Biofuel Meets Sequesterable Carbon

December 27, 2009 – Vol.14 No.41

BIOFUEL MEETS SEQUESTRABLE CARBON.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

A skeptic pounced on me (figuratively) as started to dig the nearly 2 feet of snow on my front step from the record breaking Nor’easter in the U.S. “So much for global warming,” says he. “No, this is why they call it climate change,” say I.

The late fall storm dumped as much as 30 inches of snow on an area stretching from the mountains of North Carolina to the coast of New England. Another massive storm is hitting the U.S. as I write this.

I tried something new with this storm: No digging until the last flake had dropped. The method worked well – much less agony. The neighborhood had something new as well: Two robust snow blowers. Cars, walkways, the alley and the street itself were cleared in a matter of a few hours. While many shovelers stood and watched and marveled at the machines, I wondered how we’ll ever get by without gasoline and the internal combustion engine to do so much work for us.

The fact is we won’t be giving up liquid fuels and engines, but eventually we’ll see more of carbon-neutral biofuels. And, eventually, we may even be sequestering some carbon every time we burn a drop of those biofuels. That is, if Sustainable Power Corporation of Baytown, Texas has its way.

The company has developed a process it calls Vertroleum (R) to make fuels from a variety of bio sources. With the Vertroleum pyrolytic process, bio feed stocks are heated in a reactor vessel in presence of a proprietary catalyst to make an oil, a flammable gas and biochar, which is mostly carbon. Typically this process might be described as pyrolysis, but the addition of the catalyst makes it also a thermo-chemical reaction.

Sustainable Power (SSTP) has had its Vertroleum process independently checked for its validity. Twice.

A team of scientists from Texas A&M has completed a multidisciplinary analysis of the the process. The Texas A&M report states, "SSTP demonstrated that the oil yields with pyrolysis are much higher than simple mechanical squeezing process of soy seeds."

With Sustainable Power's proprietary process the team reported a yield of 54.4% oil in addition to 25.3% flammable gas and 20.3% biochar.

The biochar could be used as a solid fuel or, unburned, it represents a stable, sequestered form of carbon that would qualify for greenhouse gas credits, according to Sustainable Power.

AmSpec Services has also tested Sustainable Power’s oils produced through Vertroleum and found nearly identical results as Texas A&M. AmSpec went a little further as well. The company refined the oils into biogasoline, marine fuel and a replacement gasoline for E85 flex fuel.

AmSpec also determined that the long arm of Uncle Sam could give Sustainable Power a boost: Using feed stocks of corn, soybeans, wheat, sunflower and other raw agricultural products, the fuels meet the US Energy Policy Act's requirements for cellulosic biomass. A cellulosic biofuel producer that is registered with the Internal Revenue Service may be eligible for a tax incentive in the amount of up to $1.01 per gallon of cellulosic biofuel sold.

Washington has been looking for a viable cellulosic biofuel for years.

The biochar component of the Vertroleum process may be more significant than it may seem. Sustainable Power is not the only company that has biochar in its business plans.

In Germany a new company has been formed, Palaterra, to reproduce and market Terra Preta, the rich centuries-old “dark earth” of the Amazon. This ancient, man-made, rain forest soil is not only fertile but it has been sequestering carbon for thousands of years. That carbon, is in the from of charcoal, like biochar.

The company says that widespread application of Terra Preta technology will remove large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere, binding it in the soil as stable humus, partially decomposed organic matter, biochar. Up to 250 metric tons of carbon can be bound in one hectare of farmland treated with Terra Preta.

(The CO2 is removed from the atmosphere indirectly. Plants absorb CO2 and build the carbon into the structure of the plant itself, the stalks, leaves, beans, what have you. Later, after the plant is harvested, and sent through the process of making biochar through pyrolysis, carbon dioxide does not form (at least as much). Instead, the carbon stays pretty much by itself (no oxygen attached) and can be burned as a fuel, like charcoal, or sequestered.)

Palaterra plans to build the world’s first large-scale production plant for the new Terra Preta in 2010. Marketing plans are global.

A good snowfall is good for the soil. As proven in the Amazon Terra Preta is good for the soil as well. Maybe someday the process that makes the fuel that runs those snow blowers may also be providing biochar component to Terra Preta that can make help make neighborhood gardens flourish in the spring, while keeping carbon locked away in that same soil.

The unusual snow was gone in a week with a combination of rain and unseasonably warm temperatures. Yes, so much for global warming.

Links:

Sustainable Power
http://www.sstp.us

AmSpec Services
http://www.amspecllc.com

Palaterra
http://www.palaterra.eu