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biomass

Liquid Wood, Anybody?

February 6, 2012 by Stefano Ratti
with 449 views
2

One of the most abundant forms of renewable energy available in the United States is wood residue from forestry operations. The carbon in wood residue is bound to go back to the atmosphere, either as carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of combustion (natural or controlled fire), or through methane (CH4), as a result of decomposition.... [read more]

Feeding 10 Billion on a Hotter Planet (Part II)

December 22, 2011 by Barry Brook
with 345 views
1

Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. His previous article on BNC was: Feeding the billions in 2050′s sauna (Part I) —————— Welcome to Part II of my presumptuously titled series on... [read more]

No Coal, No Oil, No Nuclear. No Biomass?

November 9, 2011 by Tomaz Ostir
with 554 views
3

This is [large-scale, industrial use of natural forests for energy] turning to ash sustainable job opportunities, threatening the greening of the forest sector and the value added product trend that has been emerging in recent years. And what is against of common understanding of biomass: Exploiting forests for energy increases carbon... [read more]

What Happened at Choren?

July 9, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 835 views
6

If you have not heard by now, Choren Industries has begun bankruptcy proceedings. For those who don’t know, since 2009 I have worked as the technology advisor for the major investor and primary funding source for Choren. I have just returned from a visit to their plant in Freiberg, Germany. Due to the nature of my relationships with my... [read more]

Today's Energy Panacea: Biochar!

June 27, 2011 by Marc Gunther
with 1,718 views
6

Would you like to curb or even reverse global warming? Help feed the world? Generate renewable energy? Biochar is the answer, say its most fervent advocates. If only life were so simple. Biochar, alas, isn’t ready yet to be a meaningful solution to the climate crisis, or a way to enhance agricultural productivity at scale. But it’s an... [read more]

12 Clean Energy Trends to Watch in 2011

June 3, 2011 by Tracey de Morsella
with 1,089 views
8

The clean energy sector is entering a phase of dramatic change in which business models are being transformed against a backdrop of regulatory uncertainty, as the industry emerges from a challenging period caused by the global economic downtown. Technologies and business structures that were once abandoned, are now being revived in several key sectors. [read more]

A Renewable Energy Technology That Gets No Respect

May 31, 2011 by Marc Gunther
with 1,122 views
4

 No Silicon Valley venture capitalist has invested in it. Government subsidies for it are skimpy, at best. It lacks clout in Washington. And it’s been around forever. Yet it’s by far the most popular form of renewable energy used at home, dwarfing the impact of rooftop olar panels and appealing not just to well-to-do greens but to... [read more]

Alarming Estimates of Forest Loss Linked to Bioenergy Projections

May 20, 2011 by John Wilson
with 204 views
1

Tuesday’s release of the draft Southern Forest Futures Project (SFFP) report raised an alarm that the South could lose as much as 23 million acres of forest over the next four decades. From the press release: According to the report, urbanization, bioenergy use, weather patterns, land ownership changes and invasive species will... [read more]

exclusive

Fuels and Biogas From Household Waste

April 14, 2011 by Helmuth Ziegler
with 704 views
2

After five years of practical experience the time has come for Imtech, one of the leading companies for technical building equipment in Germany, to offer a promising procedure for the treatment of residual household waste to the international market: At the exhibition area “Metropolitan Solutions” at the Hanover Fair in Germany, Imtech... [read more]

Marginal Land Produces Marginal Biomass

January 20, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 1,758 views
15
David Wright via Wikimedia Commons

The global potential for energy crops is a topic of great interest, and the media is often filled with reports of the potential for production on marginal land. Indeed, some of these reports go so far as to suggest that a substantial fraction or even all of current global oil consumption could be replaced by energy crops grown on... [read more]

Turning Biomass into Power or Fuel

December 7, 2010 by Geoffrey Styles
with 1,077 views
1

This morning I ran across a news item indicating that Dow Chemical was installing a biomass cogeneration unit at its facility in Aratu, Brazil to provide process steam with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. It's a good example of another way to convert biomass into energy that hasn't attracted nearly as much interest as advanced biofuels... [read more]

Study: Nuclear Power Will Be Pricier Than Other Renewables by 2020

December 2, 2010 by Big Gav
with 2,638 views
17

The SMH has an article on the cost of nuclear power - Nuclear power 'failing' price test.NUCLEAR energy will be more expensive than most forms of renewable energy by 2020 according to a paper by the University of NSW energy expert Mark Diesendorf.The paper, to be given at a solar industry conference in Canberra today, finds the cheapest... [read more]

Evaluating KiOR

September 3, 2010 by Robert Rapier
with 1,480 views
1

Join the forum discussion on this post Cracking Biomass Back when I worked in a refinery, I used to spend a lot of time thinking about how biomass would behave in certain refining processes. A fluidized catalytic cracker (FCC), for instance, takes oil and subjects it to heat and a catalyst to fracture larger hydrocarbons into smaller... [read more]

California biomass-solar power plant project abandoned

July 2, 2010 by Todd Woody
with 867 views
0

image: California Energy Commission In The New York Times on Friday, I write about another setback in California’s scramble to meet its renewable energy targets: The developer of a hybrid biomass solar power plant to be built in California has abruptly canceled the project, underscoring the challenges the state faces in meeting its... [read more]

Bio-mass-o-generation

March 1, 2010 by skyler hype
with 379 views
0

By 2014 all Ontario Coal electricity generating plants will be decommissioned and taken off line by the Ontario government.  Well, that’s the tentative plan.  As I wrote last week, the schematics of replacing 6 500 Mw of power are quite daunting given that no new nuclear plants are on the government’s radar at the present... [read more]