RCI Biomass Project - RCI Engineering LLC

RCI Biomass Project

Biomass Co-operative Development

What is Biomass? Corn stover, grasses, and wood are the most abundant types.

RCI Engineering was recently awarded a grant from DATCP to conduct a feasibility study for a locally owned biomass aggregation and densification facility. The purpose of the facility is to buy biomass from local producers, provide storage, and process the biomass into a usable fuel. This processing will consist of drying, particle sizing, and densification (compressed into pellets).

We believe a locally owned facility will provide the most economic benefit to the community, by paying producers for their biomass and in addition returning the profits to them. Further, local ownership will ensure it acts in the best interests of the community.

If plans move forward for setting up the co-operative and building the facility, the fuel will be available for sale to be used for heat. A biomass fuel will be cheaper than wood pellets, have similar heat characteristics to wood pellets, although be higher in ash content.

If you are a producer that is interested in receiving updates on progress, joining the co-operative, or selling biomass to the co-operative, please email us at dcook@rciengineering.com with your contact information. You can be added to our mailing and email lists. Further, if you are interested in producing biomass for the co-operative, please download and complete the "Indication of Interest Form". Submission of an indication of interest form is not a commitment to provide any material and is only used to provide us with needed information to determine how we will proceed. Those that submit the forms at this time will be given preference if-and-when the time arrives to begin sourcing biomass.

The timeline for this project is fairly short. The State of Wisconsin is upgrading its heat facility on the UW campus and has made the decision to use biomass fuel in combination with natural gas. They currently expect to use up to 250,000 tons of biomass annually. This potential large consumer is the driver for this project in the Madison area. A consumer of this size provides the economy of scale needed to make a biomass fuel facility financially viable. The upgrades are expected to be completed in winter of 2013.

The first set of public meetings were held as an educational seminar on biomass production. We encouraged you to attend. They were held at the Extension offices in Columbia County Jan 20^th; Jefferson County Jan 22^nd; and Dane County Jan 25^th.

For more information on biomass production check out these websites:
Corn stover: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/pdf%20files/residue_sheet.pdf
Switchgrass: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM2042.pdf

Indication of Interest Form

What is biomass about?

Biomass is a category of renewable energy that generally is a much more environmentally friendly, sustainable source of energy, compared to conventional sources. Bioenergies have always provided social benefits such as reduced dependence of foreign energy, reduced pollution, and support of your local economy. Due to the past few years of increasing and extremely volatile energy markets, many are looking for cost saving alternatives, and are turning to conservation, bioenergies, or both. Most forms of bioenergy have stable prices. As a generality, biomass for heat will cost cheaper than the 5-year average for natural gas. Biomass for other energy needs have too large of a range, specific to your situation, to give a rule of thumb.

Biomass feedstocks (the carbon-based material that comprises biomass) are typically low value, high bulk density carbon-based materials. There are thousands of different feedstocks, with the two most abundant being agricultural residues/crops and forestry resources. The feedstock(s) that should be chosen need to meet your needs and be available in the quantities required, all at an acceptable price. Most of the feedstocks, due to their nature, can offer stable prices, as compared to a conventional energy market ridden with extreme volatility.

What can biomass be used for?

Today, biomass is primarily used for heat and/or electrical generation. Biomass can be economically superior, in most cases, to propane or natural gas for use in heat and in combined heat and power applications. It is also competitive in an increasing number of coal boilers as well, however this varies by situation. Tomorrow, biomass will be used, we believe, for heat, power, a significant portion of transportation fuels, and some replacements for petroleum based products (i.e. bio-plastics, bio-fiberglass).

Biomass consists of three main components: a feedstock, a conversion process, and an intermediate or final product. The feedstocks can be from hundreds of organic materials. A few are corn stover, wood, switchgrass, miscanthus, and paper. There are numerous conversion processes and hundreds more variation thereof that lead to an equal number of end products. The major conversion processes are: processing and densification, gasification, reforming via catalysts, pressing/chemical extraction, fermentation, and microbial processing. Processing and densification is the aggregation, processing, compressing, and shaping of biomass feedstocks to make a high bulk density product that meets the needs of the next conversion process or for final use, such as fuel for heat and/or power. Gasification is the thermal processing of feedstocks into syngas, a gas that can be burned for heat and/or power or it can be further processed into synthetic oil products. Reforming via catalysts can take a few inputs, most frequently sugar or syngas, and reform the molecules into synthetic petroleum products. Pressing/chemical extraction is the separation of oil from the feedstock, for use as petroleum products. Fermentation is the use of microbes to turn sugars into alcohol (ethanol), for use in transportation fuels. Microbial processing is similar to fermentation, however the end product is not alcohol.

All of these feedstocks and conversion processes require widely ranging capital and operating expenses, as well as minimal to high risk systems. It is critical to do a thorough analysis of systems being considered to make the best decision possible.