NewNergy

NewNergy discusses the latest inventions, innovations and breakthroughs in the energy & environmental sciences.

Biomass Breakthrough : Ethanol from Plants Using Microbe

Baystater’s are celebrating a biomass breakthrough in Springfield that could help soften their dependence on foreign oil. Their discovery creates ethanol from plants using a microbe found in the soil at the Quabbin Reservoir.Development has been in the works for three years under the leadership of Dr. Susan Leschine a professor of microbiology.Pilot plans call for Solutia to begin production later this year, creating the potential for hundreds of jobs.

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Burning Biomass to Generate Electricity

Coconut husks and groundnut shells usually are an eyesore, but they can actually be used to light up your house. That too with limited pollution, promises biomass power generator AllGreen Energy India Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Singapore-based AllGreen Energy Pte Ltd.

The projects will use Indian Institute of Science or IISc-patented biomass gasification technology to turn biomass into gases, which will then power Jenbacher engines—made by strategic partner GE Energy India—to produce electricity. AllGreen says the process will create only carbon dioxide and negligible particulate matter as pollutants.

The process works by converting solid biomass into a mixture of combustible gases through controlled pyrolysis, or decomposing matter at high temperatures. Once cooled and cleaned, the resulting fuel gas is used to generate electricity with the GE engine. The extra heat produced in the process is used to generate chilling capacity for the cold storage facility.

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Biochar: The New Fuel For Your Fire

Over the railroad tracks, near Agriculture Drive on the University of Georgia campus, sits a unique machine that may hold one of the solutions to big environmental problems like energy, food production and even global climate change.

The scientists feed the waste, or “biomass,” into an octagon-shaped metal barrel. The waste is then cooked through a thermochemical process called “pyrolysis” under intense heat that reaches above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.The organic trash is then converted into a charcoal-like material suitable for fertilizer for farmers. Scientists say the gasses emitted can be utilized to fuel vehicles and power electric generators.

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Manmade Biomass Coal Offers Storage And Fuel

A new machine dubbed the "Black Phantom" can turn biomass into manmade coal. Carbonscape, a New Zealand-based start-up, describes its invention as an industrial-sized microwave that can cook plant waste, wood waste, and "even sewage" into coal. Carbonscape also claims that the machine captures and stores more carbon than the amount of carbon generated by the electricity needed to power it for the process. The invention combines two popular environmental efforts: using biochar for carbon capture and storage (CCS), and developing alternative fuel sources from biomass.

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Hydrogen from cellulosic material using multilpe enzymes - ORNL

Tomorrow's fuel-cell vehicles may be powered by enzymes that consume cellulose from woodchips or grass and exhale hydrogen. Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia have produced hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell by mixing 14 enzymes, one coenzyme, cellulosic materials from nonfood sources, and water heated to about 90 degrees (32 C).

The group announced three advances from their "one pot" process: 1) a novel combination of enzymes, 2) an increased hydrogen generation rate -- to as fast as natural hydrogen fermentation, and 3) a chemical energy output greater than the chemical energy stored in sugars – the highest hydrogen yield reported from cellulosic materials.

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Charred wood-'Green coal' to get a tryout

North Carolina is about to become the nation's test case for what marketers call "green coal" -- wood that has been baked into charcoal.But the option of locally grown fuel is not without challenges and environmental concerns. Still, advocates of the process believe the technology is on the verge of a breakthrough.

The process is not as simple as collecting dead branches from the forest floor. The wood has to be treated in an industrial oven until it turns to charcoal. It remains to be seen if the experimental ovens can mass-produce charred wood of a uniform quality that won't clog power plants sensitively calibrated to burn coal.When burned, wood releases significantly less sulphur and almost no mercury. And wood doesn't add to the atmospheric greenhouse gases that are believed to cause global warming.

Charred wood, a type of biomass, would be a major breakthrough because it can be pulverized into a fine powder for burning in existing power plants, potentially displacing a third of the coal in some plants, advocates say. By blending wood with coal, Progress wouldn't have to build a separate power plant for incinerating wood chips, thus eliminating a multimillion-dollar expense from the green energy equation.

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Ancient Charcoal- Brakes on Global Warming by sequestering carbon

Biochar was first created and used thousands of years ago to help plants grow. Researchers have found that this charcoal-like substance traps carbon and is a renewable source of fuel. Nine countries are pouring research dollars into the charcoal-like substance to see if it can sequester carbon, improve the soil and produce biofuels all at once—on an economically competitive scale. Could this ancient fertilizer really put a dent on global warming?

Biochar is different from the dry charcoal that you'd burn in a grill: It is produced by heating plant waste to 400 to 500 degrees C in the absence of oxygen—a process known as low-temperature pyrolysis—which makes a substance that has a greater number of smaller pores than charcoal. (The better to trap carbon dioxide with.)

The process used to make biochar is a closed, sustainable one: Biomass is fed into the oxygen-free burners and turned into the char. The gases that are released during the reaction is then captured and converted into electricity (from combustible gases) or biofuel, while the remaining char is safe to throw directly into the soil. Biochar does the rest of the work underground. The substance improves the ground's composition and fertility by locking in water and nutrients, thereby reducing the need for fertilizers while boosting crop yields. It also stores the carbon from the plant materials that made it— around 50 percent of the carbon produced from converting biomass into biochar can be trapped—and traps even more carbon from decomposing plants in the soil.

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Green Gasoline, Green Diesel, Green Jet Fuel - Biofuel Breakthrough

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline in energy contant yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees. The discovery could transform the renewable fuel economy by eliminating the need to grow corn for ethanol and rescue America from importing expensive and dwindling foreign oil supplies.

The latest pathways to produce green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel are found in a report sponsored by NSF, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society entitled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" released April 1 (http://www.ecs.umass.edu/biofuels/). In the report, Huber and a host of leaders from academia, industry and government present a plan for making green gasoline a practical solution for the impending fuel crisis.

Full report from here - Green Gasoline Biofuel Breakthrough

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Bioheat Gaining Support in Vermont, Northeast United States

With heating season coming to a close in the Northeast, businesses, homeowners and other utility customers are looking back at their heating bills and thinking about how they might bring them down next year. While conservation is an option for some, many people aren't willing to sacrifice comfort to save money. Bioheat systems may provide some relief.

Bioheat systems come in many forms. They can be as simple as replacing traditional heating oil with a blend of biodiesel or bio-oil, or as complicated has having a pellet boiler installed that can take care or central heat and hot water.

According to Andrew Perchlik, Executive Director of Renewable Energy Vermont, consumers are taking action when it comes to their heating needs.

Much of the growth in Vermont has been in pellet and other biomass markets. Currently, 30 Vermont schools are heated or powered with pellet and wood chip boilers. Renewable Energy Vermont is also looking into other feedstocks including soy beans, sunflowers, algae and hemp, but Perchlik says those sources are still in the very early stages of development.

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Dynamotive Starts BioOil Plant in Guelph, Ontario, Aiming 'Untapped' Industrial Fuels Market

Dynamotive Starts Commissioning Intermediate BioOil Plant in Guelph, Ontario, Aiming at 'Untapped' Industrial Fuels Market

Press release

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM & LAS VEGAS, March 6, 2007 - Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (OTCBB:DYMTF), which develops and markets biomass-based biofuel technology and products derived from its proprietary fast pyrolysis process, announced today that it has started the commissioning of its biofuel plant in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, a process that is on target 11 months after start of fabrication.

The joint ventured Guelph plant, is designed to process 200 tonnes per
day of cellulosic biomass (recycled wood) and produce 175 tonnes (37,000
gallons) of biofuel per day (12.2 million gallons a year) with the equivalent
energy content of 550 barrels of conventional oil. Total development costs for
the plant are currently estimated at US$ 16.5 million. Full operations are
scheduled for the second quarter.

The Guelph plant commissioning announcement was made simultaneously in
Brussels, in connection with the World Biofuels Markets, Congress and
Exhibition, and in Las Vegas, in connection with PowerGen Renewable Energy &
Fuels Conference.

Unlike ethanol and biodiesel, the biofuels produced by Dynamotive will be
aimed at the industrial fuels market. This market accounts for approximately
25% of hydrocarbon usage and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions.

"The Guelph plant will help draw international attention to renewable
BioOil and Intermediate BioOil as being viable and highly economical
replacements, on a potentially enormous scale, for mainstream industrial fuels
whether in the US, China, Europe or the smallest nations which have little or
no fossil fuel but abundant cellulosic biomass residues which are the raw
materials from which our fuels are made," said Andrew Kingston, President and
CEO of Dynamotive.

"Biodiesel and ethanol target mobile fuels. Dynamotive's fuels target,
initially, the industrial market which is largely untapped. We believe we have
a great competitive edge in this market as well as being able to target
ethanol and syn-diesel production through further processing of our fuel."

"We believe that our BioOil and Intermediate BioOils can be shown to be
cost competitive with hydrocarbon-based industrial fuels.

"The attractive economics of BioOil partly derive from the simplicity of
the process, heat transformation of biomass into a liquid and char and the
fact that residual cellulosic biomass can be processed at smaller, distributed
plants that are significantly less costly to build and operate than other
biofuel production facilities that require large scale operations to be
economical," said Kingston.

"A main contributor to the cost competitiveness is the fact that
Dynamotive's fuel is produced from residual or waste biomass and not from
agricultural products that otherwise have food value."

The company has tested over 120 types of biomass to date. This provides
it with great flexibility in tackling the growing sustainable fuels market,
even providing opportunity to process residues from biodiesel and ethanol
production processes.

Dynamotive has developed and tested BioOil and Intermediate BioOil in a
number of industrial applications with major companies and has shown
equivalent performance to natural gas, heating oil and diesel with same heat
input (equivalent thermal input). Further, BioOil, Intermediate BioOil and
char produced at Dynamotive's West Lorne plant have received Environment
Canada's EcoLogo Certification through the Environmental Choice Program.
Information on tests and the EcoLogo program are available at the Company's
website www.dynamotive.com.

Kingston added that at a second stage of development Dynamotive will aim
to further process BioOil and Intermediate BioOil into synthetic diesel and
ethanol and, in doing so, further expand the market appeal for its technology
and fuels.

"Production of syngas from BioOil and Intermediate BioOil is a
preliminary step towards the development of mobile fuels and has been
successfully demonstrated by the company."

Dynamotive has developed the technology and fuels over the past 10 years
and demonstrated scaleability through six increasingly larger plants. It has
invested over US$ 50 million to reach this stage. Today, the Company has
developed two commercial plants in Ontario, Canada, Guelph and West Lorne, and
is planning further production facilities for Australia, China, Europe, South
America and the United States in addition to further plant modules of 200
tonnes per day capacity at the Guelph site.

Guelph's output biofuel - Intermediate BioOil - will be suitable for most
of the industrial uses now addressed by petroleum-based #2 or #6 heating oil,
such as industrial power, heating, paper manufacturing and aluminum smelting.

The company said it also expects to restart production near the end of
the second quarter, of its West Lorne, Ontario plant that is currently being
upgraded (after two years of operating as a commercial demonstration plant) to
130 tonnes per day of biomass processing capacity. The plant will produce
Light BioOil and Char. The output of the plant will be mainly for electricity
generation and for specialty products as BioOil has a number of high value
components that can be extracted.

"Our Intermediate-Grade BioOil is an excellent substitute for fossil
fuels, especially for use in industrial boilers, kilns, smelters and other
applications. BioOil pumps well, ignites and burns readily when atomized, and
it can be used by industrial customers with little adjustments necessary to
combustion equipment."

"According to the Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency
of the United States Department of Energy, nearly 25% (24.35%) of all U.S.
petroleum consumption is used by industrial boilers and similar equipment.

"Focusing on that huge market makes BioOil the natural, renewable choice
for industry," Kingston continued, "and, we believe, it will become a
necessary supplemental biofuel to complement ethanol and biodiesel - fuels
which are more focused on transportation usage."

Kingston will discuss the markets, technology and implications of
Intermediate BioOil in more detail on Friday, March 9th, when he speaks at the
World Biofuels Markets Congress in Brussels.

About Dynamotive

Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation is an energy solutions provider
headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with offices in the USA, UK and Argentina.
Its carbon/greenhouse-gas-neutral fast-pyrolysis technology uses medium
temperatures and oxygen-less conditions to turn dry waste biomass and energy
crops into BioOil for power and heat generation. BioOil can be further
converted into vehicle fuels and chemicals. For further information, please
visit Dynamotive's website: www.dynamotive.com.

www.dynamotive.com

Forward Looking Statement

Statements in this news release concerning the company's business outlook
or future economic performance; including the anticipation of future plant
start-ups, partnerships, consortiums, teaming agreements, government
assistance, other anticipated cash receipts, revenues, expenses, or other
financial items; and statements concerning assumptions made or expectations as
to any future events, conditions, performance or other matters, are
"forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are by their nature
subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those stored in such statements. Such risks,
uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, changes in energy
prices, availability of capital, and the Company's ability to access capital
on acceptable terms or any terms at all, changes and delays in project
development plans and schedules, customer and partner acceptance of new
projects, changes in input pricing, competing alternative energy technologies,
government policies and general economic conditions. These risks are generally
outlined in the Company's disclosure filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.

For further information: Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation Nigel
Horsley, 604-267-6028 Executive Director, Communications and Investor
Relations or Nathan Neumer, 604-267-6042 Director, Communications or
Switchboard: 604-267-6000 Toll Free (North America): 877-863-2268 Fax:
604-267-6005, Website: www.dynamotive.com

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  In the beginning, there were algae,
but there was no oil Then, from algae came oil.
Now, the algae are still there, but oil is fast depleting
In future, there will be no oil, but there will still be algae  
So, doesn't it make sense to explore if we can again get oil from algae?
This is what we try to do at Oilgae.com - explore the potential of getting oil from algae