Another Opportunity for Biomass – Replacing Petrochemicals (3 of 3)

by Bruce Goodman

Today the petrochemical industry manufactures products from fossil fuels: plastics, chemicals, and other products.  Scientists tell us that nearly all of these products can be made from renewable, carbon neutral biomass. The processes are similar.

The petrochemical industry breaks oil and natural gas down to base chemicals and then builds desired products from them. Biorefining technology breaks biomass down to component sugars that can be used to build the same desired products. Fermentation, chemical catalysis, and other processes are used to create products that can be used in manufacturing processes.

There are currently robust forces driving sustainable bioproducts production.  Biomass-based products are expected to make a significant impact on the production of bulk chemicals in the next decade, and a huge impact within 20 to 30 years. About 5 percent of global chemical sales currently are made up of “green products”.  Some are predicting that the market share could rise to 20 percent by 2010 and may ultimately reach 66 percent of the total global economy.

The Opportunity for Biomass – Biofuels (2 of 3)

by Bruce Goodman

Biofuels are defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuels derived from relatively recently dead biological material. They are distinguished from fossil fuels, which are derived from long dead biological material. Theoretically, biofuels can be produced from any biological carbon source. Various plants and plant-derived materials are used as feedstock for biofuels manufacturing. The two most common types of grain derived biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel. On the horizon is the era of advanced biofuels—cellulosic ethanol, biomass-based diesel, biobutanol, bio-oil, green gasoline and biobased jet fuel.

Opportunities for Biomass – Power and Heat (1 of 3)

by Bruce Goodman

Biomass power technologies include direct firing, cofiring, gasification, anaerobic digestion and other technologies. Although many current biomass power plants are small, industrial cogeneration or heating applications, utility-scale plants with capacities in excess of 80 megawatts have been commissioned. In the United States, biomass power plants currently represent 11,000 megawatts of capacity, the second largest amount of renewable energy in the nation.  Michigan has a number of wood fired electric generating facilties, some operating for more than 20 years.  In addition it has two major waste to energy projects fired with municipal solid waste. 

Interest in biomass power is on the rise. Although the primary driver to consider biomass power has been its potential to lower heating and power production costs, the anticipation of global carbon markets and renewable power mandates is spurring a new wave of investment in this sector. Perhaps most critical to this new interest is that these facilities can generate electricity at any time (24/7), unlike some of the current most popular renewable sources of energy.

In addition biofuels plants are becoming true biorefineries, incorporating the production of fuels, chemicals and power at a single location.

Natural Gas “Play”

by Bruce Goodman

The opinion page of the Wall Street Journal recently claimed that “unconventional natural gas” may well revolutionalize the challenges and opportunities for alternative energy. The natural gas previously locked in impermeable shale around the nation is now becoming available due to hydraulic fracturing techniques. Thus the domestic gas supplies are increasing, and at a much lower unit cost than previously thought possible. The author suggests that this makes gas fired electric generation more available to back up intermittent energy from solar or wind generation. That is the optimistic perspective. The more realistic outcome is that cheap natural gas will lead to natural gas generation being preferred ahead of alternative energy supplies, unless some sort of carbon tax makes that option less desirable. After all, the natural gas that was locked up contains the carbon that climate change is all about.

Observations on Wind Energy Conference in Detroit

by Bruce Goodman

Yesterday’s AWEA conference in Detroit was very interesting.  It was primarily focused on small wind turbines, and there certainly are a great number of them in production.  There are a multitude of designs, from all over the world.  I was particularly intrigued by the solar/wind power/battery backup/LED streetlight for $5000 per pole. 

The economics of many of the small wind systems do not yet justify their windspread use in Michigan.  However, when I heard Mariah Power talking about how 75% of their production was going to export that made sense.  There was an MSU economics professor that I spoke with who suggested that in his studies he has found that a 20 kw wind turbine might clear the economic ROI hurtles, even in Michigan.  He said that as strange as it seemed, both the smaller units and the larger units (i.e. 2.5 kw and 100 kw) had price points that made them uneconomic at this time.  I heard from a developer of a 2.5 kw unit that his product was already competitive with coal fired generation at $3000 kw.  It was neither the time nor the place to talk about availability or backup.  

Governor Granholm’s opening remarks in the morning were very much a cheerleading effort for Michigan’s  unemployed engineers and manufacturing labor force.  She made many good points about what the state brings to the alternative energy table.