The Energy Blog

Poet Becomes Largest Ethanol Producer in World, May be first to Produce Cellulosic Ethanol

On September 14 POET Biorefining, formerly the Broin Companies, opened their 21st ethanol production facility, a 65 million gallon per year plant that brings Poet's total capacity to 1.1 billion gallons per year of corn ethanol, making POET the largest producer of ethanol in the world.

The facility, the 27th (including administrative facilites) constructed by POET since they were founded 20 years ago, is equipped with technology that decreases its environmental footprint. That technology includes POET’s patent-pending BPX™ process that eliminates the need for heat in the cooking process of producing ethanol, reducing energy usage by 8-15 percent in comparison with conventional plants. It will also be outfitted with a regenerative thermal oxidizer that eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions.

The BPX process is a patent-pending raw starch hydrolysis process that converts starch to sugar, which then ferments to ethanol without heat. The process not only reduces energy costs, but also releases additional starch content for conversion to ethanol, increases protein content and quality of co-products, increases co-product flowability, potentially increases plant throughput and significantly decreases plant emissions.

POET Biorefining - Portland, IN will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of Dakota Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products™ per year. The $105 million facility will provide around 40 jobs with an annual payroll of about $2 million.

Celunol to Start-up First US Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Summer 2007

Celunol is a leader in the effort to commercialize the production of cellulosic ethanol. The Company’s technology achieves high ethanol yields from cellulosic biomass at costs competitive with conventional ethanol processes using sugar and starch crops as feedstocks.

The company operates the Jennings pilot facility, on a 140-acre company-owned site in Jennings LA, designed to produce up to 50,000 gallons of ethanol per year.  Celunol commenced operation of its newly expanded pilot facility in November 2006.

It is building a 1.4 million gallon demonstration facility to produce ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and wood, targeted for completion in mid 2007.   This will be the first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Later, the Company is planning a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility at the site.

Celunol’s technology enables almost complete conversion of all the sugars found in cellulosic biomass.  This efficiency advantage, combined with the low input cost of cellulosic biomass, results in superior economics in the production of ethanol.

SolFocus-PARC Collaborate on Concentrator PV

SolFocus Inc., a spinoff from H2Go in 2004, and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on February 16 announced a research collaboration to develop solar Concentrator PV (CPV) systems. The broad agreement is to jointly develop CPV systems that can deliver low-cost, reliable solar energy.  SolFocus CPV solutions can potentially:

• advance the market beyond current flat-plate silicon PV and it underlying cost limitations;
• deliver both short- and long-term cost advantages which is the critical metric of market success;
• position CPV to be competitive with conventional electricity; and
• open large new markets for clean solar energy

The venture builds on the original SolFocus design for concentrator photovoltaic technology (shown left). CPV technology creates electricity by using precision optical components such as lenses and mirrors to direct and “concentrate” sunlight onto high-efficiency solar cells.  SolFocus’s prototype solar panels are smaller, cheaper, and easier to manufacture than the flat-plate photovoltaic panels that currently dominate the market.

About Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells

The molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) gets its name because it uses molten carbonate salt as the electrolyte.  MCFCs are high-temperature fuel cells in which the electrolyte is suspended in a porous, chemically inert ceramic matrix. They are currently being operated on natural gas and other fuels containing methane in stationary applications in the wastewater treatment, industrial, hotel and government markets. 

They must operate at the extremely high temperature of 650°C (roughly 1,200°F) or above to obtain good conductivity of the electrolyte.  This enables the use of non-precious metals as catalysts at the anode and cathode, reducing costs and enables reformation of gaseous fuels to hydrogen within the fuel cell eliminating the need to supply hydrogen to the fuel cell.  MCFCs can reach efficiencies approaching 60 percent; when the waste heat is captured and used, overall fuel efficiencies can be as high as 85 percent.

The anode process involves a reaction between hydrogen and carbonate ions (CO3=) from the electrolyte which produces water and carbon dioxide (CO2) while releasing electrons to the anode. The cathode process combines oxygen and CO2 from the oxidant stream with electrons from the cathode to produce carbonate ions which enter the electrolyte. The need for CO2 in the oxidant stream requires a system for collecting CO2 from the anode exhaust and mixing it with the cathode feed stream.

Hidden Thermal Solar Collectors for your House

Dawn Solar Systems Inc. produces renewable energy systems that integrate seamlessly with a building’s architecture, providing energy security and reducing operating costs by replacing fossil fuels and electricity with solar energy.  Residential and commercial systems are available today that can provide electricity along with hot air and water for heating and cooling, all harvested from a shared roof or wall surface.

That is the pitch that Dawn uses to describe their solar collectors hidden under the roof and/or walls of your house.  The system is installed during initial construction or a roof replacement.  Depending upon location and application design, an open or closed loop system can be created as fluids are pumped through the system and cycled through conventional heat transfer and distribution systems.  The following applications can be used with the heat collected in the system.

• Domestic hot water heaters
• Institutional, commercial and industrial process water systems
• Radiant floor heating systems
• Swimming pool heater
• Warm air heating systems
• Remote site or isolated cabin applications
• Integrations with photovoltaic systems
• Attic space cooling
• De-icing

Solar Hydrogen from Landfill Gas

SHEC LABS - Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation, with its partners will deploy the world’s first Solar Hydrogen production station, “SHEC Station #1”, using methane collected from the City of Regina's (Canada) landfill.

The unit produces hydrogen with solar energy as the primary energy input. A solar concentrator, pictured, similar to that used in thermal solar dish electrical generators is used.  The Stirling engine in the electrical generators is replaced by a reaction chamber that receives the solar energy through an iris that can be controlled to regulate the amount of heat being fed to the reactor.  SHEC has developed a solar concentrator that is simple to make using relatively common materials. They developed a process to get the curvatures required to a high degree of accuracy with a manufacturing process that is very inexpensive. 

Unaxis Lowers Production Costs, Reduces Silicon Content of Thin Film Solar Cells

The Solar business unit of Unaxis, which the company has actively expanded in the recent past, is setting new standards in solar-cell technology. Using its newly developed production equipment thin film solar cells can be produced at 30 percent less costs than traditional cells and, in contrast to conventional manufacturing processes, require only a fraction of the scarce raw material silicon. With their high energy yield and low cost of materials, these thin film solar cells have the potential to compete with traditional energy sources. That Unaxis is at the forefront with its innovative technology is also confirmed by its having been awarded the Swiss Solar Prize for 2005.

The first deposition unit for mass production of solar cells has already been installed at customer facilities, and further units are currently being produced. For the 2005 financial year, Unaxis expects that its solar activities will generate revenues in excess of CHF 20 million (US $15 million) and is anticipating higher growth rates in 2006.

Mobile Renewable Energy System

A renewable energy power station in a box is what SkyBuilt Power has and is continuing to develop.  The Mobile Power Station™ (MPS™) is a complete power station in a rugged shipping container utilizing almost any type of energy. It can operate with no fuel, using any combination of solar/wind/batteries and micro hydro power, and can also be configured to work with diesel, fuel cells or other fuel-based systems. The picture on the left shows a 20' x 8.5' x 8'-foot wide (MPS™) unit designed for rapid deployment of a fuel-less power system on display at the companies office in Arlington, Virginia. 

The MPS can be shipped by truck, rail, sea or airplane; even dropped from a plane via parachute.  A steerable wing-type of parachute can be guided by remote control to get it to an otherwise inaccessible location.  The small units can be set up by two men and running in hours, not days.  Using the heavy and rugged steel container as a base means that it is not necessary to pour heavy footings and install towers and guy wires to support the turbine, or hold solar panels steady against wind pressure. All the components are shipped in the container with the solar panels and/or wind turbines set up on preassembled supports and cabling at the site.  Batteries, if needed, remain inside the container. The container can be heated and cooled for climate-controlled and lighted storage, office, medical clinic, border patrol facility, telecom, operations/command control centers, or other secure, self-powered space in any environment from the desert to the arctic.

Solar Light Bulbs

Solar powered LED lighting is energy efficient, has a long life, can be housed in a waterproof case, requires no external power source, requires no maintenance for up to five years, is very easy to install and is suitable for use in remote locations away from the power grid.  Carmanah Technologies, Canadian manufacturer of these lights, has more than 250,000 installations in 110 countries and has supplied the lighting for the Khawr 'Abd Allah Waterway in Iraq and the Bagram airfield in Afghanistan (above).

The lights consists of light emitting diodes, a solar photovoltaic system, and battery all housed in a durable, waterproof polycarbonate case.  They will survive extended exposure to the environment, extreme swings in ambient temperature from -40°F to 176°F (-40°C to +80°C), shock, heavy vibration and UV degradation.