Nov16 BMM

November 2016
BOTTOM LINE
BOOST
Biochars Value as
Bioenergy Coproduct
Page 8
PLUS:
Pellet Plants
Probe New Markets
Page 14
AND:
Digestate a
Biogas Bonus
Page 24
www.biomassmagazine.com
NOVEMBER 2016 | VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 11
03 EDITORS NOTE
A Shot in the Arm
By Tim Portz
05 BUSINESS BRIEFS
26 MARKETPLACE
POWER
06 NEWS
07 COLUMN
The United Kingdoms New Path
By Frank Aaskov
08 FEATURE
Bioenergy Byproduct to Soil Savior
A small but growing biochar market is putting more dollars in the pockets of
bioenergy producers.
By Anna Simet
PELLETS
12 COLUMN
Upcoming Biomass Politics
By Bill Bell
13 COLUMN
CHP from Biomass: the Next Generation
14
By Ben Bell-Walker and Aaron Aber
14 FEATURE
Cooking Up Higher Margins
In the wake of a soft market, fuel pellet producers are increasingly
looking into barbecue and absorbent markets.
By Tim Portz
THERMAL
18 FEATURE
The Ins and Outs of Heat Exchangers
Heat exchangers are essential to biomass plant operational
eciency and effectiveness.
By Ron Kotrba
18
BIOGAS
22 NEWS
23 COLUMN
RNG in California: Leadership, Market Certainty
By Marcus Gillette
24 DEPARTMENT
Green Garbage to Black Gold
Creating value-added end products from digestate can provide
additional revenue to a biogas plant.
By Katie Fletcher
ON THE COVER:
Biochar is made and sold on-site

at a Phoenix Energy biomass
gasication plant.
PHOTO: PHOENIX ENERGY
2 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2016
EDITORS NOTE
A Shot in the Arm
TIM PORTZ
VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT

& EXECUTIVE EDITOR
tportz@bbiinternational.com
Herb Seeger has a zeal for barbecue wood pellets.

When he discusses what the product has meant for Great
Lakes Renewable Energy, its easy to understand why.
Seeger was the spark that led to Biomass Magazine committing an entire issue to the role that coproducts play
within the biomass energy sector. Seegers enthusiasm was
compelling, but ultimately, it was the make-or-break nature
of his and GLREs story, combined with historically low
energy prices, that ultimately hooked our team.
To accompany the page-14 story I wrote about GLRE,
Cooking Up Higher Margins, we conducted a survey
of pellet producers to better understand how many were
engaged in the manufacture of coproducts, and what it
meant to their operations. The survey revealed that GLRE
is not unique because it manufactures coproducts, but that
its success might not be as widely enjoyed by its industry
peers. For Seeger, coproducts offer everything that pellets
for home heating markets do nota global marketplace,
higher margins, year-round demand, and insulation from
fluctuations in temperature and the prices of competing
commodities. The glaring omission, of course, is volume.
During our interview, Seeger admitted that serving the barbecue market required a completely different production
and marketing paradigm that other producers may not be
ready to fully embrace. Still, the dramatic difference these
alternative markets make for GLRE render it impossible
to ignore what robust market development activities these
categories might be able to do for the pellet industry.
Associate Editor Katie Fletchers page-24 feature,

Green Garbage to Black Gold, explores how the biogas
segment is hoping that the development and deployment
of a digestate standard will simultaneously bolster marketplace confidence and regulatory acceptance of this important coproduct. Fletcher spoke with Clarke Pauley, vice
president of the organics and biogas division at CR&R,
who summed it up this way: We see the success of anaerobic digestion of organic wastes directly tied to the ability
to generate usable soil products on the back end. Directly
tied, he said. Not important, and not a contributing factor, but directly tied. With energy prices where they are, it
is certainly hard to argue. Beyond that, one of biomasss
greatest values is its zero-waste story. In that way, a digestate standard and efforts to aggressively grow the digestate
market should serve as an ongoing reminder of the efficiency of the technology.
This issue is rounded out with stories on biochar
and heat exchangers and their role in buttressing the economics of the producers savvy enough to engage in their
production or use. Energy revenues alone are not enough
right now. The open question is whether or not coproduct
markets can grow enough to make the kind of difference
theyve made for Seeger.
NOVEMBER 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3
INDUSTRY EVENTS
EDITORIAL
PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Bryan tbryan@bbiinternational.com
VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Tim Portz tportz@bbiinternational.com
MANAGING EDITOR Anna Simet asimet@bbiinternational.com
SENIOR EDITOR Ron Kotrba rkotrba@bbiinternational.com
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Business
Briefs
PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPS
USDA
names
researcher to hall
of fame
T h e
U S D A
recently
Kurtzman
named Cletus P. Kurtzman to the Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of
Fame. Kurtzman, a research microbiologist at the ARS Mycotoxin
Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research Unit in Peoria,
Illinois, helped pioneer molecular
techniques to identify yeast microorganisms. These discoveries enable scientists to accurately predict
the biological properties of yeasts.
This knowledge led to innovations
in converting crop biomass into
fuel, in producing biodegradable
ingredients for detergents, and in
food safety, crop production, and
human and animal health advancements.
Solegear awarded patent
Solegear Bioplastic Technologies Inc. has been granted US Patent 9,416,255, titled Compositions Comprising Polylactic Acid,
Bentonite, and Gum Arabic. The
patent broadly covers the synthesis
of biobased additives along with
polylactic acid to deliver a number
of key performance characteristics
required for rigid packaging and
durable goods applications.
Snow Timber Pellets
qualified into PFI
Standards Program
The Pellet Fuels Institute recently announced the qualification
of Snow Timber Pellets of Hurley,
Wisconsin, into the PFI Standards
Program. The PFI Standards Pro-
gram is a third-party accreditation

program providing specifications
for residential and commercialgrade pellet fuel, now representing
14 pellet manufacturing companies with a combined 28 facilities.
Virent establishes strategic
consortium
Virent recently announced
that it has established a strategic
consortium with Tesoro, Toray,
Johnson Matthey and The CocaCola Co. focused on completing
the development and scale-up of
its BioForming technology to produce low-carbon biobased fuels
and bio-paraxylene. The consortium members will work together
to finalize technical developments
and commercial arrangements,
with the objective of delivering
a commercial facility to produce
cost-effective, biobased fuels and
bio-paraxylene.
CBD to supply fuel
conveying system
to Lynemouth
Clyde Bergemann (CBD) has
been chosen to deliver the pneumatic conveying system to the
Lynemouth biomass conversion.
CBD has been supporting the
conversion project with customers Sir Robert Alpine and end-user
Lynemouth Power Ltd. since late
2011. The system utilizes state-ofthe-art Clyde Bergemann Screw
Injector and loss-in-weight technology, and conveys the wood
pellets from each of the three new
day silos to the inlet of the fuel
mills.
PowerNews
New California law
benefits biomass power
On Sept. 14, California Gov. Edmund
G. Brown Jr. signed a bill, SB 859, that will
support biomass plants within the state by
calling on electricity retailers to enter into
five-year contracts for 125 MW of biomass
capacity with facilities that generate energy
from wood harvested from certain high-firehazard zones.
The bill is part of a package of legislation signed by Brown that directs $900 million in cap-and-trade funds to greenhouse
gas reducing programs that benefit disadvantaged communities, support clean transportation and protect natural ecosystems.
We commend Gov. Jerry Brown for
signing Senate Bill 859, said Julee Malinowski-Ball. The governor understands the importance of the biomass industry as it pertains to the states renewable energy portfolio
standard and the eradication of dead and dying trees from high-hazard fire zones.
This law will provide some certainty
to the biomass industry, which has struggled
due to antiquated contracts, Malinowski-Ball
continued, noting it will also protect hundreds
of jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
promote long-term forest management goals.
Advanced bioenergy
plant opens in
New York
Lockheed Martin held a ribbon-cutting
ceremony on Sept. 21, to celebrate the opening of its bioenergy facility in Owego, New
York. The facility utilizes Concord Blues
advanced gasification technology to convert
waste into renewable energy.
Prior to the ribbon cutting, Lockheed
Martin successfully demonstrated the endto-end capability of the new system. The
demonstration validated its ability to convert
waste material into energy for the companys
Owego operations, where it designs and
builds space-flight hardware, military helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
The plant will initially take in wood
waste as feedstock, with plans to transition to municipal, commercial or industrial
waste in the future. Following collection,
metal, glass and other materials are removed
from the feedstock. The remaining material
is then dried to specification. To generate
the gas, proprietary heat carrier spheres are
heated and mixed with the organic waste.
Once a certain temperature is reached, the
solid turns to gas. That gas then travels to a
reforming vessel where it is turned into syn-
Dd:d
Celebrating Success: Lockheed

Martin is completing commissioning of a
bioenergy plant in Owego, New York, that
features Concord Blues advanced gasification
technology.
PHOTO: LOCKHEED MARTIN
thesis gas, also known as syngas. The syngas

is then used to fuel a combustion engine,
generating electricity. The technology could
also be used to produce hydrogen or biofuels.
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^W^
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POWER
The United Kingdom's

New Path
BY FRANK AASKOV
Over the past six months, the political landscape in the

United Kingdom has changed significantly. Following the
results of the EU referendum, where 52 percent voted to
leave the European Union, we have seen the prime minister
resign, a change in direction of the new Conservative government, the new Department for Exiting the EU take the
first steps to negotiate the U.K. leaving, and a departmental
shuffle has meant that the Department of Energy & Climate
Change has been absorbed by the new Department for Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy.
There remains a lot of uncertainty over what Brexit
Britain exiting the European Unionmeans, as the government is holding its cards very close to its chest. It even seems
likely that the British population won't know the terms of
the divorce settlement from the EU until after the negotiations have ended.
In these uncertain times, some political commitments
are still standing strong: The long-term decarbonizations
of the U.K. energy supply and wider economy. Days after
the referendum, the government confirmed the fifth carbon
budget, and parliament has subsequently formally approved
the targets, which commit the U.K. to cutting emissions by
57 percent against 1990 levels by 2032. This is a huge step,
which boosts investor confidence by setting out a legal commitment to decarbonization and the overall political direction.
When DECC was cut, many green organizations protested, as it could be seen as deprioritizing climate change
and leaving it on a lone civil servant's desk in an obscure
basement office within the business department. However,
the new department has been filled with environmentally
friendly ministers who have historically been supportive of
renewables, led by Secretary of State Greg Clark MP, previously the opposition energy and climate change spokesperson, and author of reports on climate change, sustainability
and environment. Other ministers include Nick Hurd MP,
who is part of a Conservative environmental group, led solar in Africa projects as development minister, and chaired a
parliamentary environmental group; and Baroness NevilleRolfe, who previously worked at the Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food, and was a director at the U.K.s biggest
supermarket, Tesco. It is still early, however, and we have yet
to see new policies from the new BEIS team. In the coming
months, we will start to understand the department's priorities and how they wish to deal with energy and decarbonization.
In the U.K., biomass has never had an easy time, with
strong opposition from NGOs, who have been campaigning vigorously against any bioenergy. There is still some
mistrust of the use of wood residues for the production of
energy, despite rigorous external scrutiny of greenhouse gas
savings and forest practices. There is still no support under
the Contract for Difference subsidy scheme for dedicated
biomass power, and a cap remains on biomass power under the Renewables Obligation subsidy scheme, but there is
support for biomass combined heat and power. We saw the
previous Conservative government propose lower support
for biomass heat and refocus away from smaller systems toward larger, industrial biomass heat plants, but the outcome
of the government's consultation will be published later this
year. The previous Conservative government questioned the
availability of sustainable biomass, which restricted policy
proposals, but as new ministers have entered the departments, we have been engaging with them to inform and help
them see the potential of biomass. Despite it still being a
Conservative government, we have a new prime minister
and almost the entire ministerial team has been replaced or
reshuffled. It is therefore an excellent opportunity to take a
more positive stance toward biomass energy generation.
Not since World War II has the U.K. seen such tumultuous political times, with changes to how we deal with our
neighboring countries, legislative procedures, trade relations,
and immigration, to name a few. But some things haven't
changed: The U.K. is still strongly committed to decarbonizing its energy system and economy. New ministers are seen
as green conservatives, and the newly created department
could bring decarbonization even further. As we work and
engage with the new ministers and political leadership, we
could potentially also see a change in attitude toward the great
potential of biomass energy, which could lower the cost of
decarbonization, bring flexible, baseload energy, and benefit
our undermanaged forests. The U.K. is on a new path.
Author: Frank Aaskov
Policy Analyst, Renewable Energy Association
faaskov@r-e-a.net
020-7925-3570
PHOTO: COOL PLANET TECHNOLOGIES
PHOTO: PHOENIX ENERGY
Bioenergy Byproduct to
S OIL SAVIOR
reg Stangl is a power guy. Selfproclaimed and readily apparent to others, that title has been
earned by the CEO of Phoenix
Energy after a decade-plus of developing and
building small-scale biomass electricity projects. While there may be hundreds of companies working in the smaller-scale bioenergy
project space, Stangl has something that most
of them dont: biochar. And, he knows how
to use it.
Perhaps more accurately, he knows its
worth. But thats not to say he always did. We
used to give our biochar away at two cents
per pound, when we built our first facility in
Europe, Stangl says. Our plans then were
Production and sale of biochar at biomassusing plants can result in significant financial
gains, but the industry is still working at
building its myriad of potential markets.
BY ANNA SIMET
all about electricitywe sold that biochar to

people using coal furnaces.
Partnered up with GE Energy for numerous projects in various stages of development,
including a 2-MW plant in North Fork, California, that will break ground in early November,
it wasnt until Phoenix Energy began working
in the U.S. that a much different market began
knocking on the companys door to purchase
biochar. Farmers started contacting us for
it, Stangl says. Now, if someone buys a bulk
truckload, we charge 79 cents per pound, and
people pay it. Its an expensive product, but if
you have high-value specialty crops with a high
capex investment and it has to provide to you
for 20 years, its well worth the investment.
Based in California, where a once-thriving biomass power industry has plummeted

the past few years, Phoenix Energys business
model would look substantially different if it
werent for the sale of biochar, Stangl says. And
by different, he means unfeasible. Imagine if
you took 40 percent of our revenue away. If
prices stay where they are in California, we will
likely make more money from biochar than
power in the next several yearsits insane.
That reality creates an interesting dynamic
when it comes to plant financing. We didnt
get a bank loan because we have a biochar machinewe got a loan because I walked in with
a power purchase agreement from a Triple
A-rated, publically owned utility, Stangl says.
POWER
The banks dont know about biochar, they
dont want to hear about it, and there arent
forward contracts for it. We did sell our first
forward contract this year, but thats just one.
It doesnt suddenly make biochar financeable.
But how much biochar can a small-scale
plant actually produce? For Phoenix Energys
2-MW plants, its about 10 percent of the fuel
intake. Around 300 pounds per hour, per
megawatt, of softwood, Stangl says, adding
that theres roughly 44 yards of biochar in a
standard truckload. Weight varies by the feedstock useda truckload holds 22 supersacks
of biochar; when its made from hardwood it
weighs in around 900 pounds, and when made
from softwood, around 550 pounds. Weve
built a plant based on peach pitsthat stuff is
very heavy, a supersack weighs more like 1,300
pounds, its much denser, Stangl says.
While well aware of biochars capabilities and potentialevidenced or proven in
thousands of research papers, field trials and
real-world application by a growing market
Stangl admits he isnt an expert on biochar best
practices or application rates in the soil as a fertilizer, storm water remediate, odor controller,
carbon sequestration tool, and the list goes on.
But what he does know is that the farmers and
others who are repeat-purchasing in bulk continue to benefit from its amazing properties.
And, the word is spreading. For example,
someone has come back to us and said, My
neighbors trees died when there was a zero water allocation, but mine survived, because I put
biochar in when I planted them two years ago,
he says. Words like that get around, and then
suddenly its hard to keep up with demand,
which leads to a challenge. It doesnt pay to
make the stuff if you dont know its leaving
in a timely fashion. Pellet guys, for example,
might have two years worth of pellets in bags
out back. But with our small-sized plants, we
cant afford to sit on inventory.
And biochar may be just the right fit a
certain pellet plants, such as Confluence Energy in Kremmling, Colorado, which alongside several different wood pellet lines, manufacturers biochar, kitty litter, animal bedding,
absorbents and other products. If conditions
are right, offering up a byproduct like biochar
could benefit some mills that have struggled to
stay afloat during recent soft winters.
Pellet Plant Coproduct
Biochar entrepreneur Jonah Levine, development manager at Confluence Energy

and cofounder of Biochar Solutions Inc., has
seen the industry rapidly progress over the past
eight years, and shift from a heavy emphasis

on the concept of using biochar to gain carbon credits toward use as a soil insulator, stabilizer or fertilizer, uses that have quickly gained
traction. From 2009 to 13, the industry was
growing by about three times annually, Levine
says. It tapered off a bit, but still grows about
one and a half times each year, which is still an
incredible rate.
At Confluence Energy, which installed
a system several years after its initial startup,
wood residue is carbonized through a vertical,
pyrolytic tube, after which it is sent through
a horizontal tube and augured out of the active or hot zone. At the very edge of the hot
zone, its hit with hot steam, then with ambient
water, Levine explains. The water quenches
the material, and then that material is moved
pneumatically through another tube, and into
a packaging system that includes screens and
size-adjustment capabilities, and then its sent
into bulk totes. Once its in bulk totes, it goes
into storage for a two-week holding period,
and then at the end of the hold, before it goes
to the market, we test with either or both a
temperature measurement or carbon monoxide test, which is a good combustion test for
safety.
Not only does biochar diversify a pellet
plants offering, but heat produced as a result
of its production can be captured and reused
at the mill. A pellet mill like Confluence Energy might use around 1 MW thermal per hour,
and process around 200 tons of wood pellets
in a 24-hour period. During the same time,
we can coproduce biochar, as well as about 1
MW of heat energy that fuel switches from
the other MW thermal going into the plant,
Levine says. So that biochar is producing a
consistent head load.
And, existing assets are another benefit
to add to the list. Youre getting char, coproducing, which is good, and youre getting heat
value, which is really good, and at the same
time, your administration and staff is the same,
your forklift driver is the same, and the trucks
loading and unloading are the same, Levine
says, adding that the existing packaging system
allows the company to sell its product to Big
Box retailers including Home Depot, Lowes,
and Tractor Supply. All of these shared assets
change the economics. It fits into the frameworkintegrated production should be the
future of the space. By putting char inside of
integrated pellet manufacturing, or a coproduction of electricity and char, you start to
look like a legitimate producer in the biomass
industry. In my opinion, biochar only isnt the
most cost-effective approach toward an industry.

And those working in the space since
biochar began to gain momentum just under a
decade ago have grown productive capabilities
and brought down the cost per unit of material, Levine notes. In 2009, we were producing [biochar] for 10 times the cost shipped in
a barrel that was dry and dusty and couldnt
be handledthe cost of a barrel used was
$32.50, he says. Now, the cost of a bulk tote
is $12, and you can get four barrels material
in it. This is just an example of the simple but
critical changes the market has to go through
to become an industry.
Whats the going price of biochar? That
varies with each producer, and it also varies by
the quality of char and intended end-use. The
market range is between $500 per yard, being
the high end, and $100 per yard. But the question is, what is the char doing, where is it going,
how is it created in preparation for that use?
An example of high end is activated carbon
pricing, which can be anywhere from $1 and
$5 per pound. The low end is $100 per yard,
and there might be a wide range of ash present, of fixed carbon, and its sold via bulk truck
delivery.
One example of high-end, or upgraded,
engineered biocarbon, is Google Venturesbacked Cool Planet Energy Systems, which
currently has a production facility in California, and a Louisiana site it plans to build an additional plant on, potentially in 2017.
Dubbed Cool Terra, it is a carbon-sequestering soil amendment that is engineered
to enhance soil health by nurturing microbial
life in the soil, and enhancing its water and nutrient-holding capacity, according to Jim Loar,
Cool Planet president and CEO. The model is
set up differently than most biochar producers
todayCool Planet actually buys biochar in its
raw state and puts it through an additional, patented process, but Wes Bolsen, head of global
business development, says there is a market
for this kind of high-quality, upgraded biochar.
And the company has partnered with ag
distributor giant JR Simplot to get the product into the market and in front of customers,
the kind of agreement that Bolsen says will
be key in growing the industry. The distribution channel has the critical aspect driving
this market, and thats what were bringing, he
says. We put consistency behind itcustomers will know what theyre getting when they
buy engineered biocarbon. Through distributor channels, we can reach out to thousands of
growers. Individual power plants have some
POWER
growers who buy it [directly], but thats not an

industry.
So what does the U.S. and global industry look like today? According to Tom Miles,
owner of T. R. Miles Technical Consultants
Inc. and board member of both the International Biochar Initiative and the U.S. Biochar
Initiative, trade groups focused on exploring
cost-effective ways of converting biomass into
biochar and ways of using it, right nowin
most casesan energy component is needed.
Though production in the U.S. is on the rise,
on a global level, China dominates in both production and use.
Domestic, Global Markets
In the U.S., producers are small from

an industrial point of view, but theres a
wide spectrum, anything from making it in a
coffee can and using it strategically as a carrier for biopesticides and biofertilizersyou
dont need much, a little bit goes a very long
wayto 10-ton truckloads of biochar going into horticultural activities, Miles says.
Much of it is small, commercial producers
making less than a dry ton per hour, but they
arent necessarily small companieswood pel-
let producers making a variety of products,

companies combining biochar with nutrients
and deformulated products, and some small
power plants turning wood gas into electricity as byproducts. Biochar has the potential to
help make these very small, 3- or 5-MW or less
biomass plants feasible.
China uses a reported 500,000 tons of
biochar a year, Miles says, and the industry
there is growing at such a rate that the IBI is
opening an Asian branch. In the case of China, its being used it to remediate soils that have
been damaged by pollution from their coalburning power plants, Miles says. Theyve
also been making granulated biochar products
used in mainstream agriculture, a point that we
havent gotten to in any significant quantity yet
in the U.S.
In fact, the U.S. only producer and uses a
fraction of what China does, says Miles, who
estimates production in the country likely being no more than 20,000 tons per year. But,
surprisingly, the number of companies involved in making biochar or technologies is
upward of 300, he says, and many that are
making it are capable of producing much
more. The challenge here is an energy mar-
ket in which nobody will pay you enough for

electricity or heat to use biomass, and we know
there is excess biomass in places like California and the Northeast, where [paid biomass
power] prices are very low. So the challenge
is how do we do this, how do we integrate this
smaller wood products companies and see the
benefit of making biochar and using the offgas from its production in their existing boilers
as a form of fuel?
For companies like Terrachar, which is
targeting roughly 40,000-ton biomass plants
for the installation of biochar technologies
of companies such as Karr Group, those
high-value electrical markets such as in California and New Hampshire are an area of
focus. Cogeneration does very well with this
process, explains Terrachars Phil Blom. If
youre using propane or natural gas for heating,
thats an expense we can help cut back on.
But smaller companies are often capital constrained, and need to see the benefit
of an installation that wont cost a few million dollars. And the only thing that will fix
that is maturation of the market. Everyones
kind of waiting for the market to develop, but
somebodys got to develop the market, Miles
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are just a click away!
service@terrasource.com
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says. We need more participation from the

organics recycling businesses, and more participation from the agronomics side, the soils
people, more people need to discover how
biochar can be used in particular situations to
be able to gain valuepeople have been really
good at developing the technology to make
the black stuff, but they have very little experience in the marketplace and direct market applications. We also have to work with dairy and
other animal waste folks to find out best use
of chars made from animal waste.
Miles reiterates thats not to say the market hasnt made great strides. What weve
learned over the past 10 years is that there are
a lot of different qualities of chars that we can
use in different ways in agriculture, forestry
itself, and storm water and soil remediation
weve found a lot uses for the material, and the
challenge now is sort of balancing that with
where the char come from, what its properties
and best uses, and what a company can afford
to make.
The other thing the industry has accomplished is an official definition accepted by the
American Association of Plant Food Control
Officials, which controls labeling and regula-
tion of fertilizers and soil amendments for

the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. That took
about three years to accomplish. Now, everybody in every state and province has a reference point, Miles says. Biochar has gone from
Whats biochar? to a buzz, and this year its,
What quality of biochar do you have available
and how much?
For Stangl and Phoenix Energy, the quality of biochar it produces is likely to remain
as it has, but the quantity has potential to septuple over the next two years at its plants in
development. I do worry about demandwe
should really be raising our prices because it
is all leaving, he says. At conferences, others
are talking about biochar research and application ratesbut farmers are already buying this
by the truckload, and they have been for years.
People are out there using it now.
But growing the market at the rate of
plant development could be challenging, Stangl says, as the company is working to respond
to Californias push toward small-scale, forestry- and ag-based plants. Weve got to grow
[the market] fast enough to keep up with the
expanded capacity out there, and thats why I
see the opportunity to go beyond ag and into
Biomass to
Energy
other markets like activated carbonits a $2

billion industry and we bring it all over from
Asia in the form of coconut shell. The city
of Los Angeles buys over 800,000 pounds
of activated coconut shell at about 99 cents a
pound, so that we can build houses right next
to the wastewater treatment plant and nobody
smells anything. Why cant our municipalities
buy it from our own citizens who are using
California forest and ag residues?
For Phoenix Energy, it all comes down
to being a biomass plant developer with very
valuable byproduct, Stangl adds. Were not
soils guyswere an energy plus biochar company, and it doesnt work one or the other. Im
not ashamed to admit, we wouldnt be doing
what we are doing today if biochar were not
valuable.
Author: Anna Simet
Managing Editor, Biomass Magazine
701-738-4961
asimet@bbiinternational.com
USIPA
Booth 3
ProcessBarron is with you every step of the way!

processbarron.com | 205-663-5330
PELLET
Upcoming Biomass
Politics
BY BILL BELL
Clowns to the left of me, jokers on the right; here I am,

stuck in the middle with you. (Stealers Wheel, 1972)
Biomass Magazine has previously reported the visit
of Maines Biomass Study Commission to major biomass
generating sites in Maine (Bob Cleaves, Biomass Power Association, October column.) One objective of the commission will be to propose legislation enabling such sites to sell
electricity not only to the grid, but also to sell directly to adjacent customers. In one unique instance, ReEnergy is able to
supply neighboring Stratton Lumber. In another case, however, ReEnergy has been unable to sell directly to fellow occupants in the Ashland industrial park, including Northeast
Pellets. These firms are now confronted with a major electric
rate hike at the hands of their regional grid supplier.
Current Maine law, adhering to the regulated monopoly principle governing many utilities, generally forbids a
small energy generator to sell other than to the grid. The utility firms serving Maine are paying close attention to the work
of the Biomass Study Commission, and without doubt, are
already thinking ahead to the post-election membership of
the legislatures Energy and Public Utilities Committee. The
Biomass Study Commission consists largely of supporters
of Maines forestry industry. The legislative committee deciding upon the commissions recommendations will, to put
it mildly, have a very different composition.
The foremost objective of our Maine Pellet Fuels Association is creating a thermal class in Maines Renewable
Portfolio Standard. Renewable standards created about
10 years agoat the same time that many states sought to
decrease reliance on fossil fuelscarved out special incentives for electricity generated by tidal, solar, wind, and hydro
power. No provision was made for renewable generation of
heat. In the past three years, New Hampshire, followed by
Massachusetts, added biomass heat to its incentivized portfolios, creating a potentially large growth market for our pellet and wood chip producers and heating equipment firms.
The Biomass Study Commission recognizes the potential
here. In fact, this proposal is listed as Issue I-A on the commissions current work sheet.
As is the case with creating the biomass electric microgrids described above, however, the commissions recommendations on biomass thermal incentives will need legislative enactment. And heres where the going probably gets
tough.
In 2013, on the heels of New Hampshires passage of

renewable energy credits for thermal biomass, our association worked with a logger/state senator from the northern
tip of Maine to introduce a bill patterned on New Hampshires new law. BTEC leader Charlie Niebling was accorded
considerable attention by our legislatures Energy and Utilities Committee as he explained the New Hampshire bill. The
complexity of the subject became daunting, however. And
our bill sponsor, Sen. Troy Jackson, became the target of our
governors most egregious rant of the (last) year. (Political
footnote: Sen. Jackson has since run for Congress in 2014,
lost in the Democratic primary, been named Democratic
National Committeeman from Maine, been an outspoken
Bernie leader, is now likely to regain his former state Senate seat, and could emerge in 2017 as president of the Maine
Senate.)
With complexity being the obstacle to passage of our
thermal biomass bill, we agreed to reduce the legislation to a
simple requirement that Maines Public Utilities Commission
study the subject. Our governor, however, vetoed even this
measure at a timenow long gonethat his vetoes were
being sustained.
The outcome of the Biomass Study Commissions
work depends on politics. Northern Forest Center, a very
savvy nonprofit working in support of the rural economies
of the northern tier of the Northeast, coauthored and generated a long list of community and industry supporters of
our letter in support of thermal biomass credits. The commission must report to the Maine Legislature by Dec. 5. By
that date, it is likely that Democrats will be in the majority in
our state Senate as well in in the House. The cochair of the
Biomass Study Commission may well be elected to one of
these Senate seats. But will our governor, who has refused
to allow officials of his administration to participate in the
commissions work, veto any legislation incorporating the
commissions recommendations, no matter how important
to our states rural economy?
Stay tuned, fingers crossed.
Author: Bill Bell
Executive Director, Maine Pellet Fuels Association
feedalliance@gwi.net
Tel.207-752-1392
PELLET
CHP from Biomass:

The Next Generation
BY BEN BELL-WALKER AND AARON ABER
All electric generation should be cogeneration. That

may seem like an extreme statement, but in a world where
energy usage, environmental impact, and costs are increasingly important, and the movement toward renewable energy resources is accelerating, we cannot throw
away waste energy, (waste heat in this case) so profligately. The annual 2015 U.S. energy usage flow chart from
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory estimates that
of 97.5 quadrillion British thermal units of energy used
for transportation, heating and electricity, almost 60 percent was rejected energy.
Policymakers at both the state and federal levels are
beginning to recognize this. Combined heat and power
(CHP) can utilize all kinds of fuels, and, because it makes
better use of existing resources, it allows for building and
community resiliency, and can garner bipartisan support
in ways that other initiatives within the energy efficiency
and sustainable energy space do not. The Pew Charitable
Trusts, for example, have long championed CHP within
the policy sphere.
Supporters like Pew fought for a CHP renewable energy investment tax credit that is set to expire at the end
of 2016. There are a number of issues with the treatment
of biomass in the existing credit. Its arbitrary requirement
of a minimum 20 percent electrical efficiency excludes
biomass systems that have an 80 percent overall efficiencyhigher than the most efficient natural gas CHP
plants, which peak out at 75 percent overall efficiency
simply because some of those systems have an electrical

efficiency less than 20 percent. Biomass CHP advocates
have an obligation to address these types of barriers in
future state and federal actions, or they risk being left
out once again. Unfortunately, action has stalled on the
POWER Act, which would extend a 30 percent energy tax
credit for CHP through 2018. At the state level, the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority has incentivized CHP through a program that offers
up to $2.5 million for installing CHP systems. However,
the organizations regulation-heavy approach to biomass
technologies, a source of debate in the biomass industry,
leaves biomass at risk of being excluded from the programs full benefits.
BTEC has taken a lead in promoting biomass CHP.
The organizations CHP Working Group is preparing to
release a factsheet and whitepaper on the topic. BTEC
also recognizes that the buzz around CHP often focuses
on natural gas, which does not address carbon emissions
or the issue of local heating. Biomass CHP, by contract,
addresses both problems. We have encouraged industry
and universities to work together on projects that drive the
technology forward.
Author: Ben Bell-Walker
Technical Program Manager
Ben.bell-walker@biomassthermal.org
Aaron Aber
PELLET
Cooking Up
HIGHER
MARGINS
As another heating season approaches, low heat market

margins have pellet producers looking toward other end
uses for greater market stability and increased profits.
BY TIM PORTZ
erb Seeger, president of Great Lakes Renewable Energy Inc., recently went to an auction
at a distressed wood pellet facility. Recalling meeting the owner of the facility, Seeger says,
My mood isn't the same as his mood. For Seeger and his team at GLRE, business is
strong. In fact, Seeger is shipping wood pellets in containers to countries all over the world,
including Japan and Taiwan. On the heels of a soft market for heating pellets, Seegers business is
healthy, predominantly because hes aggressively targeting markets beyond home heating users. After a particularly warm winter in the upper Midwest in 2010, Seeger convinced his ownership group
to recast its facility as a diversified pellet producer, and began aggressively building expertise and
customers in the barbecue and absorbent markets. Without this change in operating philosophy,
Seeger doubts that GLRE would be operating today.
Biomass Magazines Coproduct Survey

All questions pertain to the 66 percent of respondents who engage in
coproduct production/sale. Answers rounded to nearest percent.
What percentage of your annual revenue

is generated by the sale of nonthermal pellet products?
Less than 5%
Between 5-10%
Between 10-20%
More than 20%
30%
45%
11%
Which of the following products are you

currently manufacturing and marketing?
Animal Bedding (Pellets)
Absorbents
Barbecue Pellets
Animal Bedding (Shavings)
Briquettes/Logs/Pucks
Garden Mulch
Briquettes/Logs/Pucks
(with accelerants/repellants)
63%
52%
44%
30%
15%
15%
4%
15%
How would you describe the profitability of these products
when compared the pellets you produce for thermal markets?
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
About the
same level
Slightly
more
Significantly
more
Slightly
less
Not
profitable
What percentage of your annual production

time is committed to the manufacture of
nonthermal pellet products?
Less than 5%
Between 5-10%
Between 10-20%
More than 20%
15%
56%
11%
19%
PELLET
A recent Biomass Magazine survey, partial results of which are shown on page 15,
suggests that while Seeger may be an early
adopter of the idea of market diversification,
he and GLRE are certainly not alone. Exactly
two-thirds of survey respondents reported
that they are engaged in the manufacture and
sale of wood fiber products for uses other
than home heating. While the majority of the
industry is engaged in the manufacture of
these coproducts, survey results indicate that
the success and importance of those efforts
vary from producer to producer. Seegers experience suggests that having success outside
of home heating markets requires new thinking in fiber procurement, production, marketing and distribution. For producers who get
it right, coproducts can improve cash flow,
increase profit margins and reduce the seasonality of the wood pellet business, all issues that
have plagued even the savviest of producers
for years.
What we learned when we had a warm
winter in 2010 was that you cant survive on
a product that has a six-month market unless
you have the ability to store pellets while you

make them, Seeger says. And you have the
working capital to make that happen.
GLREs first foray into barbecue pellets
wasnt a story of instant success. Seeger says
that the facility struggled with pellets that were
too long, too hard and had too many fines.
But the biggest hurdle was feedstock procurement. Weve spent six years figuring out how
to buy the wood species needed to produce 22
different Lumberjack barbecue pellet recipes
that we sell, Seeger says. This means procuring wood in a species specific manner, often in
quantities that loggers are reluctant to spend
the time isolating and setting aside. It has taken
time, but Seeger says he feels like GLRE has
finally turned a corner, and its sourcing program is the foundation of their coproduct
strategy. The first nut to crack was to let them
[loggers] know there was a need out there, he
says. Then we have to provide a price that
makes it worth their while to do the necessary
work to bring us the material.
Any other producer hoping to produce
wood pellets for the specialty barbecue mar-
ket must overcome this same fiber procurement challenge if they hope to preserve the
promise of higher margins that led them to
that market in the first place. Survey responses
suggest that for most producers, significantly
higher margins continue to elude them. Of the
producers engaged in coproduct production,
just 10 percent describe those products as significantly more profitable than heating pellets.
That same percentage reported that margins
on those products are slightly less profitable
than their home heating product; 40 percent
reported the products were slightly more profitable, and 33 percent report about the same
level of profitability.
This isnt surprising to Seeger. Most producers arent comfortable filling orders of 1
to 2 tons, he says. Its too much overhead.
Most folks are not set up to do it. Weve spent
six years developing these systems and were
trying to stay ahead of everyone else. While
Seegers competitors may not be achieving the
financial success that he and his team have, the
survey clearly indicates that producers recognize the potential offered by coproducts to
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their operations. Nearly 90 percent of respondents engaged in coproduct manufacturing say

they are important to their operations, and half
of those report that the share of their business
dedicated to those products as growing.
Of survey respondents, 51 percent reported committing less than 5 percent of their
annual production time to the manufacture of
nonheating products. In this regard, GLRE
is well ahead of the curve. Just 40 percent of
GLREs volumes are heating pellets. I want
that 40 percent number to go down, he says.
Seeger notes that he isnt running at full capacity and has room within his air permit to run
his dryer much more. He says that because of
the higher margins he enjoys from his barbecue and absorbent products, his monthly run
time requirements to break even on the facility is nearly halved. We have, with a purpose,
looked to make heating pellets something that
we fill in with now, he says.
Perhaps by accident, GLRE deployed a
press suite well-suited for the day-to-day, and
sometimes hour-to-hour, product changes
the plant has to make to fill orders and satisfy
customers. GLRE puts three 3-ton-per-hour

Munch presses to work, and often changes
from one barbecue pellet recipe to another
without shutting any of the presses down. Between the 22 recipes we make for our Lumberjack line and the recipes we make under private
labeling contracts, I sometimes make 30 different pellet formulations in a two-and-a-half day
span, Seeger says. A 10- or 12-ton-per-hour
single pellet mill wouldnt work for us.
The growth in absorbent, animal bedding
and barbecue markets has made it necessary
for GLRE to move warehousing and distribution to a dedicated facility. All of the facilitys orders that are less than a truckload are
filled out of that warehouse, allowing for more
complex pick-and-pack, mixed shipments to
be received and fulfilled in a more efficient
manner.
As the 2016-17 heating season approaches, North American producers making pellets
predominantly for home heating are holding
their breath and crossing fingers. For some,
another warm winter might be more than their
operation can financially withstand. For oth-
C AT C H T H E
MARKET
SHARE
ers, this past winter, or the winter of 2010-'11,

were enough to move them to explore other
markets. Now, the question is, will they be able
to leverage those opportunities into the higher
margins and operational surety that Seeger and
the GLRE team have?
We were looking to change our business
model, Seeger says. The original business
model presented to the bank eight years ago
doesnt look anything like what we are doing
today. And if we wouldnt have done it, we
wouldnt be here.
In these market conditions, he adds, a
producer cant live on heating pellets alone.
Not a little mill like this. Look at the auctions.
I feel very fortunate that we did what we did,
when we did it and that weve become a good
company here in northern Wisconsin.
Author: Tim Portz
Executive Editor, Biomass Magazine
tportz@bbiinternational.com
701-738-4969
The Total U.S. Wood-Burning

Appliance Market
(including fireplaces, freestanding stoves, and inserts)
13% Market Share

Pellet Appliances*
87% Market Share

Briquette-Friendly
Appliances*
YO U V E B E E N M I SS I N G
Versati wood and biomass briquettes are quickly becoming

Versatile
a go
g
go-to
-to biofuel for consumers all over the U.S. They are
clean,
clea
eaan, af
affordable, and can be used in any wood-burning device
from
from
fr
m fireplaces
fireplace and stoves to fire pits. Briquettes will open doors to new
fi
markets and
d growth oppo
opportunities for your business, and because they can be made
from materials you already process (and then some), its simple to get started. Plus,
with substantial savings on energy, maintenance, and labor, briquettes are cheaper to
make per ton than pellets! What are you waiting for?
For more information call 440-779-2747 or visit www.ruf-briquetter.com
and catch the market share youve been missing!
*Source: Hearth, Patio, & Barbecue Association based on appliance shipments from 1998-2011.
THERMAL
Capturing and reusing waste heat in biomass plants is

paramount to efficient, effective operations.
BY RON KOTRBA
eat exchangers play a vital role

in the operational efficiency and
effectiveness at every processing
facility in which heat is essential,
whether it is an oil refinery or a biomass power
plant. As energy efficiency importance grows,
the role of heat exchangers will become even
greater, their technologies more advanced.
The idea is simple, but the system designs
and inner workings of heat exchange are magnificently brilliant. Heat is generated for and in
various industrial processes, and were it not for
heat exchangers, massive amounts of thermal
energy would be wasted. For instance, boilers
combust fuels such as biomass to generate heat
to produce steam for powering a turbine in
producing electricity. Once that steam does its
job, it still has a lot of thermal energy, some of
which can be transferred via a vapor-to-liquid
shell-and-tube heat exchanger to raise the boiler feedwater temperature. This serves multiple
purposes, including cooling down the steam
to avoid thermal shock on the boilers steam
drum, and reducing the heat load needed to
raise the temperature of the boiler feedwater.
This is one of many heat exchanger applications at Koda Energy, a biomass combinedheat-and-power (CHP) plant in Shakopee,
Minnesota, says Stacy Cook, general manager.
Koda Energy, a partnership between
Rahr Malting Co. and Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, began commercial operations in 2009 and produces 500 megawatthours of electricity and 2,500 Btu of thermal
energy daily from agriculture waste and wood
chips. The plant has only the worlds second
power boiler to use wall-mounted burners to
combust biomass in suspension, meaning airborne burning of biomass. About 25 percent

of Koda Energys total electrical output is provided to Rahr Malting, slightly more than 50
percent is sold to Xcel Energy (i.e., the grid),
and the remainder sustains operations at the
CHP plant. And 100 percent of its thermal
output is provided to Rahr Malting. The electricity and energy is used to malt barley for
beer at the largest site producer of malted barley in the world.
Common sources of waste heat in industry, according to Kevin McGinnis, sales director for heavy industries and mining at Kelvionthe successor to Germany-based GEA
Heat Exchangers Groupinclude turbines,
dryers, kilns, incinerators, boilers and flue gas
from heaters or burners, to name a few. In
general, waste heat can be captured with various types of heat exchangers and used for
various applications, McGinnis says, including combustion air preheating; heating a facility, plant, building or home; boiler feedwater
preheating; heating a process fluid for another
application; or even for the ORC process.
ORC stands for organic Rankine cycle, the
thermodynamic cycle using water as a working
fluid that provides 85 percent of the worlds
electricity production, according to Turboden.
Numerous heat exchanger companies exist, many specializing in particular types. Kelvion offers its customers one of the worlds
largest product portfolios in the field of heat
exchangers, McGinnis says. It includes individual solutions for practically all conceivable
applications and complex environmental conditions, including plate, shell-and-tube, finned-
tube and refrigeration heat exchangers, and

modular cooling tower systems.
Another big name in heat exchange is
Alfa Laval. Wes Crozier, product manager,
has been with the Sweden-based company for
nearly 30 years in various roles. In the area
of heat transfer, we have gasketed plate heat
exchangers for liquid-to-liquid and vapor-toliquid, air coolers for air-to-liquid, fully welded
heat exchangers for high pressures and temperatures, a specialty spiral heat exchanger for
extreme fouling services, as well as more niche
products, Crozier says.
Netherlands-based HeatMatrix developed what Paul van Dillen, director of global
sales and marketing, calls a new generation
air-preheater that enables heat recovery from
corrosive or fouling gas streams from biomass
boilers, refinery furnaces, heaters, ovens or
dryers. This innovative heat exchanger consists of lightweight, corrosion resistant polymer modules, which can be applied at high
THERMAL
VERSATILE UTILITY: Kelvion, formerly GEA Heat Exchangers Group, manufactures welded plate heat exchangers that can be used as small
vacuum condensers or traditional fin/fan technology to serve as air-cooled condensers.
SOURCE: KELVION
temperatures and is ideally suited for waste

heat recovery from flue gases that are corrosive or have fouling in it, van Dillen says.
HeatMatrix only designs and supplies air-to-air
heat exchangers, often used to preheat air from
waste heat flue gas streams.
At Koda Energy, another shell-and-tube
heat exchanger, called a surface condenser,
condenses steam flow on the turbine exhaust,
Cook says. The exhaust enters the condenser
and puts a vacuum on the exhaust to allow the
turbine to run more efficiently, he says. In
addition, a boiler economizer uses combustion gases leaving the boiler to further elevate
the feedwater temperature before entering the
steam drum on the boiler. In general, the
economizer adds 10 percent efficiency, Cook
says. Were taking every opportunity to capture heat.
Kelvion manufactures a welded plate heat
exchanger that can be used as a small vacuum
condenser or traditional fin/fan technology to
serve as an air-cooled condenser. With our

global footprint, we manufacture steam surface condensers and feedwater heaters, both
of which are used in the steam cycle, McGinnis says. With waste heat generating steam for
a steam turbine, Kelvion has all the exchangers
in the steam process.
Alfa Lavals Niagara Wet Surface Air
Cooler can also be used to condense the vacuum exhaust steam from the turbine. The ability to efficiently condense the turbine exhaust
steam at low absolute pressures allows for
more power generation, Crozier says. This is
accomplished by a single approach to the ambient wet bulb temperature for cooling.
The prime heat mover at Koda is a very
large plate-and-frame heat exchanger. This
uses propylene glycol as thermal fluid to transfer heat via piping to Rahr Malting. Then, a
similar but smaller unit takes even more leftover Btu from condensate from the steamed
glycol heater to gain another 3 percent ef-
ficiency. This was sized to capture the available Btu that were being wasted, Cook says.
Were capturing those and putting them back
into glycol and useful sales.
Crozier says plate heat exchangers can
have a heat transfer coefficient up to four
times greater than shell and tube. This, along
with its construction, means the footprint
can be just 20 percent needed for a shell and
tube. The size advantage is achieved through
embossing plates with carefully designed patterns, many of which are patented, Crozier
says. This embossing creates channels for the
fluids to ensure maximum turbulence. This
results in maximum efficiency in transferring heat from one medium to the other. In
addition, many of our designs are fully counter current, which allow temperature crosses
where the outlet temperature of the hot side
can be cooler than the outlet temperature of
the cold sidevery difficult to do with other
types of heat exchangers.
THERMAL
Higher temperatures and pressures are

being achieved in compact plate heat exchangers, McGinnis says, through new welding technology Kelvion uses, offering alternate designs
to traditional shell-and-tube solutions. Efficiency gains are realized through more effective channel geometries with built-in enhancements, McGinnis says.
Additional plate-and-frame heat exchangers are utilized at Koda for cooling applications, mostly for equipment health. Pumps
handle high-temperature liquids, and a portion
of these liquids is used in a mechanical shaft
seal, so heat is shed to the cooling tower before
reaching the pumps so as to not burn up the
seals. Another application is to cool the turbine
lube oil using circulating water from the cooling tower. This keeps the turbine lube oil at
an acceptable temperature, Cook says. Were
running 900-pound steam through the turbine
and we need to keep the shaft lubed. If the oil
heats up to 900 degrees, it will decompose.
McGinnis says Kelvion has a specialty for
cooling the rotating equipment associated with
waste heat to energy, manufacturing a range of
extended surface shell and tubes and compact
plate heat exchangers.
Koda also employs a liquid-to-air, radiant
air heater using glycol heat to preheat combustion air to avoid acid dew-point corrosion. If
the air temperature drops too low prior to the
tubular air heater, it will condense out acid gases on the flue gas side, Cook says. The plant
also uses an air-to-air heat exchanger, called a
tubular air heater, which captures waste heat
in flue gas. Van Dillen says the heat transfer

properties of HeatMatrixs air-to-air polymer
technology, used to capture flue gas heat, is
very good in comparison to other, more conventional technologies because of its compactness, thin tube wall, strong honeycomb
structure, and 100 percent counter flow.
Kelvions finned-tube heat exchanger options for air-to-air or air-to-liquid applications
include two major typescompact/plate fin
coils and spiral-finned tubesbut also finned
elliptical tubes. A specific difference we offer
on our spiral fins is our patented groovy fin
for our spiral-finned tubes, McGinnis says.
The groovy fin enhances heat transfer by
turbulating the air more than a regular spiral
fin can, which results in better heat transfer
and a smaller coil size, making it ideal for replacement coils or in situations where a smaller
footprint is needed.
Just like the medium flowing through
heat exchangers, technology advancements
in the field continue to move the needle. Van
Dillen says he believes HeatMatrixs polymer
bundle technology will be a game changer in
the industry. While the company currently
only manufactures air-to-air exchangers, he
says air-to-liquid polymer designs are now under development. This will be the next focus
for HeatMatrix in this field, van Dillen says.
Alfa Lavals latest patented design, the
CurveFlow, is for asymmetrical ports and
features a new fluid distribution pattern that
Crozier says lowers pressure drop, or increases
efficiency with the same pressure drop. We
have also introduced a new method to secure

gaskets to plates without glue being required,
he says. The company continues to develop
new patterns used on various plates to increase
efficiency vs. pressure drop, reduction of material thickness while maintaining pressure capabilities, applying new construction materials
for plates and gaskets, as well as special unit
types for specific applications. Unlike the
traditional shell-and-tube one design type fits
all, the Alfa Laval frames have been drastically
improved, Crozier says, with better ways to
open and close the units, studded ports that
are in-place rather than nozzles, and bearing
boxes that reduce resistance during tightening
of bolts.
McGinnis says in finned-tube technology,
Kelvion continues to produce advancements
in dry-air cooling in both fin- and tube-side
augmentation, fan efficiency increases, and reduced noise footprint. The future of dry-aircooled heat exchange is small, incremental improvements that benefit everyone involved,
McGinnis says. The future of heat exchange
is using greater thermal efficiencies through
more efficient use of pressure drop, flow distribution, and effective use of proper channel
hydraulic diameters based upon application
suitability.
Author: Ron Kotrba
Senior Editor, Biomass Magazine
218-745-8347
rkotrba@bbiinternational.com
The Worlds Most Complete Line

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BiogasNews
California law encourages renewable gas production
On Sept. 19, California. Gov. Edmund
G. Brown Jr. signed legislation that establishes the nations toughest restrictions on
destructive super pollutants, including black
carbon, fluorinated gases and methane.
The bill, SB 1383, reduces the emissions
of super pollutants, known as short-lived
climate pollutants, and promotes renewable
gas by requiring a 50 percent reduction in

black carbon and a 40 percent reduction in
methane and hydrofluorocarbon from 2013
levels by 2030.
The bill also requires the California
Air Resource Board, in consultation with
the California Department of Food and
Agriculture, to adopt regulations to reduce
methane emission from livestock manure

management operations and dairy manure
management operations.
Under the law, state agencies are directed to consider and, as appropriate, adopt
policies and incentives to significantly increase the sustainable production and use
of renewable gas.
A Cleaner Alternative: Roeslein Alternative

Energy has installed Guild Associates
technology to produce renewable natural gas.
PHOTO: ROESLEIN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Missouri RNG project

celebrates milestone
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On Aug. 24, Roeslein Alternative Energy

and Smithfield Hog Production celebrated the
production of renewable natural gas (RNG) at
the Ruckman farm site in Missiouri for delivery
to the national pipeline from its manure-toenergy project.
The project began in 2013 when RAE
secured an agreement with the Missouri operations of Smithfield Foods Hog Production
Division to develop, install, own and operate
processing facilities to capture, purify and sell
the biogas produced from the anaerobic conversion of manure. The project is broken into
two horizons, with the first horizon consisting
of two phases.
Phase one involved the installation of
impermeable covers and flare systems on 88
manure lagoons located on nine hog finishing farms. Phase two of the project involves
installation of equipment to remove impurities from the biogas to create pipeline-quality
RNG. As of July 1, is being injected into the
national pipeline using an interconnect that
installed at Ruckman Farm. Biogas cleaning
and RNG production will be expanded to the
remaining farms over the next two years. Horizon two includes supplementing the manure
with biomass harvested from restored prairie
grasslands, producing additional RNG.
BIOGAS
RNG in California:
Leadership, Market Certainty
BY MARCUS GILLETTE
Earlier this summer, reports emerged that Californias

Low Carbon Fuel Standard was at risk of major reform, or
even elimination. The RNG Coalition responded, in solidarity with like-minded clean energy, renewable fuels, organized
labor and environmental advocates.
By the conclusion of Californias 2015-16 legislative
session at the end of August, amid a flurry of uncertainty
and opposition, the state legislature passed SB 32. The bill
effectively extends the LCFS and cap-and-trade compliance
programs beyond 2020 to 2030. "The LCFS as a compliance
program and market driver is here to stay and renewable natural gas will continue to be one of its major success stories,
said Johannes Escudero, RNG Coalition CEO and executive
director. We commend Gov. Brown, Sen. Pavley, Assemblymember E. Garcia, and the California legislature for their
leadership to assure clean air, green jobs, and low carbon fuel
options throughout California for decades to come.
Ten years ago (to the day, as I write this), California
passed Assembly Bill 32, landmark legislation requiring the
state to reduce its carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the
year 2020. The law promulgated the states current LCFS
and cap-and-trade programs. The LCFS program and credit
market have effectively driven production, deployment, and
utilization of renewable natural gas (RNG) and other biomass and waste-derived clean fuels in the transportation
sector. This is especially true for compressed and liquefied
forms of RNG, the lowest carbon intensity transportation
fuel available. In 2015, 50 percent of all natural gas vehicle
fuel used in California was RNG.
The value of LCFS credits began dropping this summer, amid speculation that the programs future was in
jeopardy. After peaking at a weekly average above $122 per
metric ton in early June, LCFS credit prices dipped to an August average of just $75, according to activity reported to the
states Air Resources Board.
Above all, the RNG Coalition focused on protecting
and promoting RNG in California. We knew that the best
thing we could do for the industry was restore LCFS market
stability and secure that stability long-term, said David Cox,
operations director and general counsel for the RNG Coalition. Throughout July and August, the RNG Coalition rallied members and industry stakeholders, and coalesced and
worked with other clean fuel groups, organized labor, and
environmental advocates to defend the LCFS and extend the
climate programs beyond 2020 to 2030.
On August 24, Californias legislature passed SB 32
(Pavley). The bill builds upon AB 32 and requires the state
to reduce its carbon emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels
by 2030.
We are better organized than weve ever been, and the

results speak for themselves, said RNG Coalition Chairman
Evan Williams, who attended the bill signing on behalf of
the RNG Coalition upon invitation from the governors office.
Creating LCFS market certainty beyond 2020 and passing SB 32 was a priority for the RNG Coalition, the trade association that provides public policy advocacy and education
for the RNG industry in North America. RNG Coalition
members produced or otherwise serviced 100 percent of the
RNG participating in the LCFS program in 2015.
Without the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, we
would not have gotten SB 32/AB 197, said Martha AcevesGuzman, deputy legislative secretary for Gov. Jerry Brown.
It was excellent to finally have folks we can strategize with
on how to work with members (of the Legislature). Next
year will be equally critical.
AB 197 (E. Garcia) was double-joined with SB 32
and also passed, creating additional oversight by the ARB
legislature to prevent promulgation of regulations that fail
to properly balance the needs of the environment with the
economy. SB 32 would not have passed without AB 197.
Thank you for your work on the passage of AB 197 and SB
32. This has been a historical accomplishment, said Carlos
Gonzales, policy director for Assemblymember E. Garcia.
Your leadership and guidance during the last couple weeks
of session made AB 197 and SB 32 possible.
As a fitting conclusion, on Oct. 5, representatives from
the RNG Coalition attended a celebration of AB 32s extension by SB 32 and AB 197. On behalf of the RNG
industry, suppliers of ultraclean RNG transportation fuel,
we recognize Gov. Brown and Californias lawmakers for
their dedication to a healthy and robust market for RNG,
Cox added. Passage of these bills quickly restored stability to LCFS credit prices, and has cemented Gov. Browns,
Sen. Pavley's, and Assemblymember E. Garcias legacies as
forward-thinking policy leaders.
Assemblymember E. Garcia has been invited to
speakand attendees may have the opportunity to meet one
of Californias rising legislative starsat the RNG industrys
annual RNG Fuel, Heat, Power & Policy Conference Dec.
5-7, at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, California.
Author: Marcus D. Gillette
Director of Public & Government Affairs,
Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas
916.588.3033
marcus@rngcoalition.com
BIOGAS
DEPARTMENT
BYPRODUCT UPGRADE: The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh composts its urban anaerobic dry digester (BD1) digestate material, produced from
one of the university's three digesters, and sells it as a soil amendment under the brand Titan Gold.
PHOTO: AMERICAN BIOGAS COUNCIL
Green Garbage to Black Gold

The roll out of a digestate standards program will help assure customers of the value
this often-overlooked coproduct of anaerobic digestion possesses.
BY KATIE FLETCHER
R&R Environmental Services massive Perris, California, anaerobic digestion (AD) project is being built
out in four phases, each processing
about 83,000 tons of mixed green and food
waste annually into 1 million diesel gallon
equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG).
While this project was built to upgrade biogas
to RNG, it also recognizes the value associated with each phases inherent production of
some 35,000 tons per year of a compostlike soil
product and 10 million gallons of liquid soil
amendment. We see the success of anaerobic
digestion of organic wastes directly tied to the
ability to generate usable soil products on the
back end, says Clarke Pauley, vice president of
the organics and biogas division with CR&R.
These soil products are derived from digestatethe nutrient-rich, solid fibrous material fraction and liquid portion left over from the
AD process. Digestate is no longer the same as
the input organic material to the digester, nor

is it a final fertilizer or compost, but through
digestion, the organic material gains desirable
qualities that allow CR&R to offer a closedloop recycling solution. Nothing is wasted and
nearly all inputs are either converted into energy or a usable product, Pauley says.
Unlike CR&R, many early biogas systems
were developed simply to reduce odor or the
volume of waste being dealt with. The benefits of renewable energy generation have now
been widely recognized, but what producers
can do with their digestate coproduct to get an
economic return has been overlooked. Thats
changed lately, says Patrick Serfass, executive
director of the American Biogas Council.
Five years ago, it was easier to develop a
biogas system because the revenue from the
sale of energy, whether in the form of gas or
electricity, was more economically attractive.
Weak or lacking renewable energy programs
in many states adds to the difficulty of digester

project success on energy sales alone, according to Brian Langolf, director of biogas systems
and research development at the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh. Creating value-added
end products from digestate can be an additional revenue source for a project, he says.
Although CR&Rs soil product sales will
be dependent on a number of interrelated
factorssupply, demand, processing cost and
product qualityPauley acknowledges that
theyve put a great deal of effort into this part
of their AD business model. Organic residual
sales will be a big boost to our bottom line; by
how much remains to determined, he says.
Until now, digestate from the processing
of nonsewage derived organics (such as household organic waste) has been largely unregulated and ill-defined. As a result, selling this product has proved challenging for producers who
have encountered both market and regulatory
BIOGAS
barriers. Headed by the American Biogas Council, the biogas industry recognized the need to
fill gaps in the marketability of digestate and
digestate-derived products, and with extensive
outreach to industry entities, including the EPA,
created the ABC Digestate Standard Testing and
Certification Program.
This voluntary, industry-led program sets
forth testing methods and a quality management system for characterizing digestate-derived
products, which will provide some standardization and product quality targets that operators
can subscribe to. As an environmental lawyer
helping draft the standards, Amy Kessler, cofounder of Turning Earth LLC, sees it as an
unprecedented opportunity for an industry to
get together and say this is a reasonable amount
of regulation and oversight.
Numerous meetings, conference calls and
workshops were held over the two-year period
during which a coproducts working group developed the bulk of the program. When developing the program, Kessler says, one model
theyve looked to is the U.S. Composting Councils. Theyve recognized that in order for compost to become a household name and a recognized mainstream commodity, there needed to
be some standards around itsome accountability and understanding of whats in it, what
makes a good compost and how you might use
it, she says. Kesslers interest stems from her
company Turning Earth, an organics recycling
company that is developing a facility in Connecticut to produce biogas as well as compost
for a variety of soil products. Compost is very
familiar for folks, and we want to achieve that
for digestate as well, she says.
This program also builds upon digestate
standards programs in other countrieslike
the U.K.s digestate quality protocoland integrates relevant portions of existing U.S. EPA
regulationslike Part 503, 40CFR biosolids rule
under the Clean Water Act. Right now, if you
produce digestate from biosolids, you dont need
our program necessarily because EPA Part 503
tells you exactly what should and should not be
in your digestate, Serfass says. This program is
to fill the gap of the nonbiosolids digestate, because there is nothing out there to help improve
customer assurance for buying digestate that
doesnt have biosolids in it, he adds. For digestate subject to specific regulations per EPA Part
503, like digestate derived from waste activated
sludge and other sewage products, the producers must still comply with those regulations, but
can also participate in ABCs program to bring
additional value to their digestate. The objective is to create an inclusive program that any
digestate producer can participate in, Serfass
says. This program is not replacing Part 503 or
any other applicable local, state or federal regula-
tions that producers must comply with outside

this voluntary program.
The testing conducted through the program
measures the beneficial physical and chemical
changes resulting from digestion, and defines
the physical and agronomic properties of the
digestate products. These results will be issued
on a summary digestate technical datasheet by
certified labs participating in the program. It
is like a nutrition labelhere is whats all in the
digestate, says Kim Busse, laboratory manager
with the Environmental Research and Innovation Center at UW Oshkosh. Serfass adds that
like a nutritional label, it doesnt necessarily tell
you how much sugar you should have, but keeps
it open for the customers interpretation while
providing some general recommendations.
Standardizing digestate allows for the composition and beneficial use of the product to
be accurately and appropriately represented by
biogas project owners, and understood and accepted by regulators and offtakers. Our main
goal is to assure digestate customers that they
are purchasing digestate products that are within
nationally established safe pathogen and heavy
metals limits, Pauley says.
Beyond that, testing for a variety of parameters of stability and chemical composition will
be required. Tests include: feedstocks, moisture
content, pathogens, macronutrients (nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium), micronutrients, pH,
soluble salts, total solids, volatile solids, organic
matter content, physical particle size, metals, visible contamination, stability (volatile fatty acids
or CO2 respiration), and maturity. According to
Busse, the amount of required testing is really
dependent on the digestates end use. The testing protocol breaks down digestate into three
broad end-use classifications: alternative daily
cover or landfill or refused-derived fuel, restricted land application, and generally unrestricted
bulk sales or land application.
Busses UW Oshkosh lab is one of a handful that are already planning to become certified
under ABCs Digestate Lab Certification Program. Once certified, these labs will test digestate using the prescribed standardized methods.
UW Oshkosh already performs digestate tests
for a number of clients, and Busse assumes
most digesters are probably being tested at some
level, but standardization will ensure everyone
is doing the same testing so that we can compare it to different kinds of digesters across this
country, she says.
Labs must meet certain parameters in order
to become certified in the program, including
paying an annual fee and taking a proficiency
test each year. Labs are also required to follow
a set of approved quality assurance standards
and will occasionally be verified by a third party.
We dont want it to be difficult to qualify as a
lab, Busse says. We want it to be inviting, but

we also want standardization, so we need some
standards to uphold.
The working group is still fine-tuning some
of the requirements for labs to become certified and determining how much testing is necessary, a balancing act between achieving good,
accurate test results and making participation
economical. According to Pauley, the working
group is currently developing the financial model for the program. The key is to make sure that
the investment in participation is worth it for all
participants, he says. We anticipate a flat fee
for company registration, a one-time enrollment
fee, plus an annual maintenance fee.
Pauley reiterates that theyre striving to
make the program economical for all participating members, but the bottom line is that
participants will need to see the value of their
certification to make the digestate certification
program work.
Digestate producers who are interested
in participating will fill out an application with
ABC, and once qualified, will receive access to
all of the program details, such as tests needed,
how the participant should use the program,
which laboratories it can work with and how
often testing needs to occur. Instructions and
training on proper sample collection will be provided as well, to ensure that test results are representative of production over a given period of
time, and adjusted based on size and complexity
of the facility.
Both the participating producer and ABC
will be issued test results. Referred to as a nutritional label, this datasheet will not only contain
many important parameters users will be interested in, but also explain why the characteristics
are important for digestate end users Program
participants will be able to use these certified
results in the marketing and sale of their products, on product packaging and their websites,
etc., as well as for regulatory submissions. Certified producers can use the ABC logo on these
documents. Pauley says CR&R plans to have a
diverse marketing plan with a variety of users
from agriculture to municipalities for use in their
landscapes and parks.
The coproducts working group is also trying to find balance between making the results
transparent and allowing the producers autonomy to conduct their own business. We [ABC]
will be in possession of the results, but were going to want the digestate producer to be the one
interacting with customers, Serfass says. It all
revolves around customer assurance and helping
people to realize the full potential, the full value
of digestate.
Author: Katie Fletcher
Associate Editor, Biomass Magazine
701-738-4920
kfletcher@bbiinternational.com
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November 2016

NOVEMBER 2016 | VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 11

By Ben Bell-Walker and Aaron Aber

Biochar is made and sold on-site

2 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2016

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VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT

Herb Seeger has a zeal for barbecue wood pellets.

Associate Editor Katie Fletchers page-24 feature,

NOVEMBER 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3

USIPA 6th Annual Exporting Pellets

NEWS EDITOR Erin Voegele evoegele@bbiinternational.com

2017 International Biomass

PUBLISHING & SALES

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

APRIL 10-12, 2017

Minneapolis Convention Center

Adam Sherman, Biomass Energy Resource Center

2017 International Fuel Ethanol

2017 International Biomass Conference & Expo

JUNE 19-21, 2017

Minneapolis Convention Center

2017 National Advanced Biofuels

COPYRIGHT 2016 by BBI International

4 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2016

Minneapolis Convention Center

PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPS

gram is a third-party accreditation

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Celebrating Success: Lockheed

thesis gas, also known as syngas. The syngas

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2016

The United Kingdom's

Over the past six months, the political landscape in the

NOVEMBER 2016 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7

PHOTO: COOL PLANET TECHNOLOGIES

PHOTO: PHOENIX ENERGY

all about electricitywe sold that biochar to

Based in California, where a once-thriving biomass power industry has plummeted

Pellet Plant Coproduct

Biochar entrepreneur Jonah Levine, development manager at Confluence Energy

eight years, and shift from a heavy emphasis

most cost-effective approach toward an industry.

growers who buy it [directly], but thats not an

Domestic, Global Markets

In the U.S., producers are small from

let producers making a variety of products,

ket in which nobody will pay you enough for

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factory authorized technical service,

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says. We need more participation from the

tion of fertilizers and soil amendments for

other markets like activated carbonits a $2

ProcessBarron is with you every step of the way!

Clowns to the left of me, jokers on the right; here I am,

In 2013, on the heels of New Hampshires passage of

CHP from Biomass:

All electric generation should be cogeneration. That

simply because some of those systems have an electrical

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As another heating season approaches, low heat market

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