Tag Archives: press-releases
Drax Launches State Of The Art Biomass Rail Freight Wagon
29 July 2013 Drax: rolls out state of the art biomass rail freight wagon Drax has unveiled the UK’s first purpose-built biomass rail freight wagon at the National Railway Museum in York. Developed by designers at Lloyd’s Register Rail and manufactured by WH Davis, it is the largest ever produced and “pushes the boundaries of rail engineering”, according to Drax. The wagon will transport sustainable biomass from the Ports of Tyne, Hull and Immingham to Drax Power Station, near Selby for use in generating low carbon, cost effective, and reliable renewable electricity. The supersize wagon has a capacity of 116 cubic metres allowing a biomass load weighing 71.6 tonnes. Its volume is almost 30 per cent bigger than any freight wagon currently used in the UK. Peter Emery, Drax’s production director said: “Our transformation to become one of Europe’s largest renewable generators through the use of sustainable biomass means we need new, bigger and better rail wagons. “We need to keep the biomass dry, move more of it and speed up the process of delivery. The finished product is an industry-leading design and fulfils all the criteria we set. We may be launching it in a museum but this wagon is no museum piece and will not be surpassed for many years to come.” Work on two prototypes began in January 2013 and presented the design engineers with a number of challenges in achieving the increased wagon capacity within the limits of the Network Rail loading gauge. Drax has ordered 200 wagons that are part of an investment of up to £700 million by including boiler modifications and new biomass receipt, storage and handling facilities at Drax Power Station, as well as developments further upstream in the biomass supply chain. The power station’s first biomass converted generating unit began operating in April; a second will follow next year and a third by 2016 depending on securing contracts for sufficient biomass supplies. Each will burn approximately 2.3 million tonnes of sustainable biomass a year. The new wagon will be on display at the National Railway Museum, York from 26 July to 12 August. Source: Utility Week Continue reading
Environmentally Friendly Battery Made From Wood
Wed, 07/24/2013 Taking inspiration from trees, scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source. Their report on the device—1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper—appears in the journal Nano Letters. Liangbing Hu, Teng Li and colleagues point out that today’s batteries often use stiff, non-flexible substrates, which are too rigid to release the stress that occurs as ions flow through the battery. They knew that wood fibers from trees are supple and naturally designed to hold mineral-rich water, similar to the electrolyte in batteries. They decided to explore use of wood as the base of an experimental sodium-ion battery. Using sodium rather than lithium would make the device environmentally friendly. Lead author Hongli Zhu and other team members describe lab experiments in which the device performed successfully through 400 charge-discharge cycles, putting it among the longest-lasting of all sodium-ion nanobatteries. Batteries using the new technology would be best suited for large-scale energy storage applications, such as wind farms or solar energy installations, the report indicates. Tin Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries Using Natural Wood Fiber as a Mechanical Buffer and Electrolyte Reservoir Source: American Chemical Society Continue reading
Natural Gas To Go Abroad; Biomass Says ‘Bon Voyage’
There is an obvious angst around the continued delay by the DOE to approve applications that would allow the export of natural gas from the U.S. to foreign markets. The angst for the DOE to approve natural gas exports is obvious given current price discrepancies in other countries. While the spot price for natural gas in the U.S. hovers around $4 an MMBtu, Europe pays around $12 and Japan $18 for the equivalent amount. The substantial difference in domestic and foreign prices has led twenty different groups to apply to the DOE for permission to export domestically produced natural gas. The natural gas boom in the U.S. and the companies behind it are looking to go abroad where greater profits await, and they have considerable support behind their effort. For the biomass-to-energy industry, the export of natural gas is a boon for future growth. There is no arguing that biomass projects compete directly with natural gas for electricity production, thermal demands, and (in much lesser terms) for transportation fuel production. When deciding the type of energy project to build, project developers weigh the many costs associated with potential energy inputs and the capital needed to convert the energy feedstock into a usable energy product. Most often, if not always, project developers go with the project that has lowest associated costs that accomplish the original goals. Biomass has many inherent advantages to natural gas, but in regards to price, natural gas currently wins. By expanding natural gas exports in the U.S., the price difference that allows natural gas to trump biomass as a raw energy feedstock would be reduced. Furthermore, by allowing natural gas export, the domestic spot price market for natural gas would be affected by fluctuations in foreign natural gas markets around the world. We can strongly assume that the added influence of foreign markets on domestic natural gas prices will instigate greater and more erratic domestic price fluctuations. Hedging and other tricks to mitigate erratic prices will become more widely needed to maintain profit from natural gas energy production. Greater stability in raw material prices for biomass is an asset that energy developers must take into account for the long-term economic stability of current and future energy projects. Biomass will likely see greater attention among developers as the DOE moves forward on the twenty applications pending approval, which it seems to be doing slowly . Continue reading
