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Bio-fuelish - New Energy Sources

by JANE BOGNER

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I don’t need to tell you that gasoline prices are up again. We all know that high gasoline prices affect the prices of everything we buy. Fortunately, there are some creative sources of energy emerging from totally unexpected sources that would lessen our dependence on petroleum.

WASHINGTON BIOMASS

News from Spokane Washington is of energy harvested from biomass in resident’s own backyards.

Biomass is a combination of forest, farm, and processing residue from harvested crops; animal waste, and municipal organic waste. Biomass can be converted into energy or fuel through simple combustion and anaerobic digestion.

Anaerobic digesters break down organic waste by using bacteria in an oxygen-free environment. These digesters produce methane which can be used as natural gas to heat homes or can be converted into electricity.

Ethanol fuel made from the plant cellulose is another key part of the biomass experiment.

 A Biomass Inventory and Bio-energy Assessment was conducted by Washington State University and the Washington Department of Ecology. According to this report, Washington has an annual production of 17 million tons of biomass which is capable of producing more than 15.5 billion kilowatts hours of electrical energy.

Producing energy where the biomass is located can save transportation costs which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, benefit water quality, and solve some solid waste disposal problems.

SAN FRANCISCO – POWER FROM THE DOG PARK

The city of San Francisco is also entering this biomass game in a totally different way. Several San Francisco Bay Area cities have committed to Zero Waste by 2020 and are now scrutinizing all types of garbage. Waste surveyors found that nearly 4 percent of San Francisco's residential waste is animal excrement.  In the next few months, a San Francisco sanitation company will be collecting feces at a busy dog park and sending it to be digested by hungry bacteria. The resulting methane could theoretically be used in any natural-gas system. Some officials hope to see methane digesters in individual homes within a few years. While it's a relatively newfangled notion in the United States, some European countries already process excrement into energy.

MIT ALGAE = BIODIESEL

Three years ago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology rocket scientist Isaac Berzin had a plan to use algae to clean up emissions from power plants. Today, at a power plant next to MIT, tubes of healthy algae slurp up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide and 86 percent of the nitrous oxide that the power plant previously released into the atmosphere. Interestingly, the harvested algae will squeeze out a combustible biofuel. The algae can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to soybeans' measly 60 gallons per acre. The dried algae flakes left over from biodiesel squeezing are processed into ethanol. Berzin’s company, GreenFuel Technologies, is currently conducting trials and hopes to be in full production by 2009.

FORD MOTORS’ FUMES-TO-FUEL

If you have ever flung open your windows when using oil based paints, you’ll really appreciate what the Ford Motor Company is doing.

The Ford Dearborn Michigan Truck Plant is turning paint fumes into fuel, saving energy and money. Piloted in 2004 at the Ford Rouge Center, Fumes-to-Fuel is turning emissions from its painting operations into electricity. The process generates 55 kilowatt-hours of electric power every hour or enough for an average city block. Ultimately, the system could power one-third of the plant's paint shop.

The technology works by pulling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the paint emissions using fluidized carbon beads. The clean air is then sent back into the environment. The scrubbed VOCs are sent to a generator where they are transformed into electricity.

For years, Ford has been siphoning off the fumes from its paint booths and incinerating them in natural gas-fired furnaces which cost millions of dollars to build and consume an enormous amount of energy.

The Fumes-to-Fuel system costs less to install and maintain than existing furnaces; it virtually eliminates carbon dioxide emissions and it enables the use of higher-quality, solvent-based paint.

 VALCORE Recycling President Jane Bogner's "A Sorted Affair" is published every other week in the Times-Herald. For recycling information call VALCORE Recycling at 645-8258 or visit www.VALCORErecycling.org .

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