It seems that the concept of tapping into the vast resources of our country’s waste fibrous fuels has excited the politicos of Washington as a way to foreign fuel independence. As a way for America to work its way out of the recession we find ourselves in. As a way to address carbon reduction issues without actually acknowledging the Kyoto Protocol or Global Warming, at least by name. As a way to get with the program the rest of the world is on, using biofuels to generate power and heating energies we all need. President Obama touted the advantages of alternative fuels in his address last night. Biofuels, as a term, seems to be on everyone’s lips.
So who understands how to do it?
The politicians? Are you kidding?
The petroleum industry? They hate it!
The electrical power industry? They are scrambling to get a handle on it.
The producers of biofuels? Well, this is a very difficult question to answer as there as many biofuels as there are people with piles of waste lying around. Switch grass, corn stover, bagasse, straw, municipal green waste, agricultural wastes of all kinds (nut shells, seeds, grass clippings, tub-ground trees, stumps, etc.), low grade trees, standing dead trees, harvesting slash, branches, tops, bark, and even otherwise good trees (by any usual definition) are all now fine fodder for the biofuel boiler. How about sludge? Or organic waste from the water treatment plant (you figure it out)? It is no wonder that the politicians think we must be up to our knees in this stuff!
The chemists and engineers developing technologies to handle it? There are huge numbers of people developing processes to convert organic junk into gasses, liquids, gels, briquettes, nuggets, pellets, and powders. There are scholarly papers describing bizarre plasma arc technologies utilizing extreme temperatures usually only found in the cores of stars to convert our lowly biomass materials to their elemental components, in order to liberate and recover a clean fuel for our cars. Or to convert wood to sugars (it is about 2/3rds sugar) and ferment it into alcohol. They use pressure, temperature, solvents, additives, microbes, and enzymes, in any and all combinations.
What a cornucopia of invention and development, of flipping waste to resource, of seeing a problem as an opportunity! It is the application of the American Ideal, that hard work and determination will turn a lemon into lemonade. What was junk will be our nation’s energy salvation.
And what an opportunity for a huckster to sell a bill of goods! Watch out for the Bernie Madoff of Biofuels, all you investors out there! They are certainly looking for their chance to get into your wallet!
What industry segment has the most to offer this nascent new endeavor? Power plants used at pulp mills, of course! Who has been burning bark and wastes from the paper mill for generations? Who has been taking the cast-off woody refuse from sawmills and has been simply receiving it, handling it, storing it, and then using it to do something useful? Power boilers and co-gen facilities at pulp mills, that’s who!
And that is where BRUKS Rockwood Inc. (BRI) comes in. BRI is perfectly positioned as the company most experienced in handling everything from hogged bark to municipal solid waste, offering receiving equipment (truck dumpers and hoppers), transport conveyors (including the TUBULATOR™ Air Supported Belt Conveyor), stacking and reclaiming systems to 6 million cubic foot storage capacity, silos, delivery to the boiler, boiler feed systems, ash handling systems, and a complete integrated controls package to tie it all together.
BRI is experienced with installations in climates that range from cold (Scandinavia and Canada) to temperate, to tropical (the Caribbean and Indonesia). BRI’s customers handle bark, sawmill wastes, logs (BRI supplies debarking and chipping systems, too), wood chips, pet coke, municipal wastes, and all the other forms of biofuels mentioned above. Regardless of the final product, the raw material handling system has to work, and work well. BRI has all the tools in their toolbox to make that happen.
Experience is knowledge. Knowledge is power. BRUKS Rockwood is your experienced connection to biofuel handling.