2016 July Biomass Magazine

July 2016

AN EYE ON EMISSIONS LandďŹ ll Gas Project Meets California's Rigorous Emissions Regs Page 26

READ:

Diesel Technology Improves Biomass Energy Carbon Life Cycle Page 30

AND:

University of Iowa Scores Landmark Permitting Agreement Page 14 www.biomassmagazine.com

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INSIDE ¦

ADVERTISER INDEX¦

JULY 2016 | VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 7 4B Components Ltd.

12

Astec, Inc

2

Biomass Engineering & Equipment

20

D3 Max

35

Detroit Stoker Company

17

Elemental Air

24

Evergreen Engineering

6

KEITH Manufacturing Company

16

MonitorTech Corporation

7

Pellet Fuels Institute

36

SWANA Solid Waste Association of North America

5

04 EDITOR’S NOTE Permitting Progress

By Tim Portz

06 BUSINESS BRIEFS 08 BIOMASS CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

POWER

12 NEWS

13 COLUMN A Simple Regulatory Solution for Biogenic Emissions

By Bob Cleaves

14 FEATURE Innovation Breeds Innovation

A unique, landmark permitting agreement will allow the University of Iowa to use not only more biomass, but a wider variety.

By Tim Portz

PELLETS

18 NEWS

14

19 COLUMN Making Marketing News

By Bill Bell

THERMAL

20 NEWS

21 COLUMN A Unified Renewable Heating and Cooling Front

By Ben Bell-Walker and Jarrod Petrohovich

30

23 CONTRIBUTION A Brilliant Backup Plan

Biomass energy facilities could benefit greatly from a second line of defense against fires.

By Rachel Gibbons

BIOGAS

24 NEWS COPYRIGHT © 2016 by BBI International

Biomass Magazine: (USPS No. 5336) July 2016, Vol. 10, Issue 7. Biomass Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Office: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offices.

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Subscriptions Biomass Magazine is free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for anyone outside the United States.

To subscribe, visit www.BiomassMagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to Biomass Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 701-746-8385 or service@ bbiinternational.com. Advertising Biomass Magazine provides a specific topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To find out more about Biomass Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 701-746-8385 or service@bbiinternational.com.

Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Biomass Magazine Letters to the Managing Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to asimet@bbiinternational.com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

25 COLUMN 2022: A Cliff for Clean Fuels and the RFS?

By David Cox

26 DEPARTMENT Permission to Power

Montauk Energy overcame regulatory hurdles to develop a 23-MW landfill gasto-energy project within California's South Coast Air Basin.

By Katie Fletcher

ADVANCED BIOFUELS

28 NEWS

29 COLUMN US EPA Back on Track

By Michael McAdams

30 FEATURE The Future of Freight

Diesels continue to provide cleaner, more fuel-efficient and less carbon-intense transportation of goods such as biomass.

By Ron Kotrba

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3

¦EDITOR’S NOTE EDITORIAL

Permitting Progress I never imagined that my stint as an art student at the University of Iowa would collide in any meaningful way with my career in biomass, but recently, it has.

TIM PORTZ VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT Our staff has been closely following the & EXECUTIVE EDITOR ongoing story of the university’s efforts to dratportz@bbiinternational.com matically increase inclusion of biomass fuel at its power plant for a couple of years. Currently, the university is cofiring oat hulls with coal, but together with Iowa State University, it has been working to establish energy crop production in the area. The bulk of our coverage has centered on those efforts, but for this month’s issue of Biomass Magazine, dedicated to emissions, permitting and regulatory compliance, I took a close look at the innovative permitting approach that the University of Iowa is using to give it the flexibility required to efficiently ramp up its biomass program. The university has been awarded the state of Iowa’s very first Plant-wide Applicability Limit permit (PAL), made possible by amendments to the New Source Review protocols in 2002.

During interviews for my page-14 story, “Innovation Breeds Innovation,” I learned that the university’s PAL allows the institution to manage the emissions from all of its sources against one limit for each of the seven regulated criteria pollutants. There are over 450 sources on campus, and for some context, I asked about sources on the other end of the spectrum from the power plant. It was at this point that my past and present collided. One of the smallest emissions sources at the University of Iowa is a student-built, wood-fired kiln operated just once or twice a semester, a kiln that, over 20 years ago, I helped fire. And there you have it.

In her page-26 department “Permission to Power,” Associate Editor Katie Fletcher outlines how projects that have been built to drive down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, must still comply with existing air quality regulations, and finds that the two sometimes work at cross purposes. Fletcher’s story focuses almost exclusively on the Bowerman Power landfill gas-to-energy facility, highlighting the challenges states have in maintaining current regulations while working toward emerging GHG reduction and renewable energy goals.

Senior Editor Ron Kotrba’s page-30 feature, “The Future of Freight,” is a fitting bookend for the issue. In it, he establishes the vital global role that diesel fuel plays, and the efforts underway to continue to drive down the emissions associated with its use. Like the other stories in this issue, Kotrba’s showcases how the biomass industry is working to deliver air quality and environmental benefits while also complying with existing regulations.

4 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Bryan tbryan@bbiinternational.com VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Tim Portz tportz@bbiinternational.com MANAGING EDITOR Anna Simet asimet@bbiinternational.com SENIOR EDITOR Ron Kotrba rkotrba@bbiinternational.com NEWS EDITOR Erin Voegele evoegele@bbiinternational.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Katie Fletcher kfletcher@bbiinternational.com COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann jtellmann@bbiinternational.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund jsatterlund@bbiinternational.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Raquel Boushee rboushee@bbiinternational.com

PUBLISHING & SALES CHAIRMAN Mike Bryan mbryan@bbiinternational.com CEO Joe Bryan jbryan@bbiinternational.com VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Matthew Spoor mspoor@bbiinternational.com SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR John Nelson jnelson@bbiinternational.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Howard Brockhouse hbrockhouse@bbiinternational.com SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Chip Shereck cshereck@bbiinternational.com ACCOUNT MANAGER Jeff Hogan jhogan@bbiinternational.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Jessica Tiller jtiller@bbiinternational.com MARKETING & ADVERTISING MANAGER Marla DeFoe mdefoe@bbiinternational.com

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Stacy Cook, Koda Energy Ben Anderson, University of Iowa Justin Price, Evergreen Engineering Adam Sherman, Biomass Energy Resource Center

INDUSTRY EVENTS¦

SWANA’s WASTECON 2016 AUGUST 22-25, 2016

Indiana Convention Center Indianapolis, Indiana WASTECON is the premier solid waste industryfocused conference that features the latest news, education, advancements and products to help you achieve success in your business, all in one setting.

WASTECON offers opportunities to see what’s new in collection, processing, marketing and management of compost, recyclables and solid waste. Join thousands of industry professionals for training, technical sessions, exhibits and networking opportunities. Explore a variety of new topics and expand your knowledge of what’s happening in solid waste management.

1-800-GO-SWANA | www.wastecon.org

International Biomass Conference & Expo APRIL 10-12, 2017

Minneapolis Convention Center Minneapolis, Minnesota Organized by BBI International and produced by Biomass Magazine, this event brings current and future producers of bioenergy and biobased products together with waste generators, energy crop growers, municipal leaders, utility executives, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, project developers, investors and policy makers. It’s a true one-stop shop––the world’s premier educational and networking junction for all biomass industries.

866-746-8385 | www.biomassconference.com

2017 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo JUNE 26-28, 2017

Minneapolis Convention Center Minneapolis, Minnesota From its inception, the mission of the event has remained constant: The FEW delivers timely presentations with a strong focus on commercial-scale ethanol production––from quality control and yield maximization to regulatory compliance and fiscal management. The FEW is also the ethanol industry’s premier forum for unveiling new technologies and research findings. The program extensively covers cellulosic ethanol while remaining committed to optimizing existing grain ethanol operations.

866-746-8385 | www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

Biomass Magazine Webinar Series

New for 2016!

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Biomass Magazine offers complimentary webinars to attendees looking to expand their knowledge of the biomass industry. Please visit the website to view upcoming and past webinar topics.

866-746-8385 | www.biomassmagazine.com/pages/ webinar/

:$67(&21 RUJ ,1'< JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

Business Briefs PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPS

Fecon adds regional manager Fecon Inc. has added Devin Chambers as regional manager of its Mid-South region, covering Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. ChamChambers bers has more than a decade of territory management experience.

He is also experienced in the development and implementation of sales and marketing strategies, dealer recruitment and development, sales and service training, and direct sales.

the biomass specialist is now a certified technology partner of Bosch, a manufacturer of heating and cooling products.

Enviva Forest Conservation Fund announces awards The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has announced the recipients of its 2016 grants. The fund, established by Enviva Holdings LP and administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, is awarding $500,000 in 2016 to preservation and conservation programs that span more than 2,000 acres of environmentally sensitive bottomland and wetland forests in North Carolina and Virginia. The four awards were made to the Nature Conservancy North CarHarvest Power adds to leadership olina Chapter, the Triangle Land Conservanteam Harvest Power Inc. has added Gary Agui- cy, the Virginia Department of Conservation naga as chief operating officer of its energy and Recreation and the Nature Conservancy business. Aguinaga has 25 years of experience Virginia Chapter. in waste-to-energy, including the development, construction, and operation of multiple largescale waste-to-energy facilities throughout EPA announces Nutrient Recycling North America and Europe. He most recently Challenge winners served as vice president of international operaThe U.S. EPA has announced the wintions and business development at Wheelabra- ners of Phase I of the Nutrient Recycling tor Technologies.

Challenge, a competition to develop affordable technologies to recycle nutrients from Rural Energy earns certification livestock manure. Two of the four winning projects focus on anaerobic digestion. Bo Hu, Hongjian Lin, and Xin Zhang of the University of Minnesota were recognized for a process to create dry biosolids fertilizer by using a novel anaerobic digestion and solid-liquid separations system. Hiroko Yoshida of Centrisys Corp. was recognized for a project that uses carbon dioxide stripping and other processes to create a range of fertilizers from anaerobically digested manure. The American Biogas Council is among the nearly 20 partners in the challenge.

Pacific Ag opens new field office Pacific Ag has opened a field office near Fargo, North Dakota, to serve the increasing demand for wheat straw residue among the dairy, beef, mushroom and erosion control industries. The company has hired Tom and PHOTO: RURAL ENERGY Stephanie Borgen, local farmers and wheat U.K.-based Rural Energy has completed straw providers, as regional managers to the combined-heat-and-power (CHP) design develop partnerships with growers and drive and installation training course from Bosch sales of wheat straw to target markets.

Commercial and Industrial. The course was comprised of two days of training and means Carlyne Parillon, Rural Energy senior design engineer (left); Paul Clark, Rural Energy managing director; Jonathan Mann, Rural Energy estimating and bid manager; Carl Arntzen, Worcester Bosch managing director; Kevin Agutter, Rural Energy business development manager.

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

BUSINESS BRIEFS¦

UNTHA adds team member UNTHA has added Andreas Senkbeil to its team. Senkbeil has worked in the waste management sector for the past four years and Senkbeil will be responsible for the company’s growth in the Asian Pacific market, including Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, China and Australia.

WPAC appoints president

Rebiere

Landry

produce energy. PwC has been approved for certification of biomass producers in the U.S. and Canada. These producers typically include pellet or wood chip mills, and the biomass supply chain.

PFI qualifies new facilities under standards program The Pellet Fuels Institute has announced the qualification of pellet fuel manufacturer NWP Jasper LLC of Jasper, Tennessee, into the PFI Standards Program. New England Wood Pellet, a company with several previously qualified facilities, also added to the program a newly qualified facility, Allegheny Pellet in Youngsville, Pennsylvania. The PFI Standards Program is a third-party accreditation program providing specifications for residential and commercial-grade pellet fuel, now representing 13 pellet manufacturing companies, among them 22 facilities.

AFS, Greenlane Biogas sign 2-year contract manufacturing agreement British Columbia-based AdvancedFlow Systems Inc., a subsidiary of AdvanTec Global Innovations Inc., recently added Greenlane Biogas Ltd. to its existing portfolio of contract manufacturing clients by signing a two-year contract manufacturing agreement. AFS, along with its sister companies Surround Technologies and Advanced Bending Technologies, is a vertically integrated industrial group that specializes in providing contract manufacturing solutions for a diverse group of companies with an equally diverse range of products.

Michele Rebiere resigned as president of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada in May, citing a need to focus on her role as chief financial officer of Viridis Energy as the company pursues the sale of its business. She served on the WPAC’s board for five years, and spent one year as president. WPAC has appointed former Vice President Rene Landry as president. He will assume the role until the next general meeting of the membership is held in September. Landry is director of pellet operations for Nova Scotia-based Shaw Resources, which operates two plants in Atlantic WesTech, Cleanergy announce partnership Canada.

WesTech has partnered with Cleanergy to bring the Cleanergy GasBox biogas generator SBP approves PwC as certification to the U.S. The Cleanergy GasBox generates body for Canada, US The Sustainable Biomass Partnership has electricity and heat from biogas using a Stirling announced PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada engine. The GasBox requires minimal-to-no LLP has become the third SBP-approved cer- gas cleaning which allows for small and midtification body. PwC has provided evidence size wastewater treatment plants to achieve that it meets the SBP requirements regarding the power-generating benefits of biogas utiliits existing accreditations and has demon- zation. The system can run on biogas with a strated sufficient resource and competence to methane concentration as low as 18 percent, manage the SBP certification scheme under which alleviates the need at larger plants to the SBP Framework, which enables producers burn off this biogas with a natural gas suppleof woody biomass to demonstrate that they ment. source their raw material responsibly and that the material complies with regulations, including sustainability requirements applicable to power generators burning woody biomass to JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7

Biomass CONSTRUCTION UPDATE The Noise of Summer

By Anna Simet In most North American locations, warmer and dryer weather has arrived, bringing with it a clear view of the finish line for some projects, and for others, the opportunity to get shovels and backhoes in the ground and begin laying concrete.

Hanging up hardhats this quarter is the crew at Green Energy Team, which is now sending power to the grid via its 7.5-MW, albizia- and eucalyptusfired power plant in Kauai, Hawaii, as well as the team at the U.S. DOE Savannah River Site district heating expansion. Blue Sphere’s 5- and 3-MW biogas plants in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Johnston, Rhode Island, are structurally complete, and though faced with some extended delays, will be online imminently.

Meanwhile, PHG Energy has advanced beyond dirt work at the Lebanon, Tennessee, waste-to-energy gasification plant, and after a robust fundraising and financing effort, ZooShare Biogas Cooperative broke ground on its animal waste-based power project in Toronto, Ontario.

On the other side of the globe, a host of coal-to-biomass conversions and greenfield developments have reached peak construction. DONG Energy’s Studstrup and Skaerbaek power stations will both provide district heating to Denmark homes via pellets and wood chips, respectively, and the 41-MW Templeborough Biomass Plant in South Yorkshire, England, is well beyond going

The River Don bridge is replaced at the Templeborough Biomass Plant.

vertical, as is Covanta Energy’s Poolbeg, Dublin, waste-to-energy plant, which has secured its management team and is now filling plant operator positions.

While policy uncertainty is present in both the U.S. and Europe, next quarter’s BCUD is likely to report hefty progress and more completions, as well as new projects finally reaching the active construction milestone.

If your project is or will soon be under construction and you would like to see it featured in the Biomass Construction Update, email Anna Simet at asimet@bbiinternational.com

DUBLIN WASTE-TO-ENERGY

TEMPLEBOROUGH BIOMASS PLANT

PHOTO: COVANTA ENERGY

PHOTO: TEMPLEBOROUGH BIOMASS PLANT

Templeborough Biomass Plant

Dublin Waste-to-Energy Ltd.

Location

Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.

Location

Poolbeg, Dublin, Ireland

Engineer/builder

Interserve Construction Ltd., Babcock & Wilcox Vølund

Engineer/builder

Covanta Energy Corp.

Primary fuel

Commercial and municipal wood waste

Primary fuel

Municipal solid waste

Boiler type

Babcock & Wilcox Vølund multifuel boiler

Boiler type

Duro Dakovic steam boiler

Nameplate capacity

41 MW

Nameplate capacity

58 MW

Combined heat and power

Yes

Combined heat and power

No

Government incentives

Ireland’s renewable feed-in tariff

IPP or utility

IPP

Groundbreaking date

Q4 2014

Start-up date

2017

Government incentives IPP/utility

IPP

Groundbreaking date

Q2 2015

Start-up date

August 2017

A key element of the project—replacement of the old River Don bridge near the plant—was completed in late May. The old bridge was lifted out, and a new bridge, lifted in as a single piece weighing 153 metric tons, was craned into position.

8 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

The plant is about 60 percent complete with startup scheduled for early 2017. The operations management staff is in place, and Covanta is now filling plant operator positions.

Biomass Power

Pellets

Biogas

Thermal

Advanced Biofuel

CHIP ENERGY

LEBANON WASTE-TO-ENERGY FACILITY

PHOTO: CHIP ENERGY

PHOTO: PHG ENERGY

City of Lebanon, Tennesee, Waste-to-Energy Facility

Chip Energy Inc.

Location

Lebanon, Tennesee

Location

Goodfield, Illinois

Engineer/builder

PHG Energy, Applied Chemical Technology

Design/builder

Chip Energy

Primary fuel

Waste wood, sewer sludge and scrap tires

Export port

N/A

Boiler type

PHG downdraft gasifier

Export location

N/A

Nameplate capacity

400 kilowatts

Pellet Grade

Pellets, briquettes and logs

Combined heat and power

No

Annual Capacity

36,500 metric tons

Government incentives

$250,000 Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation grant

Feedstock

Waste wood, energy crops, agricultural residue

IPP/Utility

IPP

Groundbreaking date

2013

Groundbreaking date

April 2016

Start-up date

Q3/Q4 2016

Start-up date

Fall 2016

Plant employees and installers completed the roof in four days in early June. Work to finish internal equipment installation is ongoing.

Work on-site is quickly progressing from concrete foundations to the erection of steel structures.

Colombo Energy Inc.-Greenwood

Green Energy Team LLC

Location

Greenwood County, South Carolina

Design/builder

The Navigator Company (previously called Portucel)

Project Complete

Location

Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii

Engineer/builder

Standardkessel Baumgarte Group (SKG)

Export port

N/A

Primary fuel

Eucalyptus and albizia

Export location

Europe

Boiler type

Pusher-type grate with natural circulation steam generator

Pellet Grade

Industrial premium pellets

Nameplate capacity

7.5 MW

Annual Capacity

460,000 metric tons

Combined heat and power

Yes

Feedstock

Forest waste

Government incentives

N/A

Groundbreaking date

March 2015

IPP or utility

IPP

Start-up date

Summer 2016

Groundbreaking date

January 2013

Start-up date

Q4 2015

By late April, most of the planned workforce of 70 had been recruited. Equipment fitting was due to be complete in May, followed by commissioning and trials. Production is planned to begin in late July.

The plant is online, selling its power to Kauai Island Utility Cooperative. It will supply about 11 percent of Kauaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual electricity needs.

Blue Sphere - Waste To Energy Power Plant Johnston Location

Johnston, Rhode Island

Highland Pellets

Engineer/Builder

AUSTEP/T. Ortega Gaines

Location

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Substrate(s)

Organic/food waste

Design/builder

Astec Inc.

Digester type/technology

Conical tank utilizing AUSTEP's Cruise Control System

Export Port

Port of South Louisiana

Gas cleaning technology

AUSTEP biogas washing system/wet scrubber

Export location

Europe

Biogas production capacity

N/A

Pellet Grade

Industrial premium

Biogas end use

Electricity

Annual capacity

500,000 metric tons

Power capacity

3.2 MW

Feedstock

tree stem and waste wood

Groundbreaking date

March 2015

Groundbreaking date

January 2016

Start-up date

Summer 2016

Start-up date

Q4 2017

The plant is structurally complete, but not yet sending power to the grid.

Mechanical erection of line 1 began in early May, with work on line 2 to begin mid-June. Underground electrical is complete on line 1 and 2 and 50 percent complete on line 3 (four lines total).

Wood yard and rail loop work has begun. The test production target of line 1 is November, with a goal of reaching full facility operations toward the end of 2017.

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 9

¦CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

ZOOSHARE

BLUE SPHERE CHARLOTTE

PHOTO: ZOOSHARE BIOGAS CORP.

PHOTO: BLUE SPHERE

Blue Sphere - Waste To Energy Power Plant Charlotte

ZooShare Biogas Coop., Toronto Zoo

Location

Charlotte, North Carolina

Location

Toronto

Engineer/Builder

AUSTEP/T. Ortega Gaines

Engineer/Builder

ReGenerate

Substrate(s)

Organic/food waste

Digester type/technology

Conical tank utilizing AUSTEP's Cruise Control System

Substrate(s)

Combination of 3,000 tons of zoo manure and 14,000 tons of local food waste.

Gas cleaning technology

AUSTEP biogas washing system/wet scrubber

Biogas production capacity

N/A

Biogas end use

Electricity

Power capacity

5.2 MW

Groundbreaking date

March 2015

Start-up date

Summer 2016

The plant is structurally complete, but not yet sending power to the grid.

Digester type/technology

Complete-mix wet anaerobic digester

Gas cleaning technology

N/A

Biogas production capacity

N/A

Biogas end use

Electricity

Power capacity

500 kilowatts

Groundbreaking date

Q1 2016

Start-up date

Q4 2016/Q1 2017

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in late April. The project is projected to begin operations in December or early next year. Electricity will be fed into Ontario’s grid under a 20-year feed-in tariff contract.

Roeslein Alternative Energy of Missouri LLC

SURREY ORGANIC BIOFUEL FACILITY

Location

Northern Missouri

Engineer/builder

Roeslein Alternative Energy LLC

Substrate(s)

Hog manure

Digester type/technology

Lagoon style, floating impermeable cover

Gas cleaning technology

Molecular sieve/PSA

Biogas production capacity

2 million-plus MMBtu/year

Biogas end use

CNG and LNG

Power capacity

N/A

Groundbreaking date

May 2014

Surrey Organic Biofuel Facility, Shanks Group

Start-up date

First pipeline injections in June 2016

Location

Surrey, British Columbia

Engineer/Builder

Design: Orgaworld Canada; Contractor: Smith Bros & Wilson; Engineer: Waste Treatment Technologies-NL

The first RNG will be injected into the ANR pipeline sometime this summer. The second phase of the project, a prairie grass restoration effort that will produce additional feedstock, is underway.

Substrate(s)

115,000 metric tons of organic waste annually

Location

Aiken, South Carolina

Digester type/technology

Orgaworld’s Biocel, dry AD

Engineer/builder

Ameresco Inc.

Gas cleaning technology

Greenlane Biogas water scrubbing biogas upgrading technology

Primary fuel

Forest residue

Biogas production capacity

7 million-plus cubic meters

Boiler type

Fluidized bed

Heat enduse

District heat

Biogas end use

RNG, heat

Government incentives/grants

N/A

Power capacity

N/A

Groundbreaking date

May 2015

Groundbreaking date

Q1 2015

Start-up date

Spring 2016

Start-up date

Early 2017

The plant is complete and was slated to be operational in June-July.

PHOTO: ORGAWORLD CANADA

Construction is ongoing and on track to meet operational target. Biogas will be upgraded and used by the city of Surrey.

10 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

DOE's Savannah River Site Biomass Heating Plant Project Complete

Biomass Power

SKÆRBÆK POWER STATION

Pellets

Biogas

Thermal

Advanced Biofuel

DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL

PHOTO: DONG ENERGY

PHOTO: DARLING

Skærbæk Power Station, Dong Energy

Diamond Green Diesel

Location

Kolding, Denmark

Location

Norco, Louisiana

Engineer/builder

B&W Vollund

Design/builder

Darling and Valero Energy Corp.

Primary fuel

Wood chips

Process technology

UOP/Eni Ecofining process technology

Boiler type

B&W Vollund fluidized bed

Biofuel/biochemical product(s)

Renewable Diesel

Nameplate thermal capacity

280 MWth

Feedstock

Recycled animal fat, used cooking oil, corn oil

Heat enduse

District heat and electricity

Production capacity

275 Mmgy

Government incentives/grants

N/A

Type of RINs

D4

Groundbreaking date

September 2014

Coproducts

N/A

Start-up date

Early 2017

Groundbreaking date

Under expansion

Start-up date

Late 2017

The conversion is in full swing. In April, the two 85 metric-ton steam drums were hoisted 45 meters to on top of the station's boilers. Cladding of the boiler house began in May. DONG expects to start commissioning in the fall, enabling the station to supply district heating in the 2016-'17 heating season.

Completion is expected late 2017, with production to ramp up in early 2018. The plant will operate at full capacity throughout the expansion phase, excluding up to 30 days of downtime for final tie-ins.

Central MN Renewables LLC

STUDSTRUP POWER STATION PHOTO: DOKA

Location

Little Falls, Minnesota

Design/builder

Weitz

Process technology

Advanced fermentation process

Biofuel/biochemical product(s)

N-butanol, acetone

Feedstock

Corn

Production capacity

21 MMgy

Type of RINs

Green Biologics Ltd.

Groundbreaking date

Q4 2015

Start-up date

Q3 2016

Green Biologics has selected Acme Hardesty and Nexeo Solutions as its U.S. distributions partners and aims to start up the plant in late 2016.

ENVIA Energy Oklahoma City LLC

Studstrup Power Station Location

Aahus, Denmark

Engineer/builder

Dong ENERGY

Primary fuel

Wood pellets

Boiler type

350 MWe Deutsche Babcock CHP

Nameplate thermal capacity

455 MJ

Heat enduse

District heat

Government incentives/grants

N/A

Groundbreaking date

Conversion of Unit No. 3 began in 2014.

Start-up date

Q4 2016

The 65,000 metric ton-capacity silo was completed in May. More than 800 meters of closed conveyor belts have been installed to transport the wood pellets from the harbor to the silo and into the boiler.

Once testing of the transport system and silo is complete, the first wood pellets will arrive at the station's harbor by ship, in preparation for the coming heating season.

Location

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Design/builder

Ventech Engineers International LLC

Process technology

Velocys Fischer-Tropsch reactor

Biofuel/biochemical product(s)

Diesel, synthetic waxes and naptha

Feedstock

Landfill gas and natural gas

Production capacity

TBA

Type of RINs

D3

Coproducts

TBA

Groundbreaking date

May 2015

Start-up date

First half of 2016

Fabrication of all the modular process units was recently completed. The project is currently expected to be mechanically complete by mid-2016

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 11

PowerNews

New generation in-service (new build and expansion) Primary fuel type

FERC: 33 MW of biomass capacity added during first quarter The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Energy Projects recently released its Energy Infrastructure Update for March 2016, reporting the U.S. added nine biomass units with a combined 33 MW of capacity during the first quarter of this year. All nine units were added in March. During the same period of 2015, only 10 biomass units with a combined capacity of 16 MW were placed into service.

Coal Natural Gas Nuclear

Overall, the U.S. added 67 generating units during the first quarter with a combined capacity of 1,309 MW, down from 90 units and 1,786 MW during the same period of 2015.

As of the close of March, the U.S. had 16.71 GW of biomass capacity, which equates to 1.43 percent of total capacity. Of the nonhydro renewables, only wind has a higher share of installed generating capacity.

Oil

Jan.-March 2016 (MW)

Jan.-March 2015 (MW)

0

0

18

458

0

0

0

0

Water

29

2

Wind

707

861

33

16

0

45

522

404

0

0

Biomass Geothermal steam Solar Waste heat Other Total

0

0

1,309

1,786

SOURCE: FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

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In May, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit delayed oral arguments on the U.S. EPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Clean Power Plan. Oral arguments were originally scheduled to be heard June 2 by a panel of three judges, but will now go en banc, or before a full 11-judge panel bench, on Sept. 27. The new court date is expected to speed up the caseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final resolution, as the losing party likely would have appealed for an en banc hearing.

The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The EPA published rulemaking for the plan in the Federal Register in October 2015. Several lawsuits were filed in response to the CPP, including one signed by 24 states. Earlier this year the Supreme Court granted a request to delay implementation of the CPP until the legal challenge field in the lower appeals court is resolved.

Also in May the EPA announced it deferring action on a petition for reconsideration regarding the treatment of biomass in carbon pollution standards for new, modified and reconstructed electric generating units pending â&#x20AC;&#x153;further on-going consideration of the underlying issue of whether and how to account for biomass when cofiring with fossil fuels.â&#x20AC;?

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Court delays CPP oral arguments

3/23/2016 2:58:04 PM

POWER¦

A Simple Regulatory Solution for Biogenic Emissions

BY BOB CLEAVES

There’s a lot about the Clean Power Plan that remains unsettled, including whether it will survive legal challenges. Also at the top of the list is how the plan will eventually treat biomass.

For us, there is a very simple solution: If fuel is derived from residues, whether it’s forest, agricultural or urban wood waste, it is renewable. Power generated using these fuels should fully qualify as a carbon reduction strategy.

The U.S. EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board has admirably set out to try to definitively calculate emissions from all biogenic sources, including many different scenarios like land use change, energy crops, and other situations that might produce biogenic fuel. The problem with this approach is that it’s nearly impossible to account for these widely varying conditions in a simple, clear equation that, for example, could help guide a state policy director who is trying to determine the role for biomass in his or her state’s carbon reduction plan.

The good news is that a complicated equation is really not necessary to create a role for existing biomass within the Clean Power Plan. In the absence of a comprehensive biogenic carbon calculation tool, we know plenty about the carbon benefits of using residues for biomass power. Virtually all scientists who have studied this issue agree that utilizing low-value materials and byproducts as fuel for biomass power is beneficial to the environment and vastly preferable to the use of fossil fuels.

We continue to urge the EPA to make this distinction as soon as possible to encourage states to include biomass power in their state implementation plans. The EPA has emphasized flexibility for states in meeting their carbon reduction targets, but failing to clearly define biomass could have the unintended effect of discouraging states from building new and existing biomass into their plans. A positive signal from the EPA would ensure that states use every tool at their disposal for reducing greenhouse gases, maintaining a steady economy and keeping a stable power supply coursing through the electric grid.

It’s important for biomass to have clarity under the Clean Power Plan. Across the country, facilities are challenged to compete with low natural gas prices, and regulatory certainty could influence states to support facilities now so that they can be relied on in the future.

Carbon reduction is just one among the many benefits of using residues for biomass power. Biomass gives value to materials that are often worthless or even detrimental. Biomass facilities purchase or remove hazardous fuel, slash piles, thinnings and overgrowth from federal lands and forests, reducing the risk for catastrophic wildfires. Because of biomass, foresters, landowners and loggers are able to get more value from their harvests, promoting land maintenance and preservation rather than selling it for development.

Many farmers sell their orchard prunings and other agricultural waste to biomass facilities rather than open burning, the traditional way to dispose of these materials. According to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, using biomass in a boiler with up-to-date environmental control technologies is a way to remove up to 99 percent of the particulate matter released by burning wood.

The EPA could ensure that states are able to continue reaping these benefits now and well into the future by designating biomass from residues as an accepted renewable fuel under the Clean Power Plan. The SAB process for determining how to treat other types of biogenic fuels could still continue while excluding what we already agree on: Biomass from residues is carbon beneficial.

It would be a shame—for the biomass industry and its supply chain, the power grid, the EPA, states and the U.S. Forest Service—to exclude biomass by default.

Author: Bob Cleaves President, Biomass Power Association bob@usabiomass.org www.usabiomass.org

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 13

¦POWER

Innova tion

Breeds Innovation The University of Iowa was issued the state’s first Plant-wide Applicability Limit, granting its biomass program much-needed operational flexibility.

BY TIM PORTZ

J

ust upstream from the University of Iowa’s power plant is a wood-fired kiln that is utilized each semester by art students in the university’s ceramics program. This kiln, fired intermittently, is one the smallest of 456 individual emissions sources on campus. Still, the kiln carries an insignificant emission unit number and is identified in the university’s operating permit. In stark contrast, the power plant contains the largest of the 456 sources on campus. It generates more than 90 percent of the university’s annual emissions, and is a key element of the university’s ambitious sustainability and clean energy goals. “In 2010, our then-President Sally Mason and Karl Brooks, the U.S. EPA Region 7 administrator, developed and agreed to seven different sustainability targets for the university, the second of which was to obtain 40 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020,” says Ingrid Anderson, J.D., an environmental compliance specialist at the university.

The responsibility of meeting that goal in a cost-effective manner fell on the shoulders of the university’s facilities management team. “Our facilities folks looked at all of the options, and recognized that biomass was the most

14 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

viable option because it didn’t require significant up-front capital requirements,” Anderson says. “We could use our existing assets and infrastructure and switch to a renewable fuel source, that being biomass.”

The university began searching for local, reliable sources of biomass waste streams, eventually focusing on oat hulls from a grain processing facility in nearby Cedar Rapids. At the same time, work began on the development of purpose-grown energy grass infrastructure in the local area. In order to cofire a growing percentage of biomass with coal at the power station, the university began committing time and resources to feedstock procurement, energy crop establishment and farmer recruitment. While the energy and innovation these critical efforts require are vital if the university is to achieve its goals, a less-celebrated, but no-less important permitting approach may ultimately be regarded as the project’s most important innovation.

Plantwide Applicability Limit

In March, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued the University of Iowa the state’s first Plantwide Applicability Limit (PAL) permit.

More accurately, the Iowa DNR issued

the university seven PALs, one for each criteria pollutant. “That’s how a PAL is organized, one for each criteria pollutant,” says Sarah Piziali, supervisor of air quality construction permit program at the Iowa DNR. “So there is a PAL for each of three types of particulate matter (PM). There’s PM, PM10 and PM2.5 and then there are PALs for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).”

A PAL is an alternative permitting approach that provides entities with multiple emissions sources an increased flexibility across their emissions landscape when it comes to asset utilization, modification and fuel sources. PALs were made possible by some reforms to New Source Review provisions in the Clean Air Act in 2002.

“There wasn’t a lot of flexibility built into those regulations, which is part of why, in 2002, they came out with these alternate regulatory approaches,” Anderson says. “Institutions needed more flexibility to try new things.”

Simply stated, a PAL moves an institution away from a source-by-source approach to emissions compliance, and toward a facility-wide approach, giving institutions flexibility that they would not otherwise have. Previously, if the

The power plant at the University of Iowa is the largest source of criteria pollutants on campus. It is also the key element in its sustainability initiatives. The Iowa DNR awarded the university with a Plant-wide Applicability Limit, which provides it with the flexibility it needs to continue to ramp up the use of biomass fuel at the plant.

PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 15

Capped Emission Levels Potential Emissions (Tons per Year)

Pollutant and Abbreviation Particulate Matter 2.5

PM2.5

85.90

Particulate Matter 10

PM10

97.72

PM

111.51

Sulfur Dioxide

SO2

1602.97

Nitrogen Oxides

NOx

751.84

Volatile Organic Compounds

VOC

172.75

CO

444.73

Particulate Matter

Carbon Monoxide

16 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

university was going to add or modify emissions generating equipment, it would be required to complete prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) analysis. In other words, the university would have to determine if the new or changed emissions source would deteriorate the local air quality. This process is labor-intensive, can tax an institution’s busy facilities staff, and can also create some uncertainty around the emissions control equipment that will ultimately be required for the project. “The opportunity that we have with this PAL permit is that we take a facility-wide cap on emissions, and then because of that, the campus is considered to be in compliance with all of those PSD requirements,” Anderson says.

“So now, we can do a project, we can modify or add equipment, and we don’t have the ambiguity of, ‘does PSD apply’ and what controls we might need to install to comply with those requirements.”

With a PAL permit, the university is free to manage all of its emissions sources as it sees fit, as long as it remains under the cap for each criteria pollutant. For example, the university’s facilitywide cap on carbon monoxide is 444.74 tons per year. If all of the sources together do not exceed this cap, the university is in compliance with that PAL. This flexibility is a perfect fit for the ongoing work at the power plant to increase the amount of biomass fuel that it uses, work that will likely result in biomass inclusion rates changing each year. Without a PAL, the power station would likely find itself in a nearly perpetual permit review process, bogging an effort the university is hoping to accelerate. “In the past, if the university wanted to include a new biomass fuel in its boilers, without the PALs, they would have to do a PSD analysis showing that this new fuel will not increase their emissions above the PSD significance levels for each criteria pollutant that they would emit,” Piziali explains. “And traditionally, carbon monoxide would be the pollutant that they were most concerned about. So they would have to show that the addition of this new fuel would not trigger a PSD requirement. Now that they have the PAL, they are allowed to increase their emissions from the boilers to whatever they need, as long as the overall emissions for that pollutant at the university do not exceed the cap set out in the PAL.” The university is still required to meet emissions limits set forth in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, Piziali adds, as well as the New Source Performance Standards and hazardous air pollutant standards.

POWERÂŚ

This operational freedom does call for increased monitoring and tracking of monthly emissions, however. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This freedom to construct new or modify their existing equipment comes with the added responsibility and burden of having to track their emissions to a great detail,â&#x20AC;? Piziali says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t having to do that before. They are getting some flexibility to shift their emissions allowances of the pieces of equipment that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to modify or operate differently over the whole facility, but in exchange, they are to track what they are doing very closely.â&#x20AC;?

In order to make monthly emissions tracking more feasible, the university uses emissions factors and worst-case scenarios on a sizeable number of the emissions sources at the university. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Consider the wood-fired kiln at the art school,â&#x20AC;? Anderson says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had to go with a worst-case scenario for that source, because putting in some sort of monitoring apparatus in the kiln just wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feasible. We worked hard, in collaboration with staff from the Iowa DNR, with one-off situations like that to make sure that we were protective of our environmental quality, while also arriving at a workable way to account for those emissions.â&#x20AC;? Because the vast majority of the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emissions emanate from the power plant, those emissions will be monitored very closely.

Ramping Up

To meet the ambitious goals the university established for itselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;40 percent renewable energy by 2020â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the inclusion of biomass will have to more than double from current inclusion rates. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In 2015, we were at 15 percent renewable, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say all of that was from biomass cofiring,â&#x20AC;? Anderson says. In 2016, she expects to see inclusion rates closer to 20 percent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always tell people that this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a linear progression,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of the groundwork weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re laying now should allow us to ramp up significantly in the last few years before 2020. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing some really innovative stuff with biomass, and this permit was another innovative solution to remove some hurdles and to pave the way to increased biomass usage on campus. Innovation breeds innovation, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how I like to look at it.â&#x20AC;?

Whether the university is ultimately able to grow its biomass inclusion rate to 40 percent in less than four years remains to be seen. However, with the issuance of the PAL, its air permit will not be the bottleneck in its efforts. The permit, valid until 2026, provides the university the flexibility to ramp up its biomass inclusion well beyond the goals set forth in 2010. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our hope is to keep increasing the percentage of biomass as much as possible,â&#x20AC;?

Anderson says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not interested in hitting 40 percent and then staying there. We want to keep working toward as much biomass as possible.â&#x20AC;?

Author: Tim Portz Executive Editor, Biomass Magazine 701-738-4969 tportz@bbiinternational.com

&DOO 7ROO )UHH 672.(5 VDOHV#GHWURLWVWRNHU FRP ZZZ GHWURLWVWRNHU FRP JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 17

PelletNews ATS, INL test oxidation catalyst Advanced Torrefaction Systems LLC recently collaborated with Idaho National Laboratory to test a catalytic oxidation technology that aims to address problems that have hampered the development of torrefaction plants.

Highly volatile gases, mainly carbon monoxide (CO) and a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are produced during the torrefaction process. Those contain significant energy that is wasted if not beneficially utilized. ATS’s patented TorreCat technology uses an oxidation catalyst to combust those volatile gases and convert them to an inert gas stream of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and steam. The inert gas can be used as an industrial heat source. When cooled, it can also be used in downstream processes.

ATS worked with INL to design and install an oxidation catalyst in the INL’s torrefaction system in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Two rounds of tests were performed at different temperature levels.

Tyler Westover, an INL engineer who oversaw the experiment, said that “the tests were successful and the catalyst destroyed CO and VOCs below detection levels. In additi on, the inert gas stream from the catalyst was successfully used directly in the reactor as a heat source.”

IMPROVING TORREFACTION: Representatives of Advanced Torrefaction Systems (seated) monitor a test of an oxidation catalyst designed to make torrefaction safer, cleaner and more efficient.

PHOTO: IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY

North American pellet exports continue to increase Wood Resources International’s North American Wood Fiber Review reported North American overseas pellet exports increased for the third consecutive quarter during the final three months of 2015, increasing 7 percent from the prior quarter and reaching more than 1.7 million tons.

During the fourth quarter of last year, Canadian exports increased 17 percent when

JUN 2014

Lynemouth signs investment contract with UK government for biomass conversion

FEB 2015

compared to the previous quarter, with shipments to both Europe and Asia increasing.

In the U.S., exports from the industrial pellet sector in the South are all flowing to Europe, primarily to the U.K. Newly operating facilities in the South helped exports from Gulf ports to increase by nearly 70 percent between the second quarter of 2015 and the final quarter of the year. However, shipments to Europe

DEC 2015

European Commission approves state aid for Lynemouth conversion

European Commission opens in-depth investigation on UK government’s support of biomass conversion

DEC 2015

fell during the first quarter of this year. The NAWFR predicts the decrease is a temporary pause caused by lower demand in Europe due to the unusually warm winter.

For the full year, pellet exports reached 6.1 million tons, 2 percent higher than 2014 and nearly four times higher than 2010.

JAN 2016

Subsidiary of Energetický a prumyslový holding buys Lynemouth plant from RWE Supply and Trading

Lynemouth facility burns its last coal

Port of Tyne secures agreement to handle pellets for Lynemouth facility The U.K.-based Port of Tyne has announced plans to start building new facilities to handle, store and transport wood pellets for Lynemouth Power Ltd. following its conversion to biomass. Under the agreement, the port will handle, store and transport up to 1.8 million metric tons of pellet annually.

18 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

According to the port, construction has begun on its estate at the Tyne Dock in South Shields to build a 75,000 metric ton storage facility, three enclosed conveyors and transfer towers, three silos, a rail loading silo and other works. The Port of Tyne is contributing £13 million ($18.99 million), with the majority of the investment being made by LPL.

“We have been at the forefront of developing expertise and facilities to handle the renewable fuel, wood pellet, and I am delighted that LPL have chosen the Port of Tyne as a key partner in this significant development,” said Andrew Moffat, CEO of the Port of Tyne.

PELLET¦

Making Marketing Moves

BY BILL BELL

“Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me,” Richard Farina, 1996 novel; The Doors, 1971 As pellet producers and heating equipment firms limp into the summer, there are numerous plans underway to improve the marketing of “modern wood heat,” a phrase the industry has found to be more consumer-friendly than “biomass thermal.”

Optimism abounds. This spring’s well-attended Northeast Biomass Heating Conference & Expo in Vermont had an unofficial theme: “We all know that oil prices will go back up; we’ll be back selling.”

The Northern Forest Center, an excellent nonprofit dedicated to supporting the economies and citizens of Northern New England and upstate New York, recently drafted a “Modern Wood Heat Communications Plan,” for which it interviewed numerous pellet boiler owners and industry stakeholders across the region. The plan, noting that consumers understand that oil prices are volatile, suggests that pellet heating equipment be sold based on homeowner values, not price considerations. Buying local and environmental considerations top the values list. The Northern Forest Center has put together a work group to move the plan forward. Vermont Solar’s marketing slogan, “Building Clean Energy and Local Jobs,” will serve as a model.

Marketing programs should also find assistance in the $130,000 USDA Wood Energy Assistance Team grant just received by the Maine Forest Service. Vermont, New York state, and New Hampshire have previously received similar funding. To assist with the implementation of these grants, the U.S. Forest Service’s regional office in New Hampshire just added a forest products utilization specialist position and filled the slot with the Maine Forest Service employee who wrote the Maine grant.

With its pellet boiler incentive (30 percent, up to $5,000) sparsely used this winter, Efficiency Maine’s trustees recently had the opportunity to reduce funding for the program. The board instead agreed that the program remains valid and should continue as planned.

Perhaps more important than any of these marketing programs is the realization (finally!) by Maine’s legislature that our state’s entire forestry sector is facing serious challenge, with thousands of jobs at stake. Three pulp and paper plants

have closed recently, along with two biomass electric plants.

The future of the remaining four biomass electric plants is in doubt, as result of changes in Massachusetts and Connecticut policies on renewable electricity credits. Using the phrase “an economic hurricane,” Maine Sen. Angus King organized a large meeting of forestry firms and federal agencies, with the intention of seeing how federal policies and programs might assist the industry.

Specifically important to our four pellet producers was a state legislative proposal, passed in the final days of the session, whereby the state will pay up to $13 million for twoyear contracts of electricity generated from renewable fuels, presumably biomass. This measure is vital to maintaining the wood harvesting infrastructure that provides fiber not only to Maine’s biomass electricity generators, but also to our four pellet manufacturers, numerous papermakers, lumber mills, specialty wood products firms, and many other forest products enterprises. Forestry is Maine’s largest economic engine, along with tourism, and legislators are recognizing that their support is sometimes needed.

Potentially, of even greater importance is a measure passed as part of the biomass electric package, creating a Maine Biomass Industry Study Commission. This commission, charged with studying the economic, environmental, and energy benefits of the biomass industry, is not limited to biomass electric. One of the 15 members just appointed by the speaker of the Maine House is Bob Linkletter, owner and operator of Maine Woods Pellet Co., and also a director of the Maine Pellet Fuels Association. Linkletter intends to direct some of the commission’s attention to thermal biomass.

So, what we have now is a strong planning infrastructure. As I write this piece, I was interrupted by a phone call from a Vermont consumer asking where he could go to purchase Maine pellets. What we really need is thousands more such calls.

Author: Bill Bell Executive Director, Maine Pellet Fuels Association feedalliance@gwi.net 207-752-1392

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 19

ThermalNews Pellet Stove Design Challenge winner announced A German-designed Wittus pellet stove has been named winner of the third Pellet Stove Design Challenge, an event coordinated by the Alliance for Green Heat and this year hosted by the U.S. DOEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brookhaven National Lab, that aims to promote innovation in wood and pellet heating.

The Wittus Pellwood, distributed by a New York company, is an innovative prototype that can burn both pellets and cordwood,

achieving very low emissions of less than half a gram per hour, according to John Ackerly, president of the Alliance for Green Heat.

A stove made by Seraph Industries, the smallest U.S. pellet stove manufacture, won second place, consistently burning under 1 gram per hour, and has innovative features to help and encourage the consumer to keep the stove operating well.

A HOT COMPETITION: Niels Wittus (left) and RenĂŠ Bindig of Team Wittus are congratulated on their win by Alliance for Green Heat staff.

PHOTO: ALLIANCE FOR GREEN HEAT

Mexican distillery benefits from biomass boiler

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20 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

Tequila Cazadores, a tequila manufacturer in Mexico, has announced the installation of a biomass boiler at its distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, has drastically reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) at the facility. The boiler, which has been in operation for more than a year, produces steam that powers the agave sugar extraction process, cooking and distillation of the brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tequila.

Approximately 60 percent of the biofuel used in the boiler comes from spent agave fibers, amounting to about 11,000 tons per year. The other 40 percent is made up of 8,000 tons of clean waste wood, biomass briquettes, sawdust, coconut shell, and tree cuttings.

Prior to the installation of the biomass boiler, the facility utilized two boiler systems that consumed a combined 2,000 tons of heavy fuel oil annually. Tequila Casadores, part of the Bacardi portfolio of spirit brands, estimates the new boiler has reduced GHG emissions by 80 percent. Noise pollution has also been reduced by an estimated 20 percent. Ashes created by the boiler are used for composting, creating a nutrientrich soil supplement.

THERMAL¦

A Unified Renewable Heating and Cooling Front

BY BEN BELL-WALKER AND JARROD PETROHOVICH

To supporters of biomass heating and cooling, it sounds like a broken record when we talk about how thermal energy makes up roughly 40 percent of our nation’s energy consumption. Yet, it still does not get anywhere near the amount of attention or funding that electricity and transportation fuels receive. Consequently, the Biomass Thermal Energy Council enthusiastically applauded the first-ever inclusion of thermal energy in federal department renewable energy goals in the recently passed, though not-yet-reconciled House and Senate energy bills.

The neglect of the biomass industry also applies to its thermal brethren in the solar and geothermal renewable energy industries.

While uniting these thermal sectors seems like a logical and laudable goal, this concentrated and coordinated action has not lived up to its potential. Nevertheless, there are signs that change may be in the air. An early example of this was the passage of the Renewable Thermal Bill in August 2014, opening up the Massachusetts Alternative Portfolio Standard to heating and cooling systems that use any of those renewable energy sources, plus others like bio-oils. A robust coalition, including the Solar Energy Industries Association, the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, the Biomass Thermal Energy Council and the New England Geothermal Professional Association worked together to push the bill across the finish line.

The state policy environment in the Northeast has become the epicenter of support for the idea of a unified coalition to support renewable thermal energy. New Hampshire has pioneered the use of a full-on carve-out for thermal renewable energy credits, beautifully dubbed “T-RECs,” for sustainably produced heating and cooling. A number of other states, including Maryland, Colorado and Indiana, have flirted with the idea or have more limited support for renewable thermal. And, in the past year or so, two large northeastern states, Massachusetts and frenemy New York, have unveiled, respectively, the $30 million Clean Heating and Cooling Program and the $28 million Renewable Heat New York program. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Clean Heating and Cooling program covers solar hot water plus air- and groundsource heat pumps, as well as biomass pellet (and soon, woodchip) heating systems. New York state’s program does not incentive any woodchip systems, but it does include pellet and advanced cordwood boilers installed with water thermal storage systems.

Anyone with knowledge of statistics knows that three or four points are not indicative of a trend, but these actions will shine more light on thermal. To keep this momentum going, we argue for more collaboration between renewable thermal interests through avenues such as renewable energy conferences, as well as

legislative and regulatory participation at state and federal levels (thermal energy tax credits could certainly help). But these actions are still not enough. We also need further standardization. Given that the U.S. and United Kingdom are some of the very few countries in the world that measure heat and electricity differently (the watt for electricity and British thermal unit for heat), the progress of the proposed U.S. national heat metering accuracy standard is crucial to this effort, to which the EPA says: “…manufacturers would no longer compete in the market on accuracy, but instead compete on product cost and other features […] standardization would instill confidence in parties who exchange payments for useful energy delivery and could support greater confidence in the deployment of renewable heating and cooling technologies through innovative third-party financial structures such as energy purchase contracts. This benefit also extends to several states that have included thermal energy as an eligible resource under state renewable portfolio standard policies and states that have implemented performance-based incentives to develop renewable thermal markets.”

Appliance standards and certifications are also a key aspect of this market. The relatively well-established rating structure for different components and combinations of solar thermal systems, under the leadership of the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation, is an example of this. On the biomass side, since 2014, BTEC has been actively engaged in developing materials in support of an efficiency test protocol for commercial boilers. This will create a single standard that provides all of the benefits described above, and would provide a key metric for programs like New York’s or MassCEC’s, which now require efficiency measurements but either rely on European test methods or test methods that were developed for smaller residential systems.

We are seeing the positive beginnings of a trend, but it will be up to the biomass thermal industry to continue to find strategic ways to partner with other thermal interests to make renewable heating and cooling the no-brainer, household concept that it truly should be.

Coauthors: Ben Bell-Walker Technical Affairs Manager, BTEC 202- 596-3974 Jarrod Petrohovich Technical and Policy and Government Affairs Fellow, BTEC 202- 596-3974

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 21

¦THERMAL

A Brilliant Backup Plan

Having the right fire suppression system and a plan B for when fire emergencies happen are a must for biomass energy facilities.

BY RACHEL GIBBONS

Via a rental center, an Atlas Copco electric submersible pump came to the aid of a pellet mill that was experiencing a fire and needed a backup system.

PHOTO: ATLAS COPCO

W

hen fires occur, especially in biomass energy facilities, a quick response is crucial to worker safety and minimization of facility damage. That’s why plant managers rely on a range of equipment to minimize the risk of fires, from spark detection technology to fire suppression systems. And, since fires occur even with the best systems in place, having a backup plan is key.

For one Alabama pellet mill, this story is a familiar one. Each year, the mill processes forest products into as much as 303,000 metric tons of wood pellets for use in power plants as a renewable energy source. Before processing the woodchips, the mill stores them in its

two 150-foot silos, but they can’t be filled and the rest of the plant at risk if another fire occurred. The mill needed a backup system. simply forgotten about.

The facility manager contacted Tripp Brown, Burning Up branch manager of United Pump Rentals As the woodchips sit in silos, they begin Solutions, in Mobile, Alabama, asking for a to naturally decompose and generate heat en- solution. United Rentals Pump Solutions is a ergy. The heat creates hotspots that can lead to specialty division of United Rentals, one of spontaneous combustion. In January, a hotspot the largest equipment rental companies in the caused one silo’s woodchips to catch fire inside. world. Brown rents and sells temporary pump With smoldering woodchips inside one silo, the solutions to customers in Alabama for projects plant needed to act quickly to get the fire put in the municipal, construction, industrial, minout before it started heating the woodchips in ing and oil and gas markets. He and his team the other nearby silo. know that tight deadlines are common in the The plant’s permanent fire suppression pump industry and, for many projects, time is system controlled the fire, but because it was of the essence to minimize costly damage and using a generous amount of resources, it put ensure safety of everyone involved. And when

CONTRIBUTION: The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Biomass Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

22 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

THERMAL¦ from the nearby river through the pump and to a holding tank at the base of the burning silo.

The water would then flow through another pump and into the silo to dowse the fire, cooling the hotspots and saturating unburned wood to prevent future hotspots from forming. That way, the plant could remove and dispose of the damaged unusable chips safely. “We helped Tripp choose the right submersible pump for the application based on the environmental concerns, required flow, elevation and distance from the river,” says Joe Moser, Atlas Copco portable energy product manager. “Looking at the situation, their best option was the WEDA 90 electric submersible pump.”

The WEDA 90 offered the power needed to handle the discharge head from the river and transfer the water up the 70 feet of hose from the river to the silo; a standard centrifugal pump didn’t have the suction lift capacity to meet the requirements of the project.

The team also had to consider the pump weight. The crane needed to suspend, support and lower the pump into the river with custom 50-foot slings and couldn’t handle anything weighing more than 600 pounds. Fortunately, Atlas Copco’s WEDA 90 is compact and weighs about 400 pounds, easily fitting within the crane’s limitations. After working together to determine the right pump, Atlas Copco shipped the WEDA 90 pump directly to Brown in one day.

customers feel the hot breath of fire start to burn up and damage productivity, finding the right solution quickly is imperative.

With a deadline of only two days to bring in equipment and have it ready to start fighting the fire in the plant’s silos, Brown needed a simple-to-set-up, cost-effective and environ- A Simple Setup mentally friendly pump solution, and he needBrown and one other United Rentals ed it fast.

Pump Solutions member set up the WEDA 90 in about an hour. Brown said the fast and easy Picking the Pump setup was another benefit of using an electric Brown had to take into account a few pump over hydraulic. Had it been a hydraulic considerations before choosing a pump, one pump, setup could have taken as long as three of which was the environment, especially since hours to secure the hydraulic lines and prevent the river and riverbank area are environmental- them from ripping or tearing. The team hardly protected. Because of this, a hydraulic leak or wired the pump to the nearby permanent elecfuel spill from a diesel-driven hydraulic pump trical power source and began pumping. The could cause damage and risk the integrity of WEDA 90 moved water from the river into a the habitat and wildlife, as well as possibly con- frak tank for temporary water storage at the taminate the water supply. That scenario would base of the silo. From the tank, Brown used a impose heavy costs for remediation and hefty diesel pump to control the flow and pump wafines. “Because the area was environmentally ter into a manifold that split the upper column sensitive we couldn’t use a diesel or hydraulic into three separate lines at different stages of powered pump for risk of contamination if a the silo for uniform water dispersal. spill occurred, so we knew we needed an elecThe WEDA pump ran 24/7 for three tric pump,” Brown says. months, pushing 550 gallons per minute at Brown asked Atlas Copco for help find- more than 100 feet total dynamic head. After ing the right pump. The plan was to run water the water extinguished and saturated the smol-

dering wood chips, the plant was able to safely extract and dispose of the damaged chips.

“For this job, the submersible pump was the simplest, most cost-effective and environmentally friendly option,” Brown says. “It worked so well that the energy plant that originally rented the pump purchased the system for permanent backup fire suppression.”

Resourceful Results

Besides the environmental benefits, the WEDA 90 provided the plant with a lessexpensive option than a diesel model. “The WEDA 90’s power consumption cost us $2,268 per month in kilowatt-hours. If we had used a diesel hydraulic submersible pump, the monthly fuel consumption would equal about $4,240,” Brown says.

Because the project was planned for six months, Brown saw a projected cost savings of $11,832 over the project duration by using an electric pump rather than a hydraulic model.

To purchase a new WEDA 90 costs almost $18,000 less than buying a submersible package with hydraulic lines, and that’s not including about $370 spent monthly on maintenance.

“Both the rental price and operating expenses of using the electric submersible pump were cost effective,” Brown says. “The WEDA 90 lowered operating costs since it was virtually maintenance free, needing no hydraulic oil changes or filter replacements. And, most importantly, we saved on paying fuel costs with lower electric costs.”

Putting Out the Fire

When a fire emergency happens, innovative thinking and the right fire suppression systems are a must. Having a plan A and a plan B can keep chaos from occurring, minimize damage and increase worker safety. It’s also important to not only have enough resources, but the right resources available. Part of any solution also comes through strong partnerships. When a rental center and manufacturer work together closely and quickly to find the best solution, it’s guaranteed the customer won’t get burned.

Contact: Joe Moser Product Manager, Portable Energy, Atlas Copco Construction Equipment 303-898-6978 joe.moser@us.atlascopco.com

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 23

BiogasNews Oregon biogas project expands Clean Water Services, Energy Trust of Oregon and the Oregon Department of Energy have implemented a new cogeneration system that converts wastewater and grease into renewable energy. The innovative system, which is part of Clean Water Services Durham Treatment Facility, is the third cogeneration system in Oregon to codigest fats, oils and grease (FOG).

Since 1993, Durham has operated a 500kW cogeneration system using biogas from the communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; wastewater to offset its own energy usage. By replacing this smaller engine with two Jenbacher 848-kW engines, Durham now has a 1.7-MW cogeneration system fueled by biogas produced from the anaerobic diges-

tion (AD) of municipal wastewater solids, as well as FOG from Washington County restaurants, commercial food processors and others. Average gallons of FOG codigested per week will start at 70,000 gallons and is expected to increase to 100,000 gallons within the next six months. The Durham campus hosts two 1.3 UTILIZING FOG: Fats, oils and grease is pumped for codigestion. million-gallon digesters.

PHOTO: CLEAN WATER SERVICES Prior to being fed to the engine, the biogas must be treated with a Uni- and moisture from the raw biogas. son Solutions gas treatment system that will remove hydrogen sulfide particulates, siloxane

Landfill gas-to-energy plant begins operations in California Potrero Hills Energy Producers, a partnership between DTE Biomass Energy Inc. and Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, recently started generating electricity from landfill gas at the Potrero Hills Landfill in Suisun City, California, which is operated by Waste Connections Inc. of The Woodlands, Texas.

The 8-MW power plant uses advanced engine-generating technology to deliver

24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

enough renewable electricity to power 10,000 California homes. Gas generated at the landfill will be used to produce renewable energy for Pacific Gas & Electric under a long-term purchase agreement.

The facility is equipped with advanced environmental controls that treat incoming landfill gas to reduce sulfur content prior to combustion, thereby reducing emissions of

sulfur dioxide. Post-combustion catalytic reduction, not unlike a vehicleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s catalytic converter system, further lowers carbon monoxide and formaldehyde emissions.

BIOGAS¦

2022: A Cliff for Clean Fuels and the RFS?

BY DAVID COX

The year 2022 looms large over alternative and clean fuel industries participating in the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS). But not for the reason one might initially think. Every day, fuel procurement, project financing and infrastructure investment decisions are heavily influenced by misinformation. Rumor and myth are embraced over statute and fact.

Harmful reports of a 2022 RFS expiration persist.

Remarkably, however, the ominous date that so many have come to fear is easily demystified once the statutory language of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is unpacked. The RFS is, after all, a product of law. With a vote of Congress and the president’s signature, federal policy was set in motion. And while it grows more complex with each U.S. EPA rulemaking, regulators’ hands are tied to the statute.

The RFS is codified in regulation at 40 CFR Part 80 Subpart M. It is part of the U.S. Clean Air Act, authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and subsequently amended by the EISA. The programmatic goal is to diversify the fuels and sources of fuel that power our nation. To some, the RFS is a means of reducing dependence on foreign oil. To others, it is a subsidy to ethanol run amuck. But as written, at least from 2014 forward, it is unmistakably America’s single greatest market driver for the development of low-and ultra-low carbon fuels.

The RFS mandates that a percentage of our annual fuel consumption come from renewable fuels, advanced biofuels, and cellulosic biofuels. Gasoline and diesel producers and importers bear the burden of ensuring their share of the fuel meets the annual renewable volume obligation, or RVO. It is in the context of the RVO that the rumors about the year 2022 begin. EISA Section 202(a)(2)(B) addresses “Applicable Volumes” for the annual mandate. Clause (i), titled “Calendar Years After 2005,” contains tables that delineate the applicable volume that the renewable fuel (Subsection I), advanced biofuel (Subsection II), and cellulosic biofuel (Subsection III) categories should meet though 2022.

The following text is copied directly from EISA Section 202(a)(2)(B)(i)(III).

(III) CELLULOSIC BIOFUEL.—For the purpose of subparagraph (A), of the volume of advanced biofuel required under Subclause (II), the applicable volume of cellulosic biofuel for the calendar years 2010 through 2022 shall

be determined in accordance with the following table: Applicable volume of cellulosic biofuel. Calendar year: (in billions of gallons): 2010 .............................................................................. 0.1 2011 .............................................................................. 0.25 2012 .............................................................................. 0.5 2013 .............................................................................. 1.0 2014 .............................................................................. 1.75 2015 .............................................................................. 3.0 2016 .............................................................................. 4.25 2017 .............................................................................. 5.5 2018 .............................................................................. 7.0 2019 .............................................................................. 8.5 2020 .............................................................................. 10.5 2021 .............................................................................. 13.5 2022 .............................................................................. 16.0 After a cursory review of the tables, somewhere along the way, someone stopped reading and wrongly concluded that because the table ends in 2022, the program must also end in 2022.

However, Clause (ii), titled “Other Calendar Years,” immediately follows Clause (i). It says that “for calendar years after the calendar years specified in the tables,” (i.e., after 2022), the EPA administrator will set applicable volumes using specified criteria, which are thereafter laid out. (ii) OTHER CALENDAR YEARS. —For the purposes of subparagraph (A), the applicable volumes of each fuel specified in the tables in clause (i) for calendar years after the calendar years specified in the tables shall be determined by the Administrator, in coordination with the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Agriculture, based on a review of the implementation of the program during calendar years specified in the tables, and an analysis of— The accurate conclusion? The RFS continues beyond 2022, without sunset and in perpetuity, unless or until another act of Congress shall intervene.

It is time that we in the alternative and clean fuels industries stop the rumor mill. We must work together to ensure that fuel procurement, project financing and infrastructure investment decisions are made with reliance on the fact of law that the RFS will continue beyond 2022.

Author: David Cox General Counsel, Renewable Natural Gas Coalition david@rngcoalition.com 916-588-3033

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 25

¦BIOGAS

DEPARTMENT

PROJECT LAYOUT: Pictured on the bottom left is gas refrigeration and water removal at the Bowerman Power landfill gas-to-energy plant. Toward the image center is the siloxane removal system, with four vessels on the right for bulk removal of siloxanes from the gas stream and four vessels on the left for the final polishing siloxane removal. Top center is the sulfur removal system composed of four stainless steel vessels, and upper right are the plant's seven engines.

PHOTO: MONTAUK ENERGY HOLDINGS

Permission to Power Orange County’s third landfil gas-to-energy facility began commercial operations this year, but not without meeting the region’s strict air quality standards.

BY KATIE FLETCHER

T

he transition from vision to reality involves many challenges for renewable energy projects. Without a sufficient energy source, capital and consent, the transition is impossible to make. One might assume that in comparison to conventional energy projects, projects focused on reducing environmental impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have an easier time obtaining permits and meeting regulatory requirements, but often, this isn’t the case. The same challenges in 26 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

obtaining permits for conventional energy projects apply to renewable energy ventures, in addition to other unique requirements.

Pennsylvania-based Montauk Energy has experienced this reality firsthand.

Through its Bowerman Power subsidiary, the company developed a 23-MW renewable energy project located within the South Coast Air Basin, a nonattainment basin.

This means any incremental increase in air quality must meet strict requirements when

undergoing the permitting process with the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The $60 million landfill gas-to-renewable-energy (LFGTE) facility, financed

by Cat Financial Services Corp., is located on 2.6 acres of the 725-acre Frank R. Bowerman Landfill near Irvine, California. This project joins other large LFGTE projects in the area (Olinda in Brea and Prima Deshecha in San Juan Capistrano) with the aim of reducing GHG emissions. The Bowerman facility is estimated to reduce CO2 emis-

BIOGAS¦

sions by approximately 53,000 tons annually. The plant will generate roughly 160,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, sufficient to serve the equivalent of 26,000 energy-efficient homes in Southern California, and sold to Anaheim Public Utilities under a 20-year power purchase agreement.

Collectively, the three LFGTE operations produce approximately 380,000 MWh of electricity annually, enough to power some 56,000 Southern California homes.

In order to begin contributing to the improvement of air quality through its reduction of GHG emissions, the Bowerman project had to meet air quality requirements itself. “We believe this project is fundamental in demonstrating our ability to achieve emissions that have been set by the board,” says Dylan Wright, director of Orange County Waste and Recycling, the landfill owner and operator. Wright adds that one of the challenges associated with the project was due to a new rule passed (Rule 1110.2), which precludes the use of internal combustion engines that don’t meet a certain standard. “This is a very strict standard, and a number of facilities are having to shut down as a result of that—even though they’d be offering a beneficial use—just because it’s cost prohibitive,” Wright says.

“This facility is really an engineering feat, because it meets those standards.”

This professed engineering feat combines gas feedstock cleanup, large-scale Cat reciprocating engine generators and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology. The project was championed by Todd Spitzer, Orange County board chairman and Third District supervisor, and won approval from the full Orange County Board of Supervisors in October 2014, after a previous agreement for the facility was revised and updated. Ground was broken in January 2015, and the plant became operational just over a year later, in March 2016.

This achievement was no small feat.

“There were a series of externalities, which were beyond anyone’s control,” says Chris Davis, vice president of business development with Montauk Energy. “There were issues in obtaining an air permit, and it wasn’t particular to our project, it was the entire landfill and methane industry that was struggling to get air permits in South-

ern California.” The issue was related to a court challenge on an unrelated project, which brought into question whether projects such as Bowerman can be permitted as an essential public service to qualify them as exempt from providing their own emission offsets. Landfill gas projects operate under a special criterion in the Air Quality Management District New Source Review requirements, exempting them from purchasing NOx offsets, but AQMD still provides the offsets to comply with federal and state laws.

Davis says that Bowerman’s draft air permit was completed in 2009, but the lawsuit put the project on hold for nearly two years. “Once the court challenge had been addressed, development of the project was restarted, but new air modeling was required given the delays in commencing construction,” he says.

AQMD’s permitting requirements and other local, state and federal air quality rules played a big role in selecting equipment deployed at the plant. For example, the gas cleanup system that includes Sulphurremoval, an off-the-shelf design utilized by Montauk on other projects, and a siloxane removal system by Willexa. Davis says the heart of the gas cleanup configuration is the Willexa system. According to Davis, silica or silicone, which are found in many things that go into a landfill such as cosmetics, deodorant, toothpaste, silica gel, etc., end up in the landfill gas as a broad category of compounds known as siloxanes. When put under high heat, siloxanes can quickly ruin a catalyst system, so all of it is scrubbed out front.

Besides gas cleanup, two other important components of the project are the power generators themselves and the SCR technology that helps the engines meet project requirements. According to Davis, the local air management district strongly favored combustion turbines in lieu of reciprocating engine technology, and during and during 2010-’14, few, if any, reciprocating engine projects were approved for LFGTE projects. But, the cost of operations for combustion turbines on landfill methane is greater than reciprocating engines, Davis says, and the fuel efficiency of combustion turbines was unattractive relative to

reciprocating engines. Therefore, Caterpillar’s CG260 (reciprocating) engine generators were evaluated for their ability to meet the needs of the project and satisfy the local AQMD’s emissions requirements. It was found that with the addition of the SCR system for NOx and oxidation catalysts for CO, the project would be acceptable to the AQMD. And, given the drought conditions in California, Davis adds, it was a key objective to pursue a technology that had no water needs for process or cooling, an added benefit of the CG260 configuration.

The sale of power produced by the seven Cat generators helps Anaheim Public Utilities meet its renewable portfolio standard goals. “We have a need for renewable energy to serve our customers,” says Manny Robledo, integrated resource manager with APU. “There is a state mandate to increase the amount of renewable energy by 50 percent by the year 2030, so this project fits into that goal.” According to Robledo, the Bowerman project represents 6 percent of the utility’s renewable energy needs.

The average annual royalty payment to Orange County is projected at $1.62 million, representing an estimated $31 million over the 20-year life of the agreement with Anaheim. In addition, Bowerman Power is providing $1 million in LFG collection system operation and maintenance services to the county. “Creating clean energy power from landfill gas is a smart investment that helps the environment and advances science and engineering,” Spitzer says. “Advancing important technology that helps the environment and potentially generates revenue is the best way for Orange County to do business as a leader in clean energy projects.”

Author: Katie Fletcher Associate Editor, Biomass Magazine 701-738-4920 kfletcher@bbiinternational.com

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 27

AdvancedBiofuelsNews Renewable fuel volume requirements Cellulosic biofuel (million gallons)

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

33

123

230

312*

n/a

Biomass-based diesel (billion gallons)

1.63

1.73

1.90

2.00

2.1*

Advanced biofuel (billion gallons)

2.67

2.88

3.61

4.0*

n/a

16.28

16.93

18.11

18.8*

n/a

Renewable fuel (billion gallons) * Proposed volume requirements SOURCE: U.S. EPA

EPA releases 2017 RFS proposal On May 18, the U.S. EPA released a proposed rule to set 2017 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), along with 2018 RVOs for biomass-based diesel.

The agency has proposed to set the 2017 RVO for cellulosic biofuel at 312 million gallons, with the advanced biofuel RVO at 4 billion gallons and the RVO for total

renewable fuel at 18.8 billion gallons. The 2018 RVO for biomass-based diesel has been proposed at 2.1 billion gallons.

The proposed percentage standards call for renewable fuel to comprise 10.44 percent of the transportation fuel pool next year. The cellulosic standard would be 0.173 percent, with the biomass-based diesel standard at 1.67 percent, and the advanced bio-

fuel standard at 2.22 percent.

While many in the biofuel industry commended the EPA for the timely release of the proposed rule, the agency has been criticized for its interpretation of the waiver authority provided in statute to reduce RVOs below statutory levels. The EPA’s interpretation cites infrastructure concerns as a reason to reduce RVO levels.

AMP Americas launches biogas division, announces fuel agreements AMP Americas, a provider of compressed natural gas (CNG) infrastructure and fueling solutions for the heavy-duty trucking industry, recently announced the launch of ampRENEW, its newly formed biogas division. In addition, Dillon Transport and Ruan Transportation Management Systems have signed fueling agreements with ampRENEW to fuel a portion of their

fleets at ampCNG’s public access fueling stations.

The renewable compressed natural gas (RCNG) will be completely sourced from ampCNG’s biogas operation at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana. ampRENEW’s ultra clean fuel is processed entirely from agricultural waste produced at ampCNG’s anaerobic digester.

Dillon Transport will be served by ampCNG’s two fueling stations in Jacksonville, Florida. Ruan, one of the first fleets to use RCNG from Fair Oaks Farms, will continue to fuel at ampCNG’s three stations in Indiana.

EPA releases first quarter RIN data U.S. EPA data has shown more than 4.37 billion renewable identification numbers (RINs) were generated during the first quarter of the year, including a net total of 30.15 million D3 cellulosic biofuels RINS. More than 1 million D3 RINs have been generated for ethanol so far this year, along with 17.83 million for renewable compressed natural gas and 12.7 million for renewable liquefied natural gas. In addition a net total of 114,835 D7 cellulosic diesel RINs were generated in March for cellulosic heating oil.

28 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

A net total of 12.6 million D5 advanced biofuel RINs were generated during the first quarter of 2016, including nearly 6.2 million for ethanol. Nearly 3.68 billion D6 renewable fuel RINs were generated during the first three months of the year. The majority, 3.6 billion, were generated for ethanol. In addition, approximately 650.25 million D4 biomass-based diesel RINs were generated during the first quarter.

Net RINs generated during Q1 2016 (in millions) D3

30.15

D4

650.25

D5

12.60

D6

3,676.04

D7

0.11

SOURCE: U.S. EPA

ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦

US EPA Back on Track

BY MICHAEL MCADAMS

For almost three years, the advanced biofuels industry waited for the U.S. EPA to issue the renewable fuel standard (RFS) renewable volume obligations for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Now, EPA is ahead of schedule, having proposed the 2017 RVO in May, but certain special interests are once again threatening to derail the program if the EPA does not bend to their will.

It is no surprise that the oil industry is unhappy with this rule. However, much of the opposition to new 2017 proposed RVOs is coming from agriculture. Well, to my friends in the agriculture industry, I say, this is not an agriculture program, it is an energy program designed to cultivate the next generation of biofuels.

I take my hat off to EPA for finally finding its groove; the rule proposed by EPA is a good step forward for advanced biofuels. For the past three years, we have all been asking for consistency from EPA, a clear and concise path forward so that banks can gain confidence. EPA listened!

Unfortunately, the program continues to suffer from uncertainty as lawsuits challenge the program and its rules. The RFS was not designed to protect the special interests dedicated to any one molecule; rather, it is meant to help bring a wide range of sustainable fuels to compete in the market place. It is a portfolio approach to fuels of the future, or what

many refer to as an “all-of-the-above energy policy.”

EPA sent a clear and consistent message to investors across the world with the proposed rule, a signal of its support for advanced biofuels and greenhouse gas reductions, which come from these fuels. This year’s rule raises the advanced pool from 3.6 billion gallons to 4 billion gallons. It also raises the biomass-based diesel pool by 100 million gallons in 2018 to 2.1 billion gallons, and it increases the cellulosic pool to over 300 million gallons. Again, this rule is good for advanced biofuels and a good start for EPA. The biofuels industry should be working with EPA to strengthen and finalize this rule.

In the coming weeks, ABFA will be submitting comments to help EPA finalize this rule and get the program back on track for the good of the industry.

ABFA believes there is additional room for growth in the advanced and biomass-based diesel pools, and will be working with industry members to support the highest possible targets for advanced biofuels.

Author: Michael McAdams President, Advanced Biofuels Association michael.mcadams@hklaw.com 202-469-5140

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 29

ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦

THE FUTURE OF FREIGHT

The primary mode of biomass transport—diesel power—continues to get cleaner and more efficient.

BY RON KOTRBA

W

hether it is hauling logs from the forest to the processing site, or shipping wood pellets from the U.S. to Europe, virtually 100 percent of biomass is transported by diesel power.

And that won’t change. What has changed is that diesels continue to provide cleaner, more fuel-efficient and less carbon-intense transportation of goods such as biomass.

Diesel power is the workhorse of the global economy. Compression-ignition engines are more fuel-efficient, long-lasting and provide much-needed torque for load-bearing transport compared to gasoline engines. “There’ll always be diesel engines,” says Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum.

“There’s no suitable alternative at the moment.”

Over the years, there has been much discussion of natural gas conversions, but Schaeffer says even after decades of investment in bellwether states such as California, the air resources board still considers it a niche fuel.

“The diesel industry doesn’t feel like natural gas is a threat,” he says. “It’s been talked about so long, it’s not even funny. As soon as the technology comes along, fuel prices move in the other direction.”

Criteria Pollutants

Historically, diesel transport has been pegged as dirty. Plumes of soot, or particulate matter (PM), and smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions have characterized diesel for a century.

Schaeffer

30 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

U.S. diesel technology changes that stem from regulations by the U.S. EPA and target these criteria pollutants have been nothing short of a revolution. “Clean diesel” has become part of the new vernacular.

“Beginning in 2000, EPA established a framework for getting to what we call new clean diesel technology today,” Schaeffer says. “It began in the on-road commercial truck sector and filtered down into other sectors, including offroad, locomotives and marine.” While the journey started in 2000, the big switch to ultra-low sulfur diesel came in 2006. Sulfur is problematic for catalysts in aftertreatment systems used to cut PM and NOx. In 2007, heavy-duty truck manufacturers introduced the first trucks with diesel particulate filters (DPFs), which slashed PM by 95 percent compared to previous models. Manufacturers had a phase-in period from 2007-’10 for lower NOx emissions. One pervasive technology used to greatly reduce NOx is what’s called selective catalytic reduction (SCR).

“In 2010, commercial trucks effectively had 95 percent lower NOx and 95 percent lower PM emissions compared to 2006 models,” Schaeffer says. “At the end of 2010, we find ourselves with very different diesel technologies, and the new trucks that have hit streets since are ‘near zero’ [for PM and NOx emissions].”

Today, more fine-particle emissions come from grilling a one-third pound hamburger than from driving a new clean diesel tractortrailer 140 miles, according to the DTF. A 1988 diesel truck would generate a penny’s weight in NOx in just a quarter mile, while a 2016 truck would have to drive 5 miles. Today in Southern California, brake dust and tire wear contrib-

ute more to fine particle emissions than do heavy-duty diesel truck engines.

For marine vessels, Schaeffer says much of EPA’s recent work has been reducing port emissions for social and environmental justice reasons. “A lot of communities are in close proximities to major ports,” he says. “EPA is going to release three documents in June that will identify a range of things, including control strategies and technical guidance to reduce emissions in environmentally sensitive areas around ports.” He says EPA has invested “a lot of retrofit dollars” under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act. Even though new vessels are regulated under tighter emissions standards, legacy models are in service for decades, making retrofitting a necessary path to reduce port emissions. “This money has been used, for instance, to repower a ferry with a Tier 0 or Tier 1 engine with a Tier 3 or 4, so the boat might be 20 years old but with brand new power and a whole new emissions profile,” he says. “That kind of activity will increase.”

There is also a move afoot to bring more of these marine criteria pollutants in control 100 miles off the coast of California and elsewhere, Schaeffer says. “Some vessels have two fuel tanks, using bunker oil to transit across the ocean, and then as they get close to shore, they switch to ULSD,” he says. Furthermore, some boats pull into the dock for unloading and are plugged into the electrical grid as to not run diesel at all in the ports. “These trends will continue to get bigger,” Schaeffer says.

Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ clean vehicles program, says it makes sense that biomass producers and users would take interest in how clean Martin transport is for their supply chain. “The renewable industry should work together to get the cleanest fuel, and to create and use clean fuel,” he says. “It’s about cleaning up the supply chain. If

you’re trying to clean up electricity, for instance, then the supply chain is part of that as well.”

Today, great focus is on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change, and while this is important, Martin says emissions such as PM and NOx have major health impacts on local communities.

The U.S. is not alone in its push to reduce criteria pollutants from diesel transport. Salman Zafar, CEO of India-based BioEnergy Consult, notes that NOx and PM emissions from heavy-duty Zafar transport in Europe have improved considerably over the past two decades, thanks to fuel quality and emissions legislation implemented by the EU. And, he says, India is hoping to follow suit. “In February, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued a draft notification of Bharat Stage VI emissions standards for all major on-road vehicle categories in India, in-

SUPERTRUCK: Daimler Trucks North America LLC’s Freightliner SuperTruck, unveiled last year at the Mid-America Trucking Show, employed existing and future innovations to reduce freight and brake thermal efficiencies by 50 percent.

PHOTO: DAIMLER TRUCKS NORTH AMERICA LLC

cluding heavy-duty vehicles,” Zafar says. The regulations follow Euro VI specifications. India has not, however, worked out a comprehensive strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from heavyduty vehicles in freight transport, he adds.

GHG Reductions

Zafar says only four governments—the U.S., Canada, China and Japan— have adopted fuel economy, or GHG reduction, standards for heavy-duty vehicles. Dave Cooke, a vehicles analyst with UCS, says Japan was the first country to implement heavy-duty truck standards.

“However,” he says, “those standards expired in 2015 and no follow-up standards have been implemented.” Cooke says Europe continues to work towards a model-based standard, “but JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 31

¦ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS there is nothing on the books to-date,” he says, adding that countries like India have used Europe’s lack of regulation as reason for their own delays. “The U.S. is a clear global leader on this front, with Canada having adopted Phase 1 standards and planning to adopt Phase 2 upon finalization,” Cooke says. “China is the only real mover on this front, having recently passed standards, but their engine technologies are sufficiently behind those of manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe, so the standards are not as strong. However, they do plan further standards on a timeline similar to that of the U.S.” The U.S.’s GHG emissions and fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty vehicles comes in two phases.

Phase 1 began implementation in 2014 and Cooke will be fully implemented in 2018, mostly using what the industry refers to as “off-the-shelf ” technologies. The proposed Phase 2 standards would be met through wider deployment of existing and advanced technologies, according to EPA, and will begin in model-year 2021. Phase 2 will, for the first time, include requirements for trailers, and will begin implementation in model-year 2018. Phase 2 will culminate in standards for model-year 2027. The Phase 2 final rule is expected to be released by EPA in August.

“This is a program that looks at three categories of vehicles and trailers, which is a new thing,” Schaeffer says. “Each one of those three categories of vehicles have different targets to achieve, fuel economy improvements and GHG emissions reductions, the largest and most significant of which is heavy-duty Class 8. The vision was to slash GHG emissions by 40 percent from the 2010 baseline.”

Cooke says in total, the combined Phase 1 and 2 regulations should increase average fuel economy from tractor-trailers from just under 6 miles per gallon (mpg) to more than 10 mpg for the average new tractor-trailer. “However,” he says, “with growing miles traveled by freight and commercial traffic, these rules will only act to maintain current levels of emissions from this sector in the 2030-’35 timeframe. Further improvements will be necessary to meet longterm GHG objectives.”

Since most of the technologies employed to date have been off the shelf, there has 32 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JULY 2016

not been a tremendous physical appearance change in heavy-duty transport so far. “We’re talking basic things like idle reduction has become more standard, greater optimization of the combustion process of the engine, and making the powertrain work better together,” Schaeffer says. “But with Phase 2, now things get interesting.”

In part, these new standards will help offset fuel economy losses resulting from criteria pollutant reductions through use of aftertreatment systems that use extra diesel fuel for regeneration in DPFs, for instance, and greater backpressures from additional catalysts in the exhaust system. “Improving the engine efficiency is first and foremost, via reducing losses from aftertreatment systems, recovering wasted exhaust heat and turning that into usable energy, improved air flow and more efficient turbochargers, and more,” Cooke says. “The rise in automated manual transmissions allows for not just more efficient drivers, but also an integrated powertrain that maximizes the amount of time an engine spends at its most efficient points. And, of course, we continue to see reductions in road load, both through improved rolling resistance tires and especially aerodynamic improvements. Aero improvements to the tractor and trailer are critical to achieving the types of gains we anticipate.”

Schaeffer says almost never are the truck and trailer thought of as a single unit—until now. “They’re owned by different people,” he says. “Trailers are a fungible commodity. We’re not that far into the regulatory rule for trailers, but it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.” Matching the truck and trailer can produce what Schaeffer says is a “superoptimal, highly efficient outcome.” He references Daimler Trucks North America LLC’s Freightliner SuperTruck, unveiled last year at the Mid-America Trucking Show.

“By incorporating a mix of available technologies with future innovations, we were able to use the SuperTruck program to take the first steps in seeing what may be technically possible and commercially viable,” said Derek Rotz, principal investigator for SuperTruck, DTNA. The U.S. DOE’s SuperTruck program was a five-year research and development initiative to improve freight efficiency by at least 50 percent, brake thermal efficiency by 50 percent, and reduce fuel consumption and GHG of Class 8 trucks. One key initiative of Daimler’s SuperTruck was exploring how the

tractor and trailer should be designed and optimized as a single system, not separate units.

Closing the gap vastly improves aerodynamics.

Though Schaeffer notes engines will continue to get more efficient, it’s not from where the bulk of the benefits are to come. “Because we’ve been working on optimizing the diesel combustion process for so long, we’ll have less gains there than from areas that have not been dealt with before,” he says. These new areas include, for instance, deliberately lightweighting trucks and trailers by using aluminum instead of steel wheels, or by use of super single tires.

“Instead of having a tractor with dual wheels on twin rear axles, now we’re looking at replacing them with one large tire, which will maintain the needed footprint on the road, but cut down on inherent inefficiencies on two wheels running together, while also losing weight, given no extra hub assemblies.”

With Phase 1 and 2, there is a direct monetary payback that far surpasses the costs associated with implementation. According to EPA, the buyer of a new long-haul truck in 2027 would recoup the extra cost of the technology in less than two years through fuel savings. Phase 2 will save vehicle owners about $170 billion in fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the regulatory time frame.

Furthermore, the standards will result in approximately $230 billion in net benefits over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the regulatory timeframe, while costing the affected industry less than one-tenth that amount (about $25 billion over the same period).

The consensus is that similar GHG emissions and fuel economy standards will not be implemented for locomotive and marine sectors in the U.S. “It’s too complicated to do at this point,” Schaeffer says. And developing an international GHG reduction strategy would be an even more tremendous feat to accomplish. “We need standards that govern international freight, but the detailed process to work that out is beyond my expertise,” Martin says.

“The climate doesn’t care which jurisdiction the CO2 came from. It has the same effect of warming the climate, so as we move into considering international shipping, it’s big enough that we can’t ignore it.”

Rail and marine transport per ton of cargo is quite efficient compared to over-theroad trucking. As a sector, Schaeffer says, marine emissions are low on the pecking order for GHG emissions. “For energy use, ships

ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦ and boats only account for 3 percent in 2014, according to EPA, while heavy-duty trucks and buses account for 20 percent,” he says.

However, in a scientific research study titled, Potential Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Transatlantic Wood Pellet Trade, by Puneet Dwivedi, Madhu Khanna, Robert Bailis and Adrian Ghilardi, the authors indicate that while GHG emissions from transportation of feedstock is relatively small (3 percent) of the overall GHG emissions for wood pellets, the GHG emissions from the transatlantic shipment of pellets are second only to the manufacturing process itself, meaning there is significant room for improvement. The actual burning of the wood pellets comes in a distant third.

“Transportation is absolutely part of the life-cycle analysis,” Martin says. “But we’ve got some pretty dirty fuels as part of the mix.

You’re not going to get any deep reductions without addressing all sectors.”

Fuels

“When we talk about the diesels of the future, the idea of getting to clean and near zero, it’s the ticket just to get in the door for future discussion,” Schaeffer says. “We have to think about how diesel can improve efficiency, reduce its carbon footprint, reduce barriers.

Just envision, what if in 10 years diesels are not even running on diesel fuel? That’s happening today. With some of the renewable diesel fuels out there, like from Neste, that whole area of producing lower carbon fuels from renewable sources is a major lifeline to the future as we like to think of it.”

Biodiesel, renewable diesel, synthetic diesel from biomass—they all can contribute significantly to reducing GHG emissions and criteria pollutants like PM from legacy heavyduty vehicles, marine vessels and locomotives.

“That’s definitely important,” Martin says. “As this administration moves toward heavy-duty efficiency standards, cleaning up those fuels is definitely relevant. We could make a significant difference cleaning up the fuel supply chain.”

More than 78 percent of the diesel vehicles coming off U.S. production lines today are approved for use with 20 percent biodiesel (B20), according to the National Biodiesel Board. Notably, all of Detroit’s Big Three Automakers—Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler—have supported high biodiesel blends for nearly a decade. Among U.S. heavyduty truck segments, which account for more

than 87 percent of actual diesel fuel usage, every major engine manufacturer supports B20 in their new engines, except for Daimler’s Detroit Diesel, which remains at B5. Furthermore, ISO 8217, the prevailing marine fuel specification, recently passed an allowance of 7 percent biodiesel.

As fuel economy standards and concerns increase, it is fair game to question where biodiesel and renewable diesel stand in this context.

“B100 biodiesel contains about 10 percent less McCormick energy per gallon than conventional diesel fuel, such that a B20 blend contains 2 percent less energy,” says Robert McCormick, principal engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. “To a first approximation, mpg fuel economy is proportional to fuel energy content. In my opinion, a 2 percent reduction in fuel energy content is too small for a consumer to measure or notice, given all of the other factors that affect fuel economy and the variation in energy density of conventional diesel fuels.” McCormick says renewable diesel has about 5 percent lower energy content per gallon than conventional diesel.

Scott Fenwick, technical director for NBB, says while B100 has a slightly lower energy content than petroleum diesel, he doesn’t believe this necessarily translates to lower fuel economy. “A Fenwick study performed by Purdue University concluded that there was no difference in fuel economy when comparing trucks after an entire calendar year operating on ULSD vs. B20,” Fenwick says. “Engine oil analysis, along with the service and maintenance were also found to be similar for the two fleets analyzed.” He says many additional vehicle and engine manufacturers are just now investigating the qualities of renewable diesel. “Some have approved its use while other applications, such as the railroad industry, are just beginning to evaluate its performance,” Fenwick says.

How biodiesel and renewable diesel perform in new diesel technologies is also an area of concern. Since biodiesel first got its ASTM

fuel quality specification in 2002, it has gone through 21 revisions, many of which were adaptations to concerns from OEMs over changing diesel technologies, such as implementation of aftertreatment systems. “Our industry prides itself on being responsive to the concerns of OEMs,” Fenwick says.

“With support from NBB, NREL has done research on how B20 blends affect the performance of diesel emission control systems for more than eight years now,” McCormick says. “The main concern has been the very low levels of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium that can be present in B100 as residues from the manufacturing process.

These are limited in the ASTM standard for B100 (D 6751) to 5 parts per million (ppm) of sodium plus potassium, and 5 ppm of calcium plus magnesium—although quality surveys show that actual levels are usually well below these limits. Calcium and magnesium are present in engine lubricant, and so are not expected to impact the performance of diesel oxidation catalysts or selective catalytic NOx reduction catalysts. For heavy-duty trucks, full useful life is over 400,000 miles. We have conducted tests simulating 435,000-mile exposure of emission control systems to engine exhaust from B20 blended from B100 at the metals specification limit. In these tests, we have not observed significant loss of catalyst activity. Questions remain about the potential for these ash-forming metals to increase the frequency of diesel particulate filter clean out, although this seems unlikely given the very low, below-specification limit levels observed in the field.”

Cooke adds, “As we look out to 2030 and beyond, we know that fuel switching will need to play a greater and greater role to continue to drive down emissions. And investments in those technologies will need to be incentivized over the next decade to bring them to market in sufficient capacity.”

Author: Ron Kotrba Senior Editor, Biomass Magazine 218-745-8347 rkotrba@bbiinternational.com

JULY 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 33

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