Biomass Magazine

November 9, 2017

By Julie Breneman

After 10 years of research, University of Minnesota Duluth’s National Resources Research Institute delivered solid results this fall. As in solid biofuels. By the ton. 

And while this is exciting progress, the NRRI is already gearing up for the next steps of biofuel development.

Starting at the bench scale in 2003 and fiddling with mixture after mixture, NRRI is now able to produce solid biofuels that perform at comparable energy values to coal in fossil coal-burning facilities. The biofuel emissions have no heavy metal pollutants and greatly reduced sulfur levels. As an added benefit, the biomass feedstock can be invasive plants, woody and agricultural waste, secondary wood species, and beetle-killed wood resources.

NRRI envisions this to be a supplement to fossil coal that helps reduce harmful coal emissions to meet state and federal mandates while minimizing new capital requirements at existing power and industrial plants.

“What’s really exciting, and what we’ve been working so hard on, is being able to produce this product at a commercially-relevant scale,” said Don Fosnacht, NRRI initiative director for renewable dnergy. “We had to find a way to make it physically robust and water-resistant for easy shipping and handling, and scale it up to 6 tons per day output. It wasn’t easy.”

The United States is moving away from fossil fuels—Oregon is the first state to aim for coal-free power by 2020—but the transition will be slow. NRRI helped to monitor a significant trial of solid biofuel at a Portland electric plant in 2017. They completely replaced the fossil coal with 3,500 tons of biofuel with only minor mechanical changes. This trial demonstrated that this similar biofuel provides roughly 2,500 Btu per pound increase over typical output for Powder River Basin coals.

The biofuel can be made with two processes: torrefaction (a dry roasting method) or hydrothermal carbonization (a pressure cooking method). NRRI’s large scale rotary kiln is best for roasting wood chips to make solid fuels. The second reactor is like a large pressure cooker that can take other plant biomass (milfoil, invasive cattails and agricultural waste) to make an “energy mud” that is formed into solid fuels.

“If you think about how Mother Nature made fossil coal, it’s time, pressure and heat,” explained NRRI Engineer Tim Hagen. “We’re doing those same processes, but instead of millions of years, we’re doing it in a few hours. And because minerals don’t get into the mix, we don’t have those potential pollutants.”

And while this is exciting progress, NRRI is already gearing up for the next steps of biofuel development. Using a high pressure gasification process on the solid fuels, they hope to demonstrate the conversion of the solid biofuel into a synthetic natural gas (sometimes called “syngas”). Other products would be high value chemicals, liquid fuels and activated carbon.

White wood pellets have made it to market as a coal alternative and they’re a large U.S. export to Europe. But unlike NRRI’s solid biofuel, white wood pellets require major infrastructure changes at the power plant including massive warehouses, and they easily break down during transport and exposure to weather.

NRRI’s renewable energy research was funded by a grant from Xcel Energy, Minnesota Next Generation Energy Board/MN Dept. of Agriculture, Minnesota Power, Heetway, K.R.Komarek, Inc. and the Consortium for Advanced Wood to Energy Solutions.

Read the original article: NRRI Develops Solid Biofuel to Offset Coal

Hoosier Ag Today

November 8, 2017

By the Renewable Fuels Association

Consumers have been saving money thanks to ethanol for years, but never as much as today. Nearly every consumer that chooses ethanol at the pump is saving money, whether using regular unleaded with 10% ethanol (E10), mid-grade with 15% ethanol (E15), or any one of the many flex fuel options like E85.

According to crowd-sourced data from the Renewable Fuels Association’s E85prices.com, the national price spread between regular unleaded and E85 has never been greater in the 17 years of tracking on the website. That price differential is currently at 33% for the month of November, or more than 8 percentage points higher than any other month in recorded history on the website. In many locations today—including California, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois–E85 is at least $1 per gallon cheaper than E10. On average nationwide, flex fuel vehicle drivers who fill up with 20 gallons of E85 are saving $14 per tank over drivers who fill up with E10. Even when ethanol’s lower energy density is factored in, E85 costs less than E10 per mile driven.

The advantageous price scenario is due to the widening price spread between ethanol and gasoline, but also the strong value of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) credits. In recent weeks, wholesale ethanol prices have been 15-20% below wholesale gasoline prices—the largest discount in more than two years.

Fuel blenders are further discounting the price of ethanol blends by passing along the value of RIN credits to retailers and consumers. Blenders capture the RIN credit when they blend ethanol with gasoline; they can then sell the RIN credit to other blenders or refiners and share some or all of the profit from that sale with retailers and consumers by marking down the price of the ethanol-blended fuel.

“This once again demonstrates the ability of ethanol to save consumers money, and proves the Renewable Fuel Standard and RINs are working to drive expanded use of cleaner, cheaper renewable fuels,” said RFA Vice President of Industry Relations Robert White. “The combination of various federal, state and industry infrastructure funding initiatives, along with the value of RINs, are allowing fuel retailers the ability to invest in infrastructure, while also passing along savings to the consumer. We are seeing tremendous growth in the availability of higher blends of ethanol at the retail level, and at a price point that will interest anyone looking to save money at the pump,” he added.

Ethanol detractors have claimed that RINs are a tax that negatively impact consumers, but the marketplace is showing otherwise. Those that have chosen to embrace the RFS are helping consumers daily.

“There are always stations that defy logic by charging more for E85 than unleaded, but those stations are becoming a rarity,” said White. “Most retailers are agnostic about what products they offer, as long as they have margin and volume. Right now, higher ethanol blends are offering a significant opportunity for blenders, retailers and consumers alike.”

Read the original article: Consumers Win with Ethanol

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