Foresters demonstrate hot new technology

[Fledermaus]

ROSEBURG, Ore. -- Three mobile pyrolysis demonstrations have been scheduled for southern Oregon and one presentation is planned for northeastern Oregon.

Fast pyrolysis is a thermal process that rapidly heats woody biomass to a controlled temperature of 500 degrees Celsius, and then quickly cools the volatile products. The process yields about 60 percent bio-oil, 25 percent bio-char and 15 percent syngas.

The syngas is recycled into the combustion chamber of mobile plants to increase efficiency and reduce the need for an outside energy source for operations. The bio-oil and bio-char are also collected for later use. Bio-oil can be refined into No. 2 diesel fuel or used for industrial heating. Bio-char can be used as a soil amendment.

Umpqua National Forest and Oregon's Douglas County are sponsoring three demonstrations of a portable fast-pyrolysis unit: Aug. 19 at the Lemolo Sand Shed on Highway 138 at milepost 72; Aug. 22 at the Swanson mill site in Glide, Ore.; and Aug. 26 at 1749 Merlin Rd., Merlin, Ore. Mixed conifers will be processed at Lemolo, cedar and oak from private land will be processed at Glide, and madrone from state lands will be processed at Merlin.

http://www.capitalpress.info/content/cr-demo081409

[LiberalEsto]

1. I can hear the screams of the trees nt

[Fotoware58]

2. Do they not also...

scream when they die in wildfires and bark beetle attacks? Do they not scream for water when there are too many of them for the amount of rainfall? Forests do suffer when they are outside of their natural balances.

[Fotoware58]

3. Impressive breakthrough or tree murder?

I'd like to hear your thoughts about this new technology, and what it could do for/to our forests.

Thanks

[Fledermaus]

4. Appart for the pure technical aspects, I can describe hopes and wishes in one word.

Mutualism
Mutualism is a biological interaction between two organisms, where each individual derives a fitness benefit, for example increased survivorship.

[Fotoware58]

5. One-way trip

There is no "mutualism" in our forests right now. The powers that be have decided that the Indian way of dealing with their forests was severely flawed and that "letting nature take its course" is the best way, despite the rash of intensely-damaging catastrophic wildfires, man-caused, or not.

[Fledermaus]

6. At the present time, the best hope is biogas and native grasses.

As these mutualistic societies grow, I expect them to adapt and move into other ecosystems.

Electricity From Grass, Manure, And Organic Waste: Evonik Setting Its Stakes On Eco-Friendly Biogas

To make biogas flow, you need to have billions of "workers". The "workers" in this case are actually countless bacteria. They convert the biomaterial into methane, the fuel that powers the combined heat and power (CHP) plant of a biogas unit like the one Evonik Industries AG operates in Karstädt. Here, the biogas unit runs on manure and organic waste. From a neighboring dairy farm, the manure is piped underground to the unit. Road tankers and other trucks bring organic waste — such as frozen food products that have fallen out of the distribution chain, or residues from biodiesel production — to the facility. It takes enormous expertise to run a biogas plant. The bacteria require conditions that call for a certain composition of biomaterials. „Too much fat and alcohol aren‘t good for bacteria, either," says Christina Schumann, a chemical engineer employed at the biogas facility. If the bacteria are properly tended to, they work extremely hard. In just one hour, they produce 500 cubic meters of gas from manure and organic waste, which is all the facility‘s gas buffer tank can hold at one time.

http://www.electricnet.com/article.mvc/Electricity-From-Grass-Manure-And-Organic-0001

Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass

Biofuels derived from low-input high-diversity (LIHD) mixtures of native grassland perennials can provide more usable energy, greater greenhouse gas reductions, and less agrichemical pollution per hectare than can corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel. High-diversity grasslands had increasingly higher bioenergy yields that were 238% greater than monoculture yields after a decade. LIHD biofuels are carbon negative because net ecosystem carbon dioxide sequestration (4.4 megagram hectare–1 year–1 of carbon dioxide in soil and roots) exceeds fossil carbon dioxide release during biofuel production (0.32 megagram hectare–1 year–1). Moreover, LIHD biofuels can be produced on agriculturally degraded lands and thus need to neither displace food production nor cause loss of biodiversity via habitat destruction.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/314/5805/1598

Biogas potential

The total biogas potential of digestion of domestic residual
products in Sweden is 10.6 TWh/year. This is equivalent to
12% of the energy consumption attributable to road transport.
The potential for biogas produced from the combustion of
residual products from the forest industry in Sweden is estimated
to be 59 TWh/year. One of the advantages of biogas is
that waste and residual products are used. It is also a domestic
fuel which is produced locally and the process does not involve
any competition with food production.
In total, biogas can replace more than half of all petroleum and
diesel used in Swedish road transport.

http://www.businessregiongoteborg.com/download/18.3b74207e11cacd3cffe80008819/biogas_b2b_eng_low-res.pdf

[Fledermaus]

7. INNOVAS Two-Stage High Efficient Biogas Plant Hamlar - english Version

INNOVAS Two-Stage High Efficient Biogas Plant Hamlar - english Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYntOAAQZZ4