Archive for the ‘Biomass’ category

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Biomass,Wind and Solar Power Grid

March 1st, 2009

The video below from Biopact shows how electrical power generation in Germany is changing. Germany is becoming less dependent on power generated in a few nuclear and coal plants to a set-up of many smaller biomass, wind and solar power plants feeding a central grid.

As the video shows combining different renewable energy technologies together from different geographical locations makes sense. Where solar panels in one side of the country may/may not be producing power, the likely hood is that another wind power station will compensate and vice versa. However the disadvantage with wind and solar as forms of renewable energy is the supply and demand of energy. The requirements of the national grid are constantly changing. Here in the UK for example at around 7.30pm when there is a break in a popular TV program, several power stations are turned on only for a few minutes to provide power as millions of people turn on their electric kettles for a cup of tea.

While the energy created by wind and solar is very important and should be taken advantage of, its lack of flexibility to meet instant changes in power demands is its weak point. Here is where energy from biomass has the advantage, as it can produce power on demand to fill in the gap in supply. The video shows biogas as one form of biomass energy, gasification is also becoming popular to generate power from biomass. Many small gasification systems along with solar and wind could connect to the grid to power the entire network.

Clear advantages of small-scale electrical generation is the distribution of work and revenue, and with biomass the reduction of low-density materials to large-scale central plants. It also helps to keep prices stable and reduce power outages. For instance if one large-scale electricity plant goes down this will affect thousands, with a collection of combined small-scale generators, large-scale power outages are less likely.

For small-scale gasification particularly, pellets are an ideal fuel that users could produce and sell to other owners of gasification systems. As pellets are a standardised fuel with constituent qualities, they provide the gasifier with consistent power.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass, Gasification

Biochar – Agrichar – Terra Preta

February 26th, 2009

Several times in articles, which have appeared on the Blog, I have talked about the added benefits of burning biomass as the ash/char can be used as a soil amendment. The following video presentation from a group of Australian scientists explain its benefits in more details, and show the history of the process dates back many hundred if not thousands of years.

History of Terra Preta

Throughout the Amazon the orange soils have been turned black on the top few layers by man, through the process of adding charcoal and ash, and is know in the Amazon as Terra Preta. Scientists today are researching how Terra Preta can store twice as much carbon as other soils. The benefits of adding charcoal to the soil are the soil is then far more efficient at retaining nutrients, to capture and retain water and capture CO2 into the soil.

The reason this research is so important is that it addresses so many of the current issues of today’s world.

Energy

As discussed in the video, one of the best ways to produce Biochar from biomass is through pyrolysis and gasification. Gasification also turns out to be one of the most efficient ways to extract energy from biomass. The biomass is initially burnt in a low oxygen environment, this create the generation of syngas, also known as producer gas and wood gas. This gas can then be used for several purposes in terms of heating applications, running generators for electricity production and by passing the gas through a catalyst can be turned into alcohols such as ethanol and methanol for vehicles and other uses.

Soil Improvement and Restoration

The by-product of gasification is charcoal or Biochar/Agrichar. As the video states, it is possible to use the Biochar on soil to improve productivity and efficiency for growing more food and other crops is important, however it can also address an even bigger issue.

In many places throughout the world, and Australia is good example, soil erosion is a massive issue. Without soil amendments over time the soil terns very dusty and more like sand. This soil cannot hold moisture or nutrients and then plants cannot grow. Plant roots are what also hold the soil together; therefore the problem only gets worse over time. New desserts are forming in the US and Australia among other places because of the lack of sufficient soil amendments and management. As this process continues, the amount of fertile land reduces and less crops can be grown.

Biochar can be added to this soil to increase the percentage of organic carbon and improve the soil for growing crops. Using Biochar can reclaim land that was once lost to soil erosion and turn it back in productive land.

Biochar for Replacing other Fertilizers

Many of today’s modern fertilisers are produced from fossil fuels, which is not sustainable. Biochar can replace many of these fertilizers, which makes the process sustainable and reduces water pollution caused by many other fertilizers.

Carbon Negative

By using Biochar we are effectively collecting carbon from the atmosphere and trapping it in the soil to improve the productivity of crops, which are then turned into Biochar to return to the soil to trap even more. Burning biomass is referred to as carbon neutral, where it is actually possible to be carbon negative. No other renewable energy in the form of wind, solar, geothermal or any other has the ability to be carbon negative.

Biomass Pellets

Upgrading biomass into pellets is a convenient way to use the biomass in gasification systems on a small and large scale. Also the Biochar could be processed into pellets to reduce transportation costs and volumes of the Biochar to where it is needed.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass, Gasification

Biomass Gasification Plant

February 19th, 2009

Middlebury College has installed their own biomass gasification plant on campus. Unlike similar projects carried out by other universities and colleges, Middlebury have made the plant a focus point with glass walls, so people can view into the facility. As this technology is so important to our fuel independent green energy future, its good to see the technology proudly presented, instead of been hidden away.

The biomass gasification plant uses wood chips from the local area, which could include 2-3 loads a day on full operation. The wood chip has to be of a certain size, and so has to be graded, and larger pieces put through a mill. It is also crucial that the moisture content of the wood chip be no more than 50%, as the efficiency of the gasifier is set-up with this tolerance.

The wood chips are feed into the gasifier on demand. On one side of the gasifier the wood chips are heated to a very high temperature in a low oxygen environment. The wood then smoulders and produces wood gas ‘syngas’. The syngas is then feed to the back of the boiler where oxygen is added for combustion, producing heat in excess of 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The steam produced is used throughout the campus for heating, cooling, hot water and cooking. The surplus steam is used to drive turbines, which produce around 20% of the energy the campus needs.

The ash from the boiler is then collected and sent through a series of cyclone separators, which remove ash and particulates from the exhaust gases. The ash and particulates are then given to a local fertilizer company, to use as a soil amendment for agricultural land. The remaining heat from the exhaust gases is then extracted, to preheat water going to the boiler. The gases are then filtered through a series of filters with 99.7% efficiency. Therefore the largest emission from the stack is water vapour and CO2. And since the fuel was wood, this is therefore a carbon neutral process.

Middlebury should be applauded for designing such a highly efficient process. Combined heat and power units are regarded as been more efficient than simply heat or electricity plants. However Middlebury have gone further and extracted as much possible heat from the exhaust gases and filtered out the particulates. They have also made use of the particulates and ash as soil amendments.

Biomass Pellets and Gasification

Even though the raw material maybe the same, for example wood chips and wood pellets, there are crucial differences which can change the operating parameters of the process and make it easier to operation on an even smaller scale.

Biomass Pellet Size and Density

As mentioned in the Middlebury biomass gasification plant, the wood chip has to be of a certain size and graded and milled to create a consistent graded for the auger system to feed the boiler.

Pellets are a consistent size; therefore a grading and milling system would not be required. Also due to the smaller size of pellets and high-density smaller fuel transportation systems are required to feed the boiler the same quantity of raw material. The higher density of pellets also means the size of the burn chamber can be reduced as pellets produce a higher heat value in a much smaller space. So in general a much smaller set-up could operate on pellets to produce the same amount of energy.

Biomass Pellet Moisture Content

The Middlebury biomass gasifier could operate on wood chips up to 50%. This is an advantage in one sense as it means unprocessed virgin wood chip could be used. However it does reduce how flexible the process is. To operate biomass gasification CHP process on a small scale it is much easier and practical to generate electricity by using the wood gas ‘syngas’ in an internal combustion engine (petrol or diesel) to power a generator. However the high percentage of water vapour in the Middlebury process would make the gas unsuitable.

Biomass pellets on the other hand have much lower moisture content below 10%, and therefore wood gas ‘syngas’ produced from biomass pellets can be used in an internal combustion engine.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process biomass including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass, Gasification

Wood Pellet Burner Capabilities

February 14th, 2009

The final factor, which will affect wood pellet prices over time, is based on pellet burner capabilities and demand for premium wood pellets. Premium wood pellets are a very low maintenance, low ash fuel. As most residential customer are looking for such a fuel as a direct replacement for oil or gas, most manufactures of wood pellet stoves and boilers deign the units with the ability to burn premium pellets and no more. Hence if you try to burn higher ash content pellets or pellets with corrosion and clinker issues, the stove will not operate in an acceptable manor.

Currently as there are sufficient resources to produce premium wood pellets this is not an issues. However as the wood pellet market continues to grow, at its current rate and if pellet stove manufactures keep producing stoves, which can only burn premium wood pellets, this will ultimately lead to price increases. The reason is simple, most pellet customers have purchased a stove, which can only use premium wood pellet so they are trapped into paying for them, not matter what the price. Currently this situation is not an issue for the premium wood pellet producers because it guarantees them the ability to dictate fuel prices, similar to how the oil companies do currently.

The most important point to take from this is when purchasing a pellet stove or boiler research a unit that is as fuel flexible as your budget will allow. This could be regard to maximum pellet ash content, corrosion resistance, ability to deal with clinker and a large ashbin or ash removal system. Even if you currently only intend to burn premium wood pellets, purchasing a burner that can burn different types of pellets will mean you will have a choice to burn other types of pellets when the price of premium pellets increases.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

Wood Pellet Market Competition

February 13th, 2009

Another important factor that influences wood pellet prices is market competition. With relatively small numbers of large-scale wood pellet producers, the higher the probability of high prices due to lack of competition. However setting up new large-scale pellet production plant is not an easy task. Firstly the equipment set-up costs easily go into the millions of dollars, and firm guarantees need to be established on raw material supply and market share to justify the investment.

Therefore in many cases the wood pellet market is in a ‘catch 22’ scenario. People will not invest in setting up large-scale wood pellet production plants until there is a guaranteed customer base. And many people will not invest in a pellet stove or boiler until there is a guaranteed supply of wood pellets. Basically it’s the scenario of what comes first the chicken or the egg?

The risks are real with large scale wood pellet production, for example here in the UK over the last year 2 pellet plants went bankrupt as local wood pellet demand was not sufficient they had to look further a field for customers. The transportation costs to give these customers competitive prices dissolved their profit margins and leaded to bankruptcy.

As the wood pellet market is relatively new in many countries and still a young market, small-scale pellet production is a way to reduce the risk both to the pellet producer and the end customer. The pellet producer on a small scale has lower set-up and equipment costs, low raw material demands and therefore lower transportation costs. A small-scale producer requires a much lower customer base, and this could be supplied within the local area reducing pellet transportation costs and thus retaining profit margins to keep in business. These lower pellet transportation costs mean a cheaper fuel for the customer and the environment due to reduced CO2 emissions.

Many small-scale pellet producers compared to a few large scale producers means more market competition and therefore more price comparison points to create a more accurate average on what the price of wood pellets should be.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

Wood Pellet Transportation Costs

February 12th, 2009

Another aspect, which affects the price of wood pellets, is the cost of transportation to the end user, and clearly the further the distance from the wood pellet plant the higher the cost to the end user. However there is another transportation cost, which affects the price the end user pays, and this is the price of raw material transportation to the pellet production plant.

Again these issues relate to the differences between large-scale and small-scale pellet production costs. The benefits of large-scale production for example efficiency are well know, however there are also disadvantages. For example for a large-scale plant to be profitable, it needs a large customer base, this involves establishing customers further and further away from the plant itself. This extra cost is either passed onto the customer or paid for by the pellet production plant, and some companies have gone bankrupt through this process, through high transportation costs eating into profits.

Another transportation cost that large-scale pellet production plants have to cover is the cost to transport raw materials to the pellet production plant. And as stated in the earlier post, a large plant needs lots of resources, therefore it must look for raw materials further and further away from the pellet production plant. Raw material transportation costs are even more of an issue because the raw material, for example sawdust has a much lower density than pellets. So it could take five wagon loads of sawdust to produce one wagon load of pellets. So as you can see transporting raw materials with a low density over longer distances is a huge cost for large-scale pellet production. Currently many large-scale plant are built next to sawmills, however as the pellet market grows there needs to be more pellet plants than sawmills.

With small-scale wood pellet production on the other hand, both raw material and pellet transportation is reduced. Therefore the reduction in efficiency can be compensated by reduced transportation costs. This is referred to as a local energy loop, where local resources are used locally to make pellets to be used locally. Also it should be noted the transportation costs are not only measured in money but also CO2. As more raw material and pellet transportation means more CO2 produced reducing the ‘green’ credentials of pellets.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

Wood Pellet Demand and Supply

February 11th, 2009

Another key factor which has created rapid increases in the price of wood pellets within the last year has been the dramatic fluctuations between wood pellet demand and supply.

Wood pellet stove sales increased rapidly at the time when oil prices began to rise. The rapid increase in wood pellet stove users resulted in a rapid increase in the demand for premium wood pellets. Wood pellet supply was insufficient to meet this new customer base, and as a result wood pellet prices began to increase. This was partly due to limited supply of raw material softwood and hardwood by-products, but it is also due to how pellet production currently operates.

Currently pellet production is mostly large-scale pellet production. Large-scale production has its advantages in terms of energy efficiency, and when demand is know producing wood pellets at a lower price due to economies of scale. However it does have several disadvantages in terms of lack of flexibility to demand changes and competitive pricing.

Large-scale wood pellet production lacks flexibility to react to rapid increases in demand, as the time and cost to increase plant size and capacity are both significant. Therefore large-scale pellet production plants will not increase capacity until they are sure that market demand is stable and they can guarantee raw material supplies to justify plant capacity.

The answer is a combination of large scale and small-scale wood pellet production. Small-scale set-up time and cost is much less, and requires less raw material supply to justify the investment. Also small-scale mobile pellet production applications can move to resources that would otherwise be unfeasible and reduce raw material and pellet transport costs. All of these factors reduce dramatic shifts in wood pellet supply to changes in market demand. This in return keeps prices stable also aided by increased market competition due to the increase in wood pellet producers.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

Raw Material Supply & Availability

February 9th, 2009

The recent problems with pellet supply and high prices are partly due to limited raw material supply and availability. Premium wood pellets today are produced from softwood and hardwood by-products. The supply of these by-products is dictated by the supply and demand of other markets. Which means the wood pellet price is dictated by those changes.

Utilizing wood by-products is very important, however it cannot be the only source of raw material for wood pellet production. At PelHeat we do promote the use of many types of biomass pellets, however we do understand for much of the residential market only low ash, low maintenance pellets are suitable.

Therefore the wood pellet producers need to source more wood by-products from more industries from simply sawmills. Tree surgeon co-operatives could sell much of the wood they produce, as currently much of this goes for landfill. Government intervention needs to take place to manage the supply of more woody biomass for pellet production, to construct a price system for the value of woody biomass. To help stabilize prices.

For the wood pellet market to grow to its full potential, more than by-products need to be available for wood pellet production. Short rotation coppice Willow and Hemp could be purposefully grown for wood pellet production that would produce a relatively low ash, low price, low maintenance pellet.

If the raw material supply is not addressed pellet shortages will occur again in the future and further damage the reputation of the wood pellet market. This lack of supply will then cause further increases in wood pellet prices.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

Wood Pellet Prices

February 9th, 2009

The wood pellet market as a whole is composed of users who consume the pellets and those who produce the pellets. For the market to work efficiently there needs to be a balanced relationship between the volumes of production and consumption. With any relatively new growing market, establishing this correlation can cause problems, and potentially damage market reputation.

The Recession and Wood Pellet Prices

An example of unstable prices appeared recently in the US. As the housing market slowed down due to the recession, housing construction and renovation decreased. Therefore less wood was purchased and less timber was processed, resulting in less softwood and hardwood by products. As the premium wood pellet market depends on these by-products to produce their pellets, pellet production also decreased. With a decrease of supply and an increase in demand in pellet stoves due to high oil prices, the pellet price would only go up, leading to pellet prices at $300 per 1000KG. The lack of supply of pellets and high prices frustrated many new pellet stove customers, as they purchased the stove as cheaper alternative to oil or gas. And due to the high prices of pellets the benefits we reduced. Unstable prices can severely damage market reputation, and steps should be taken to address these issues.

There are several factors, which affect wood pellet prices:

1. Raw Material Supply and Availability
2. Wood Pellet Demand and Supply
3. Wood Pellet Transportation Costs
4. Wood Pellet Market Competition
5. Wood Pellet Burner Capabilities

Over the next few days I will write articles discussing the above factors and how lessons can be learnt to keep pellet prices stable and ensure sufficient pellet supply.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including wood into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass

The Hemp Solution

February 4th, 2009

Hemp is currently and has been for the last century demonised with the association to marijuana. Hemp is not a drug, but it is almost everything else. So many different items can be produced from hemp including food, clothes, plastics, paper, cement and of course fuel.

To try and address issues as serious as climate change and fuel independence without including hemp into the solution is a huge mistake. As these issues increase and population size increases, available productive land is reduced and even more valuable. Therefore growing a highly flexible crop such as hemp on some of this land is more than necessary. Attitudes to hemp must change before it is too late.

With regards to the fuel side and hemp pellets, these could be produced from surplus and damaged crop yields, by-products after hemp processing for fibre and oil and finally residual hemp remaining in the field. As fibre processing companies do not want the crop harvested to the grown as they cannot process the lower few inches. After the hemp has been harvested, bailed and sold this lower few inches could be collected for pellet fuel production. These low ash pellets could be used in pellet stoves and pellet boilers, and also in gasification systems to generate electricity.

The PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer can process resources including hemp into fuel pellets. If you would be interested in registering your interest in the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer and receiving updates on our progress and informed when the pelletizer is on sale please send us an email to:

Contact @ PelHeat . Com

For more information please visit:

www.PelHeat.com

Thank you for your interest

WoodPelletProductionGuide

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Posted in Biomass, Videos