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Cabrone
Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 635
Location: London
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 Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject: Gasifying Biomass with Sunlight |
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Here is yet another interesting idea coming out of the US.
Good to see that - despite a load of negative press - the movers and shakers over there are pushing lots of innovative ideas.
| Quote: | Sundrop Fuels, a startup based in Louisville, CO, says it has developed a cleaner and more efficient way to turn biomass into synthetic fuels by harnessing the intense heat of the sun to vaporize wood and crop waste. Its process can produce twice the amount of gasoline or diesel per ton of biomass compared to conventional biomass gasification systems, the company claims.
Gasification occurs when dry biomass or other carbon-based materials are heated to above 700 ºC in the presence of steam. At those temperatures, most of the biomass is converted to a synthetic gas. This "syngas" is made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are the chemical building blocks for higher-value fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and gasoline.
But the heat required for this process usually comes from a portion of the biomass being gasified. "You end up burning 30 to 35 percent of the biomass," says Alan Weimer, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
A few years ago, Weimer and his research team began looking at ways of using concentrated solar heat to drive the gasification process. It worked so well that Weimer and Chris Perkins, the graduate student who came up with the idea, went on to cofound Copernican Energy to commercialize the approach. Copernican was acquired by Sundrop Fuels in 2008, and its solar-reactor technology is now at the heart of a 1.5-megawatt thermal solar gasification demonstration facility in Colorado. |
Technology Review
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kenneal - lagger
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Joined: 20 Sep 2006
Posts: 7069
Location: Newbury, Berkshire
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:48 am Post subject: |
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It's a shame we have to be so greedy. If a lower temperature was used initially, biochar, I think it's about 40%, could be formed for sequestration of carbon and soil fertilization. The gaseous and tarry remainder could then be heated further to completely gasify the tars for fuel production.
We are no better than yeast.
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