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With the rising cost of
traditional energy sources (electricity, petroleum, natural gas, coal,
...) industry and municipalities are faced with needing to invest in
energy optimization and seriously explore the prospect of utilizing
alternative energy sources. Even individuals are investing
significant time and resources into incorporating alternative energy
technologies into their personal residence as a long-term measure to
manage the skyrocketing costs they have been experiencing.
In the area of Alternative
Energy, Horizon Technologies has utilized its close association with
the Colorado School of Mines, worked with individuals from the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and worked with the Biomass Energy
Foundation on biomass conversion analyses. Projects have included
modeling a range of Biomass
Conversion processes and feasibility studies to determine
how a particular conversion pathway may perform with a given feedstock
(specific softwoods or hardwoods in chipped, pellet, or sawdust form), and
how this combination meets the energy / fuel / economic
stability needs of a client. We have also modeled Geothermal Heat
Pump systems to determine the heat exchange efficiency with various soil
types and ground loop configurations.
Analysis of Steam
Systems has involved building plant-wide steam production and
utilization maps to track fuel requirements in its productions,
fluctuations in usage, and optimization of the distribution system.
Condensation recovery, clean-up and make-up are also included to establish
a picture of energy loss, and therefore control measures to minimize this
loss.
Biomass
Conversion Technologies
Biomass
utilization is not at all a new technology, but how to economically
extract
energy from this source has brought about exciting developments
over the past 20 years, with significant advancements in recent
years. Several companies now provide a variety of gasifier units,
along with other processing components in the biomass conversion picture,
and each with a particular emphasis on the type of products being produced
and/or limitations on the flexibility of feedstock material that can be
processed. Determining which conversion pathway, or combination of
pathways yields the optimal economic picture for an organization is just
now
emerging as the necessary next step to realizing wide-spread
commercialization of biomass conversion technologies. This
following conversion map shows major processing blocks, primary
constituents in product streams, and potential commercially viable product
draws (dashed lines). The balance of distributing feed material
between parallel, competing conversion technologies is driven by
fluctuating market conditions to build an overall conversion process that
is flexible and can be readily altered to address these changing
conditions.
The
technology focus by Horizon Technologies follows Thermochemical and
Biochemical Conversions, with some aspects of Direct Liquefaction
incorporated in the overall analysis. The standard corn-to-ethanol
technologies developed over the past 20 years typically follow the Direct
Liquefaction and Physical/Mechanical Extraction branches. Other
emerging alternative energy technologies, such as fuel cells, will rely
heavily on the availability of low-cost hydrogen. Thermal conversion
of biomass can typically produce a product stream that is 63 wt% hydrogen. |
