Farming is one of the largest industries in the world and generates significant amounts of agricultural waste. This waste has been targeted as a prime feedstock for the production of energy, fuel, and chemicals. It…
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Environmental Permitting in Renewable Fuels
What does an environmental permitting expert do? Most large projects, both domestic and overseas, must complete some form of Environmental Impact Study (EIS). The general scope and format of an EIS is government-mandated and is…
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Using Biomass to Produce Energy
Using biomass to produce energy makes sense because biomass and biofuels made from biomass are alternative energy sources to fossil fuels—coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Thus, while burning fossil fuels or biomass does release carbon…
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Burning Wood for Energy
Is burning wood for energy a good idea? Certainly, using wood, wood pellets, and charcoal for heating and cooking can replace fossil fuels and may result in lower CO2 emissions overall. Also, wood can be…
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Gasification Technologies
In gasification technology selection, a necessary initial step is to narrow the search down to a smaller subset of gasification technologies that best match the application and have achieved the necessary technology readiness level (TRL). …
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Collection of Landfill Gas or Biogas
Biogas results from the metabolic activity of microorganisms on organic matter. It is created in the biological processes in sewage treatment plants, waste landfills, and livestock manure management systems. Landfill gas is a type of…
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Biomass Pyrolysis Comes of Age
By Dr. Lorenz Bauer, Lee Enterprises Consulting After many years of development biomass pyrolysis is finally maturing as a commercial technology. Pyrolysis is not incineration. The goal is to use heat in the absence of oxygen…
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Burning Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Burning municipal solid waste (MSW) or garbage in waste-to-energy plants certainly results in less waste being buried in landfills. However, burning this garbage has the potential to produce air pollution and release chemicals into the…
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Algae Energy
Algae represent a potentially promising resource for energy and food production due to their high photosynthetic efficiency. An acre of land growing algae can produce 50 tons of biomass per acre compared to 1 to…
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Liquid Biofuels: Ethanol and Biodiesel
Liquid biofuels are transportation fuels including such fuels as ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuels. The federal government promotes biofuels as transportation fuels to help reduce oil imports and CO2 emissions. In 2007,…
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