By Marcia Wood

February 6, 2012

Link to USDA ARS original posting: Click Here

When grapes are crushed to make wine, or olives pressed to make olive oil, tons of natural leftovers—grape skins and broken olive pits, for instance—remain for the wineries and olive mills to deal with. Today, these leftovers are typically sold for compost or as an ingredient for livestock feed.

But chemist Bor-Sen Chiou and colleagues at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., along with coinvestigators at Renewable Fuel Technologies in San Mateo, Calif., envision converting these natural byproducts into pellets of biocoal, a fuel.

Other raw materials targeted as possible biocoal candidates include the peels that accumulate when tomatoes are turned into catsup, juice or tomato paste, and the mountains of shells and hulls created when walnuts and almonds are processed.

Biocoal from agricultural residues, as well as leftovers from logging of forests, for example, has the potential to become an economical, sustainable, environmentally friendly energy source that might prove suitable for fueling coal-fired energy plants, according to Chiou.

Under the terms of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Chiou and collaborators at the San Mateo firm plan to determine the cost-effectiveness and energy values of biocoal produced in a mobile processing unit that the company is developing. In a process known as torrefaction (from the French word for “roasting”), crop leftovers placed inside the portable unit would be heated to 500 to 572 degrees Fahrenheit in the absence of oxygen. The light, dry, torrified material would then be ground and pressed into water-repellent pellets that are easy to ship and store.

Neither torrefaction nor biocoal is new, but the agricultural and forestry uses that the scientists are investigating have not yet been widely commercialized in the United States, according to Chiou.

ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Chiou’s biocoal studies are one example of ARS research nationwide that supports the USDA priority of developing new sources of bioenergy.

SERC is continuing its work with Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT) on torrefaction. Torrefaction is the process of heating biomass to 250 – 300 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen.

The resulting product, referred to by RFT as “BioCoal,” has a higher energy density and is easier to pelletize than raw biomass. It is also hydrophobic, meaning it does not absorb water. These properties make BioCoal easier and less costly to store and transport compared to raw biomass. BioCoal can be used as a feedstock for liquid biofuels or co-fired in a coal power plant, thus replacing fossil fuels with a renewable energy source.

SERC and RFT are just completing a project for Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. that produced more than 50 pounds of torrefied Miscanthus grass. Miscanthus is a perennial grass that is getting a lot of attention as an energy crop. The fast growing grass can achieve high biomass yields and can be grown on marginal lands currently not under cultivation. Mendel has developed a hybrid that is more easily propagated than current public varieties, and they are working to create hybrids that are custom tailored for different climates and growing regions.

Read Full Article, click HERE.

A Visit with CSU Chancellor Reed

While up at the Schatz Energy Research Center working on the Mendel project, CEO Mark Wechsler had an opportunity to discuss Torrefaction and RFT’s prototype BioCoal Processer, with HSU President Rollin Richmond and California CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, while Chancellor Reed was visiting Humboldt State University.

President Rollin Richmond, SERC Research Engineer Kyle Palmer, Chancellor Charles Reed, and Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT) CEO Mark Wechsler discussing SERC and RFT’s torrefaction research partnership. Photo credit Kellie Jo Brown.

Foreground: RFT CEO Mark Wechsler and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed - Photo Credit Kelly Jo Brown

Monday, June 13, 2011:  Humboldt, CA and San Mateo, CA- Renewable Fuel Technologies and the Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC) today announced a research partnership.  Together with Humboldt State University’s Department of Forestry they will study torrefaction – a heat process that removes water and breaks down forest waste, producing a dry material that burns cleanly.

The research partners’ ultimate goal is to develop a renewable replacement for coal.   RFT has made available its demonstration-scale, mobile torrefaction prototype for research, experiments, and evaluations.

Mobile torrefaction holds great promise in converting woody biomass to clean fuel:  the greatest cost to industry has been transporting it from the forest source to a conversion site.  Fuel, equipment and logistics costs have, until now, greatly reduced biomass’ commercial viability.

…Read the full Media Release HERE

Contacts:

Bill Leavy b.leavy at renewablefueltech dot com (408) 409-0653

Paul Mann Paul.Mann at humoldt dot edu (707) 826-5105

Issues in the Forest is aimed at informing dialogue on topics relevant to sustainable forestry today.  “We hope the extensive research compressed into a one-page format will help keep our partners and other interested parties up-to-speed on fast moving and critical forestry topics,” said Endowment President Carlton Owen.

The first publication,  includes Renewable Fuel Technologies in the list of known U.S. Companies pursuing Torrefaction.

“Torrefaction: A Woody Biomass Companion to Coal – April 2011″

TORREFACTION, the old coffee bean roasting process, is being touted by some as verging on making woody biomass the perfect renewable match with coal. Torrefied wood is superior to chips and pellets for use in electrical generation because it looks and acts much like coal including a similar Btu value (10,000/lb vs. an average 11,500/lb for coal), is easily pulverized and water resistance.

Torrefaction removes moisture from raw biomass by charring the wood in the absence of oxygen at temperatures ranging from 390 to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. The lignin and cellulose become brittle, much like coal, while the remaining volatile organic compounds, like pinene and turpene, generate process heat thus less smoke associated with burning.

Read the full article HERE

Exerpt SERC’s Energy News Spring 2011:

SERC’s recently launched collaboration with biomass energy startup Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT) reached an important milestone on April 7, when a group of U.S. Forest Service officials, professional foresters, and biomass specialists from across the country convened at SERC for a Torrefaction Research, Development, and Commercialization Meeting.

The meeting included a demonstration of RFT’s protytype torrefier that had been recently moved to SERC. Many of the meeting participants, including RFT’s technical and business leadership team, braved late-season storms and a major landslide to make the trek up from the Bay Area.

The meeting took place just days after SERC and RFT engineers first got the newly arrived torrefier up and running in the courtyard at the new SERC building. A torrefier is a device that heats and dries woody biomass in an oxygen-free reactor. The solid end product has a higher energy density than the feedstock biomass and can be co-fired with coal in conventional power plants, thus directly replacing fossil fuel with a renewable energy source. The torrefier also captures the energy-rich gases given off by the biomass during torrefaction. These torr gases can be used to produce all the heat and electric power needed to drive the torrefier, thus making it a stand-alone device and able to process wood in remote forest locations where no utility power is available.

Under an agreement with RFT, SERC engineers will work in the coming months to perform a complete torrefaction energy and mass balance and characterize the torrefier’s performance under a range of operating variables, including reactor temperature, feedstock moisture content, feedstock tree species, and dwell time of biomass in the reactor. The prototype unit produces five pounds per hour of torrefied wood.

As the Schatz Energy Research Center settles into its new building, researchers have welcomed a new piece of equipment as well. The machine–a torrefier–is on loan from Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT), a San Mateo, Calif., start-up business, and is used to transform biomass into renewable energy. RFT and the center are expected to get the machine up and running in late March.

Through torrefaction, vegetative waste–or biomass–is heated without oxygen to temperatures between 250 and 300 degrees Celsius. The result is a cleaner-burning, energy-dense renewable energy source that RFT calls BioCoal.

“We recognize that it’s going to be important to be involved in biomass work. Often, the slash from logging or the residue from fuel reduction cuts just gets burned. It’s a waste of energy and it adds to pollution.  But when biomass is wet and green, it’s often not worth the time and energy to take it out of the forest.” – Schatz Lab co-director Peter Lehman.

The torrefier that researchers will be working with, the RFT BioCoal Processor, is a prototype, but the hope is Schatz Lab’s involvement will help RFT design a commercially viable system that is also self-sustaining.

Read Full Article. Click HERE

BioCoal from Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT) helps renew forests; works in existing fossil fuel power plants

Monday, February 7th, 2011: Pittsburg, CA – California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and power generator GWF Power Systems, L.P. today reported a successful test burn of RFT’s BioCoal, a new clean, high-energy renewable fuel. Twelve hundred pounds of BioCoal were co-fired during the two-hour test at GWF’s Pittsburg petcoke power plant, and was the first of its kind test in the western United States. The test generated approximately one megawatt hour of electric energy, which was delivered to PG&E without changes in operations.

The BioCoal was produced from woody debris provided by PG&E’s vegetation management team using RFT’s demonstration mobile torrefaction processor. BioCoal is a carbon-neutral, coal-grade fuel that is free of mercury, sulfur and toxic ash.

KEMA, a leading global authority on energy consulting, testing and certification, witnessed the test burn and verified that the power plant stayed within its normal operating range during the test. No power plant modifications were needed.
Thursday’s test burn comes at a critical time both economically and politically: California legislation requires utilities and their power providers to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, even as they increase renewable energy production. They need to evaluate emerging renewable technologies that can help them achieve these challenging goals.

“It is important that we develop renewable energy solutions that can leverage our existing power generating infrastructure,” said Renewable Fuel Technologies CEO Mark Wechsler. “Power providers can use BioCoal in their existing power plants exactly as they’ve been using their traditional solid fossil fuels. Viable renewable fuel solutions that increase fuel diversity and supply and are simultaneously economically attractive can be an important part of California’s future.”

KEMA believes torrefied biomass shows good promise as a renewable fuel. Dick Bratcher, KEMA Senior Principal Consultant said, “Our studies in North America and Europe indicate that torrefied biomass can be a high-value replacement for coal or other solid fossil fuels used in generating electricity. The process being developed by RFT has the potential to create a cost-effective supply of renewable biomass that also provides other environmental benefits.”

Proprietary mobile torrefaction technology
Torrefaction is a heat process that removes water and breaks down wood, producing a dry, solid material with high energy content. RFT’s patent-pending process is unique in the industry: its trailer-based mobile torrefaction processors can convert woody debris at its source in the forest, safely and economically.

“Converting forest waste into a cost-effective renewable fuel serves a dual purpose,” said RFT’s Wechsler. “It enhances the health of forests across the state and creates a large new source of renewable fuel that can help the state achieve its renewable energy objectives.”

Mobile torrefaction is compatible with forest management protocols: American forests are overgrown with brush and small trees, putting them at risk of out-of-control forest fires. Removing slash, as forestry debris is known, is critical to restoring healthy forest conditions. Until now, slash had little commercial value, so each season; most of it was gathered up and burned — at significant expense to the state.

Renewable Fuel Technologies
RFT develops torrefaction technology that enables compact, energy self–sufficient mobile torrefaction processors which convert woody biomass into BioCoal, a clean renewable fuel that transports, stores and burns like coal.

GWF Energy
Since 1989, the GWF family of companies have constructed, owned and operated nine power plants in California with a combined generation capacity of over 500 megawatts.

Direct RFT Contact: Bill Leavy
b.leavy@ renewablefueltech.com
Tel: (408) 409 – 0653

General RFT Contact info

Download media-release here.

Predictable and consistent biomass energy delivery for power generators

January 26, 2011: San Mateo, CA and Mikkeli, Finland – Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT) and MHG Systems Ltd (MHG) today announced a distribution and support agreement for MHG Systems’ BioEnergy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, marking a key step forward in developing the distributed supply chains necessary to support utility scale BioCoal production.
Under the terms of the agreement, MHG Systems, whose ERP software is widely used for woody biomass management in Europe, will customize its BioEnergy ERP software to work seamlessly with RFT’s mobile torrefaction processors. RFT will provide BioEnergy ERP to its forest land owner and power generating customers. MHG Systems will deliver the solution as a hosted service, which can be accessed from computers or mobile devices.

Power generators need reliable and predictable supplies of fuel, and they need detailed information about the quantity, energy content, location and origin for their renewable biomass fuels. Utility scale biomass utilization can not be commercially viable without a well-designed, comprehensive ERP system: Harvesting is carried out on a small scale in many widely distributed remote forest locations. Harvests can vary widely, depending on local conditions. Therefore, it’s essential to have modeling tools that can accurately forecast BioCoal yields.

“Power generators and forest land owners need accurate and scalable capacity-planning and monitoring tools if they are to have the kind of supply chains they need to bring biomass from the source to the power plants,” said Mark Wechsler, CEO RFT. “Mobile in-forest torrefaction processors will greatly enhance the utility of forest biomass as a renewable power generation fuel.”

Seppo Huurinainen, Managing Director MHG Systems said, “Mobile in-forest BioCoal production managed by BioEnergy ERP benefits all players in the supply chain; forest land owners, harvesters, transportation suppliers and power generators. It upgrades biomass’ fuel value, reduces delivery cost, and expands the supply of biomass available for fuel production.”

For RFT, this partnership provides a consistent way to plan, manage and track BioCoal across the supply chain, from forest to the power plant. For MHG Systems, this relationship represents its entry into the US renewable fuels market. The two companies will develop a network of certified partners who can plan and configure the service for BioCoal supply chains.

More information
For more information about this press release:

Bill Leavy
Email: b.leavy@ renewablefueltech.com
Tel: 408 409 0653

Seppo Huurinainen
Email: seppo.huurinainen@ mhgsystems.com
Tel: +358 44 581 4950

Renewable Fuel Technologies
RFT develops torrefaction technology that enables compact energy self sufficient mobile torrefaction processors which convert woody biomass into BioCoal, a clean coal grade renewable fuel that transports, stores and burns like coal.

Contact information
Renewable Fuel Technologies
181 42nd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94403
Tel: 650 349 4175
Email: info@ renewablefueltech.com
Internet: http://www.renewablefueltech.com

MHG Systems Ltd
MHG Systems Ltd is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Bioenergy ERP systems. The company utilises its partner network to produce customer-oriented IT and map service solutions designed for developing Bioenergy and field work business operations. The company’s services bring significant cost savings and environmental benefits to all operators in the delivery and production chains. With MHG Systems’ services the companies can verify their social and environmental responsibilities, as the origin and the carbon dioxide emissions of the shipments can be reliably proven and all costs and earnings are available for scrutiny. MHG Systems’ ERP services merge mobile communication, Internet,GIS, NFC, RFID, satellite-based location information, CO2 and moisture monitoring technologies into one business-enhancing service, and allows the use of new and empowering operational models and real-time enterprise resource planning.

Contact information
MHG Systems Ltd
Mikpoli, Patteristonkatu 2
FIN-50100 Mikkeli
Tel: +358 (0)10 400 6280
Fax: +358 (0)10 400 6289
Email: info@ mhgsystems.com
Internet: http://www.mhgsystems.com/

Download media-release here.