Duke Energy registers two plants for biomass energy
March 10, 2010 — Duke Energy has asked N.C. regulators to register its Buck Steam Station in Salisbury and its Lee Steam Station in Williamston, S.C., as renewable-energy facilities for the production of biomass energy. Read more…
Local company hopes to sell renewable electricity
January 14, 2010 — A company is planning to develop a $54 million plant in Spring Hope that would burn wood to generate electricity. The plans, which have been submitted to the N.C. Utilities Commission, call for the electricity to be sold to Progress Energy Carolinas, Inc. Read more…
The unintended ripples from the biomass subsidy program
January 12, 2010 — It sounded like a good idea: Provide a little government money to convert wood shavings and plant waste into renewable energy. But as laudable as that goal sounds, it could end up causing more economic damage than good — driving up the price of raw timber, undermining an industry that has long used sawdust and wood shavings to make affordable cabinetry, and highlighting the many challenges involved in decreasing the nation's dependence on oil by using organic materials to create biofuels. Read more…
NC utility seeks more for electricity from woody biomass
January 12, 2010 — Progress Energy Carolinas wants to add between 40 to 75 megawatts (MW) of biomass-based electricity to its capacity, starting in 2013. The utility accepted proposals for electricity generated from woody biomass through Dec. 15 as it looks to contribute to North Carolina’s renewable portfolio standard of 12.5 percent by 2020, Read more…
Biomass is No Longer the ‘Unknown Renewable’
August 25, 2009 — Formerly considered the unknown renewable, biomass became the central focus of the clean energy debate when policymakers recognized that it was essential to meeting a strong renewable electricity standard. Congress now has the opportunity to take meaningful action on climate change and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Biomass is the keystone to a national energy policy that can achieve both goals. Read more…
Taking Pulp to the Pump: Gasifying black liquor from pulp mills will accelerate second-generation biofuels.
December 13, 2008 — Pulp and paper plants could soon double as biorefineries if financing for a Swedish gasification project is any indication. As gas prices have slumped this fall, threatening to run some biofuels innovators out of business, Swedish company Chemrec has pulled in a stream of grants and investments backing a process for turning the black liquor left over from pulp and paper bleaching into a clean-burning synthetic biofuel. Read more…
New Method Turns Wood Into Sugar For Biofuels
October 28, 2008 — A new method of producing high efficiency and easily available biofuels from wood, grass and plants could soon be available, according to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany. “With this method, you can even use wood at the beginning of the process. That is why this approach really can be said to allow wood to be converted directly into sugar.” — Ferdi Schth, Lead Researcher, Max Planck Institute Read more…
Green Energy From Forests
October 14, 2008 — If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, could it make biofuel? NC State scientists are determined to answer this Zen-like question with a less philosophical “yes.” The University is taking a vertically integrated approach to research on using cellulose in trees to make fuel, from harvesting the wood to processing ethanol to converting aging paper mills into biofuel refineries. Read more…
11 Companies Racing to Build U.S. Cellulosic Ethanol Plants
June 4, 2008 — There are almost a dozen companies racing to build the first next-generation cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States over the next few years. The plants will be built all over the U.S. and will churn out biofuels made from waste, plant byproducts and woody energy crops. It’s no easy task. Not only do these companies have to build pilot and demo plants, but ultimately large-scale, commercialized refineries that can take years to construct and require hundreds of millions of investment dollars. Read more…
School taps forest for fuel
February 20, 2008 — With a lumberjack for a mascot, perhaps it's no surprise that the St. Maries School District is turning to the nearby forest to cut its power bill. Beginning next school year, the district will fire up a wood burner at Heyburn Elementary School. Puny trees and branches that would have once burned on slash piles at North Idaho logging sites will be converted into heat for more than 400 students and staff. Read more…
Researchers plan three-step process to convert trees to biofuel
January 14, 2008 — A recent grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will allow N.C. State, in partnership with the Research Triangle Institute and the University of Utah, to begin research on a process to turn tree fibers into biofuels. According to J.B. Jett, the associate dean for research and extension of the College of Natural Resources, the grant allocated $2 million to the Research Triangle Institute. Read more…
Prototype biomass harvester devours small trees, underbrush
December 20, 2007 — The prototype of a new machine to harvest forest underbrush for use as fuel had its first public demonstration Wednesday in woods east of New Bern. About 50 people in hard hats watched as the machine gobbled trees in the forest off County Line Road. Those watching the one-of-a-kind bush eater represented the gamut of public and private forest-related industries and service in North Carolina. The big red processor, pushed by a tractor on treads, uses carbide teeth Read more…
Japan eyes chopsticks for biofuel
August 23, 2007 — Japan will try to turn the millions of wooden chopsticks that go discarded each year into biofuel to ease the country's energy shortage, officials said Wednesday. Read more…
First cellulosic ethanol plant to open
July 3, 2007 — The race is on to try to open the first large-scale cellulosic ethanol plant. Range Fuels on Monday is expected to announce that it has received a permit to build an ethanol production plant in rural Georgia that uses wood chips as its feedstock. It plans to break ground on the plant this summer. Read more…