Biofuel From Trees Being Developed At Georgia

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Mike Wilson

New Member
Nov 19, 2005
1,003
Orient Point, NY
Hey pal, can you spare a few splits? My car's on empty and the wife wants me to drive to town for some milk...

If this ever catches on pellets will be 500 bucks a ton.

-- Mike

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Biofuel From Trees Being Developed At Georgia

A team of University of Georgia researchers has developed a new biofuel derived from wood chips. Unlike previous fuels derived from wood, the new and still unnamed fuel can be blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel to power conventional engines. "The exciting thing about our method is that it is very easy to do," said Tom Adams, director of the UGA Faculty of Engineering outreach service. "We expect to reduce the price of producing fuels from biomass dramatically with this technique."

Adams, whose findings are detailed in the early online edition of the American Chemical Society journal Energy and Fuels, explained that scientists have long been able to derive oils from wood, but they had been unable to process it effectively or inexpensively so that it can be used in conventional engines. The researchers have developed a new chemical process, which they are working to patent, that inexpensively treats the oil so that it can be used in unmodified diesel engines or blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel.

Here's how the process works: Wood chips and pellets - roughly a quarter inch in diameter and six-tenths of an inch long - are heated in the absence of oxygen at a high temperature, a process known as pyrolysis. Up to a third of the dry weight of the wood becomes charcoal, while the rest becomes a gas.

Most of this gas is condensed into a liquid bio-oil and chemically treated. When the process is complete, about 34 percent of the bio-oil (or 15 to 17 percent of the dry weight of the wood) can be used to power engines. The researchers are currently working to improve the process to derive even more oil from the wood.

"This research will really benefit the citizens of the state, and that fits perfectly into the mission of a land grant institution," Adams said. "Georgia has 24 million acres of forested land, and we could see increased employment and tax revenues based on this research. Another huge benefit is that this fuel would reduce the amount of fuel we import from other states and from other countries."

Adams pointed out that the new biofuel also offers environmental benefits. The fuel is nearly carbon neutral, meaning that it does not significantly increase heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as long as new trees are planted to replace the ones used to create the fuel.

The researchers have also set up test plots in Tifton, Ga., to explore whether the charcoal that is produced when the fuel is made can be used as a fertilizer. Adams said that if the economics work for the charcoal fertilizer, the biofuel would actually be carbon negative.

"You're taking carbon out of the atmosphere when you grow a plant, and if you don't use all of that carbon and return some of it to the soil in an inert form, you're actually decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," Adams explained. "We're optimistic because in most types of soil, carbon char has very beneficial effects on the ecology of the soil, its productivity and its ability to maintain fertility."

Although the new biofuel has performed well, Adams said further tests are needed to assess its long-term impact on engines, its emissions characteristics and the best way to transport and store it.

"It's going to take a while before this fuel is widely available," Adams said. "We've just started on developing a new technology that has a lot of promise."
 
Many ethanol facilities are looking to wood waste as feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production with several pilot plants being built around the country. Although switchgrass is often mentioned for ethanol and pelletization the infrastructure and markets to drive this alternative would require sustained commitment from government, agriculture, and industry to make it a reality. Wood waste is a readily available resource that is likely to become an increasingly valuable commodity over the next decade with the transportation energy sector dramatically increasing demand for the resource.
 
Mike Wilson said:
If this ever catches on pellets will be 500 bucks a ton.

Wrong. You're just critical of pellets. Read the part about all the wood in Georgia, sitting there waiting to be used. Currently none of that is going to pellet heat. Prices may rise, but they'll just build more factories.

What will happen is that wood in general will rise in price but landowners will be able to make money harvesting timber as opposed to constantly selling it home developers to build on.

Already in the Pacific Northwest, environmentalists are joining forces with the big paper companies because now they realize its better to have paper companies growing trees and then harvesting them instead of selling attacking them and forcing them to sell the land to developers to build sprawling mini-mansions.

All of this technology is at least as far away as switchgrass which will turn the whole bio-fuels world on its head. What'll happen even before all this is that fireplaces and non-EPA stoves will get banned because of all the choking smoke they produce.
 
AGENERGY said:
Many ethanol facilities are looking to wood waste as feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production with several pilot plants being built around the country. Although switchgrass is often mentioned for ethanol and pelletization the infrastructure and markets to drive this alternative would require sustained commitment from government, agriculture, and industry to make it a reality. Wood waste is a readily available resource that is likely to become an increasingly valuable commodity over the next decade with the transportation energy sector dramatically increasing demand for the resource.

It was my understanding that waste wood was essentially all consumed already. Pellet mfg's were consuming it all and needing to now grind up whole trees for the product in some cases.

If this is the case then using switchgrass for need to be supported as a crop for this purpose?
 
How about FIGURING OUT ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE CARS AND TRUCKS GO FAST!

Instead they keep looking for another source to fuel the internal combustion engine, best case scenario it is what MAYBE 40% efficient?
How about the rotary engine (old Mazdas)?
The issue isnt the fuel, its the horrible efficiency of the engine burning it. Maybe i'll figure out a way to put a steam engine in my truck?
 
Can anyone translate that bio-fuel from pellets into Btu's? Seems to me that if you are getting 17% of the mass as liquid fuel, and the rest is waste, you burn it in a 40% efficient engine, you are not getting much out of the wood. If you simply burn the pellets for heat in an 80% efficient stove it would be a much more efficient use of the fuel, right?
 
Jabberwocky said:
Wrong. You're just critical of pellets.

Absolutely not, and absolutely yes, in that order.

The wood industry is already strapped... any additional significant draw on the resource will cause prices to increase, period. As for being critical of pellets, yes, I've always been so... no matter though.

-- Mike
 
Mike Wilson said:
Jabberwocky said:
Wrong. You're just critical of pellets.

Absolutely not, and absolutely yes, in that order.

The wood industry is already strapped... any additional significant draw on the resource will cause prices to increase, period. As for being critical of pellets, yes, I've always been so... no matter though.

-- Mike

See.. Mike read that too. I don't see this alternative as viable at all. Can you say deforestation?
 
Warren said:
Mike Wilson said:
Jabberwocky said:
Can you say deforestation?

Why would lumber products companies de-forest? They're in the business of growing and harvesting trees. This is like carping at a corn farmer for cutting down all the nice little plants with the yellow cobs on them.

As for Georgia, better a thriving timber industry than urban sprawl, permanent deforestation.
 
DriftWood said:
My guess is the charcoal will be used to heat the wood chips. This could lead to charcoal bricket stoves, fired by waist product not used in production of volatiles.

To refer to my latest favorite phrase, " Sure I'd like to respond, ehrrr, What?"
 
Obviously, very few chose to read the link I provided in the Ethanol thread.

So, I copied one of the paragraphs from that link that is germane to this topic:

So, to run a mid-sized cellulosic ethanol facility would require the equivalent of 714,286 tons * 2000 lbs/ton /(1660) or 860,585 Douglas firs PER YEAR. That's a lot of biomass, and it puts into perspective the issue of a declining EROEI as biomass must be secured from farther afield.

The insanity of it all.
 
Sandor said:
Obviously, very few chose to read the link I provided in the Ethanol thread.

So, I copied one of the paragraphs from that link that is germane to this topic:

So, to run a mid-sized cellulosic ethanol facility would require the equivalent of 714,286 tons * 2000 lbs/ton /(1660) or 860,585 Douglas firs PER YEAR. That's a lot of biomass, and it puts into perspective the issue of a declining EROEI as biomass must be secured from farther afield.

The insanity of it all.

Yep. Gotta wonder how much energy is used to harvest those trees in GA, fuel that anerobic burn to distill the stuff and to dispose of the waste.

Probably only three or four hundred percent more than the yield.
 
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