Halfway, Missouri
An alternative to ethanol right here in the Ozarks came closer to reality today when the national Biomass Producers Association (NBPA) confirmed it is partnering with Renewable Oil International,® LLC (ROI) to convert biomass into fuel for transportation and power production.
“We’re excited to announce Phillip Badger’s ROI as a technology partner,” said Ed Cahoj, president of NBPA, a Missouri-based organization of farmers and investors interested in producing fuel from cellulosic feedstocks, such as switchgrass. “His expertise brings tremendous credibility to our initiatives and is a signal that NBPA is a player in the developing biofuels industry.”
NBPA (www.biomass-producers.org) and ROI (www.renewableoil.com) plan to build a portable fast pyrolysis unit that decentralizes fuel production. It can be hauled on a truck or trailer to a farmer’s field to process biomass into bio-oil on site. “This mitigates transportation of low-density feedstocks and allows each ROI plant to become a renewable oil well,” Badger said. “Fuel can be readily produced locally.”
“Eventually a farmer would be able to harvest his switchgrass, produce fuel for his farming operations and sell the excess to the local utility or another user,” said Cahoj.
Once a plant is built, NBPA plans to literally take it on the road for demonstrations throughout the country, Cahoj said. “As our membership expands, we can invest in more plants, further promote switchgrass as a new crop for farmers and look for research partners to further explore the process. This is a terrific opportunity for local farmers, investors and research facilities.”
The Process
Badger’s process is an environmentally friendly, portable, decentralized thermochemical process that turns waste from virtually any organic matter into a liquid fuel. ROI has operated a 5-dry ton per day pilot plant in northwest Alabama intermittently for the last three years.
ROI’s process can use organic material, such as wood pallets, crates, sawdust, bark, slabs, tree trimmings, chips and construction and demolition wood; grass, hay, straw and other herbaceous plant derivatives; paper, cardboard, food wastes and other organic municipal solid waste; manures, including poultry litter and sewage sludge; peat; plastics, rubber, creosote-treated wood, aquatic plants; and other organic materials.
The ROI patent-pending technology is based on innovations to the “fast pyrolysis distillation” process. Badger explained that biomass is placed in an enclosed container (to exclude air) and is rapidly heated to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, producing a liquid fuel (called bio-oil), charcoal and a combustible gas.
He said anticipated yields for a ROI plant processing wood are roughly 55-60 percent liquid (110-120 gallons of liquid per dry ton at 10 lb/gal and 80,000 Btu/gal), 25-30 percent charcoal and 15-20 percent combustible gas. The gas can be combusted to provide some of the energy for the process. The charcoal also can provide energy for the process or, if not needed, can be sold as another product.
“Once started up and depending on feedstock moisture content, an ROI plant can potentially be energy self-sufficient,” said Badger. “That’s an advantage that may allow the plants to be located away from normal infrastructure required for common industry.”
Advantages
Badger and Cahoj outlined these advantages for the proven ROI process:
· Does not use a boiler, which simplifies operations and decreases regulation
· Does not require water for the process
· Is cost effective at a relatively small scale and constructed in modules that allow plants to be transportable and factory fabricated, reducing capital costs and simplifying and speeding up field installation
· Can use a variety of biomass sources as mentioned above
· Produces biochar as a valuable soil amendment – Cornell University research has shown it can improve a plant’s absorption of fertilizer; other uses for char include as a fuel, to absorb pollutants or to produce charcoal briquettes or pellets for stoves
“These advantages provide an unprecedented degree of financial security to plant owners and investors. Should the sources of biomass disappear or become too expensive,” Badger explained, “the plant can switch to processing other feedstocks locally available or the plant can be picked up and moved to another location with minimal financial loss.”
Bio-oil Uses and Research
The bio-oil fuel produced from the ROI process can be used to fuel space heaters, furnaces and boilers (including co-firing in utility boilers) and to fuel certain combustion turbines and piston and rotary engines. It can be used to fuel slow- or medium-speed diesel engines with minor engine modifications.
Though bio-oil does not naturally mix with petroleum-based fuels, Badger said Canada has developed an emulsifier, which allows bio-oil to be mixed with fossil fuels. Others also are developing methods of mixing bio-oil and fossil fuels
Cahoj pointed out that ROI has recently received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to upgrade BioOil into a transportation fuel and is partnering with other entities that have upgrading technologies.
DOE also has recently completed a study on bio-oil in conjunction with UOP, a developer and provider of refinery technology to the petroleum industry. The UOP study found that current petroleum refineries could upgrade bio-oil cost effectively without subsidies under current market conditions.
“In Missouri, agricultural-based research facilities, such as those at Missouri State University and the University of Missouri, have a real opportunity to participate in bio-oil research,” Cahoj said.
For more information, contact Ed Cahoj, 417-445-3766 or 417-298-3068, ecahoj@earthlink.net, or Phil Badger, 256-740-5634, pbadger@renewableoil.com.
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