Displaying items by tag: Biofuel

US: National Cement is upgrading its Lebec cement plant in California to make it carbon neutral. The upgrade involves a transition to limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) production. The producer will also substitute fossil fuels with locally-sourced biomass, including pistachio shells, in cement production. Lastly, a carbon capture installation will remove 950,000t/yr of CO₂ from the plant’s flue gases.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement plans to upgrade its Ibese cement plant in order to use biofuels in its cement production. The Nigerian Guardian newspaper has reported that the plant will receive a pneumatic feeding system for the kiln of its Line 2. Dangote Cement plans to use palm kernel shells, rice husks, coconut shells and sugarcane bagasse, along with sawdust. The producer says that this will reduce its CO₂ emissions by 5.2% and help to divert local agricultural waste from incineration.

Project head Sumaila Muhammed said “We carried out alternative fuel resource mapping within our host communities. We decided to collect these wastes and convert them into valuable energy resources as smokeless, renewable biofuel."

Spain: Mexico-based Cemex and its venture capital subsidiary Cemex Ventures have invested in Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions (WtEnergy), an energy startup company that has developed a process to transform solid waste into synthesis gas (Syngas) for industrial purposes.

WtEnergy converts biomass and non-recyclable waste into Syngas, which can be used in the short-term as a fossil fuel alternative or be upgraded in the medium- and long-term to gases such as biomethane or pure hydrogen. Cemex intends to incorporate this energy source into its clinker and cement manufacturing process, looking to further reduce the carbon footprint of its operations. Cemex aims to increase its fossil fuel substitution rate by 20% by 2030.

Gonzalo Galindo, the president of Cemex Ventures, said, “This investment aligns with our strategy to find innovative clean fuel and energy sources for the cement industry.” He added, “We have outlined an ambitious rollout strategy across multiple operations, starting with Spain and other European countries before expanding to other international markets.”

Sweden: Cementa plans to increase the share of bio-based alternative fuel (AF) in its Slite, Gotland, cement plant’s fuel mix. The move forms part of the plant’s plan to achieve climate positive cement production from 2030.

Parent company HeidelbergCement’s Northern Europe general manager Giv Brantenberg said “As we capture and store CO₂ from the cement production, including emissions from bioenergy, we will be able to manufacture carbon-free cement for the Swedish construction industry.”

India: Dalmia Cement has sought to acquire 2Mha of land from the government for use in bamboo production. The company plans to use the bamboo to produce bio-based alternative fuel (AF) for its cement production. BusinessLine News has reported that the company plans to obtain brownfield sites in order to restore them to grow the crop on.

India: JK Cement has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (PRESPL). Under the agreement, PRESPL will supply its technologies and forward-integrated value chain for use by JK Cement in scaling up alternative fuel (AF) substitution at its cement plants. The transition will focus on biomass-based fuel use.

Managing director Raghavpat Singhania said "As we embark on our journey towards decarbonisation, we commit to this MoU that allows us and PRESPL to build deeper synergies in the bio-energy sector.” He added that the agreement promised ‘a better future with a win-win for the environment, people and energy in India.’

India: UltraTech Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding with Punjab Renewable Energy Systems for the installation of biomass processing lines to produce cement fuel at three of its Indian integrated cement plants. The supplier will also build a sustainable supply chain of agricultural waste for the plants. The companies say that the deal will help to dispose of the waste, which is normally burnt in the open, and reduce the cement plants' Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Currently, the plants rely on imported coal. Additionally, it will augment incomes in local farming communities.

US: Geocycle has planted its first crop of perennial native grasses at its Dorchester, South Carolina site. The supplier says that it is trialling the crop as an alternative fuel and future biofuel for the US Southeast region. It sowed giant reed, miscane, miscanthus and switchgrass, which it praised for their ‘low establishment and upkeep costs’ and demonstrated yields of between 12t/acre and 20t/acre.

The company said, “The team is committed to actively participating in the communities’ and state’s bioenergy projects, which aim at developing the circular economy and help achieve net zero future.”

Poland: Sweden’s NextFuel AB plans to launch NextFuel, a briquette fuel made from elephant grass, at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) taking place in Katowice. The company says that its product is cheaper than and oil and coal in most markets and could be used to replace some or all of the coal normally used by a cement plant, coal plant or a steel plant. Its first operational plant is based in Austria.

The first NextFuel project is expected to reduce the CO₂ footprint of a cement factory in East Africa by 105% compared to the coal it is using at present. The cement plant also expects to cut its energy costs in half by using NextFuel instead of coal imported from South Africa. It will be able to grow Elephant Grass, the source of the fuel, next to the plant to reduce its fuel transportation costs.

Elephant Grass is a perennial tropical plant that can produce several crops in a year. Once the grass has been harvested, NextFuel says its technology requires ‘very little’ energy to produce a briquette. The company asserts that due to a quick carbon cycle and the storage of carbon, less CO₂ is released into the atmosphere when the fuel is burned than was captured from the atmosphere a few months earlier when the grass was growing. NextFuel says that annually the carbon cycle becomes negative.

After the grass is harvested, it is dried and fed into a patented reactor. This is a rotary drum, indirectly heated and operated with a low oxygen atmosphere. While inside that drum, volatile elements are separated from the grass, and the physical properties together with the energy content are transformed in less than 30 minutes. The reactor also drives out the off-gases from the grass. They are used as surplus energy to produce heat or electricity to power the facility. After the reactor is finished, the fuel is densified and turned into briquettes that are cooled. These briquettes are ready to use directly as a CO₂ negative fossil fuel substitute both in industrial and electricity production.

NextFuel plans to scale by licensing its technology to companies all around the world.

South Korea: Researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have created a waterless toilet system that can convert human waste into biofuels. The system is part of a new outdoor creative laboratory, called Science Walden Pavillion, that opened to the public on 25 May 2016.

"Our ultimate goal is not only for the new toilet system to save water and operational costs for wastewater treatment plants, but for us to establish an ecosystem that supports technology innovation and drives economic diversification where human waste literally has a financial value," said Professor Jaeweon Cho, Director of Science Walden Pavillion.

The waterless toilet system uses a biological process to break down human waste into a dehydrated odourless compost-like material. It is then transferred to a digestion tank, containing thousands of different microbes. The microbes inside the tank biodegrade the powdered human manure to generate carbon dioxide and methane. Using high pressure and a membrane system, carbon dioxide is extracted to culture green algae for biofuel while methane is stored for later use as a heating fuel.

The project aims to reduce urbanisation's negative footprint on ecosystems by safely converting human waste into viable renewable energy, possibly with a monetary value.

If this experiment succeeds, the team plans to expand its use of the waterless toilet system and microbial energy production system in real life. This project has been carried out in collaboration with YATOO, Art Center Nabi, Paju Typography Institute and Hankuk Engineering Consultants in South Korea.