Archive for the ‘Biofuel’ Category

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Bristol Creates Robots that Feed Themselves

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

We live in a world of technology. Our kids grow up with computers as one of their best friends. They even mature together: The kids who grow up expect their systems to grow with them, which means that old computers are constantly replaced with new ones. Technology is evolving faster than we ever thought possible and I doubt that anyone will be surprised when machines become almost independent of their creators.

The biggest problem with self sustaining machinery is fuel. Just like we consume countless varieties of foods to keep us going throughout the day, a machine’s hunger pangs are generally alleviated with gas, electricity and batteries. The ideal machine, however, should be able to ’survive’ on naturally occurring foods that are sustainable and abundant.

Science projects today, voracious
self-serving servants tomorrow.
(Image: Bristol Robotics Lab.)

This is where the Ecobot comes into play. Engineers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory were motivated by the idea of developing autonomous robots able to collect energy from their surroundings, foraging for items like rotten fruit (similar to any other animal), while eliminating unnecessary waste from their systems after having consumed the ‘meal’. The design is nothing short of genius (if not eerie) and revolves around the robot’s Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC).

Bristol explains the MFC design for their Ecobot model: “the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology is employed to extract electrical energy from refined foods such as sugar and unrefined foods such as insects and fruit. This is achieved by extracting electrons from the microbial metabolic processes. To be truly autonomous, robots will be required to incorporate in their behavioral repertoire actions that involve searching, collecting and digesting food. The robot will be designed to remain inactive until sufficient energy has been generated to complete its next task.”

The first Ecobot (aptly titled Ecobot I) was developed in 2002. E.coli bacteria were incorporated into the design and they powered the robot after ingesting sugar. The first ecobot was a small, simple robot that used the microbial energy charging its fuel cells to do nothing more than roll towards areas with more light. The light-loving Ecobot is described as a “960g robot, powered by microbial fuel cells (MFCs)…This robot does not use any other form of power source such as batteries or solar panels. It is 22cm in diameter and 7.5cm high.”

In 2004, an alternative robot was developed that used sludge microbes instead of E.coli bacteria. These sludge microbes seem more capable; digesting more complicated foods like dead insects and waste (like rotting produce) to fuel the MFC. Also, this technology seems much more beneficial to the environment.

Bristol has also been working on an underwater version of an ecobot that uses mechanical ‘gills’ to strain microorganisms into its fuel cell.

It is important to note that the robots developed by the laboratory are the first step towards the creation of incredible machines that are comparable to metal animals-foraging for foods that naturally surround them when fuel cells run low. Bristol’s findings are essential for the development of these complicated machines. Right now all we see is potential, but it would be incredible to have robots slurping up garbage strewn through parks, simultaneously cleaning up our messes and energizing themselves in the process. But, that is a long way off.

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GreatPoint Energy-Updating Methane Production

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Coal, a globally used fuel source, is also the reason behind most of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. GreatPoint Energy has developed an alternative method to getting the energy from coal with reduced manufacturing cost, almost no emissions, and less complicated production steps.

Traditional methane production facilities house numerous components: First, coal is burned into syngas (a carbon monoxide and hydrogen mix) inside a gasifier at 2,500F. Other machines feed oxygen into the gasifies to facilitate the process. The resulting syngas is then placed into a reactor where it is transformed into methane. GreatPoint facilities do not require the extra step in the reactor since the whole production to create their patented “bluegas” occurs in the gasifier.

GreatPoint describes the general methanation process on their homepage: “The first step in the “bluegas” process is to feed the coal or biomass and the catalyst into the methanation reactor. Inside the reactor, pressurized steam is injected to “fluidize” the mixture and ensure constant contact between the catalyst and the carbon particles. In this environment the catalyst facilitates multiple chemical reactions between the carbon and the steam on the surface of the coal or biomass. These reactions catalyzed in a single reactor generate a mixture predominately composed of methane and CO2.” The end result of the process yields 99.5% pure methane.

More details and a diagram of the process are found here.

The catalyst is the key behind the whole process: By using a catalyst to start the coal-gasification system, the temperatures needed to burn the methane out of the coal are reduced. In fact, the natural heat released by the methanation of syngas is sufficient. This is a benefit for facilities who may want to adopt GreatPoint’s methane production process since cheaper reactor components (not needing to withstand so much heat) are no problem. An added benefit is that less expensive feedstocks like tar sands and petroleum coke produce pipeline grade methane in these unique conditions.

This low cost, clean fuel source is an environmentally friendly alternative. In fact, blugas production facilities recover almost all the contaminants and “, roughly half the carbon in the coal is captured as a pure CO2 stream suitable for sequestration,” explains GreatPoint.

The Cambridge, Massachusettes company’s most recent success story involves sealing a deal with the Datang Huayin Electric Power Company, Ltd. to build and operate a natural gas production facility in Guangdong Province, China capable of processing 1500 tons of feedstock daily. Not a bad start.

Coal is still easily accessible and incredibly cheap-especially when compared to natural gas drilling. In a 2007 in-depth article written by Technology Review, CEO Andrew Perlman is quoted saying that “We can take coal out of the ground and put it in a natural-gas pipeline for less than the cost of new natural-gas drilling and exploration activities.” Clearly, methane is an attractive fuel source. If not for the environemntal benefit, then for the price.

COAL RESERVES IN THE UNITED STATES
Approximately 1,146 million tons of coal was mined in the USA in 2007, enough
to provide about 23 quadrillion BTUs, or (coincidentally) 23% of the total energy
consumed in the USA in that year. One “short” (metric) ton of coal, on average,
contains 20 million BTUs of energy, or nearly 6.0 megawatt-hours. This figure must
be adjusted downwards when calculating actual megawatt-hours recoverable from
coal due to efficiency losses.
(Source: Energy Information Administration)

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Amyris Biotechnologies Develops Living Factories

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Up to 300 million people die from malaria every year. A female mosquito, riddled with malaria parasites, is responsible for transmitting the disease. The malaria parasites are carried in the mosquito’s saliva, which mingles with a human’s blood once they are bitten. Now in the blood stream, malaria parasites travel to the liver and multiply until they burst out of the liver cells and migrate into red blood cells. The infected individual is overrun with symptoms, ranging from, vomiting, convulsions, anemia, renal failure, tingling skin to coma and ultimately death. The waves of fever typical of malaria correlate with the parasites exploding out of the bulging infected red-blood-cells within the host’s body. This terrible disease is one of the most common in the world.

Medication does exist, but the sad irony is that the poorer countries with the highest concentration of malaria can not afford these artemisinin-based drugs. Artemisinin, the only real effective malaria medication, is derived from wormwood. Its production is an incredibly time consuming and expensive process. With this in mind, Amyris Biotechnologies set out to engineer a microorganism to produce the drug. In a sense, Amyris is now using one microbe to kill another.

MALARIA ENDEMIC COUNTRIES 2003
In most countries with endemic malaria, the
disease risk is limited to certain areas.

 

A visit to Amyris’ homepage gives readers more of an insight to how much potential there is with biotechnology: “Amyris Biotechnologies is translating the promise of synthetic biology into solutions for real-world problems. Building on advances in molecular, cell and systems biology, we are engineering microbes capable of producing high-value compounds to address major global health and energy challenges. We are employing these living chemical factories to produce novel pharmaceuticals, renewable fuels, and specialty chemicals.”

Amyris has found a way to genetically manipulate microorganisms into producing artemisinin. Amyris succeeded in developing these living medicine factories with the help of U.C Berkeley labs, the Institute for One World Health and with a $ 42 million grant provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Amyris is not only dedicated to fighting malaria, however. Another major venture involves the “development of a fermentation process that uses custom-designed microbes to renewably produce second-generation, high-performance biofuels that are cost-effective and compatible with current automotive and distribution technologies,” explains Amyris.  These gas and diesel substitutes are produced with the same feedstocks that are used to make ethanol, such as sugar cane.

Amyris has received worldwide recognition for their innovative ideas: In 2005, Amyris Biotechnologies was named a winner at the World Technology Network. In 2008, history repeated itself when Amyris had the honor of being voted the biofuel category winner at GoingGreen 2008.

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Posted in Biodiesel, Biofuel, CleanTech, Ethanol | 3 Comments »

Bedminster - Digesting Waste

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

All organisms have the amazing ability to process all kinds of substances that enter their bodies-separating food into smaller components to be absorbed in the blood stream as energy, while the useless particles are eventually excreted. Our bodies try and make the most out of everything that passes through, turning any possible nutrient into a useful component. Food and minerals entering the body are transformed into proteins, energy or the ever popular; fat. Bedminster Industries named an integral part of their patented carbon-reducing technology the ‘digester’ that separates garbage into non-renewable waste and carbon-rich compost, thus mirroring the effect of any digestive system.

According to their homepage, Bedminster Bio-Conversion (1970 to 1999) and Bedminster AB (1999 to 2003) developed the Bedminster Technology as a waste to compost solution for municipalities in the USA, Australia and Japan.

Garbage arrives at a facility and is transferred to the Bedminster Digester. The Digester dutifully separates this waste into non-biodegradable and biodegradable portions. Just like any digestive process, the Bedminster Digester first breaks down the biodegredable materials with the help of natural enzymes and mechanical motions. It takes about two days for the final biomass (or compost) material to form. The output materials then run over a sifter (or trommel) where the smaller compost materials easily pass through the grid while the unchanged materials,such as bottles, plastic bags, and other non-biodegradable items, are too large to do the same. The materials  that fall through the trommel are called “unders”.

Bedminster explains that “the now homogenized organic rich “Unders” are formed into windrows in the fully enclosed Maturation Hall. Here the material spends 21 days being aerated and systematically turned. Monitoring ensures that the material is turned at least 3 times at no less than 2 days intervals attaining a minimum temperature of 60°C (140°F) between turnings to ensure that the final compost is fully sanitized.” A final screening stage occurs where a vibrating screen removes any inorganic particles like pebbles and glass and a magnet separates out the metals for further recycling.

The digester is extremely efficient, separating 95% of the biomass found in the delivered waste.  By diverting this waste from landfills, Bedminster reduces greenhouse gas emissions and obviously ensures that precious energy isn’t wasted.  Energy generated by the facility is also sold and offsets the CO2 generated at a power-plant: The biogas formed in the digester when the biomass is  heated is stored in tanks and fed to turbines and engines that power electrical generators.

Companies like Bedminster are increasingly successful in a world where fuel is a valuable resource and environmentally friendly alternatives appeal to investors.

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Greener Gasification

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Industrial chemical manufacturers will be happy to know that a major venture is underway to produce cheap natural gas alternatives. In September, 2007 Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc.(SES), a company that builds and operates gasification plants, teamed up with the largest producer of bituminous coal in the U.S; CONSOL Energy. As stated in their first news release, the companies joined forces to “investigate the development of coal-based gasification facilities to produce feedstock for various industrial chemical manufacturers whose plants have been shut down due to high costs of natural gas.”

How clean will coal get?
(Photo: Synthesis Energy Systems)

“Under the agreement, SES and CONSOL Energy will perform engineering, environmental and marketing activities to analyze the feasibility of projects that would use coal gasification technology to convert coal from preparation plant tailings provided by CONSOL Energy’s coal mining complexes located in the eastern United States into higher-value products including: methanol, ethanol, mixed alcohols, ammonia and SNG.”

SES uses their patented “U-Gas” technology to covert low-rank waste coal to synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is a carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen mixture that is created by heating a carbon fuel and turning it into a gas. Syngas has half the energy density of natural gas, however, the low-rank coal used to produce syngas would typically end up in a landfill if not converted into this feedstock. High ash and high moisture coals are also used rather than the more expensive coals. Another benefit is that gasification occurs without many of the harmful emissions typically associated with the process. 

Creating this technology wasn’t the easiest undertaking: The Gas Technology Institute spent three decades perfecting the process. It was well worth it, though. For example, the “U-Gas” technology will be used to convert some of the massive 20 million tons of waste coal produced by CONSOL  per year into alternative fuels.

Tim Vail, President and CEO of SES goes on to state in an earlier 2008 press release that “Reaching the milestones necessary to proceed with this project marks SES’ entry into the United States gasification market, and we are proud to be working with CONSOL to jointly be the first domestic gasification provider serving the industrial consumer segment. Our U-GAS technology will not only economically and cleanly produce high-value chemical feedstocks and traditional fuels from CONSOL’s raw and waste coal feedstocks, but also reduce the region’s dependence on imported industrial chemical feedstocks and other petroleum-based fuels. We have made significant progress in just eight short months and are excited to move forward with the next steps of this project.”

SES operates primarily in Virginia and China, but is still expanding. In fact, SES was approved for expansion of their Hai Hua project in China this month which will increase production of syngas to 45,000 cubic meters per hour in the facility.  All of SES’s current projects can be viewed here.

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BioFuelBox - Biodiesel Technology at Your Doorstep

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Numerous companies are coming up with techniques to use alternatives to fossil fuels. This is no surprise with fossil fuel prices sky-rocketing, oil supplies running out and concerns about the product’s effect on the environment becoming more abundant.

Unfortunately, demand for fossil fuels is still immense: According to the Energy Information Administration, almost 90% of the world’s primary energy production was reliant on fossil fuels in 2005.

Ethanol production is becoming more popular, but it is still unrealistic to think that it will replace the more efficient fossil fuels. It is good to have options, though: BioFuelBox makes the process of biofuel production a more attractive one by providing a unique product that is capable of manufacturing biodiesel from waste products ranging from algae and cooking oil to chicken fat and waste fish oil.

In addition to being so versatile, the BioFuelBox is designed to be portable: “Not only can our system be moved to where the feedstocks are, cutting down on the expense of trucking feedstocks to the refinery, but also, our unique patent-pending biodiesel process technology enables you to directly process wet feedstock such as algae or high FFA by product material such as animal tallow, chicken fat, or grease into ASTM quality biodiesel.“

Steven Perricone, President and CEO, has over a decade of experience in start up technological companies such as SonicWALL where Perricone played a major part in helping the company evolve from a small business of 20 employees to a company of almost 500. Another major name at BioFuelBox is Greg Anderson. As Chief Scientist at BioFuelBox, Anderson brings 24 years of biomedical, chemical, separation and fermentation science to the business and is the proud founder of McBain Laboratories.

BioFuelBox’s main goals are highlighted on their website which include:
• Ensuring that producers are able to take advantage of the widest range of feedstock including feedstock from waste streams.
• Providing opportunities to turn problem waste streams into revenue opportunities.
• Minimizing cost to make biofuel production accessible to more producers.
• Eliminating the technical challenges associated with conventional production methods.

The company is successfully eliminating almost every reason NOT to become a part of the biodiesel revolution.

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Lignol - Turning Biomass into Biofuel

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Alcohol has played a major part in human history: Celebrations are synonymous with alcohol; religious ceremonies involve paying tribute with a sip of wine; alcohol fends off infection; many foods just would not be the same without a dash of Cabernet.

Ethanol has also played a role as a fuel source. Lamps were fueled by ethanol in the early 1800’s while certain Ford models were developed to run on the liquid in the early 1900s. The popularity of ethanol as a fuel dwindled with time, but has made a comeback in recent years.

Ethanol, also known as grain or drinking alcohol, is produced through the fairly simple process of fermentation where micro-organisms like yeast digest the sugars in plants to ethanol.

Lignol Biofuel, a Canadian Bio-fuel company that recently commercialized a unique ‘cellulose to ethanol’ technology, plans to take advantage of the renewable fuel demands. Their website states that “12% of the US corn crop is used to produce fuel ethanol. Increasing demand is expected to drive that figure to nearly 30% by 2012. New technologies are required to produce ethanol from biomass cellulose rather than from the fermentation of valuable grains. The company’s technology and know-how has positioned the company as one of the world’s most promising “Cellulose to Ethanol” solutions.”

Corn grain is the most common starch used to make ethanol in the U.S., but lignol is unique in the sense that it has found ways to convert both softwood and hardwood species to bio-fuel. Initially, Lignol plans on processing wood-chips and available cellulose feed-stocks (such as corn), but may find even more efficient alternatives in the near future.

Lignol is taking a variety of steps to insure success. For example, “Lignol is also considering several strategic investment opportunities in energy related projects, which have synergies with its bio-refining technology. Examples of such projects include: electric power projects, ethanol projects with access to cellulose feed-stocks and pulp mill conversions to alternative energy opportunities.”

There are many benefits associated with ethanol production: For example, Valuable bi-products from the fermentation process include carbon dioxide and distillers wet-grains used for animal feed.

Ethanol also has the advantage of blending with gasoline without an issue. In fact, it is even advantages in small amounts (less than 10%) since the addition of ethanol reduces toxic emissions from vehicles and keeps cars running smoother without the use of octane enhancers. One of the more attractive qualities is that ethanol is readily bio-degradable. The non-toxic liquid breaks down when spilled.

Companies invested in the popularity of bio-fuels, like Lignol, are bound to be successful.

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