Two rulings announced on Dec. 7 moved the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center closer to a construction start.

The Florida Power Plant Siting Board, composed of the Florida governor and the independently elected members of the Cabinet, unanimously approved the site application for the proposed biomass power plant in Gainesville, Fla. This siting board approval is the culmination of the permitting and regulatory activities designed to ensure that the project is in the best interests of the citizens of Florida. In announcing the approval, Gov. Charlie Crist said, “I think this can be a great breakthrough and I think it is the right thing to do. The groups that have supported this, I have great trust and confidence in them.”

Also on Dec. 7, a Florida administrative law judge issued his second ruling in favor of the proposed biomass plant. Judge Robert E. Meale’s recommended orders for the plant’s air construction permit rejected claims made by petitioners who oppose the plant. He found instead that the facility will comply with all applicable environmental regulations and will not cause adverse air emissions impacts or adverse impacts to wildlife species or their habitat. The air construction permit is expected to be finalized by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the next few weeks.

On Nov. 1, in a separate but related process for the site certification application, Judge Meale issued an order recommending that a site certification be granted for the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center despite the claims of one intervenor. In that order, Judge Meale stated, “Instead of undermining sound silvicultural practices, the new market for biomass materials will enhance the viability of forestry resources and thus serve regional environmental needs.”

The 100-megawatt biomass project will be owned and operated by American Renewables,

LLC. Gainesville Regional Utilities, the municipally-owned utility that serves the Gainesville community, has a 30-year power purchase agreement to buy all power generated. GRU chose to move forward with GREC after undergoing a seven-year process to review options to responsibly and cost-effectively meet its future generation needs while helping Gainesville achieve its carbon reduction goals. GREC, which will be fueled by wood waste, will meet GRU’s need for improved reliability, increased fuel diversity and long-term cost savings for customers.

Almost two-thirds of the energy GRU currently produces is fueled by coal, and 25 percent comes from natural gas.

The three national bond rating agencies that recently awarded the utility “Double A” ratings cited a lack of fuel diversity as one of the challenges facing GRU. Adding biomass to the fuel supply will help the utility maintain its high bond ratings, which in the past six years have saved customers more than $67 million.

“The siting board’s decision and the Judge’s order confirm that GREC will be designed and operated in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Josh Levine, project manager for American Renewables. “We look forward to quickly beginning construction.” Levine added. “It is critical that the project move forward without delay so the citizens of Gainesville and the region can reap the significant economic benefits the plant will bring, including more than 700 direct and indirect permanent jobs throughout the region, as well as the benefit of nearly $200 million in reduced rates over 30 years if the project remains on schedule and is eligible for federal stimulus dollars.”

The plant has been approved and endorsed by a wide variety of government agencies, nonprofits and other organizations from the environmental, business, forestry and other communities, including: the Florida Wildlife Federation, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Florida Forestry Association, Florida Farm Bureau Federation, Florida Municipal Electric Association, Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, FloridaWorks, Forest Landowners Association, Alachua County Legislative Delegation, Gainesville City Commissioners, North Central Florida Renewable Resource Conservation & Development Council, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Florida Public Service Commission, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Department of Health, Florida Department of Community Affairs, Florida Department of State, Florida Department of Transportation, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Suwannee River Water Management District, City of Gainesville, Alachua County and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Source:http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5162/gainesville-biomass-project-clears-regulatory-hurdles/

Recycling of superfluous agricultural waste to produce electricity and heat. Use biomass available in the region as an efficient fuel for the production of energy.

Project Type:	Biomass Combustion
Location:	Kirugaval village, Malavalli Taluka, Mandya District, Karnataka, India
Quantity:	145,000 tonnes CO2e total
Accounting period:	7 years
Operator:	Malavalli Power Plant Pvt Ltd. 3rd Floor Gupta Towers 50/1 Residency Road 1st Cross Bangalore Karnataka 560025
Certification:	Clean Development Mechanism Gold Standard
Supported by:	Climat Mundi (France) Less (Canada) myclimate (Switzerland) Planetair (Canada) PURE (UK) South Pole Carbon Asset Managment Ltd. (Switzerland) Sustainable Travel International (USA - WA) ZeroGHG (Canada)

Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen, used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to release energy.

It is widely used as part of the process to treat wastewater. As part of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere.

Anaerobic digestion is widely used as a renewable energy source because the process produces a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas suitable for energy production, helping to replace fossil fuels. The nutrient-rich digestate which is also produced can be used as fertilizer.

The Anaerobic digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the input materials in order to break down insoluble organic polymers such as carbohydrates and make them available for other bacteria. Acidogenic bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. Acetogenic bacteria then convert these resulting organic acids into acetic acid, along with additional ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Finally, methanogens convert these products to methane and carbon dioxide.

The technical expertise required to maintain industrial scale anaerobic digesters coupled with high capital costs and low process efficiencies had limited the level of its industrial application as a waste treatment technology. Anaerobic digestion facilities have, however, been recognized by the United Nations Development Programme as one of the most useful decentralized sources of energy supply, as they are less capital intensive than large power plants.

Biogas from sewage works is sometimes used to run a gas engine to produce electrical power; some or all of which can be used to run the sewage works. Some waste heat from the engine is then used to heat the digester. It turns out that the waste heat is generally enough to heat the digester to the required temperatures. The power potential from sewage works is limited – in the UK there are about 80 MW total of such generation, with potential to increase to 150 MW, which is insignificant compared to the average power demand in the UK of about 35,000 MW. The scope for biogas generation from non-sewage waste biological matter – energy crops, food waste, abattoir waste etc. is much higher, estimated to be capable of about 3,000 MW. Farm biogas plants using animal waste and energy crops are expected to contribute to reducing CO₂ emissions and strengthen the grid while providing UK farmers with additional revenues.
Some countries offer incentives in the form of, for example, Feed-in Tariffs for feeding electricity onto the power grid in order to subsidize green energy production.

Biomass power plant, a renewable energy source, is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste, and alcohol fuels. Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce heat. For example, forest residues (such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps), yard clippings, wood chips and garbage may be used as biomass. However, biomass also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibers or chemicals. Biomass power plant may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic materials such as fossil fuels which have been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.

Industrial biomass can be grown from numerous types of plants, including miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sorghum, sugarcane, and a variety of tree species, ranging from eucalyptus to oil palm (palm oil). The particular plant used is usually not important to the end products, but it does affect the processing of the raw material.

Although fossil fuels have their origin in ancient biomass power plant, they are not considered biomass by the generally accepted definition because they contain carbon that has been "out" of the carbon cycle for a very long time. Their combustion therefore disturbs the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere.

Plastics from biomass, like some recently developed to dissolve in seawater, are made the same way as petroleum-based plastics. These plastics are actually cheaper to manufacture and meet or exceed most performance standards, but they lack the same water resistance or longevity as conventional plastics.

Chemical composition
Biomass is carbon based and is composed of a mixture of organic molecules containing hydrogen, usually including atoms of oxygen, often nitrogen and also small quantities of other atoms, including alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metals. These metals are often found in functional molecules such as the porphyrins which include chlorophyll which contains magnesium.
Biomass sources.

Biomass energy power plant is derived from five distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. Wood energy is derived both from direct use of harvested wood as a fuel and from wood waste streams. The largest source of energy from wood is pulping liquor or “black liquor,” a waste product from processes of the pulp, paper and paperboard industry. Waste energy is the second-largest source of biomass energy. The main contributors of waste energy are municipal solid waste (MSW), manufacturing waste, and landfill gas. Biomass alcohol fuel, or ethanol, is derived almost exclusively from corn. Its principal use is as an oxygenate in gasoline.

Biomass power plant can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Methane gas is the main ingredient of natural gas. Smelly stuff, like rotting garbage, and agricultural and human waste, release methane gas - also called "landfill gas" or "biogas." Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce the transportation fuel, ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats. Also, Biomass to liquids (BTLs) and cellulosic ethanol are still under research.

Biomass conversion process to useful energy
There are a number of technological options available to make use of a wide variety of biomass types as a renewable energy source. Conversion technologies may release the energy directly, in the form of heat or electricity, or may convert it to another form, such as liquid biofuel or combustible biogas. While for some classes of biomass resource there may be a number of usage options, for others there may be only one appropriate technology.

Thermal conversion
These are processes in which heat is the dominant mechanism to convert the biomass into another chemical form. The basic alternatives are separated principally by the extent to which the chemical reactions involved are allowed to proceed (mainly controlled by the availability of oxygen and conversion temperature): Combustion, Torrefaction, Pyrolysis, Gasification.

There are a number of other less common, more experimental or proprietary thermal processes that may offer benefits such as hydrothermal upgrading (HTU) and hydroprocessing. Some have been developed for use on high moisture content biomass, including aqueous slurries, and allow them to be converted into more convenient forms. Some of the Applications of thermal conversion are Combined heat and power (CHP) and Co-firing. In a typical biomass power plant, efficiencies range from 20-27%.

Chemical conversion
A range of chemical processes may be used to convert biomass into other forms, such as to produce a fuel that is more conveniently used, transported or stored, or to exploit some property of the process itself.

Biochemical conversion
As biomass is a natural material, many highly efficient biochemical processes have developed in nature to break down the molecules of which biomass is composed, and many of these biochemical conversion processes can be harnessed.

Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other micro-organisms to break down biomass. In most cases micro-organisms are used to perform the conversion process: anaerobic digestion, fermentation and composting. Other chemical processes such as converting straight and waste vegetable oils into biodiesel is transesterification. Another way of breaking down biomass is by breaking down the carbohydrates and simple sugars to make alcohol. However, this process has not been perfected yet. Scientists are still researching the effects of converting biomass.