In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BEYOND BIOMASS

In Business, November-December, Vol. 29, No. 6, p. 12

North Dakota research center is breaking barriers to the typical uses
for biomass and coming up with truly fresh ideas.

Derek A. Walters

THE BIOMASS INDUSTRY is still in its infancy compared to other energy markets, but it must play a larger role in the world's energy picture. Biomass is a critical domestic resource in the United States for meeting future electricity and transportation fuel demands, reducing dependence on foreign oil, stimulating agriculture, achieving carbon-neutral and air toxic-free emissions, and meeting the demands from public and political groups for green energy.
Biofuels are gaining popularity and prominence around the world as an economical solution for the future. In Europe and now more so throughout North America, use of methyl esters for diesel fuel has achieved widespread acceptance. In the United States, the demand for ethanol is forcing a rapid progression of technology development for ethanol from lignocellulosics. Other biomass technologies that are attracting large financial investment include using wood and agricultural wastes for remote power generation, hydrogen from biomass and biofuels for the military.
Right now, the Grand Forks, North Dakota-based Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is playing a major role in developing, demonstrating and ultimately commercializing biomass technologies and working with an extensive network of corporate partners to bring technology innovations out of the laboratory and into the commercial marketplace.
The EERC's Centers for Renewable Energy and Biomass Utilization are leading the nation in addressing technical barriers to the increased utilization of biomass in energy production. Within the last five years, EERC has conducted more than 60 major projects involving biomass - coal cofiring, biomass combustion and gasification for power, grain and lignocellulosic ethanol production, innovative production and use of biodiesel, renewable JP-8 fuel for the military, and the production of hydrogen from biomass.
Simultaneously, EERC is pursuing technologies in which the power or fuel is the primary product, as well as technologies that can use a biomass by-product and turn it into a value-added resource. For instance, the EERC is leading a long-term biomass gasification demonstration project at Grand Forks Truss, a building product manufacturing plant. The gasifier will convert 20 plus years of wood residues from the plant into a combustible gas for heat and electricity, offsetting 100 percent of the facility's power use and sending a significant portion of electricity to the local electrical grid.
“This particular system is designed to match typical power requirements of various manufacturing industries, generating between 100 kW to 1 MW of power,” said Darren Schmidt, EERC Research Manager. “The power system provides unique energy solutions to industrial clients by providing heat and electrical power from a variety of fuels, including waste materials and other organic feedstocks.”
Projects such as this exemplify the EERC's successful business model of developing partnerships with private industry, government, and the research community in order to improve the quality of life globally.
The EERC functions essentially as a nonprofit business within the University of North Dakota (UND) and provides entrepreneurial, market-driven solutions to today's most critical energy and environmental issues. The EERC is not an academic enterprise.
In the last 20 years, EERC has constantly enhanced its portfolio to conduct research in a wide variety of areas, including clean coal technologies, emission control, oil and gas, climate change and carbon sequestration, hydrogen technologies, water management, biomass, wind energy and alternative fuels, and has become a world leader in the field of pollution prevention and environmental cleanup technologies.
Today, the EERC serves as a national leader in advancing technologies to the marketplace by bringing together private industry and federal government funding. Although the EERC is a state entity, it does not accept noncompetitive, state-appropriated dollars and has never requested any. With more than 300 employees, the EERC has had nearly 1000 clients in 50 countries and all 50 states since 1987. Its current research portfolio totals over $151 million.

Derek Walters is Communications Manager at the Energy & Environmental Research Center based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Vist the website at www.undeerc.org.

COLOCATING TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

ANOTHER start-up company, Energy-Efficient Combustion Technology (EECT), Inc. has established its office headquarters within the EERC Center at the University of North Dakota - part of the EERC focus to serve as a major regional hub for technology commercialization. EECT commercializes technology that improves combustion efficiency, operation, and environmental signature of large utility boilers. “This is a perfect opportunity to improve and commercialize our core technology by teaming
with the EERC's world-class energy technology capabilities,” says Rick Mac Pherson, president of EECT.
“EECT's corporate office is just a first step,” adds EERC Director Gerald Groenewold. “Our long-term plan is to build a Technology Commercialization Center on the east end of our current facilities, which would allow numerous corporate partners the opportunity to collocate an office in Grand Forks. This provides greatly enhanced opportunities for economic growth, while at the same time facilitating spin-off opportunities in our region.”

LARGE-SCALE CARBON SEQUESTRATION PROJECTS

IN A MAJOR STEP demonstrating the promise of clean energy technology, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded grants to three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the United States. The projects will conduct large volume tests for storage of one million or more tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep saline reservoirs. DOE plans to invest $197 million over ten years, subject to annual appropriations from Congress, whose estimated value including partnership cost share is $318 million. These projects are the first of several sequestration demonstration projects planned through DOE's Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships.
The formation to be tested are recognized as the most promising of the geologic basins in the U.S. Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than 100 years of CO2 emissions from all major point sources in North America. Following are summaries of awarded projects.
The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, will conduct geologic CO2 storage projects in the Alberta and Williston Basins. The Williston Basin project in North Dakota will couple enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage in a deep carbonate formation that is also a major saline formation. The CO2 for this project will come from a postcombustion capture facility located at a coal-fired power plant in the region. A second test will be conducted in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, and will demonstrate the cosequestration of CO2 and hydrogen sulfide from a large gas processing plant into a deep saline formation. This will provide data about how hydrogen sulfide affects the sequestration process. The Plains partnership includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, along with the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Total project cost: $135,586,059; DOE Share: $67,000,000; Partner Share: 68,586,059.
The two other projects awarded are the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership with a geologic formation stretching from Texas to Florida, and the Southwest project that is coordinated by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. The three projects will double the number of large-volume carbon storage demonstrations in operation worldwide.