Heating with organic waste
Interesting Articles:
Articles on BioMass
Island Inventor Pushes Alternative Energy
Fossil Fuel Is Dead End
Detailed DOE BioMass Report
Breakthrough Biomass Technology
From the Whidbey News-Times, 9/2/98
not a wood stove. It is a heat plant that operates at such a high temperature that even wet fuel and waste plastics can be burnt inside of it without producing thick, water-laden smoke or dioxin gas. "the emissions are so clean that you can't smell them," said Dobson. Sometime in the next 18 months, Dobson's heat plant -- which is still in the design phase -- will be paired with a high-tech electric generator being developed by the private company, Sunpower, Inc. The heat will run
the generator and should, said Dobson, make electricity that is both clean and cheap, especially in our area of the country. The sheer availability of waste plant materials, he said, could bring the fuel for the system as close as a homeowners backyard. "The Pacific Northwest is a tremendous source of bio energy," said Dobson. "With the waste materials from logging and agriculture, we could produce several times the energy we're producing now." Dobson's work is being funded by federal grant money designated to build energy partnerships between private business and the government. The system is planned to produce enough power to run a small household and, with any luck, should be priced low enough for homeowners to purchase. Eventually, the size of the system could be increased for households and businesses that use more electricity.
Energy from biomass - NEW DIRECTIONS
It has become obvious that we must soon cease our reliance on fossil
fuels and nuclear energy, but the price we are paying for continuing our
energy
habits is greater than most of us realize. Consider the hidden
costs of damage to the environment, crop loss, illness from pollution,
disposal of radioactive waste, economic and employment effects, destruction
of forests, lakes, buildings and infrastructure from acid rain, the long-term
effect of greenhouse gas buildup, interest on the money we owe for imported
oil, and the military costs of defending our foreign oil supplies. Recent
attempts to quantify these "hidden costs" show that every U.S. citizen
is actually paying over $1,000 in "subsidies" to fossil fuel and nuclear
energy prices. According to a World Resources Institute report, our
society is really paying over $4.00 per gallon for gasoline, and the list
of penalties continues to grow. Alternative energy urgently needs
commercialization funding now.
Biomass Energy is Hot! A U.S. Department of Energy study concluded
that 88% of the economically accessible energy of the future will come
from solar and biomass. The world now derives less than 15% of its
energy from 1% of the solar energy that is continually being captured in
the chemical bonds of growing plants
around the earth. We now waste far more energy than we use efficiently.
If we kick our fossil fuel/ nuclear energy addiction, use less energy more
efficiently,
and restore the 40% of Mother Nature's bounty we humans have
destroyed throughout history, we will be rewarded with far more stored
solar energy than we will ever need in the form of continuously renewable
biomass. Several studies indicate that biomass can contribute 40%
to 90% of our future energy needs, with many benefits. Throughout the world
there is enough energy available from society's residues, from harvesting,
processing, manufacturing, packaging, human discards and natural disasters,
to provide much of the energy needs of mankind without relying on
fossil fuel or nuclear power, without destroying our forests or depleting
our soils. Biomass plantations can supply additional energy. Unlike
fossil fuels, biomass does not contribute to the greenhouse gas buildup
when replanted on a sustained yield basis, nor is it explosive, dangerous
or contaminating to the environment like gas, oil and coal. Wood
ash is also an excellent fertilizer.
Waste is Everywhere
a Potential Fuel Waste biomass is produced in the wood-and food-processing
industries and at construction and demolition sites. It takes such
diverse forms as logging waste, yard trimmings, bark, land-clearing debris,
manure, orchard prunings, corn cobs, rice husks, nut hulls and municipal
solid waste (MSW). It is often both an expensive disposal problem
and an excellent energy source. Landfills are filling faster and faster.
EPA's strict new regulations may cost taxpayers $1 million per acre to
open new ones and force the closing of half of the nation's 5,500 dumps
by 1996. From 1/3 to 3/4 of our MSW is biomass suitable for fuel,
which could replace nationwide 824 million barrels of imported oil a year.
Yet, MSW is only 2% of the total available waste biomass fuel produced
in this country. In the Pacific Northwest alone, each year biomass
residue is generated equivalent to 160 million barrels of oil or $10 billion
per year in residential fuel oil. It represents the heat equivalent
of 11/2 times the annual electric power consumption of the Pacific Northwest.
This scenario is repeated across the nation and around the world.
All fossil fuel prices are predicted to escalate at an increasing rate,
while costs for biomass fuels are dropping as disposal costs rise.
Energy costs for wood residues burned in an efficient biomass energy system
are presently only one-eighth the cost of energy from natural gas in most
of the U.S. Energy savings are greater yet for biomass residue fuels that
would otherwise be disposed of in costly landfills. Superior Technology
from Northern Light R&D Over the past 25 years, Northern Light R&D
has perfected the technology to harness this energy and is now working
on two new prototypes to commercialize the cleanest burning biomass energy
system yet tested. By utilizing strict thermodynamic principles,
new refractory materials, highly preheated combustion air, staged pyrolysis/combustion
and advanced microprocessor controls, we have developed a combustion system
that operates substantially below all current and projected emission standards.
Extensive testing of 11 patented prototypes of various sizes and configuration,
including official U.S. DOE tests, prove that a great variety of
biomass fuels can be burned in a Northern Light combustor as clean and
efficient as natural gas. Flue gases are odorless and so cool that
clear water is condensed out in the heat exchanger, allowing wet garbage
with over 70% moisture to be burned as efficiently as dry pellets.
It can be operated without electricity if necessary. Over 90% of
the energy in the fuel is captured, with less pollution than from gasoline,
oil or coal. (The condensate is environmentally benign.
It contains no sulfur and is less acid than rainfall near many fossil-fueled
industrial areas of the world.)
The Market
No biomass/waste combustion system has been available until now that
is clean burning enough to pass strict new emission regulations and is
also affordable, fully automated, reliable and able to burn the great variety
of waste and biomass fuels produced continually by society. Right
now in the U.S. and globally, such technology is urgently needed
for the production of processing heat, steam, cogeneration of electricity,
and for the utilization of steadily increasing mountains of waste materials.
Fuel savings over fossil fuel in a 440 kW commercial energy system can
be hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few years, and payback on
investment in 1-3 years. Meeting the demands of the global market
with our technology could replace hundreds of billions of dollars worth
of fossil fuels and contribute substantially to the reversal of atmospheric
CO2 buildup. Because this technology is so clean and simple and capable
of handling such a diversity of fuels, it should be ideally suited for
such applications where biomass waste disposal is the priority need and
presently available solutions are extremely costly and complex, such as
the clean conversion of MSW to energy in small, decentralized community
settings. Existing systems are prohibitively expensive and unreliable.
Other application for which we have received numerous inquiries are: direct
drying of products such as sewage and cement sludges, wood and agricultural
byproducts; and disposal of creosoted timbers, hospital waste and other
"hazardous wastes" that can be burned very cleanly in our system.
International interest has grown
steadily in light of a greater European and Asian awareness of biomass
fuel potentials, and a commitment to reducing petroleum fuel
consumption.
Current Activities
We are currently working with Pyro Industries and the U.S. Department
of Energy on a 300,000Btu/hr hot air furnace for heating with fuels as
diverse as sawdust and chips to Refuse-Derived Fuel pellets and chicken
litter. Another venture with the DOE and Sunpower, Inc., a major Stirling
Engine company, is to design a residential energy system, incorporating
a free piston Stirling alternator for grid-coupled electric cogeneration.
It will provide the electricity, hot water, space heating and waste disposal
needs of a household, with potential add-on cooking and cooling modules.
The integrated components of the system will be fully automated to provide
efficiencies several times that of separate stand-alone units. As it becomes
increasingly obvious that the continued abuse of fossil fuels and nuclear
energy threaten the very balance of life on earth, renewable biomass energy
will play a major role in the energy game, perhaps second only to conservation.
Northern Light Research and Development expects to be a key player in that
field, but at present our energy systems are not yet commercially available.
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Larry Dobson
(360)579-1763
7118 S Fiske Rd
Clinton, WA 98236
Stilt@stiltman.com
http://www.stiltman.com/stilt
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