Evergreen BioFuels starts offering competitive biomass pellets for utilities

Montreal-based Evergreen BioFuels (EBF), a developer of sustainable and carbon-neutral bioenergy fuels for powering utilities, announced today the availability of its 'Power Pellets' biofuel. Power Pellets are clean-burning solid biomass fuels that drastically reduce carbon dioxide output without costing billions of dollars in installation and lost revenue. EBF is introducing Power Pellets at a time when U.S. federal and state legislators are looking to restrain the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the U.S. thirty percent of carbon dioxide emissions are generated by utilities and industry. Many researchers see biomass co-firing as the most feasible answer for radical reduction of industrial CO2 output.

The pellets made by EBF consist of condensed wood, agriculture crop and industrial fibers and can be developed and manufactured without relying on government subsidies or driving up the market value for food commodities due to the current diversion of food crops such as corn to liquid biofuels.

Substituting a portion of carbon emitting fuels like coal with Power Pellets and co-firing them together will allow utilities to see an immediate reduction in their carbon footprint. Co-firing – the combined combustion of coal and biomass – and can work within existing plant infrastructure without the need for replacement or retrofit of current technology and equipment thus directly reducing net CO2 emissions (more on co-firing here, and the numerous references there). EBF Power Pellets are available in three different formats: bulk, one ton sacs, or on pallets of 1 ton or 1.5 tons containing individual Power Pellet branded bags.

According to EBF, energy generated from the fuel is currently highly competitive with coal, natural gas and fuel oil (table, click to enlarge). These cost-estimates are roughly consistent with independent analyses which show that of all fuels and energy systems, co-firing biomass currently and in the future offers the least costly way of generating energy:
energy :: sustainability :: climate change :: greenhouse gas emissions :: fossil fuels :: coal :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: co-firing ::

In addition to making its Power Pellets available to the industrial marketplace, EBF is currently working directly with plants and utilities on developing and implementing sustainable and clean-burning alternative fuel.

EBF is also piloting innovative research studies into progressive bioenergy sources for its suite of Power Pellets products including switchgrass, fast-growing willow and agriculture byproducts, ultimately resulting in future environmentally-conscious alternatives to current fossil fuel technology.

"Current carbon reduction solutions for utilities which include carbon sequestration, are at least 15 to 20 years away from being feasible, while state and local legislators vigorously push for mandates and limits on carbon dioxide emissions," says Dr. Janusz A. Kozinski, Dean, College of Engineering, at University of Saskatchewan and International Chair of Bioenergy Europe, Institute for Advanced Studies, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. "Large power plants need a viable carbon-reducing solution that can be quickly implemented without disrupting day-to-day plant operations."

But even though carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies may be a decade away, if biomass is used in such systems, the resulting energy becomes carbon-negative, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions radically. This makes biomass a highly attractive fuel, because no other energy system yields carbon-negative power. Scientists have found the use of 'Bio-energy with Carbon Storage' (BECS) to be one of the only cost-effective ways of mitigating global warming if the planet were to face an 'abrupt climate change' scenario. According to some, we are already nearing such a dangerous future.

References:
Biopact: Quick comparison of renewable energy and fossil fuel prices - February 26, 2007.

Biopact has been writing numerous pieces on carbon-negative bioenergy. A starting point would be a recent article: Policy and regulatory framework crucial for CCS success, and the references and links there.