Sludge Watch ==> Indiana/Town to use Biomass as Source of Entire Town's Energy

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This kind of locally sourced energy from biomass has already been happening 
in Austrian towns and villages for years. In Austria, between 1,000 and 
2,000 such plants are built every year. In additional to the biomass energy, 
homes and offices near the plant are heated by pipes that distribute  the 
steam heat to the neighbourhood.

  See the story below this story.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202662,00.html

Indiana to Create 'Biotown' as Source of Entire Town's Energy
Sunday, July 09, 2006

Proponents say the project will lower local utility costs and help the 
environment. Organizers estimate a barrel of biomass will cost about $40. 
Crude oil edged above $75 a barrel this past week.

*REYNOLDS, Ind. — This farming hamlet is aiming at generating its own 
electricity and gas, using everything from municipal trash to farm waste, 
hog manure and even town sewage.*

If the experiment works, Reynolds and its 500 residents will be the nation's 
first community to use renewable resources to meet the energy needs of all 
their homes and businesses.

"It's not like we have a blueprint to follow," said farmer William 
Schroeder, 52. "We're going by the seat of our pants."

Dubbed *Biotown USA* , the project is the brainchild of Indiana's Department 
of Agriculture. State officials hope to break ground in November on a $10 
million "technology suite," a privately funded center that will house the 
core equipment needed to turn manure and other biomass material into energy. 
It should generate electricity for the town by July 2007.

>From there, state officials hope another $10 million from private investors 
will upgrade the system so it can also produce natural gas.

Much of the technology has been implemented elsewhere in waste treatment 
centers and industries like paper manufacturing, researchers said. But 
Biotown would be the first time the machinery is combined and working in 
synch.

"Our goal, and what we're going to continue to work on, is for it to cost 
less," said Ryan West, who is leading the Biotown project for the 
*Agriculture Department*  "We said we'd call it a failure if energy bills 
went up."

If the project succeeds, Reynolds could be a prototype for reducing 
America's dependence on foreign oil.

"This becomes a living laboratory for us," said Bernie Engel, head of the 
agricultural and biological engineering department at nearby Purdue 
University. "Reynolds may be a demonstration location for some of this 
initially. And then we'll see it hopefully spreading beyond that."

First, however, it has to take hold in Reynolds.

Farmer Roger Wiese, 65, hasn't decided yet whether to sell 2 million gallons 
of hog manure to Biotown instead of using it as fertilizer on his fields. 
He'll agree only if he can make a profit.

"There's not enough money in agriculture that we can run it as a charity," 
he said. "Without it working economically, it doesn't become feasible."

State officials said they don't need total participation from local farmers. 
A study found there were more than 150,000 hogs within 15 miles of town, and 
organizers estimate the animals, along with other organic waste in the area, 
are enough to produce 74 times the energy Reynolds needs.

Town fire chief Rick Buschman says Biotown is "the greatest thing to hit 
Reynolds" in years. His family has bought a half-dozen new flex-fuel 
vehicles — able to run on various fuels including ethanol-gasoline blends — 
as part of a deal offered by *General Motors*.

"We want to participate in the program any way we can," he said.

So far, residents have bought more than 100 new cars and trucks under the 
program. A $400,000 renovation project of the town's single gas station 
should add a pump for E-85 fuel — 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline 
— by the end of the summer.

"Some people are questioning if we save money," said Christine McGill, a 
cook, waitress and hostess at USA Family Restaurant. "To me, what if we 
don't? We're still saving the environment."

Schroeder, a fourth-generation farmer, says Reynolds could be a trendsetter.

"Whether this works or not, I hope someone looks back someday and says, 
'There's a group of people who tried something,"' he said. "I think the 
American people are ready for this.



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http://www.globe-net.ca/market_reports/index.cfm?ID_Report=727

Market Reports


Biomass in Austria


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The potential of biomass as a source of energy is very large and is present 
throughout much of the world. Currently biomass contributes 14 percent to 
total world energy needs. The fuel source comes from agroforestry residues 
and natural forest material. In the future, a growing proportion of the fuel 
is likely to come from dedicated crops through SRF (short rotation forestry) 
planting on marginal lands. High demand for biomass conversion and 
utilization technologies can be expected in the short term, in both 
industrialized and developing countries.
In the EU (25 member countries) bio energy contributes only 3.7 percent of 
the total primary energy supply. However it plays a considerable role in 
some European countries including Austria, Sweden and Finland, where it 
represents 12, 16 and 20 percent, respectively, of those countries’ gross 
energy consumption.

A European Union White Paper defines strategies for the use of renewable 
sources of energy, and therefore also for biomass. Most countries in the EU 
have ratified international agreements that include targets for the 
reduction of emissions, e.g. the Montreal and Kyoto protocols. This has 
spurred an increased use of biomass for energy at both the national and EU 
levels.

There is huge potential in Europe for biomass electricity, which has not yet 
been sufficiently exploited.

Austria

Austria has always been heavily forested, and forests still cover 46 percent 
of its area. Since the mid 1970s, Austria has seen a remarkable revival in 
the use of wood as an energy source. Wood, taken together with the use of 
wind, solar, and hydropower, has enabled Austria to cover one quarter of its 
energy demand from renewable energy sources. Biomass accounts for 12 percent 
of Austria’s primary energy supply.

Several factors have contributed to this development: higher oil prices, 
decreasing wood costs due to productivity gains in forestry, and increased 
use of wood wastes from the wood working and pulp and paper industries for 
producing heat. In 1995 nearly 20 percent of Austrian residences were heated 
with wood, in addition to those that were supplied with heat from bio 
mass-fueled district heating plants.

Austria’s "Green Energy Law", which dates from January 2003, specifies that 
4 percent of electricity (2,200 Gigawatt hours) must come from renewable 
resources by 2008. This is in addition to the 9 percent that must come from 
small-scale hydro power plants.

Market Overview

More than two thirds of biomass fuels are is used in the low temperature 
range, partly by small consumers, and partly by district heating plants. In 
recent years there has been rapid development of small-scale heating 
installations and combined heat and power plants.

The rate of new small-scale installations in the 1990’s was between 1,000 
and 2,000 units a year. In the last three years it has risen to 8,000 new 
units per year. This upward trend is mainly due to the introduction of 
pellet technology, whereby biomass feedstocks are processed into readily 
combustible pellets.

Biomass is also increasingly used for heat production in the medium-sized 
(100 kW to1MW) and large-scale units (above 1 MW) mainly in district heating 
systems and for industrial applications.

Current research projects focus on improving efficiency and dealing with the 
problems of ash deposits, slag formation, and aerosol emissions, in addition 
to improving process control. Much attention is also given to the 
utilization of straw as a fuel source.

Close to one third of Austria’s entire biomass input of approximately 120 
Peta Joules per year is used for generating heat in combined heat and power 
generation plants. The most important sector using this technology is forest 
products, including saw-mills, the paper and wood pulp industry, and the 
woodworking industry, all of which use in-house biomass as the fuel source.

Austria’s largest biomass power plant is being installed at an existing 
power station in the Simmering district of Vienna. Vienna’s energy provider 
WienEnergie, in cooperation with the Federal Forest Association, is setting 
unique new standards in Europe. The plant will use a Foster Wheeler boiler 
supplied by Siemens Austria, which won the EU tender.

Competitive Analysis

Most of the biomass equipment used in Austria is developed and manufactured 
within the country. Foreign technology comes primarily from Denmark and 
Germany. North American companies must compete against EU suppliers, many of 
which are already in the market and generally are able to provide faster and 
more readily available service. However, there are still excellent business 
opportunities for equipment from Canada.

There is a market for combined heat and power equipment, and a future market 
for large district heating systems. Importers, wholesalers and the service 
sector are interested in foreign technologies in the biomass sector.

End-User Analysis

Biomass in Austria is currently used in residential heating systems and for 
industrial use. Some residential complexes buy their heat from biomass 
plants operated by farmer groups.

The most prevalent type of biomass energy use in Austria is still domestic 
or residential heating with logwood, but this is decreasing as households 
modernize. Financial incentives have been established in a number of 
Austrian provinces to stimulate installation of modern wood boilers. The 
most convenient option for domestic heating with wood is district heating. 
More than 400 small-scale biomass district plants have been established for 
this purpose in the last 20 years, mainly in rural areas.

The second most prevalent type of biomass energy use in Austria comes from 
the pulp and paper industry, where bark and black liquor, which contains 
mainly lignum from wood pulping, are used in large boilers to provide heat 
end electricity.

The third major type of biomass energy use is the combustion of woodchips 
and sawmill residues. They are used in the wood industry to produce process 
heat for drying wood, as well as in biomass district plants, and in smaller 
wood chip boilers for domestic heating.

Market Access Many foreign companies prefer to invest in an existing 
Austrian company already engaged in biomass energy production. This can 
reduce the cost of market entry. Moreover the foreign company benefits from 
the Austrian player’s product knowledge and gains access to the company’s 
market.

One example of such a partnership is the merger between the Austrian company 
Jenbacher and GE Energy. The two companies have developed a state of the art 
engine which utilizes a range of gases including biogas.