This information is from the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.
We submit it to affirm the fact that strategic developments are underway which will enable us, one way or the other, to make full use of our coal resources, including the by-products of it's employment in our generation of power and in our synthesis of liquid fuels.
Some excerpts:
"Mass Culture of Microalgae for Biofuels
The Center for Biorefining received $1 million funding from MN DOC, MCES, and IREE to support research on developing transferable technologies for B. Harvested algae will be used as a biomass feedstock for biodiesel and other renewable energy production. The specific objectives of the project are to (1) test and develop photobioreactors (PBR), (2) study the growth characteristics of some collected algae strains, (3) evaluate and develop harvest and oil extract processes. Several PBRs were developed and studied. More than 30 strains were screened, and some of them were found to grow well on wastewater. A simple harvest technique was also developed. Production of high oil content microalgae for biodiesel fuel, coupled with wastewater treatment and flue gas emission control, provides significant environmental benefits and improves the economic feasibility of the whole approach."
(Once again, as we've been saying. - JtM)
"Pilot Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis System
The Center has recently installed a pilot Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (MAP) system in its pilot lab. The system is designed to process biomass feedstocks ranging from corn stover to wood chips to MSW (Municipal Solid Waste - JtM) to bio-oils, burnable gas, and char solids. The technical advantages of microwave assisted pyrolysis (MAP) over conventional pyrolysis include: (1) Microwave heating is uniform and easy to control; (2) It does not require high degree of feedstock grinding (e.g., large chunk of wood logs can be used) and can handle mixed feedstock (e.g., municipal solid wastes); (3) The conversion products (pyrolytic gas and bio-oils) are cleaner than those from gasification and conventional pyrolysis because our process does not have to use biomass powder and does not require agitation and fluidization; (4) The syngas produced has higher heating value since it is not diluted by the carrying gas for fluidizing the biomass materials. (5) Microwave heating is a mature technology and development of microwave heating system for biomass pyrolysis is of low cost. Wood wastes, sludge, slaughter wastes, municipal solid wastes have been tested with microwave pyrolysis."
(You will, we hope, recall our report of research in Poland on the use of microwave radiation to efficiently remove Sulfur and Nitrogen from coal flue gas, and to help convert them into worthwhile compounds. Other references indicate that coal, too, can be subjected to microwave pyrolysis. And, again as we've otherwise documented, a lot of things can be "gasified" along with coal, and the gasses subsequently reformed into useful products - such as liquid fuels. - JtM)
"New IREE funding for our thermochemical conversion R&D
Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment awards $4.85 million to seven breakthrough projects including our project titled "Catalytic Reforming of Liquids and Gases from Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass."
Liquid fuels account for more than 45% of the total energy use in the U.S. Liquid fuels have high energy densities, are easy to transport, store, and handle, and are distributed through established infrastructure. Therefore biomass derived liquid fuels have a great potential to replace petroleum-based liquid fuels. Pyrolysis is the most common thermochemical process to convert solid biomass to bio-oils. Use of as produced bio-oils is impractical because of their poor combustion properties, low heating value, and high storage instability. The goal of the research is to develop processes to turn liquids and gases from thermochemical conversion of biomass to high quality hydrocarbon liquid fuels. Our research will be focused on the understanding and development of several innovative conversion and upgrading/reforming processes that (1) convert solid biomass to bio-crude and syngas using catalytic pyrolysis and gasification , (2) upgrade bio-crude to high quality liquid and (3) catalytically reform syngas to liquid fuels. The mechanistic studies will be conducted in Ruan and Ye’s labs with in situ pyrolysis analyzers and other advanced instruments."
Liquid fuels account for more than 45% of the total energy use in the U.S. Liquid fuels have high energy densities, are easy to transport, store, and handle, and are distributed through established infrastructure. Therefore biomass derived liquid fuels have a great potential to replace petroleum-based liquid fuels. Pyrolysis is the most common thermochemical process to convert solid biomass to bio-oils. Use of as produced bio-oils is impractical because of their poor combustion properties, low heating value, and high storage instability. The goal of the research is to develop processes to turn liquids and gases from thermochemical conversion of biomass to high quality hydrocarbon liquid fuels. Our research will be focused on the understanding and development of several innovative conversion and upgrading/reforming processes that (1) convert solid biomass to bio-crude and syngas using catalytic pyrolysis and gasification , (2) upgrade bio-crude to high quality liquid and (3) catalytically reform syngas to liquid fuels. The mechanistic studies will be conducted in Ruan and Ye’s labs with in situ pyrolysis analyzers and other advanced instruments."
We note that this work, in Minnesota, seems to complement somewhat similar studies we reported at Iowa State University.