Biomass Energy for Home and Abroad

October 8, 2009 – Vol.14 No.29

BIOMASS ENERGY FOR HOME AND ABROAD.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Not too long ago I received a phone call from a woman who was trying to contact a company that specialized in obtaining waste wood and wood chips for export.

The woman said she had been in contact with a European utility that wanted to enter into a long term contract with a North American supplier for a significant tonnage of quality, dry wood chips from the U.S. and/or Canada. The European utilities are under mandate, of course, to cut greenhouse gas emissions and Europe is not a particularly woody place so waste wood that can be ground into chips is fairly rare. North America is heavily treed.

The wood chips would be used in what is becoming common practice, would be blended with coal as a way to neutralize a portion of the greenhouse gases emitted from the utility’s power plants.

Waste wood typically comes from harvesting trees for lumber, from tree trimmings by utilities and public works crews as well as trees felled for clearing land for new buildings, or infrastructure projects. The wood chips used as fuel for power plants need to be clean and dry, so a company would need a particular expertise not only in securing a steady flow of chips ready to be loaded on ships, but also in drying and storing the chips: Altogether not an easy business to be in.

After the call, I thought, what a deal for the company that could supply the chips as well as the U.S. and its economy. The European utility has the money to spend and has to spend it on fuel that will cut or neutralize emissions. North America has the supply of waste wood and certainly could use a new export item to bolster its economy. Further electric utilities, states and municipalities would have a place to unload wood waste they might ordinarily have to dispose of. They might even save or make a few dollars by putting their waste into the export supply chain.

Wood, by the way, is also blended and co-fired with coal in some U.S. power plants and is used as the primary fuel in others. So, there’s a domestic demand for wood chips as well.

I don’t know the outcome of the phone call. Good luck to her.

The sale of solid biomass fuels from North America to European utilities for greenhouse gas reduction is on the radar screen of other companies.

VIASPACE, an Irvine, California based alternative energy company, has announced plans to produce pellets made from Giant King Grass as an alternative to coal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants across the U.S. and Europe.

A VIASPACE press release notes that, “According to the U.S. Department of Energy, pellets made from Giant King Grass and other biomass can potentially replace up to 20% of the coal in an existing coal-fired power plant. Giant King Grass and other plants absorb carbon dioxide during their growth. When the grass is burned, it emits carbon dioxide, but the next crop of grass 90 days later absorbs the carbon dioxide, and the overall process can be nearly carbon neutral, and therefore reduces the carbon dioxide emissions of the power plant significantly. Many existing coal-fired power plants can be adapted at modest cost to replace part of the coal with biomass pellets in a process called co-firing. In a single 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant, replacing 20% of the coal with Giant King Grass pellets would require approximately 2.3 million tons of pellets per year and yield revenue of approximately $2.3 million at today's prices for biomass pellets.”

The company also says that “In addition to co-firing, 100% dedicated biomass power plants are being built throughout the world, and coal-fired power plants are being converted to run on much larger amounts of biomass. According to a Global Climate Law posting on Sept. 9, 2009, at globalclimatelaw.com, company officials at Ohio Edison, an electric utility serving customers in central and northeastern Ohio, say that one of its coal-firing plants--to be retrofitted for up to 80% biomass to be co-fired with a maximum of 20% coal--is expected to reduce yearly emissions of carbon dioxide by 1.3 million tons to 400,000 tons, most of which should be offset by the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the biomass crops during their growth. The cost of converting the facility to biomass was expected to be materially lower than installing scrubbers or reconfiguring for natural gas.”

The business potential of Giant King Grass pellets for power plant fuel would be significant. Replacing just 20 percent of the coal worldwide with these pellets would represent a market potential of $200 billion a year, according to VIASPACE Chief Executive Dr. Carl Kukkonen.

One customer could be Ohio Edison, which is converting a coal fired plant to run on 80 percent biomass (like wood chips or Giant King Grass Pellets) and 20 percent coal.

Like trees that absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, Giant King Grass would do the same but faster. In tropical and subtropical regions four harvests per year are typical. Plants can grow to 4 meters (13 feet) high in 60 days. Crop yield is as high as 350 tonnes (385 tons) (wet) per hectare (2.5 acres). The grass could be grown on marginal land not used for food production. Giant King Grass can also be used as feedstock for liquid biofuels.

Links.

VIASPACE
http://www.viaspace.com

Global Climate Law
http://globalclimatelaw.com