"He was a long, tall Texan, he wears a ten-gallon hat." "He rides from Texas in a ten-gallon hat." No, I am NOT talking about that pseudo-Texan from Crawford. This one is the genuine article and he comes from Austin. I promised to tell you more about Mr. Russell Smith a couple of weeks ago. I got so carried away with other matters I forgot to include some of the comments I intended to make about him. He's the kind of guy who stands out in a crowd, almost any crowd, and there were a whole cluster of illustrious folks who showed up at the PowerGen Renewable Energy & Fuels conference a few weeks ago. Russell stood above them all, quite literally. He is a Texas-sized man, tall, even without his ever-present Stetson style hat. (My father wore a genuine Stetson brand hat for most of his career in the Canadian government's Department of Transport, which, in Canada made him almost as easy to spot as Russell, although Dad was about a foot shorter in physical stature.) So why am I ranting on about Russell Smith?

Russell is the Executive Director and prime-mover behind the Texas Renewable Energy Industry Association, and as such, he is a heroic figure in the Lone Star landscape, land of big oil money and politics. The TREIA organization has a legislative agenda that may not be completely comprehensive, but is impressive nonetheless. Solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biofuels incentives, eliminate HOA rules against renewable energy installations (with reasonable esthetic safeguards), and much more too. They also successfully advocated (TREIA among others, of course) to avert a regulatory ban on biodiesel in Texas. Indeed the Executive Director of the TCEQ stated in their ruling that "biodiesel plays an important role in achieving compliance with federal mandates and goals for the increase[sic] use of renewable fuels such as those in the Energy Policy Act." Way to go, Russell !!

Now, I also promised to introduce you to some German engineers who have impressed me. They are doing a non-traditional gasification and Fisher-Tropsch catalytic reforming of biomass in their pilot plant, and have a deal to expand to a full scale production facility that is already under construction. Shell actually provided the Fisher-Tropsch post-processing capability, or so I understand. But CHOREN (which is the company name but also stands for Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and RENewables) process is somewhat unique in that it is a 3 stage process that starts with "low" temperature gasification. Biomass feedstock is finely chopped, (water content 15% or less) and fed into the "low temperature" gasifier. Low temperature is, for this process they call the Carbo-V® Process happens at 400 to 500 °C, so it would be a little warmer than a summer day in Phoenix, but lower than traditional gasification, which typically takes place above 600 °C. This breaks down the long chain hydrocarbons (or carbohydrates) into shorter chains which CHOREN characterizes as "tar-rich volatiles" and char. The char is separated out at this point. Here's where it gets "warm", because it then passes to the high temperature gasifier, and at 1400 °C the long chains break down into very simple CO (carbon monoxide) and H (hydrogen) by exposure to oxygen and steam. The char, which has been finely ground is now re-injected into the chamber and produces a sudden temperature drop to … 800 °C, which results in a raw gas with high heat value. This gas, now at 800 °C is cooled in a heat exchanger which produces steam which can be used for generating electricity or for process heat. Any remaining char or ash is removed and the gas is moved on to a gas shift reactor and then on to a scrubber. The scrubber, a fluid sprayer, washes out contaminates like chlorine or sulfur, then passes to the Fisher-Tropsch process uses a cobalt catalyst which combines the H and CO into long chain paraffins and waxes. Final cooling separates out any remaining water, and then, being the thorough German engineers that they are, they pass this product on to further distillation and hydrotreating to yield a high cetane number fuel.

WOW. Their plants are expensive to build, but they are doing something very worthwhile in my opinion. They are also encouraging local farmers to grow dedicated non-food crops for biomass, as well as fuels of opportunity like lumber mill sawdust as feedstock.

I think it was Bill Maher I heard say this week, "If it weren't for lies and deceptions, there would be no soap operas." That is no excuse for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, nor for the declining quality of plots in ABC's UGLY BETTY, but that's all I'll say on that subject this week.

A friend asked what progress I was making this week. My reply was, "Sometimes the answer is 'no', but that is a kind of progress too." All of my company's projects (at least the ones I am ready to try to move forward) were pronounced "too small" by the division of GE Energy that I was talking to. (You've got to admit that creating electricity AND diesel fuel from sewage fit with their "ecomagination" publicity campaign rather nicely, doesn't it.) But the gentleman was at least somewhat encouraging and pointed me in a new direction (within the vast and sprawling empire that is General Electric) which may prove promising. The week also brought lots of new discoveries in the exciting field of biomass, biodiesel and the non-ester renewable diesel production from low grade feedstocks.

Next week, I'll try to illuminate a little about TDP, Thermal De-polymerization, and CDP, catalytic depolymerization. Stay tuned.

love

Stafford "Doc" Williamson