Platinum-free, methane-fueled fuel cells developed

Reliable, affordable fuel cells have come not one but three steps closer to reality this week, with announcements from two research institutions regarding advances in the field. If the reported developments make their way into production, we could be seeing fuel cells that use more abundant, less expensive fuels and building materials, that are more consistent in their electricity production, and that have a lower operating temperature. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Creating sustainable sanitation in the slums of Kenya

It’s estimated that around 2.6 billion people around the world make do without any sanitation, including more than 10 million in the slums of Kenya. Still more have to use thinly disguised holes in the ground. A group of MIT students have joined forces to try and create a sustainable toilet solution for those in need. They’ve developed a low cost, modular sanitation solution which would be operated and maintained by locals and the waste transported to nearby processing plants. Biogas produced from the waste will be used to create electricity and what’s left of the human waste turned into fertilizer. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

On Crude ‘Oil’ From Pig Manure

Science (June 17, 2008) — After a close examination of crude oil made from pig manure, chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are certain about a number of things. Most obviously, “This stuff smells worse than manure,” says NIST chemist Tom Bruno.

But a job’s a job, so the NIST team has developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure crude oil into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, and possibly enable cutbacks in the nation’s petroleum use and imports. But, according to a new NIST paper, pig manure crude will require a lot of refining.

The ersatz oil used in the NIST analyses was provided by engineer Yuanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Zhang developed a system using heat and pressure to transform organic compounds such as manure into oil.

As described in the new paper, Bruno and colleagues determined that the pig manure crude contains at least 83 major compounds, including many components that would need to be removed, such as about 15 percent water by volume, sulfur that otherwise could end up as pollution in vehicle exhaust, and lots of char waste containing heavy metals, including iron, zinc, silver, cobalt, chromium, lanthanum, scandium, tungsten and minute amounts of gold and hafnium. Whatever the pigs eat, from dirt to nutritional supplements, ends up in the oil.

While the thick black liquid may look like its petroleum-based counterparts, the NIST study shows that looks can be deceiving. “The fact that pig manure crude oil contains a lot of water is unfavorable. They would need to get the water out,” Bruno says.

The measurements were made with a new NIST test method and apparatus, the advanced distillation curve, which provides highly detailed and accurate data on the makeup and performance of complex fluids. A distillation curve charts the percentage of the total mixture that evaporates as a sample is slowly heated. Because the different components of a complex mixture typically have different boiling points, a distillation curve gives a good measure of the relative amount of each component in the mixture. NIST chemists enhanced the traditional technique by improving precision and control of temperature measurements and adding the capability to analyze the chemical composition of each boiling fraction using a variety of advanced methods.

NIST researchers analyzed the graphite-like char remaining after the distillation by bombarding it with neutrons, a non-destructive way of identifying the types and amounts of elements present. Two complementary neutron methods detected the heavy metals listed above.

Bruno and colleagues currently spend much of their time analyzing military jet fuels and are not planning a major foray into pig manure. But Bruno concedes that the effort may have a payoff. “Who knows, it might help decrease the nuisance of manure piles.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Chicken manure to energy

Environmentally friendly, climate neutral and reliable: For the first time ever on display world wide at VIV Europe will be a gasification system which transforms biomass for example from poultry manure into energy. The clou of the Big Dutchman innovation is that, except for nitrogen, all the components which are important for fertilisation are preserved in the residual ash. Genuine dual use is thus achieved – quite independently of wind and sunshine.

The manure is dried, pressed into pellets and conveyed to a gasifier where it is converted into gas by means of thermochemical conversion. The only by-product which remains is ash – which is a very valuable fertiliser. Subsequently the energy produced in this way is processed in the combined heat and power plant (CHP) to generate electricity and heat. Furthermore, in addition to chicken manure, other by-products such as digestate from biogas plants or sugar cane can also be used for the same purpose.

The result is extremely impressive: The amount of energy produced in a 150 kW gasifier allows to supply thermal energy for 25 households for more than one year (maximum 10 kW heat output) and to provide 200 households one year long with electricity (at an annual average use of 0.75 kW per household).

Hall 12C.050

150 kW gasification system with conveyor belt, switching and control cabinet, gasifier, gas cooling and gas cleaning (from left to right)

Sourced & published  by Henry Sapiecha

From Food Industry Waste

Science (Mar. 31, 2009) — The AZTI-Tecnalia technological centre, experts in food research, have put a biogas plant into operation in order to investigate novel systems of sustainable energy production based on the use of waste and sub-products from the food industry.

This new plant exploits the enormous potential of obtaining biogas from the organic matter contained in agricultural food waste, and will help the food industry to reduce the environmental impact caused by organic waste.

The plant, located at the AZTI-Tecnalia premises in Derio, aims to obtain biogas rich in methane by the process of anaerobic digestion* of the organic material contained in the sub-products from food, in order to transform it into electrical and heat energy. In the same way, for 2010, the technological centre foresees adapting the plant and making a commitment to that renewable source of energy which has seen the greatest surge in recent years: hydrogen. So, the aim is to be able to obtain hydrogen and methane from the same combined fermentation process.

AZTI-Tecnalia specialists are thus researching the viability of obtaining benefit from a number of agricultural food sub-products, alone or in combination (co-digestion) with other elements from various sources, such as sludge from purifying plants or food waste from mass consumption. Amongst others are mixtures from animal husbandry silage (purines), together with waste from agricultural food industries (leftovers from fruit and vegetable markets, milk whey, fish ends, aquaculture waste, etc.

With the biogas plant it is possible to reduce the environmental impact caused by organic waste. The emissions of greenhouse effect gases into the atmosphere are reduced, smells are considerably reduced and the final value of the waste is enhanced, As a consequence, the industry can adapt itself to environmental and social requisites, at the same time as its processes are more efficient through making better use of available resources.

The plant is available to government bodies and to food enterprises and environmental services who are interested in developing R+D projects applied to the energy valuation of food sub-products, with the aim of obtaining information for decision-making in the installation of this kind of plant at an industrial scale.

AZTI-Tecnalia is supporting the food industry in sustainable development, implementing measures to enhance its environmental performance. The biogas plant complements the activities undertaken by the centre at its food processing pilot plant, in which valuation trials of sub-products as new sources of raw materials for transformed foodstuffs are also carried out. Likewise, more profitable and innovative options are being sought in order to manage subproducts and waste generated by the food industry and studies of the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the products are undertaken, analysing where the main costs and environmental impacts lie, and proposing, in consequence, situations for the enhancement and optimisation of the process.

* Anaerobic digestion is a biological process which transforms organic material into biogas and into a digested sludge, which can be used as organic enhancement in agricultural applications. Biogas mainly consists of carbon dioxide and methane, the latter with a high calorific value and which, thereby, can be used as a renewable source of electrical and/or thermal energy, or as a fuel for vehicles.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Within Pennies a Gallon

of Being Competitive

Science (May 20, 2010) — Existing technology can produce biodiesel fuel from municipal sewage sludge that is within a few cents a gallon of being competitive with conventional diesel refined from petroleum, according to an article in ACS’ Energy & Fuels. Sludge is the solid material left behind from the treatment of sewage at wastewater treatment plants.

David M. Kargbo points out in the article that demand for biodiesel has led to the search for cost-effective biodiesel feedstocks, or raw materials. Soybeans, sunflower seeds and other food crops have been used as raw materials but are expensive. Sewage sludge is an attractive alternative feedstock — the United States alone produces about seven million tons of it each year. Sludge is a good source of raw materials for biodiesel. To boost biodiesel production, sewage treatment plants could use microorganisms that produce higher amounts of oil, Kargbo says. That step alone could increase biodiesel production to the 10 billion gallon mark, which is more than triple the nation’s current biodiesel production capacity, the report indicates.

The report, however, cautions that to realize these commercial opportunities, huge challenges still exist, including challenges from collecting the sludge, separation of the biodiesel from other materials, maintaining biodiesel quality, soap formation during production, and regulatory concerns.

With the challenges addressed, “Biodiesel production from sludge could be very profitable in the long run,” the report states. “Currently the estimated cost of production is $3.11 per gallon of biodiesel. To be competitive, this cost should be reduced to levels that are at or below [recent] petro diesel

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Biological Engineers Generate

Natural Gas with Bacteria

October 1, 2006 — A new kind of waste digester uses two different strains of bacteria in different tanks. This would normally take place in the same environment, but microbiologists have now separated it into two stages that increases natural-gas production. The technology increases efficiency and can turn three tons of food scraps into enough energy to power 25 homes for a day.

DAVIS, Calif. — There’s a new twist on the old adage, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Now that trash may be another man’s power. Researchers in California are turning garbage into bio-gas that may one day provide the electricity in your home.

Trash could soon be powering your home. A new digester can transform it into energy. It uses two strains of bacteria to convert waste into bio-gas. Most digesters store both bacteria in the same tank, which makes the process unpredictable and slow. But not this digester.

“Zhang’s process takes the two bacteria and separates them into two separate environments,” Dave Konwinski, the director of OnSite Power Systems in Davis, Calif., tells DBIS.

This new and improved digester is the brain child of Biological Engineer Ruihong Zhang. She and her students at UC Davis first built its prototype in the lab. She’s thrilled her new technology is being put to use in the real world.

“It’s a new technology … So it’s like a child grow into adult,” she says.

The digester will turn three tons of food scraps into energy for 25 houses a day. But it’s not just for homes. The digester could be especially useful to fuel processing plants. It s scheduled to be up and running this fall. OnSite Power Systems plans to market it in several states in the next couple of years, including California, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“We can actually scale a digester to fit their current operations, fill it right at their operations, take the waste stream into the digester, and the energy right back into the plant,” Konwinski says. “It will make a substantial dent in our current energy requirement for petroleum.”

It’s a win-win-win situation for the environment, industry and consumers.

BACKGROUND: Environmental engineers at the University of California, Davis, are building a full-scale anaerobic digester that can convert any type of solid organic waste into electricity — even leftovers from restaurants. The system is part of the $100,000 Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD pilot project), but an even larger digester system is being put into place in San Francisco.

HOW IT WORKS: In the process, food waste is collected from restaurants and institutions and then fed to bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen environments. It’s called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process of decomposition. One type of bacteria turns carbohydrates into simple sugars, amino acids and fatty acids. A second group of bacteria eats those compounds and turns them into hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid — the primary component of vinegar. Then a third group of bacteria takes those broken-down compounds and turns them into methane and carbon dioxide. Between 60 and 80 percent becomes methane. The methane can be used as fuel for an internal combustion engine that provides electricity.

TYPES OF DIGESTION: Anaerobic digestion is not the same thing as human digestion, since the type of bacteria that produce methane don’t live in the human digestive tract. Industrial anaerobic digesters can also harness this natural process to treat waste, provide heat, and increase nutrients in soil. They are most commonly used for sewage treatment and for managing animal waste.

BENEFITS: The goal of SMUD is to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biodegradable matter by 2011. Currently SMUD derives 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, of which biomass accounts for 2.5 percent. The UC-Davis digester would keep food and other biodegradable waste out of landfills; food leftovers account for 18 percent of a landfill’s contents. One tone of leftover food can produce enough fuel to power 18 homes for one day.

WHAT ARE EXTREMOPHILES? An extremophile is any microbe that thrives in extreme conditions, such as temperature (extreme heat or cold), pressure, salinity, low oxygen environments, or high concentrations of hostile chemicals. Most extremophiles belong to a class known as archaeobacteria, but certain species of worm, crustacean and krill can also be considered extremophiles.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 7th June 2010

Eco Factor: Low-emission fuel sources discovered in China.

China has discovered new sources of frozen combustible ice on the tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which according to researchers can supply China with 90 years worth of energy. The new reserve equals at least 35 billion tons of oil and is one of the newest sources of energy to be discovered.

Combustible ice is a frozen form of natural gas that has been found in high altitude frozen plateaus as well as underwater in marine sediments. The frozen hydrates can be lit on fire, however, researchers expect that the hydrate will have to go through a phase change process where it will be melted into methane and water before it can be combusted efficiently.

One cubic meter of combustible ice contains 164 cubic meters of natural gas and is considered to have few impurities, which means that the fuel can be combusted with lower emissions.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 5th May 2010

Cows are the answer

Aidan Turnbull reports on a recent visit to Electrawinds Biomass Mouscron, one of Belgium’s most advanced cogeneration plants based on biofuels. such as biomass and solar energy.

It’s incredible to think that tallow from rendered-down dead cows could be one of the major sustainable fuel sources behind 18MW of ‘green energy’ being produced by the Mouscron co-gen facility.
In terms of energy that’s enough to supply the needs of 44,000 families and still produce enough recoverable ‘waste’ heat to sell to industry facilities in the vicinity – and warm up local swimming pools too.
The other significant fact about the project, say the operators, is the
remarkable reliability and low wear rates the engines at Mouscron have achieved since their installation in 2006.
When the plant was first commissioned the concept of running engines on biofuel was pretty much uncharted territory.
But with their broad insensitivity to fuel quality, Mouscron’s large medium speed diesel engines, designed for heavy fuel oils, seem to cope readily with carbondioxide neutral fuels such as plant oils,
animal fats and various blends of wasteoils.
Typically, these are fuels which can cause considerable problems in high-speed engines with their more sensitive injection systems. But thanks to large mediumspeed diesel engines made by MAN Diesel,
they have effectively become part of the global warming solution.
The technology Electrawinds nv, headquartered in Ostend, Belgium, is currently the largest private player on the Belgian market for
renewable energy. Initially a provider of ‘green’ electricity, it began establishing wind energy projects, but soon began toinvest in other forms of renewable energ.

Its business strategy of combining wind, biomass and solar energy is unique in Belgium. Electrawinds now operates inItaly, France and Eastern-Europe. The story really begins In August 2005 when Electrawinds set up its first 13MW biofuel-based energy-generating plant in Ostend.
A template for later projects, the role of this facility was to convert animal and vegetable fats into sustainable energy.
Today, the Ostend plant has a capacity of Mouscron’s large medium speed
diesel engines, designed for heavy fuel oils, seem to cope readily
with carbon-dioxide neutral fuels such plant

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 18th July 2009