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Date Published:
12 August 2012

Volume 3, Issue 4


Bioenergy regulations Nuclear disaster sparks Japanese renewable energy surge

Feature
The Japanese Ministry of Industry gave the go-ahead for renewable energy feed-in tariffs to come into effect from the start of July. Set to last at least 20 years, the new incentives will require Japanese utility companies to purchase electricity from renewable sources including biomass. There is an aim for 30GW of new renewable generation within the first 10 years, with tariff schedules set to... [read more]

Clean energy initiative enters phase two

Feature
The second phase of the US-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue (CED) has been announced and has received positive comments from both countries’ renewable fuel associations. The CED was established in 2009 by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a way to strengthen bilateral collaboration on clean energy technologies and solutions for lower greenhouse gas emissions. Under... [read more]

Energy efficiency made easy

Feature
Biomass energy technologies are well established and their use has been widespread across mainland Europe, with the UK showing particularly strong interest. The value of the technology does vary depending on site circumstance, with especially strong cases to be made for those that are off the gas grid, or that produce a waste product which can be used as a biofuel. A recent report by the... [read more]

Biomass not yet taking its fair share

Feature
Brazil is already a world leader in renewable power, with 83% of its electricity coming from renewable energy (mainly hydro and the burning of bagasse). Yet many believe the country’s biomass potential is still largely untapped. Celso Marcelo Oliveira, president of the Brazilian Association for Industry Biomass (ABIB), says the country has four advantages: its land availability, the... [read more]

South America: starting small and slowly...

Feature
According to Eurostat in 2010, the EU27 imported more than 2.6 million tonnes of pellets from outside the EU as domestic production increasingly falls short of growing demand. But this is just the start, with most analysts expecting EU pellet consumption, which hit 11.4 million tonnes in 2010, to ramp up as 2020 approaches. Estimates of pellet demand in 2020 vary widely but even the most... [read more]

Chile: powering its curds and whey

Feature
It has been noted by some business-savvy people that Chile could become the first Latin American nation to be known as a ‘developed country’. After a Gross Domestic Product per capita of nearly $16,000 (€12,725) in 2010, and with predicted growth of 6.5% last year, Chile was foraging ahead of the likes of Brazil and Argentina in the race. One stumbling block to any potential... [read more]

The Peruvian bioplant mystery

Feature
Peru, despite being sandwiched by renewable energy giants like Brazil, Chile and Columbia, has been quietly housing a mini-bioenergy and biofuels revolution of its own; a combined power and ethanol facility which is now ready to start business on a major scale. To add to the mystery, this facility doesn’t even have a name but it is self-sufficient and operates under the banner of... [read more]

No laughing matter

Feature
Burn any fuel and the result will be both gas and solids. The gsses include CO2 from burning carbon, and H2O (as water vapour) from burning hydrogen. If the oxygen flow is insufficient CO is formed, which is poisonous. If the furnace operates at a high temperature with plentiful oxygen then some of the nitrogen in the air is oxidised creating N2O, NO and NO2, collectively known as NOx. N2O is... [read more]

Onwards and upwards

Feature
For over 10 years Choren Industries dedicated itself to developing — among other technologies — its Carbo-V technology for the gasification of waste materials, from wood and other biomass to municipal waste and plastic. The gasification process is a fairly unique one in that it includes three steps: low temperature gasification which runs at 450-500°C, high temperature... [read more]

Newfound legitimacy

Feature
An enormous number of possible conversion pathways, technologies, and process configurations exist for biofuels production from biomass. The way those conversions, or transformations, are effected have become the subjects of fierce competition among scientists and industrialists. Chemists and chemical companies are all trying to produce fuel from biomass, but they often operate in different... [read more]

Home and dry

Feature
Moisture content in biomass varies considerably and may range from 15% for recycled wood to over 50% in virgin wood thinning. Although not a new method, gasification is a popular way of producing onsite decentralised renewable energy from a variety of biomass feedstocks. But in order to successfully complete the gasification process with high quality results, the biomass must be — to a... [read more]

Torrefaction breakthrough imminent?

Feature
W orldwide, 7.2 billion tonnes of coal is burnt every year, most of it in power generation. Co-firing biomass with coal is the easiest, cheapest way to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and many power companies currently use white pellets made from compressed woodchips as part of their fuel mix. It is not ideal though. Coal is pulverised to dust before burning, but wood has different burning... [read more]

Densification challenges

Feature
Torrefied wood today is regarded as the ‘new coal’ and besides having many similarities with coal it is predicted to replace many types of biomass in the years to come. Densified torrefied biomass has several advantages, making it a competitive feedstock compared to burning conventional biomass — raw or pelletised: • It has a higher energy density • It has a more... [read more]

One track mind

Feature
As part of its efforts to lay the foundation for a ‘bio-based economy’, the Dutch government aims for renewable energy to account for 14% of national energy consumption by 2020. This involves the use of renewable natural resources for materials, chemicals, fuels, gas, electricity and heat, taking into account the concept of the value pyramid. As Europe’s fourth-largest port,... [read more]

Bamboozled by a lack of interest in biogas

Feature
this year and it saw lots of debate and discussion about the future of the European stance on bioenergy production and consumption. Around 250 participants gathered to reflect on issues such as energy taxation, the European ‘2050 road map’ guidelines, achieving carbon neutrality and future input from other continents. AEBIOM president Gustav Melin opened the conference and kicked off... [read more]