Grow Your Own Coal
By Blankinship, Steve
NewEarth Renewable Energy hopes interest grows in E-Coal, a solid fuel derived from renewable agricultural or biological materials intended for co-firing with conventional coal in ratios starting at 10 percent and ranging to as much as 100 percent. “Any coal-fired plant can immediately reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by directly co-firing E-Coal with fossil coal or by totally replacing fossil coal with E-Coal without any retrofitting, loss of productivity, down time, or service interruption to customers,” said NewEarth founder Ahava Amen. The company claims its product is CO2 negative, greenhouse gas neutral and a pound-for-pound replacement for coal because it has the same energy content as fossil coal. The company said test results show a heat value of more than 14,500 Btu/lb. The company said the fuel can achieve heat values up to 16,000 Btu/lb.
An executive with a major power engineering firm described the fuel as essentially a biomass pyrolysis product, somewhat akin to charcoal. He said it likely would be more expensive than coal and that its overall cost effectiveness would probably hinge on whether carbon credits can be monetized. He speculated the fuel would probably be limited to partial fuel switching rather than total conversion.
A major boiler manufacturer agreed that the product appears to be most applicable to fuel blending applications. The manufacturer also said that combusting the fuel might affect fans and boiler auxiliaries and that excess air requirements might impact fan sizing. The OEM also questioned how a pulverizer would respond to the fuel.
“We have experience processing up to 20 percent wood with 80 percent coal in pulverizers but never more than that,” the OEM said. Also, based on the moisture data provided by NewEarth, the boiler maker said that although the pulverizer would not need much hot air for drying, it would probably need a lot of tempering air to keep mill outlet temperatures manageable.
According to NewEarth, the fuel could be produced from “short rotation” energy crop, including willow, bamboo, Nile reed, seaweed and algae. The fuel can also contain scrap wood products and may be produced using organic waste from municipal and agricultural sources.
NewEarth has a fuel manufacturing facility in Canada and plans to build plants in Louisiana and Brazil.
Amen said that co-firing with ?-coal may extend the life of an existing facility, allowing it to continue burning fossil coal within the confines of likely carbon restraints.-Steve Blankinship
Copyright PennWell Corporation Jul 2008
(c) 2008 Power Engineering. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.