Thus, Eco Biomass use a combination of proprietary technologies and existing acquired to manufacture and sell wood pellets roasted renewable. The initial installation of the company, which should be operational in 2013, will produce wood pellets that will be sold through agreements with major utilities.

The roasting process involves overheating of the biomass fuel to create a uniform, hydrophobic, dense and highly efficient coal-like but with a superior environmental profile. Because of the unique properties of the fuel roasted and its benefits in terms of combustion, this renewable solution “to pay” manufactured by Eco Biomass provides an alternative for utilities looking to reduce their carbon emissions and extend the life their facilities and infrastructure existing coal combustion without having to make capital investments too great.

“While the roast is widely used in many industries, adapting to the renewable energy sector has yet to demonstrate its cost-effectiveness and adaptability. Our partnership with ConocoPhillips is designed to provide the new renewable fuel and sustainable sector of energy production and help our customers in the public services to reduce their environmental impact in a competitive manner, “said John Keppler, President and CEO of Envive. “Our two companies are innovators in the energy sector and this partnership underscores our commitment to developing sustainable solutions in energy.”

Due to the large number of clients in the commercial and public services in the United States, Europe and Asia seeking to upgrade their production facilities to use energy from renewable fuels, Eco Biomass seek to significantly expand its production capacity over the coming years. Envive already operates plants in traditional wood pellets in the United States and Europe accounting for about 750,000 metric tons of annual capacity combined in 2011.

Wayland argues Morales, head of Elqui Global Energy that “an acre of cactus produces 43 200 m3 of biogas or the equivalent in energy terms to 25,000 liters of diesel.” With the same land planted with jatropha, he says, it will produce 3,000 liters of biodiesel.

Another of the peculiarities of the nopal is biogas which is the same molecule of natural gas, but its production does not require machines or devices of high complexity. Also, unlike natural gas, contains primarily methane (75%), carbon dioxide (24%) and other minor gases (1%), “so it has advantages from the technical point of view since it has the same capacity heat but is cleaner, “he says, and as sum datum its calorific value is 7,000 kcal/m3.

As a more positive element, the Chilean engineer mentions that “the process of obtaining methane generated as organic sediment and water products, which are processed for incorporation into the soil by earthworms, which permits the treatment of organic waste.

In turn, the water nitrogen obtained from the reactor also included in nopal plantations as fertilizer back into the modern irrigation system. And all with no less a fact: this type of cactus is well suited not only to unfavorable weather conditions for other crops but also degraded soils, of low quality.

Thus, a set of products is generated from the use of cactus as biomass: biogas, electricity, water, nitrogen, humus, earthworm flour as animal feed and carbon credits by participating in the process the carbon dioxide absorption. .

Anecdotally, it is worth mentioning that the nopal biogas is used for more than 100 years in China and other Asian countries, but not until 1984 that researchers at the University of Chile generated the knowledge so that this plant is capable of producing large amounts of energy growing in marginal conditions.

Contribution of forest biomass generated in the prevention of forest fires to the energy strategy of the European Union. This is the name of Life + project funded by the European Commission to start its journey in the last quarter of this year and be completed in 2013. Enguera City Council is led, but with significant participation of another municipality Valencian of Moixent as 20,000 hectares of forest land in both municipalities will be carried out silvicultural work.

In the Life +, which the City Council of Engueraannounced the adoption of, also involved two major actors involved in bioenergy, such as Iberdrola Renovables and the Spanish Association of Biomass Energy Recovery (Avebiom). The membership list is completed by the Generalitat Valenciana and the Association of Municipalities of the Valencian Community Forest.

Three well-ordered stages before producing energy
According to the statement issued by the City of Enguera, the project is divided into three phases. During the first perform a field inventory of all public utility mountains and Moixent Enguera. In the aforementioned area of more than 20,000 hectares of vegetable formations identified. Later, “of each formation will study the amount of biomass that under the principle of sustainability, can be extracted for energy and try to make it compatible with the prevention of forest fires”, point in the press release. The last step is the drafting of the final management of forests for the sustainable exploitation of biomass and that can be used by companies dedicated to energy efficiency.

Among the diverse and practical information Avebiom initiative listed 18 district with heating or centralized heating, distributed through Andalusia, Asturias, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Madrid, Navarra and the Basque Country.

The 20 MW of district heating are among the total 250 MW reported so far in the National Centre for Biomass Boilers, corresponding to 1,200 installations throughout Spain. Javier Diaz, president of Avebiom, explains that “we are very interested in innovative and high-efficiency or easily replicable projects, so we will try to give maximum publicity to the facilities registered, and therefore the companies.” “Certainly,” he continues, ” it is an action that has commercial advantages as well and installation companies can take advantage of it.”

The first observatory report confirms that “although there is a great number of facilities in the domestic sphere (719), the industry (294 plants) has more kilowatts from the use of more powerful boilers.” The average power unit in industrial installations (wood industry and furniture, agricultural and farming, etc.) is 350 kW. Households have installed boilers with average power of 55 kW and the public sector (municipalities, sports, schools, district heating , etc) has 300 kW in average in 185 facilities in total.

Avebiom emphasize that in industrial plants related to agriculture and timber there is the largest number of power-consuming facilities, mainly due to the greater ease of access to raw materials. An outstanding example is mentioned to be an agricultural cooperative Losar de la Vera (Cáceres), between 2007 and 2008 it has installed six boilers for their snuff dryers totaling nearly 10 MW. Interestingly, Extremadura is one of the regions with the highest number of installations contribute to the current record. Castilla y León tops the list with more than 25%, Euskadi (17%), Castilla-La Mancha (15%) and Catalonia (10%). Andalusia, Asturias and Madrid exceed or are about 5% and the rest below that percentage.

At the World Bioenergy congress and exhibition in Jönköping, a Swedish company, AB Torkapparater, will present its new technology for drying and roasting of green biomass, which allows conversion into a product similar to coal and replacing it in power plants.

The process involves drying wood in an oxygen-free atmosphere at a temperature of 300 º C, resulting in a material similar to coal. The increased efficiency and lower energy consumption of this technology is achieved by tar and other substances that contain flammable gases used as fuel originated within the process itself, limiting the additional amount of external power required.

Avebiom says that further roasting increases the energy density of the original biomass, which can carry much more energy. “Anyone who has studied the life cycle of a product knows that transport is one of the most important aspects to consider both the economic cost and environmental effects. “For this reason, they think that “savings in logistics is a major incentive in the investigation of roasting technology.”

More efficient technologies -Torkapparater
Tests so far show that responds well roasted fuel power plants in operation and requires less energy for grinding the regular wood pellets. Earlier this year the company expects to launch an industrial scale pilot plant to study and develop the process until the last detail.

Not this the only technology from Torkapparater as known at World Bioenergy. In Avebiom remember that they also present other drying plant, which was launched in late 2009 by the Swedish manufacturer of pellet in Älvdalen. There a drying process in two stages that includes a band and a trommel is used. The heat from the trommel is recovered in the band system, which leads to a reduction in energy consumption by 30%. On the other hand, the same firm working on other techniques for producing energy-efficient biofuels through pyrolysis and gasification.

With a total production of 190 MW, the power plant will operate by burning wood and agricultural residues, reducing 1.2 million tons of CO2 emission a year. Located in Polaniec, in southeast Poland, the plant will replace a 1,800 MW coal and biomass central owned by GDF Suez, and is to be up and running late in December 2012.

This plant will contribute to the commitment by Poland to produce over 15% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Poland has large resources of biomass such as wood and agricultural residues, which can be used for electricity production, thereby helping to reduce CO2 emissions.

The design and construction of the circulating fluidized bed boiler, the first of its kind in the world able to burn only biomass, will be performed by Foster Wheeler, a world leader in this technology.

“The construction of this plant in Poland, and the development of the new wind farms emphasize GDF Suez engagement in Sustainable Development and the Polish market,” said Dirk Beeuwsaert, Executive Vice-President of GDF SUEZ, in charge of the Energy Europe and International business.