{"id":29013,"date":"2015-10-02T07:26:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T05:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=29013"},"modified":"2015-10-01T12:59:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T10:59:41","slug":"bravo-to-biomass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/bravo-to-biomass\/","title":{"rendered":"Bravo to biomass"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"150825_cg_77\"
In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa report that burning oat hulls had considerable benefits to the environment as well as to human health. The study examined the practices at the UI Power Plant, where technicians have burned a mix of oat hulls and coal for more than a decade. File photo by Clarity Guerra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biomass burning\u00a0sometimes gets a bad rap. That\u2019s because many associate the burning of living and dead vegetation with human-caused fires and clearing of land that release unhealthy particles and gases that spur global warming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But what if you burned biomass in a controlled environment, such as in a power plant,\u00a0that at least partially replaces using a\u00a0fossil fuel? Would there be demonstrable environmental and health benefits?<\/p>\n

In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa report that burning oat hulls had considerable benefits to the environment as well as to human health. The study examined the practices at the UI Power Plant, where technicians have burned a mix of oat hulls and coal for more than a decade. The researchers found a 50-50 oat hulls-coal mix, when compared to burning only coal, reduced fossil\u00a0carbon-dioxide emissions\u00a0by 40 percent\u00a0and significantly reduced the release of particulate matter, hazardous substances, and heavy metals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur general conclusion is that when optimized, co firing (burning biomass with coal) presents a good option for energy production, without incurring the negative environmental effects that comes with burning fossil fuels alone, like fossil carbon dioxide emissions and harmful particulate matter,\u201d says\u00a0Betsy Stone, assistant professor of chemistry at the UI and\u00a0corresponding author on the study, published in the journal Fuel.<\/p>\n

It may seem logical that controlled burning any type of biomass\u2014from grasses to wood chips\u2014would be good for the environment. After all, shouldn\u2019t any of these sources be more preferable than coal, known for its deleterious environmental and public-health effects? Not necessarily, as biomass burning requires specialized equipment, may not burn as efficiently as fossil fuels, and supplies may be limited, among other factors. In other words, the benefits may not outweigh the costs.<\/p>\n

The UI Power Plant has overcome some of these obstacles with the oat hulls. The supply is plentiful, as the plant, which supplies steam to campus for heating, cooling,\u00a0dehumidification, and\u00a0about one-third\u00a0of the campus electricity, gets its feedstuff\u00a0from the Quaker Oats facility in nearby Cedar Rapids. The university also tinkered with equipment to optimize its burning of oat hulls, now at 40,000 tons annually, according to Ben Anderson, UI Power Plant\u00a0manager.<\/p>\n

But still no one had quantified the benefits, if any, of their oat hulls\u2019 use. As Stone put it, \u201cIt\u2019s not a linear effect. If you add more biomass, it doesn\u2019t mean air quality is getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, she and her team decided to find out what the oat hulls were doing. The researchers took emissions tests in April-May 2014 to determine how co-firing affects the air pollution.<\/p>\n

The team found significant environmental and public-health benefits.<\/p>\n

When compared to burning only coal, co-firing with the oat hulls reduced filterable particulate matter by 90 percent, hazardous air pollutants dropped by 41 percent, and heavy metals, including manganese, copper, nickel, and zinc, fell by 51 percent. Moreover, fossil\u00a0carbon-dioxide emissions were 40 percent less than if only coal had been used. Carbon dioxide, as has been well documented, is a major contributor to global warming,<\/p>\n

\u201cMany environmental advantages were observed with co-firing oat hulls as a new potential fuel for energy generation,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cCo-firing 50 percent oat hulls with coal significantly reduced the emission of atmospheric pollutants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team also found that co-firing wood chips had minor impacts on the release of pollutants, although more analysis may be needed to fully understand the effect, depending on the amount used and the mix percentage.<\/p>\n

The UI power plant this summer added a third type of biomass, a grass called miscanthus, to its renewable-energy portfolio, part of a plan to derive 40 percent of the UI’s power generation\u00a0use from renewables by 2020.\u00a0Stone\u2019s team plans to analyze miscanthus’s\u00a0potential environmental benefits as well.<\/p>\n

Contributing authors\u00a0include\u00a0UI chemistry professor Vicki Grassian, post-doctoral\u00a0researcher Armando Estillore, and graduate students Imali Mudunkotowa and Ibrahim Al-Naiema, all at the UI.<\/p>\n

The university funded the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biomass burning\u00a0sometimes gets a bad rap. That\u2019s because many associate the burning of living and dead vegetation with human-caused fires and clearing of land that release unhealthy particles and gases that spur global warming. But what if you burned biomass in a controlled environment, such as in a power plant,\u00a0that at least partially replaces using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5842],"supplier":[3048],"class_list":["post-29013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biomass","supplier-university-of-iowa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29013"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=29013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}