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Date Published:
02 November 2016

Volume 7, Issue 6


Drawing a circle

Feature
In starch processing, pulp waste is the main issue, especially for the biggest factories that produce massive quantities. Dealing with this waste is difficult as itis not easily dried due to its high moisture and starch contents. The waste from these kind of mills generally comes in the forms of wastewater and tapioca pulp.The processing of tapioca, a tuber usually cultivated intropical areas... [read more]

Seeing the wood for the trees in Uganda

Feature
Ugandan social enterprise Eco Fuel Africa (EFA) has come up with an innovative method for turning agricultural waste into clean biomass energy, leading the way onhow to cope with emissions and rampant deforestation from wood fuel usage in this agriculturally dependent East African nation. EFA uses coffee husks, corn cobs ,ground nut shells, sugarcane waste, and rice husks to make clean and... [read more]

Cooking up a solution

Feature
Many stove manufacturers worldwide currently build and distribute biomass-fuelled cookstoves, but the problem of producing a clean, efficient, andaffordable cookstove that is widely adopted still persists. Cookstove adoption depends not only on stove performance but also on social, cultural, and economic factors that can vary greatly by geographical location.

Tapping the untapped

Feature
Africa is a new growth market for briquetting companies, as there is a demand for sustainable energy resources as an alternative to existing energy resources. The existing resources are mainly firewood and charcoal, often from non sustainable forests. The current equipment manufacturer ssupplying the market provide mostly products of low quality with a lack of documentation and after sales... [read more]

A chain of benefits

Feature
Biomass-based power generation is a renewable, widely available, carbon neutral technology. It has the potential to provide significant employment and income generation in rural communities, particularly among farmers and villagers.The cumulative capacity of biomass power generation in India is about 1,400MW, out of which only about 50% is operating. The rest is either shut down or operating ata... [read more]

Hot on the acquisition trail

Feature
One of the UK’s largest suppliersand distributors of premium-grade wood fuel products has seen its turnover smash through the £15 million (€17m) mark following acquisitions and a steady period of organic growth. National wood fuel business Forest Fuels currently supply wood chips and wood pellets to more than 2,000 customers, through a network of 40 depots across the UK. The... [read more]

The perfect recipe

Feature
In Asia, there is so much more available biomass that could be exploited by high performing co-digestion biogas plants, generating a huge biogas output for renewable electricity in the grid. In recent times, anaerobic digestion (AD) plants in Southeast Asia have focused too much on harnessing the energy content of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as asingle substrate for biogas plants. However,... [read more]

The modern pollution problem

Feature
In recent decades, raising livestock has shifted to large professional farms. At these places, with thousands of cattle or hundreds of thousands of chickens, the old self contained cycle of farming— manure feeds the crops, then the crops feed the animals — is overwhelmed by the large amount of manure and/or litter. Animal manure has become the modern pollution problem.

Questionable emissions

Feature
A primary motivation of anaerobicdigestion (AD) is to producemethane from biogenic sources and usethis as a versatile renewablefuel. There are variouspotential sources of methane leakage in the process of biogas production, some of which are unavoidable and some that can be managed and mitigated. For example, safety valves or vents are features installed on biogas plants that allow gas to escape... [read more]

Roll on wood

Feature
Swedish cleantech company Cortus Energy develops and markets a biomass gasification process called WoodRoll. WoodRoll is a breakthrough technology witha number of distinct technicalsolutions that are different from traditional gasification processes. Traditional gasification or state-of-the-artgasification is characterised by a number weaknesses. For instance, the traditional process has been... [read more]

Sweden can be a world-leading bioeconomy

Feature
The forests of Sweden and Finland represent more than 30% ofthe EU’s woodland. Both Nordic countries have the potential to actas pioneers in bioeconomy, leading the way and inspiring countries in the EU and around the globe. The Swedish government has undertakenseveral initiatives to develop a bioeconomy, aiming to strengthen the long-term policy ground rules that will steer away from... [read more]

Unlocking an industry

Feature
There is greater andgreater recognition that we must move away from petroleum-based products to help maintain the world’s climate within a suitable range. The US, China, and 73 other countries have recently signed the Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the US, 81 major companies have signed an accord pledging drastic action on climate change, and even the Pope... [read more]

To fuel the future

Feature
As the world runs out of oil and gas, it urgently needs to find alternative fuel supplies. Research at Teesside University holds some of the answers. For the past ten years, MariaOlea, a professor in chemical engineering and catalysis, has been working on anumber of research projects, which can be summarised as “advanced catalysis tosustainable technologies”.

Shocking power

Feature
Boiler cleaning in biomass powerstations is essential if the plant isto keep running efficiently and without unplanned shutdowns. Online maintenance cleaning has been known to the industry in the form of manual detonation cleaning for over a decade. However, in the past few years fixed detonation cleaning systems, which are attached to the boiler, have been growing in popularity. Known as shock... [read more]

Bringing it back to the fields

Feature
Biomass is still the most important source of renewable energy, even if the term renewable may not be correct due to widespread unsustainable use of biomass. Apart from cutting fresh timber without properly taking care of planting new forests, even countries with high environmental standards do not properly manage the nutrients that energy crops take up from (fertilised) soils and store in the... [read more]