renewable energy

- by Erin Voegele, November 14, 2014, Biomass Magazine

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"310","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 233px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]The U.S. Energy Information Administration has released the November issue of its Short-Term Energy Outlook, which includes updated forecasts for the use of wood and biomass fuels in U.S. heat and power production.

The EIA predicts that wood biomass will be use generate 118,000 MWh electricity per day in 2015, up from 116,000 MWh per day in 2014 and 109,000 MWh per day in 2013. Waste biomass is expected to be used to generate 58,000 MWh of electricity per day next year, up from 54,000 MWh per day this year and 55,000 MWh per day last year.

The electric power sector is expected to consume 0.262 quadrillion Btu (quad) of wood biomass and 0.277 quad of waste biomass next year, up from 0.25 quad and 0.259 quad this year, respectively. The industrial sector is expected to consume 1.198 quad of wood in 2015, down from 1.25 quad this year. The industrial sector is also expected to consume 0.0169 quad of waste biomass next year, down from 0.172 quad this year. The commercial sector is expected to consume 0.091 quad of wood biomass and 0.046 quad of waste biomass next year, compared to 0.079 quad and 0.046 quad this year, respectively. The residential sector is expected to consume 0.571 quad of wood next year, down slightly from 0.580 quad this year. Across all sectors, the U.S. is expected to consume 2.123 quad of wood biomass next year, down from 2.164 quad this year. The U.S. is also expected to consume 0.492 quad of waste biomass next year, up from 0.478 quad this year.

- by Seth Slabaugh, November 11, 2014, The Star Press

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"307","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 115px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: randolph-county.org"}}]]Cardinal Ethanol has paid a $9,600 fine to settle a complaint that it violated its Clean Air Act operating permit.

The penalty is insignificant in light of the grassroots, investor-owned company's profitability — $26.4 million net income for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2013.

President Jeff Painter said revenue and income data for fiscal year 2014 are not available because an independent audit has not been completed.

But according to Securities and Exchange Commission information, the company's net income for the third quarter of fiscal year 2014 totaled $29.4 million.

Until now, Cardinal Ethanol had been the only biofuels plant in East Central Indiana that had not paid a civil penalty for alleged air or water violations. Those violations usually occur during planned shutdowns for maintenance or start-ups.

"We paid the assessment in order to expedite this settlement," Painter said.

According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the company did not take reasonable steps to restore an air pollution scrubber's operation to normal operation as soon as practical during planned shutdowns in 2011-13.

The complaint also accuses the company of failing to record visible emissions of bag house exhaust around Christmas time in 2012.

- October 28, 2014, HartfordBusiness.com

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"306","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"264","style":"width: 264px; height: 264px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","width":"264"}}]]Glastonbury construction firm Gemma Power Systems has completed the 49.9 megawatt construction of a biomass plant in Woodville, Texas, three months ahead of schedule.

The plant to be run by the East Texas Electric Cooperative will operate on chipped forest waste. Construction of the facility began in 2012.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Gemma served as construction manager.

Gemma's subsidiary Gemma Plant Operations will run the plant for the electric cooperative under a separate contract.

-  by Andy Balaskovitz, November 10, 2014, Midwest Energy News

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"305","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 255px; height: 164px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]Developers from metro Detroit have plans to build a $100 million, 34 MW biomass plant in the central Upper Peninsula, about 20 miles south of an aging coal plant that is the ongoing focus of the region’s energy crisis.

The company building the plant, Marquette Green Energy LLC, says it would run on a combination of biomass and tire-derived fuels and a smaller amount of natural gas to start. The developers say it’s a step forward as the region scrambles to figure out how to avoid major rate increases in the short term and build new generation for the long term.

“I call it stealth development,” said Barry Bahrman, a partner in the project and a fifth-generation Upper Peninsula native. “It’s developed to a point now when we can let people know there’s part of an answer in place. … Local generation is what the U.P. needs.”

The project has received an air quality permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which Bahrman said makes it the first tangible generation project to surface since the Presque Isle Power Plant closure started making headlines.

- August 14, 2014, Waste Management World

[The latest bad idea coming out of the polluting bioenergy industry.]

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"301","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"395","style":"width: 333px; height: 274px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","width":"480"}}]]A scientist at the University of Alberta, Canada is research to determine whether it’s effective to use pipelines to transport agricultural waste used in biofuels.

According to the university, Mahdi Vaezi, a PhD student in the Faculty of Engineering, is looking at agricultural wastes such as straw and corn stover which are used as feedstock for bio-based energy facilities.

Vaezi’s lab is claimed to be the only one in the world conducting this kind of research on biomass slurries.

The university explained that biomass material derived from food and non-food organisms has traditionally been transported by truck, at great expense. However, when done at a large scale, transporting biomass materials by slurry pipeline could help make the cost of biorefineries competitive.

- by Kate Prengaman, October 29, 2014 Yakima Herald-Republic

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"300","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 264px; height: 264px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]Scientists are searching for the fuels of the future in high-tech laboratories around the world, but last week one research team debuted its new technology at a wood-chipping plant tucked in the forest outside Cle Elum.

That's because their technology runs on wood chips.

Roasting the wood, which might be otherwise worthless, at high temperatures without oxygen, creates a bio-oil similar to petroleum and a flammable gas that can be captured to run the burners. It also produces bio-char, a charcoal-like material that has applications in agriculture as a soil additive and in water filtration.

The state Department of Natural Resources hosted this demonstration because it's seeking solutions to Eastern Washington's biggest forest health problem: dense forests in need of thinning to reduce wildfire and disease risks, which is expensive work.

"When we are talking with landowners about how to improve their forest's health, (it) involves removing small trees and oftentimes that material doesn't have much of an economic value," said Chuck Hersey, a DNR forest health specialist who organized the event with a Utah-based company that developed the technology.

"This technology is one potential pathway for dealing with small, low-grade trees," Hersey said. "It's basically turning woody biomass into more dense, renewable energy products that have a higher value than just wood products."

Take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the October / November issue of Energy Justice Now, a forum for the dirty energy resistance.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"299","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"480","style":"width: 480px; height: 480px; float: left; margin: 3px 10px;","width":"480"}}]]Inside this issue:

- Fossil Fuel Divestment: How to Evolve the Campaign

-  Are Carbon Taxes Another False Solution?

-  Biomass Energy: Another Kind of Climate Change Denial

...and more!

Please share the October / November 2014 issue of Energy Justice Now with your friends, colleagues, neighbors, media, and elected officials! 

Subscribe to monthly email issues of Energy Justice Now!

- by Eric Reinhardt, October 13, 2014, Business Journal News Network

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"297","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 231px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]OWEGO, N.Y. — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) has signed a manufacturing agreement with Concord Blue Energy, Inc. to provide all manufacturing support for the firm’s reformertechnology.

That technology converts waste to energy using advanced conversion technology.

Lockheed Martin is now the “exclusive manufacturing provider” of the Concord Blue reformer, Lockheed said in a news release distributed on Friday.

Concord Blue specializes in transforming nearly any form of waste into a variety of clean, renewable fuels and energy.

Concord Blue USA, Inc. is headquartered in Los Angeles. The firm also operates international offices in India, Germany, and Dubai.

Lockheed Martin and Concord Blue Energy, Inc. in 2013 reached an agreement to offer an advanced waste-conversion system to address waste disposal, energy security, and climate-control issues.

Advanced waste conversion is an “emerging” technology that uses gasification processes to convert waste products to electricity, heat, and synthetic fuels, according to the Lockheed news release.

It addresses the current burden on landfills, conventional incineration, and fossil fuels, along with the desire for green-baseload energy, Lockheed said.

Concord Blue’s waste-to-energy process employs a patented technology called steam thermolysis to convert waste material using heat transfer instead of incineration, “efficiently” producing syngas without combustion.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin Corp. is a security and aerospace company that employs about 113,000 people globally. The firm focuses on the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services.

The corporation generated net sales of $45.4 billion in 2013.

- October 16, 2014, WCJB

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"235","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 228px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]It's official - an investigative review into decisions made between GRU and GREC officials will soon begin.

City officials voted to approve the contract to begin the review that will question decisions made relating to the biomass plant.

The city will be shelling out close to $190,000 for the review. Additional costs will need to be approved by city officials. Navigant is expected to conduct interviews and go through memos, emails and other documents between GRU and GREC officials between October 2007 and November 2013. At the end of the months-long process, the firm will be expected to make recommendations to improve similar processes in the future.

"We've had some decisions that quite frankly were questionable in the past, that while i don't think necessarily there's anything that we can do about them, we've asked somebody to come look at it," City Commissioner Todd Chase explained.

City officials expect the entire review to be completed in February of next year.

- Cole Avery, October 3, 2014, The Times-Picayune

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"296","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"346","style":"width: 347px; height: 346px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","width":"347"}}]]Tom Vilsack, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced a $91 million loan guarantee from the federal government to help build a biomass fuel plant in Louisiana.

Vilsack traveled to Baton Rouge on Friday to make the announcement. He said the plant could have a "profound impact" on agriculture in America.

The plant is being built by Cool Energy in Alexandria. It under construction and is expected to be complete in 2015 with production to begin in 2016. The plant will produce an expected 150-175 direct or indirect jobs.

"This is going to provide a new market opportunity for pine chips and other renewable forest material, which will help the forestry industry in the state," Vilsack said. "This biochar soil nutrient they're able to produce is really remarkable opportunity for us not only to learn from your experience but to take this and extend the notion of biochar."