UC Merced Professors Gasification Projects in North Fork and Biochar Products Could Benefit the ...

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 17 November 2015 05:53

November 16, 2015 – By Lorena Anderson, University Communications – Two overlapping research projects involving UC Merced professors could have big implications for the region’s economy and effects on renewable energy, water and wildfires. Professor Gerardo Diaz, with the School of Engineering, received nearly $900,000 through two grants: one from the California Energy Commission for the analysis and optimization of a 1-megawatt biomass gasification plant in North Fork, and the other from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study a gasification byproduct for use in agriculture and air and water filtration.

(From left to right) Professor YangQuan Chen, Professor Gerardo Diaz, Phoenix Energy CEO and UC Merced Trustee Gregory Stangl and Phoenix Energy plant Manager Todd Machado are working on biochar projects together.

Diaz and a group of industry experts are working on a new gasification plant in North Fork, a little town in the foothills between Merced and Fresno. It’s a $5 million project that aims to take biomass from nearby Sierra forests and, using a gasifier, turn the dead material into energy.

Diaz, who has years of experience with gasification, is helping make sure the plant runs as efficiently as possible and, using an array of diagnostic equipment and tools, will evaluate the plant’s performance and the gas that’s produced.

Gasification is a thermo-chemical conversion process that essentially “cooks” biomass in an oxygen-starved environment. Without sufficient oxygen, the material does not burn, but gives off a hydrogen-rich gas, while the biomass converted into solid carbon. The “syngas” given off in the process is cooled and cleaned, and can be used as a substitute natural gas to create electricity or liquid fuels.

“There’s a lot of biomass out there now, especially because of the drought and climate change,” Diaz said. “This gasification plant will cut down on the financial and environmental costs of transporting material that is removed, help with forest management and restoration plans, reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires, and create jobs and ancillary services in the region.

“Part of what is so exciting about the project is the collaborative effort,” he said. “No single entity could do this alone, but we have a group with people from the industry, from academia, biomass managers — all experts in different areas.”

Gasifying biomass achieves several goals:

• It is a cleaner way of producing renewable energy — gasification plants are considered carbon-negative because they produce solid carbon instead of CO2.


• It rids forests and fields of materials that would otherwise rot and produce methane or help fuel wildfires. Wildfires regularly threaten lives and property, cost untold millions to control and clean up, and greatly contribute to poor air quality and climate change.


• It produces biochar, a soil amendment that helps increase crop yield, refreshes worn out soils, retains soil moisture, reduces the need for fertilizers and sequesters carbon that would otherwise be emitted as greenhouse gases.

The biochar is where the two UC Merced projects overlap. Diaz and his co-principal investigator, Professor YangQuan Chen, are working with partner Phoenix Energy on yet another use for the byproduct — as activated carbon for water and air filtration systems.

“Our biochar co-product is almost as valuable as the energy we produce,” said Greg Stangl, CEO of Phoenix, a Merced-based renewable-energy company and longtime UC Merced partner.

Most of his company’s demands for biochar as an agricultural product come from outside the state, but Stangl, Diaz and Chen aim to change that. Diaz and Chen said the demand will grow when incentives for water-efficient agriculture are implemented in California.

Right now, though, they want to take the gasification leftovers and make activated carbon. Nationally, public utilities and industry spend about $2 billion a year on activated carbon, mostly from Asian coconut shells or coal-based carbon.

Diaz, Chen and Phoenix received more than $300,000 from the USDA to find the right way to activate the carbon.

“Carbon activation is almost as much an art as a science,” Stangl said. “You have to engineer the microscopic pores in the carbon so they trap the particular molecules you want them to filter out.”

In homes, activated carbon is used in water filters such as pitchers or sink-enhancements, and also in fish tank filters, air purifiers, home air filters and many other applications. Industrially, it’s used by local water treatment districts for water cleanup and for removing foul odors from the air.

Phoenix has the gasification plants, and Diaz has the expertise. Chen is an expert in precision controls, and will help optimize the reactor that performs the biochar activation process using steam and heat.

“We have a research enterprise based around biochar, but it’s not just the research,” Chen said. “This has a potentially huge benefit for California. This could be critical to the sustainability of the Central Valley.”

Stangl said this project has many layers, including reducing dependence on imported activated carbon, creating jobs to boost the area’s economy and helping the environment, including the creation of renewable energy.

“That’s why this partnership with UC Merced makes so much sense,” he said.
Source: UC Merced

UC Merced Professors Gasification Projects in North Fork and Biochar Products Could Benefit the ...

Fedeli says North Bay needs a champion in wind farm fight

Tuesday, March 24, 2015   by: Liam Berti

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli held a town hall meeting regarding wind power generation at the Davedi Club on Tuesday night, where a crowd of over 100 listened to the impact of wind farms based on facts from the Auditor General of Canada. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI

If North Bayites are as passionately opposed to wind farms as Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is, they are going to need a local champion.

Fedeli hosted a town hall meeting at the Davedi Club on Tuesday night, where he told the audience of over 100 people why they should oppose wind energy generation. 

With Innergex Renewable Energy proposing a project just north of city boundaries in Merrick Township, Fedeli felt it was time to present the facts about wind farms in Ontario.

“In Southern Ontario, this is discussed on a daily basis because they are so prevalent, but this is the first time it has come up our way, so it’s new discussion,” he said. “They are running out of places who will accept these wind turbines, so we are fresh meat, new territory.

“Find a champion who will give you the facts and figures and will walk you through how to attack this, how to fight it, how to delay it and ultimately cancel it,” he added. “These developers will do and say anything to convince you that this is a good thing.”

Fedeli quoted previous Auditor General reports to tell the audience that he thinks the provincial Green Energy Act is an empty, ideologically driven mistake. 

Despite spending some $50 billion on lucrative subsidies and long-term fixed contracts with the green energy companies, renewable energy sources continue to provide the province with just 25 per cent of their power he said.

What’s more, the province has paid more than $2.6 billion to export excess energy to the United States and Quebec since 2006.

But most importantly for Ontario ratepayers, Fedeli said hydro rates are expected to soar thanks to costs of exporting Ontario’s extra energy, paying the wind developers regardless of if the energy is needed or not.

“There’s nothing green about this Green Energy Act,” he said simply. “We still make the same amount of green energy that we made $50 billion ago, the Auditor General has told us it’s bad for the economy, and it cost us 300,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario.”

Despite Ontario already having some of the highest industrial hydro rates in North America, Fedeli said rates are forecasted to increase by up to 42 per cent in the next three years.

Those rates, he said, have chased some big, high-consumption industrial players out of the province because their hydro bills were too high.

Guests Warren Howard of Wind Concerns Ontario and Raymond Beaudry of the Manitoulin Coalition for Safe Energy Alternatives backed him up with anecdotal support as well. 

Beaudry, in particular, said that economically, the imminent increases on hydro bills are going to outstrip everyone’s ability to pay and, ultimately, bring the wind power projects down. 

Some of the members in the audience said they have witnessed the negative impacts of wind farm projects elsewhere in the province, like Lake Erie, Manitoulin Island, Huron County, and Port Dover.

In the end though, the trio of presenters emphasized that, while the municipalities have little power in preventing the projects, it’s up to the community to rally against them and make the statement themselves.

“You are going to have to start fighting it now,” said Howard.

The Merrick Township Wind Farm Proposal

While Fedeli said he didn’t host the town hall meeting to address any specific projects or companies directly, those in attendance were clearly gearing up for the one that’s expected to hit close to home.

Innergex Renewable Energy, the Quebec-based company proposing the industrial turbine system for Merrick Township, had the preliminary plan to erect a 50-60 turbine wind farm in one of the flight corridors of Jack Garland Airport in the unorganized Merrick Township.

But after the Mayor and City Council submitted a letter of opposition to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change objecting the wind farm, Innergex met with Mayor McDonald and airport representatives last week to resolve their early concerns.

Chief among them was the threat to their heavy investment in the Airport Industrial Park.

But François Morin, the senior advisor of public affairs for Innergex, who was in attendance for Fedeli’s meeting on Tuesday, said the company has already addressed the city’s concerns by proposing the turbines be outside a 15-kilometre area from the airport.

He said they are now in the process of developing a sound proposal that they are confident will come to fruition with social acceptability.

“It was a good, positive first meeting and we have clarified many things, so it was a constructive meeting,” said Morin. “The city will be careful to question and be sure that we bring something to the community, but I think we share the same objective.

“Yes, there will be short-term jobs; but it’s 300 jobs against zero jobs without the project,” Morin added. “They just want to be sure that if we build a project that we don’t cause problems and there will be a positive contribution to the community.”

After the strong opposition to the proposed wind farm for the Mattawa area, Innergex pulled the plug on their proposal. But the Merrick project remains in the early planning stages for now.

Morin said he and Innergex are more confident in the Merrick project and plan on hosting public meetings in the coming months. 

“Now we will have the meetings and answer the concerns one-on-one, but there will also be public meetings and consultations, but only once we know we have a better project,” he said.

Some of the early issues from area residents, he said, revolve around environmental and health concerns.

“I heard many stories tonight that are not related to what we do at all,” said Morin. “We have 25 years of experience in developing projects with 33 facilities all over North America, and we have a spotless record when it comes to environment and we intend to keep it that way.”

While Tuesday’s meeting was scheduled well before the Mattawa project was called off, Fedeli said it’s a good opportunity to keep the momentum rolling. 

“It’s my role as an MPP to bring the facts from Queen’s Park for all groups,” he said. “After the Mattawa victory, it was important to carry on.”

What do you think? Do industrial wind turbines belong close to North Bay? Why or why not?

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Fedeli says North Bay needs a champion in wind farm fight

North Haven firm awarded grant for indoor air filter

Lauren DeCarlo

A North Haven clean energy technology company was awarded a grant to develop a regenerable indoor air filter on Monday.

Precision Combustion Inc. (PCI) received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Grant for gaseous pollutant removal to ensure a healthy and comfortable indoor environment.

PCI’s regenerable air filter removes gaseous pollutants from indoor air while reducing the requirement for outdoor air and lowering building operating costs.

Most modern buildings maintain indoor air using particulate filters and makeup air. However while makeup air is the primary approach in controlling gaseous pollutants, it may be ineffective if the outdoor air is polluted.

North Haven firm awarded grant for indoor air filter

Solar power arrays coming to city properties in Middletown's North End

MIDDLETOWN >> A local solar power company is looking to add two more solar arrays to its city catalog.

GreenSkies Renewable Energy met with the Economic Development Commission Wednesday to outline proposals for solar arrays at the transfer station on Johnson Street and a plot of land on Berlin Street adjacent to the water department building.

Both properties are owned by the city. The utility would build the arrays on its own dime, and the city would commit to buying the power the arrays produce for the next 20 years. GreenSkies’ projections indicate the city would pay a substantially lower rate for the solar power than it would to a traditional utility company.

GreenSkies is already finishing construction on one array on the roof of Remington Rand in the North End which will power that building, and the city has agreed to buy power from another array at the Higby Reservoir.

The EDC voted to recommend to the city council to allow the mayor to sign a contract. That’s expect to take place at the council’s June meeting.

Andrew Chester, a senior vice president for GreenSkies, told EDC that the company would begin selling power to the city at nine cents per kilowatt hour, well under the 16.8 cents per kilowatt hour the city pays Connecticut Light & Power. The rate will increase incrementally each year should remain much lower than traditional utility rates.

The Berlin Street plot is the same piece of land where Animal Control Officer Gail Petras has proposed building a city animal shelter, although Mayor Dan Drew said that proposal “is still in very formative stages.” Chester indicated that the layout for that array was flexible.

GreenSkies is participating in the state’s Zero-Emission Renewable Energy Credit auction process, designed to promote alternative energy projects throughout the state. The subsidies offset the cost of power purchased by cities and is administered by CL&P.

Solar power arrays coming to city properties in Middletown"s North End