for corrupt bureaucrats and politicians to give them the go-ahead.

Renegy Holdings, Inc. (Renegy) (Nasdaq:RNGY) announced today that it has successfully synchronized its 24 megawatt (MW) biomass power plant located in Snowflake, Arizona, to the electric utility grid. As of April 24, Renegy has been generating electricity from its Snowflake facility and is currently selling test power in advance of commencing full commercial operations.

...The plant is located adjacent to a recycled newsprint mill owned and operated by Catalyst Paper Corp. Fuel for the plant will be derived from wood-waste material from local green waste sites and the surrounding forests and from waste recycled paper fibers generated by the newsprint mill. The current fuel inventory at the plant site includes approximately 200,000 tons of wood waste fuel, approximately equivalent to a two-year supply. The Snowflake plant will sell its entire power output through long-term power purchase agreements in place with Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project, Arizona's two largest electric utility companies. __Money.CNN

An earlier Al Fin posting recommended Renegy as a stock prospect to watch. Andritz, an Austrian company, is involved in similar biomass to electricity projects in Europe.

Biomass to electricity is a baseload, 24/7 renewable power generation approach, unlike current wind and solar energy schemes. Until battery storage is able to effectively scale up to utility needs, we are likely to see more plants that combine solar thermal with biomass to electricity, to provide 24 hour energy needs. Using biomass in place of coal or gas should provide significant energy savings--once the infrastructure for collecting and processing biomass is more mature.

Previously published in Al Fin Energy

100,000 Gallons of Oil per Acre: Closed Loop Algae

This company claims that the entire fuel supply for the US could be supplied by 1/10th the surface area of New Mexico, using the closed-loop algae process. Palm oil can only provide 800 gallons of oil per acre of land. Instead of cutting down tropical forests in SE Asia, Africa, and South America, perhaps these third world nations should consider algal oil instead?

Algae is not food. This is not a food to fuel process. Watch the video and decide whether you believe the process can be scaled up in the way Vertigro thinks it can.

H/T Gas2.org

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