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Posted by michael on from the not-just-for-compost-any-more dept.

TLouden writes "The Rocky Mountain News had an article today about Community Power Corp. and its new BioMax unit which uses renewable resources such as corncobs, sawdust pellets, and coconut shells to produce electricity. This gasifier unit isn't commercially available yet but we might be seeing it sometime in 2004."

7 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Distributed Energy by heli0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The California Energy Commission has some info on different types of distributed energy resources from solar/wind/fuelcells to good ole ICE and turbines; listing their fuel sources, efficiency, environmental hazards, production capabilities and current availability; along with best applications, costs, performance, strengths & weaknesses, future developments, and where to buy them.

    The page for microturbines is currently down, but the rest are up.

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    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  2. Re:Practical? by bobbozzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dude, you're talking about methane emissions (surplus methane generated by other processes).

    This would be BURNING the methane, which would produce CO2 and H20, similar to burning natural gas.

    I have never heard that burning methane is any worse than burning any other carbon-based fuel.

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    Nothing to see here; Move along.
  3. In full scale use in many countries by vinsci · · Score: 5, Informative
    These guys developed waste treatment to commercial scale years ago, and it's successfully deployed in full scale in several countries.
    The WAASA PROCESS, developed by Citec, has a reputation for being the most wide-ranging digestion experience in the world.

    The WAASA PROCESS is in operation in Mustasaari outside city of Vaasa, Finland and in Kil, Sweden and in Tokyo, Japan. One of the largest MSW digestion plants in the world is a WAASA PROCESS in Groningen, Netherlands.

    FYI: I worked at this company a couple of years back.

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    Trusted Computing FAQ | Free Dawit Isaak!
  4. Re:Practical? by rgmoore · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only that, but biomass is essentially a closed cycle. All of the CO2 that you're generating is coming from plants that recently took that same CO2 out of the air, so there's no net addition of greenhouse gasses. This is a direct contrast to fossil fuels, where the carbon was previously buried in the ground for millions of years.

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    There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.

  5. Calorific Values Of Fuels by heli0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    GigaJoule Per Tonne

    chicken shit: 8.8
    wood: 10.0
    meat & bone: 18.6
    coal: 30.0
    tires: 32.0
    diesel: 45.6
    propane: 49.4

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    http://www.lowpay.gov.uk/energy/inform/calvalues .p df

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    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  6. Why you didn't read the article? by benjamindees · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or even the summary?

    This is a gasifier. It doesn't burn the biomass directly. It converts the biomass into clean gas fuel just like it would naturally decompose. It's actually more enviromnentally responsible because it supposedly makes use of excess materials that would otherwise be left to decompose into the atmosphere.

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    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  7. Re:Sooner then later by heli0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "at least a quarter of the energy in the US is produced by coal"

    Actually it is over 50%.

    Total Electric Power Industry Summary Statistics

    Energy Production (Thousand MWh)
    All Energy Sources: 303,091
    Coal: 154,690

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    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...