Waste-to-energy, biomass just two alternatives to fossil fuels

FierceEnergy


June 6, 2014 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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EIA revises wood, waste biomass forecasts in monthly report

Biomass Magazine


By Erin Voegele | February 11, 2014


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Iogen announces new drop-in cellulosic biofuel from biogas

Ethanol Producer Magazine


By Susanne Retka Schill | January 23, 2014


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McFly! Enerkem begins commissioning of garbage-to-fuels commercial plant in Alberta

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | December 5, 2013

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New tech could be "Mr. Fusion" for biofuel

Phys.org

by Else Tennessen
November 20, 2013

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EIA: biomass no. 2 in waste fuel use by manufacturers

Biomass Magazine

By Anna Simet | November 08, 2013

 

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A Waste-Filled Proposition

Ethanol Producer Magazine

By Susanne Retka Schill | October 11, 2013

 

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Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions announce funding for three biological projects

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | June 6, 2013

 

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Frugal Fuels: Top 12 ways to transform biofuels using materials already around us

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | May 31, 2013

 

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The Battle of the Beltway: DoD awards $16M towards parity-cost, drop-in, non-food biofuels

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | May 27, 2013

 

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Clean Fuel From Trash, Crop Waste to Match Corn-Ethanol by 2016

Bloomberg

By Louise Downing - Mar 12, 2013 5:00 AM CT
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5 Biofuels Trends for 2013

Biofuels Digest
Mackinnon Lawrence
January 4, 2013   Read more

Bacteria Turns Waste to Fuel in Single Stage Process

Waste Management World
17 September 2012

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Bioenergy a Boon for California, If It Works

East Bay Express
Nate Seltenrich — Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 4:42 PM

Waste equals food. At least that’s what we were taught in ecology class. In the eyes of California’s Bioenergy Interagency Working Group, organic waste equals something a bit more 21st-century: low-carbon biofuels, biogas, and renewable electricity. In its 2012 Bioenergy Action Plan, released on Wednesday, the working group lays out a plan to convert more of the state’s considerable wood, forest, agricultural, food, yard, and animal wastes directly into energy through anaerobic digestion, biomass burning, landfill gas capture, and other technologies.

The plan, developed by representatives the California Natural Resources Group, the Department of Food and Agriculture, Cal EPA, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and others, lauds bioenergy in all its forms as a win-win-win. Though of course, it’s not that simple.

First, the logic goes, we can divert organic waste from the landfill (by weight, it represents nearly 60 percent of the material trashed each year in California) and move the state toward its new goal of recycling, composting, or source-reducing 75 percent of its solid waste by 2020. Second, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills and farms caused by decaying organic matter by capturing it and converting it to usable energy. And third, we can increase production of all-important baseload (that is, not intermittent like solar and wind) renewable electricity in the state, continue to wean our buildings and vehicles off fossil fuels, and march ever toward — or beyond — California’s 30-percent-by-2020 Renewable Portfolio Standard.

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Scientists cooperating with Starbucks report success in finding use for waste

Biofuels Digest

Thomas Saidak
August 21, 2012

In Pennsylvania, at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society scientists described development and successful laboratory testing of a new “biorefinery” intended to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products.

The report covered their work, launched in cooperation with the Starbucks restaurant chain – concerned with sustainability and seeking a use for spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods. The biorefinery process involves blending the baked goods with a mixture of fungi that excrete enzymes to break down carbohydrates in the food into simple sugars.

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Endurance Bioenergy Reactor (EBR) Turns Bio-Waste Into Bio-Fuel, Right On The Spot!

Crazy Engineers
Kaustubh Katdare Aug 21st, 2012

Research engineers at the United States Argonne National Laborator (ANL) have developed a mobile Endurance Bioenergy Reactor (EBR) that can turn the waste from your kitchens or restrooms directly into biofuel. The fuel produced by this reaction needs no further processing and can be directly fed to your car. Interesting, right? The EBR produces approximately 94.6 to 189.2 liters of biofuel per day from waste streams. It uses photosynthetic bacterium, that convert the waste into long-chain alcohols. After separation from fermentation broth, these alcohols serve as surrogates for the diesel fuel. This fuel can be used alone or blended with other fuels to power generators. One EBR is capable of charging about 60 electric vehicles (EVs) with a range of about 50 miles each.

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USDA Announces Support For Renewable Biofuels Feedstock Production and Use

Biofuels Journal
Date Posted: July 27, 2012
Washington—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced July 27 payments for 125 advanced Biofuel producers across the country to support the production and expansion of advanced biofuels from a wide variety of non-food sources, including waste products.
"Advanced biofuels are a key component of President Obama's 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy to reduce the Nation's reliance on foreign oil and take control of America's energy future," said Vilsack.

"These payments represent help spur an alternative fuels industry using renewable feedstocks grown in America, broadening the range of feedstock options available to biofuels producers, helping to create an economy built to last."

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Turning food waste into energy

North Missourian
Published Online May 16, 2012 - 04:12 PM

America is not only a land of big waistlines, but also of big waste when it comes to food.
In the future, those table scraps could help power homes and businesses.

University of Missouri researchers want to get more from those leftovers through by a ""recipe"" for harvesting methane.

"Food waste, animal manures or anything highly degradable should not really be going into a landfill," said David Brune, a professor of bioprocessing and bioenergy engineering with the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and MU Extension. "By digesting it, we’re recovering energy and are also using the nutrients in a more controlled and efficient way to prevent water pollution or groundwater pollution."

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'Hydrogen is tomorrow's biofuel' say scientists

PhysOrg.com
May 15, 2012

Researchers from the University of Birmingham are creating clean hydrogen from food waste paving the way for a bioenergy alternative for the future.

Currently, Brazil is the world’s most intensive user of bioethanol as an alternative to gasoline for powering transport. There are questions about whether the mass production of bioethanol using sugarcane is sustainable in the long-term. Bioethanol generates carbon dioxide and agricultural waste. However, creating clean hydrogen from waste not only uses that waste but provides a fuel that is emission free and can also be generated sustainably.

Presenting this research at a collaborative bioenergy workshop in São Paulo today, Professor Lynne Macaskie, Professor of Applied Microbiology at the University of Birmingham, said “Fuel cells need clean energy to run them. If you provide bacteria with a supply of sugary waste from, for example, chocolate production, the bacteria can produce hydrogen. At the moment manufacturers pay to dispose of waste but with our technique they could convert it to clean electricity instead.”

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New Pyroformer developed by Aston University

recyclingportal.eu



Birmingham -- As fuel prices continue to increase, researchers from the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University in Birmingham, have developed an innovative bioenergy solution that uses waste products to generate cost-effective heat and power and that could reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. The market opportunities of the new Pyroformer also offer business benefits to the West Midlands region. It is anticipated that 35 jobs will be directly safeguarded or created and over 1,000 indirect jobs created in the West Midlands by 2022 as a result.

The Pyroformer - developed by Professor Andreas Hornung of EBRI - overcomes many of the problems other renewable energy solutions have generated. Tests have shown that unlike other bioenergy plants, the Pyroformer has no negative environmental or food security impacts. It can use multiple waste sources and therefore does not require the destruction of rainforests or the use of agricultural land for the growth of specialist bioenergy crops. In fact biochar - one of its by-products - can even be used as a fertiliser to increase crop yields.

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