What exactly is wood gasification you ask?

At Harvest, we employ a technology known as wood gasification to convert wood waste to renewable syngas. It’s a method of extracting clean energy from wood-based materials that produces electricity, heat and substitute natural gas.

Wood gasification is considered clean, efficient and economically viable. It leaves a small footprint and provides 20 times the heat transfer of traditional gasification systems, while offering greater fuel flexibility.

In an article by Troy Edwards titled The Wonders of Wood Gasification, the writer explained the process in the following steps:

1. Primarily, the wood is warmed through a gasification booth so that the wood chemistry will disintegrate into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The procedure makes use of extensive heat and limited amount of air is introduced into the compartment to produce charcoal that then transforms into gas.

2. The formed gas now moves into another booth or the combustion chamber to be fused with air and burn at high temperature, and produces large amount of preferred heat.

3. Then, the remaining gases are then channeled out through a heat changer to remove the heat and keep the effectiveness high.

4. The remaining gases leave a smoke pile.

We crafted this diagram to do the same:

This clean, renewable method of combustion also reduces the amount of waste headed to area landfills, according to Edwards. And it does so without negatively contributing to air or land pollution.

Are you familiar with the process of wood gasification? Tell us about your experience.

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How do you classify biomass? The debate goes on

Biomass.  It’s everywhere.  It refers to organic materials used as renewable energy sources.  Wood, crops and “organic waste” – itself a catchall that includes everything from food scraps and yard debris to manure and biosolids from waste water treatment plants – can be classified as biomass.

Biomass.  It’s everywhere including the New York Times.

Last weekend, the Times published a piece, Net Benefits of Biomass Power Under Scrutiny reporting on the Manomet Center’s study on woody biomass energy.

Yesterday, the Times posted a follow-up Q&A on woody biomass.  In the Q&A, the study’s authors point out how easy it is for people to misunderstand the public issues when the media aren’t clear what kind of biomass is involved.  Different biomass feedstocks, and how they’re handled, have different environmental impacts.

For the purposes of an informed public, and informed public policy, it’s important to get underneath the umbrella term “biomass.”

Renewable Energy from The Big Apple

By: Sameer Rashid

Did you read the Op-Ed the other day called ‘Power from Trash‘ in the New York Times?  Using our waste in a more productive way seems to be a popular theme in the news and editorial pages this year.

New York City has been my home since 2001 and I’ve also been working hard on developing an organics recycling and biogas plant in the area, so I wanted to highlight a few important points from the ‘Power from Trash’ article:

“…As New York City’s garbage decomposes, it releases some 1.2 million metric tons a year of carbon dioxide and its equivalents — primarily methane — into the atmosphere. On top of that, the fuel it takes to haul 11,000 tons of waste hundreds of miles six days a week releases an additional 55,000 tons of greenhouse gas per year…”

“…Since New York began exporting its garbage, the Sanitation Department’s budget has more than doubled, to $1.3 billion in the current fiscal year from less than $600 million in 1997. And in the past seven years, the costs of the city’s landfill contracts have gone up more than $90 million, enough to pay 1,000 full-time firefighters, nurses or teachers….”

“…If all of the city’s nonrecycled waste were sent to local energy recovery facilities instead of distant landfills, the city would save diesel fuel and generate enough energy to supply 145,000 homes — thus avoiding the combustion of nearly three million barrels of oil to generate electricity….”

“…Newer kinds of facilities — like those that use anaerobic digestion to make methane — could be built on smaller sites…”

There were a lot of good points in the article and I couldn’t agree more with the last two quotes highlighted above.  Local facilities that utilize commercialized high solids anaerobic digestion (HSAD) technology to produce renewable energy and compost is in some ways a no-brainer for New York City and other major metropolitan areas in the country.  In addition to maintaining Harvest’s high standards, we can address issues like siting and community support by co-locating with existing transfer stations, water treatment plants, and/or compost facilities in the City and improving those facilities’ environmental footprints.  With the amount of food waste generating by New York’s restaurants, markets, and food processors, HSAD represents a tremendous opportunity to save thousands of small businesses money and simultaneously make them more sustainable.

Sameer Rashid, an avid fan of all things New York (especially the Mets), develops projects throughout the East Coast, and loves to talk food waste.

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