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Burn it Professionally in Biomass Energy System

10-18-2007 03:28 PM CET | Energy & Environment

Press release from: VIDIR Biomass Inc

Burn it professionally in Biomass Energy systems

Burn it professionally in Biomass Energy systems

Stubble burning has been a prolonging issue in Manitoba being a prairie region during late summer and early fall of every year.

The Manitoba crop residue burning program (http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/soilwater/soil/fbd09s00.html) introduced by the province in 1992, to mitigate its hazards has really not been significant. Illegal burnings have increased widely in Manitoba, even though the burning is allowed when smoke dispersal is optimal when the wind is neither too weak nor too strong or when the ‘mixing layers’ in the air allow the smoke to rise high into the atmosphere as said by Andy Nadler, coordinator of this program. Manitoba conservation bans, lift bans and gives guidelines to farmers on stubble burning. It sees lot of difficulties in enforcing conservation laws and in preventing illegal burning. Controlling the farming community by enforcing laws is always difficult not only in Manitoba but also across the world because farming is the primary business which feeds all other businesses in the earth.

You all know what happened on last September 6th in Winnipeg. Stubble burning caused highway mayhem and accidents; and breathing issues. Normal life was highly affected. The smoke and fog combined together blanketed the city and caused almost no visibility on highways and made a dozen number of accidents. Several Winnipeggers were struck with coughing and choking problems. Especially the people suffering with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease needed to go to hospital with breathing problems. Even when your car windows were closed, you were able to smell the smoke inside the car when you were driving on Winnipeg roads. Ten to fifteen percent of Manitobans suffer asthma and COPD are on the rise. Manitoba Lung Association says stubble-burning increase the particulate matter in the air linked to increased illness and death, especially in those with heart or lung conditions, children and the elderly.

Courtesy: Winnipeg Sun, Sep 07, 2007
Farmers group say that burning is the only realistic way sometimes. Equipments can’t handle or do not have sufficient power for tilling the stubbles back into soil even if farmers are ready to do so. Flax straw spins around equipment, takes bearings out and can cause fires. After the shut down of Elie plant which was making strawboards from bales, farmers did not get sufficient market for their bales. When they can’t till the stubbles back into soil and when they don’t have market for their bales, the only option is just burning the stubbles in the field to get rid off them. Peter Schrodter, a writer and former rancher says ‘ Stubble burning farmers are loosing the soil organic fertility by killing the soil food web consists of bacteria, algae, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and micro-arthropods which are as helpful as worms; loosing the soil moisture; increasing the soil compaction. It leads to spend more money for increased fuel energy to till the compacted soil and for increased fertilizer needs to compensate the lost soil fertility. The stubble less land also leads to soil erosion due to wind and rainfall runoff’. Courtesy: Winnipeg Free Press.

Equipment manufacturing companies can solve the equipment’s technical problems through mechanical solutions. The implications due to this can also be sorted out. But, even then, all the farmers will not be interested in tilling the stubbles back into soil. Because they don’t want to raise their field level every year due to the matter left out after decomposition of stubbles and the utilization of nutrients by the forthcoming crops. They can till their stubbles once in three, four or five years only. These are all the practical difficulties what farmers are facing. You can not just bale and keep the bales in the field which will reduce the cropping area of the forthcoming years. So, baling and trucking is must for a farm. So, there need some utilities of biomass bales like biomass-energy systems to support the farmers to market and earn out of their bales.

Professional Way

This biomass bale consists the sequestered solar energy in it. When you burn it with optimum oxygen required, you get heat plus emissions. During open burning in the field, we loose all the heat and pave way for accumulation of particulate and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in short period of time ie, on our surroundings which lead to global warming and climate change etc. When you store the bales and burn in an Biomass Energy Systems (BES) to systematically produce heat and power, you utilize this sequestered solar energy through out the year efficiently and economically as well and environmental friendly when thereby you reduce the accumulation of particulate and greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in short period of time. You also displace the use of fossil fuel and the related high greenhouse gas emissions. Also, when the demand for these fossil fuels reduces, their prices and their exploitation also as well reduce. The monetized value of these biomass bales increases and it will also increase the income and there by the economical strength of the rural farming community. Baling and trucking also provides skilled job market through out the year. This Economical, Efficient and Environmental friendly (3 Es) way is the professional way of handling these stubbles. Before we get know why this concept is at pilot level and what needs to be done to make this concept commercially realized, let us understand this some other advantages of this BES.

Biomass Energy and its advantages

CO2 neutral: Plants are consuming CO2 for their synthesis process and food production. When their biomass is left for decaying in the field then again this process releases the more CO2 and other green house gases than that they were scientifically combusted in a furnace. So, biomass from plant releases CO2 by any means and the same CO2 is consumed by the plant for its photosynthesis. When the biomass is substituting the fossil fuel as source of energy, the addition of green house gases due to burning of fossil fuels and the related environmental hazards are prevented to the earth. That’s why Biomass energy is termed as CO2 neutral.

Renewable & Sustainable: Unlike fossil fuels, the biomass is renewable source of energy. Plants and their biomass are going to be ever in the earth. No need of worrying about the fossil fuels’ reserves running out. This energy is cheap. It will not only to increase the monetized value of biomass but also will give us the solution for disposing the agri-waste in a professional manner.

As per the presentation by Dr. Eric Bibeau, Manitoba Hydro / NSERC Alternative Energy Research Chair and Assistant Professor at University of Manitoba on the topic “What are the Alternative Energy options for Manitoba” at Globe Cinema, Winnipeg on November 23, 2006. http://www.umanitoba.ca/engineering/mech_and_ind/prof/bibeau/ slide #3, the biomass combustion systems for generating either hot water or power or both are considered as Biomass Energy Systems (BES). The field burning of straw, stubbles and other agri-residues or any other forest fires are generally mentioned here as open burning. The gases coming out of Biomass landfill, immediate or delayed biomass composting, biomass spreading and the forest waste accumulation are natural processes of biomass disposal in the earth.

When we compare the performance of these three way of biomass disposal activities based on the emissions released during the process, the Scientific way of burning biomass in BES stands better than other processes. When compared with BES, the Open burning process releases NOx 2.8 times, Particulate matter 33 times, CO 20 times, methane 32 times, hydro carbons 960 times and CO2 0.95 times. But, the landfill gas is not released in open burning process where as BES releases 24.2 m3/th.bdt. Considering the primary GHG emissions on CH4, PM, CO and NOx, we can conclude that the BES is 10 to 30 times better than Open burning. The process output, the heat energy is a gain in case of BES and a loss in case of Open burning. BES prevents the use of fossil fuel and prevents the global warming and energy insecurity.

The natural process of biomass decomposition and the landfill gas emissions does not emit PM, SOx, NOx, CO, nmHC. Also for Natural process, the main GHG CO2 emission is 10 to 50 % lesser than that of BES. But, the another main GHG CH4 is 132 to 1720 times higher than BES, during Natural process. Similarly the forest accumulation-natural process releases PM 47 times, NOx 2.8 times, CO 38 times, methane 28 times higher than the BES. The nutrient addition is the gain from Biomass decomposition process where as the heat energy is the gain from BES. So, we can say the BES is atleast 10 times better than Natural process of biomass disposal.

The depletion/exploitation of fossil fuels’ reserves is very rapid in the modern world. The day in which the nature and earth can not supply such fuels for the need of human kind is not too far.

The high productive inorganic farming which has been warming the farm land is now days turning into organic / sustainable farming to save the agricultural lands alive. The word ‘exploitation’ arises when there is no ‘regeneration’ of resources or when we exceed the ‘regeneration’ limit. When the groundwater resources are exploited beyond the regeneration limit, the subsurface of earth is warming and resulting in movement of earth plates and there by to earthquakes. When the nature is exploited by human beyond certain limit, it started attacking the human back. Men are realizing this in all walks/sectors of life.

If the current generations will exploit & enjoy the benefits of the available sources of fossil fuels, what will the future generations will do for their energy needs. Isn’t it the responsibility of current generation to determine some alternative energy sources and technology to supplement or substitute the use of fossil fuels in order to extend the availability of these fossil fuels’ reserves quite long?

• Fossil fuels Vs Climate Change

When the fossil fuels like Coal, Natural gas, Lignite, Propane, Butane etc. are burnt for heating, there are emissions of green house gases including CO2, CO, CH4, NOx and SOx etc.. In the United States, the National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise" The Academy confirms the conclusions of the IPCC report. It says, “The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue". Study reports predicted that there would be an increase in the frequency of natural disasters including droughts, snow storming, tropical cyclones (which include hurricanes and typhoons) and extreme high tides.

The human induced global warming also depleted the Ozone layer and made a big hole on it. This layer is used to filter the entry of u-v rays and other rays harmful to earth from the sun rays. So the big danger of the effect of u-v rays on human is getting started now days.

Vision & Action

Currently, the only demand for the straw bales is ‘Bedding for Livestock’. But the demand is very less when compared to the supply. Also, the straw used for bedding is again has to be disposed. Some farmers buy this chicken littered biomass and apply in their field as a source for nutrients. But this type of manure application causes the deposition of phosphorous in the lake when bleaching of land due to rainfall runoff. Again, burning this chicken littered biomass in BES is the best solution.

Bio Diesel, Bio Ethanol technologies are produced out of soybean and grains respectively. The cellulose ethanol technology is also successful only with corn stover biomass. All the above said alternative technologies have failed to utilize wheat straw. Cellulose ethanol from wheat straw is a dream and it is at the level of research and development stage.

BES, which is based on combustion, and is the only reliable, proven technology for utilizing the straw is at the level of commercial stage. Vidir Machine Inc. is using such BES at small scale (1 MWth or 3.41 MMBtuh) to supply biomass heat in its manufacturing plant at Arborg and saving its heating cost considerably. It is buying around 1500 wheat straw bales per year from the farmers for this plant and paying around $ 30,000 to the farming community. It is also saving a net amount of around $ 50,000 which he needed to spend additionally if he goes with Natural gas. Our company BEST Inc (Biomass Energy System Technologies Inc) is developing, manufacturing and selling such BES across Manitoba, Canada and World. Currently they are going to install one unit in Killarney and one in Estonia.

This technology is also facing some issues on ‘Fuel feeding’ and ‘automation’. MRAC has funded Vidir Machine Inc. to ‘develop air control strategies for biomass combustion of different agri feed stocks to ensure emissions standards during unattended operation’ in collaboration with U of M Alternative energy researchers. BEST Inc ‘s smart fire technology has sorted out the above said technological issues to a considerable extent.

Straw Heat Economics: Manitoba is growing wheat during spring only in 3 million acres of land according to the year 2006 Manitoba agricultural profile ( http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/statistics/pdf/2006agriculturalprofile.pdf ).
Total annual yield of spring wheat straw in Manitoba equals 9 million bales (@ 3 bales per acre); or 7.2 billion pounds (@ 800 pounds per bale at 15% moisture content) or 3.3 million tones. The total heat content in those bales is 51.85 trillion Btu ( @ 7200 Btu per pound). If the annual heat demand is 200 days of 24 hours, then we can feed 10802 MMBtuh heat applications using this wheat straw. Greenhouse growers, piggeries, poultries, industries can utilize this straw biomass for their space and process heat applications. As an average 10 MMBtuh would be size of the BES required for these businesses, there would be 1080 units installed across Manitoba. Manitoba Farming community will get 100 million $ in a year for their bales. The trucking community will get 50 million $ in a year on transportation.

This estimation is from the wheat straw only which is from 1/4th farm lands. These will displace the purchase of natural gas, oil and coal for atleast 300 million $ with a net saving of atleast 50% fuel cost. This will increase the energy security not only of the current generations but for future generations too.

What needs to be done?

Enforcement in response to illegal burning is a temporary solution. Biomass energy stakeholders have to revisit the policies and strategies and try to bring the improvements as recommended in the following table.

Manitoba has to allocate funds for Biomass Energy Systems as important as Ethanol, Biodiesel, Wind & Solar systems.
Stake holder Organizations Envisioned Policy Improvement Expected outcome in Manitoba
Provincial government The province has to dream and vision with long term objectives on Biomass Energy for improving its strategies on Clean, Green, Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Controlling crop residue burning, Caring farmers, and commitment to increase income to rural farming community. • Allocating funds interms of grants, subsidies and loans to promote Biomass Energy development, demonstration and utilization (for both Self & Public)
Action: STEM, MAFRI, MB Conservation, MB Finance including CTT, Winnipeg city, Town municipalities,
Vision: 50 % utilization of straw through BES (say 500 units) in five to ten years
Educational and Research Institutions /
BES manufacturers • Biomass Energy research and development (including Gasification, Combustion, Fuel feeding, Automation of the system etc)
• Creating text books, technical and operational manuals
Action: U of M, U of W, U of B, ACC etc
Dr.Jack Moes, Dean-Applied Research, Assiniboine Community College envisions to install a demonstration unit to heat greenhouse in the campus and train the student community by creating a special course program on alternative energy.

• Running demonstration Units / sites

Action: U of M can install one BES unit in its Glenlea Research Station in a year to augment the opportunities for Biomass Energy Research in the university. U of B, Rural Development Studies should initiate such attempt in its campus.

Financial Institutions Should improve their Banking activities towards Development needs like this • Creating special loan schemes at subsidized interest rate to promote Biomass Energy
Industries Policy decision on using Biomass energy to save the heating cost and the environment and commitment to increase income to rural farmers • Green house growers, piggeries and poultries ( 50% in 5 to 10 years)
• Manufacturing and food process Industries (50 in 5 to 10 years) should switch over to BES for their space and process heating applications
Professional Bodies • Should organize conferences, seminars and technical tours at provincial, national and international levels on Biomass energy research, development an d demonstrations.

VIDIR Biomass Inc

Box 700, Arborg, Manitoba, Canada-R0C 0A0

Press Contact: Anand Palanichamy, Liaison Officer,
Off: 204-746 8833 MOb: 204-801 7153 Fax: 204-746 8177
palan@vidir.com
www.vidir.com www.best-inc.biz

Developing, Manufacturing and Selling of Biomass Energy Products

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