Naperville 'green fuels depot' to convert waste to fuel

By Dan McLeister
Contributing Writer

An area bio waste project is going beyond previous efforts to produce a triple play for green technology.

The City of Naperville, Packer Engineering, the College of DuPage and Argonne National Laboratory are among the organizations collaborating on a project to convert “landscape waste”—grass, leaf and tree branch trimmings—into one of several different environmentally friendly fuels, including ethanol, bioelectricity and hydrogen.

Naperville City Councilman Robert Fieseler, a patent attorney, said “We are not aware of a single installation which can produce three kinds of fuels. A lot of work has been done by others on bio-waste.”

U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (left), Dr. Peter J. Schubert, senior director for space and energy research, Packer Engineering and Dr. Mike Koehler, CEO of Packer, christen the Naperville green fuels depot, which will convert landscape waste into environmentally friendly fuels.

U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-13th) has secured initial funding for what is being called the “green fuels depot.” She joined local officials recently to christen a full-scale prototype gasifier apparatus that will convert lawn, farm and other bio-waste into green vehicle fuel and other forms of energy.

The event included full activation and operation of the 12-foot device, which leaves behind minimal waste such as sand and ash.

Earlier this year, Biggert secured House approval of $1.5 million, included in legislation H.R. 3183, for a public-private partnership that she said promises to make Naperville a standard bearer for the environmentally sustainable technology.

The legislation has been signed into law by President Obama and will help Naperville build a green fuels depot capable of powering its municipal fleet of vehicles using bio-waste, which Biggert said will cut energy costs to taxpayers and reduce carbon emissions. More money will be sought for later phases of the project.

“It is wonderful that our community is host to so many gifted scientists who are developing and commercializing the next generation of advanced energy solutions,” said Biggert, a senior member of the House Science and Technology Committee.

“This is a perfect example of how federal investments in research and development can yield tremendously valuable results down the line. I look forward to seeing this demonstration project become part of an environmentally sustainable strategy to address our nation’s long-term energy needs.”

Biggert, who is co-chair of the House Research and Development Caucus, said these breakthroughs will help bring the U.S. closer to true energy independence and safeguard against the next spike in energy and fuel prices.

“And thanks to Packer, local residents will be among the first to benefit, both in terms of economic opportunity and reduced energy costs,” she said.

Packer Engineering, an international consulting firm with a corporate office in Naperville, is developing a new generation of renewable energy technologies, the first of which converts biomass to electric power and heat, said Dr. Peter J. Schubert.

“We are very excited to have Congresswoman Biggert here to christen our first full-scale reactor, which we intend to commercialize by mid 2010,” he said. “Her support for this work and the Green Fuels Depot project which follows next, is vital to achieve energy independence for our nation and greenhouse gas reductions for all mankind.”

Packer’s near-term solution, Schubert said, would involve using a farm-scale crop waste gasifier, which would turn leftover corn stalks into gas that could be burned—a process that would work like a self-clearing oven. The trademark name is Stalk Stoker.

An intermediate solution, said Schubert, would involve hydrogen storage using porous silicon and collecting energy that would power everything from vehicles to cell phones and personal digital assistants. Solar power would address long-term needs.

“We have patented technology that would allow us to process materials on the moon, which is 21 percent silicon, and collect solar power which could supply our energy needs forever,” Schubert said. “It isn’t practical to collect energy here since half the time, it’s always night.”

Naperville Mayor George Pradel said, “The City of Naperville is pleased to be the home to places such as Packer Engineering where cutting-edge technology is being created to not only enhance energy independence but also create new jobs. The work that begins at Packer engineering today will have far-reaching effects on Naperville in the years to come.”

Argonne National Laboratory, which is also a participant in the public-private partnership, will use its expertise and resources in bio-fuels processing and advanced vehicle technologies to characterize and evaluate the three green fuel choices before they are deployed by the city, said Glenn Keller, manager of vehicle systems in Argonne’s Center for Transportation Research.

“There is a unique, refreshing twist to this proposal,” Keller said. “It’s a utopian vision to have this closed loop circuit, where a city can turn their own yard waste into fuels that will benefit their community.”

The depot will use a gasifier from Packer Engineering to convert grass, leaves, branches and other biomass into syngas, a gas mixture that contains carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The syngas can then be used to create cellulosic ethanol, bio-electricity or hydrogen. Although the proposal calls for trying all three fuel types, Keller said it would be more practical to concentrate on producing just one fuel when the depot is built.

Because Naperville’s official vehicle fleet includes flex-fuel vehicles that run on both gasoline and ethanol, Keller said any cellulosic ethanol produced by the depot could be quickly put to use. The project will also focus on using syngas to produce green electricity for charging plug-in electric vehicles, as well as a hydrogen separation and storage process used to fill up fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

The pilot project will use only 3 percent of the annual landscape waste collected by Naperville. If all 48,000 cubic-yards of the city’s landscape waste were used in a full-scale green fuels depot, the amount would be enough to fuel all 300 vehicles in the city fleet.

Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (Archive on Wednesday, November 25, 2009)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

Return