Category: Biomass

My Missouri Data Center friends were in town and they showed me their latest biomass samples.  Here is some of the early biomass, low btu density. Here is some higher density grass with a higher btu content that is compressed. Here is a better btu sample. And, then they showed me the really good shit.  Which has a composition of waste products added that contributes to a btu density as good as coal. I've had a great time chatting with the Missouri folks and they are doing some innovative low carbon footprint energy generation projects.  We've identified the next stage of the project and who they will be contacting. Some of the next contacts are the readers of this blog, and you are going to recognize when you see the really good shit (biomass) for a Grass-fed data center.

Forested regions around the world are pursuing biomass as a renewable energy source but a study finds that the carbon footprint from burning biomass can be worse for global warming than coal. The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences on Thursday published the findings of a six-month study to measure the greenhouse gas impacts of using biomass, which, in many cases, does not meet claims of being "carbon neutral" over short periods of time.

RELATED STORIES Xcel Energy Plans Midwest Biomass Plant Biomass CoGen Project to Produce Power for NMU With Little Waste Despite Hurdles, UW Converting Coal Plant to Biomass RELATED TOPICS Biomass Carbon Footprint Contracts & Installations Energy Efficiency Facilities U.S. National Life Group has unveiled a biomass energy project that will meet 90 percent of the heating needs of its Montpelier, Vermont campus while reducing the company’s annual carbon footprint by 45 percent. The $2 million project, scheduled to be completed in late summer, is expected to cut National Life’s annual usage of heating oil from 210,000 gallons to about 30,000 gallons. The company’s $500,000 annual heating bill will be cut roughly in half.

Austin, Texas, will be closer to meeting its goal of 30 percent renewable energy once a biomass facility from Southern Power comes into play. Southern Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Company, recently acquired a not-yet-constructed biomass facility from American Renewables LLC. The facility is being built in Sacul, Texas. Southern Power plans to spend $475 million [...]

Diesel generators are the stock-in-trade of the majority of backup power solutions for data centers around the globe.  Some companies have smelled the French fries, so to speak, and have started buying generators tweaked (just a little) for specifically burning biodiesel.  Others are comfortable, with the right supplier, using a biodiesel blend as a drop-in replacement for the petroleum-based product. Bio-diesel is a fuel derived from any natural fat or oil and designed to burn in (what else?) a diesel engine. Every couple of months you have probably come across the cliché' story of a diesel vehicle – Mercedes-Benz cars seem to be a favorite – being run on a product derived from used cooking oil from the local fast food restaurants that, when burned, gives off the smell of whatever food was cooked in it.

Maybe clean tech venture deals come in waves. No sooner did I complete the post on the funding for biodiesel startup Bio Architecture Lab that another Seattle area alternative energy company announced the close of its series A financing.Blue Marble Energy Corp. -- which is developing ways to convert algae, plants and food waste into fuel -- didn't disclose the size of the round in a press release. But in a SEC filing from April, the company indicated that it had raised $1 million of a $2 million round."With the tightness in the financing markets, it is very gratifying to see the faith that the market is placing in our vision of the future of biochemicals and renewable energy from waste biomass," Blue Marble CEO Kelly Ogilvie said in a statement.