FAQ's - Regarding Biomass Feedstocks Home | FAQs Title Page | Site Map

Questions

1. What kind of feedstocks can be used with the Arkenol process?
2. What does 450 tons per day of biomass really mean?

Answers

What kind of feedstocks can be used with the Arkenol process?

The energy of the sun is locked in the cellulose molecule. Because biomass and biomass-derived products contain cellulose in some proportion, the number of feedstocks suitable for the Arkenol process is huge. Suitable feedstocks include:

• agricultural wastes such as corn stalks, cotton gin trash, bagasse, and stovers;
• purpose-grown crops, such as switchgrass, sorghum, napiergrass;
• municipal solid waste (or, refuse derived fuel);
• paper mill sludge;
• forest residues; and
• construction and demolition debris.

This astounding selection of feedstock provides a flexibility in matching available feedstocks with regional product markets.

Back to Top

What does 450 tons per day of biomass really mean?

As an example, think of municipal solid waste as having a bulk density of about 7 pounds per cubic foot. On a daily basis, a biorefinery would require the equivalent of about 129,000 cubic feet (450x2000/7) of material. This equates to an area the size of a football field (360 ft. by 160 feet) covered to a depth of just over 2 feet. Taken over a year, the depth of the pile rises to 660 feet; equivalent to a building over 60 stories high; all diverted from landfill. While this is an astounding figure, several waste-to-energy facilities sized at 2,000 tons per day (over 4 times greater) are in operation in major metropolitan centers of the world. A 2,000 ton (wet) MSW per day biorefinery would produce the equivalent of over 40 million gallons per year of ethanol without any stack emissions.

In terms of biomass, say, baled rice straw, with a bulk density of 12 pounds per cubic feet the annual pile sized at 450 tons per day decreases to the equivalent of a 38 story building. In order to be processed, the straw would be sized and fluffed to a bulk density of close to 7 pounds per cubic feet, similar to municipal solid waste.

Collection methods are already in place for MSW. In the agricultural community, new ways of thinking about residues must be developed. These new ways are consistent with new practices of farming like "no-till" farming which allows the stalk and root structure to remain in the field for the prevention of soil erosion. Planting would occur between rows the following year, preserving the soil and insuring its integrity. In conjunction with Arkenol's technology, the stalk could be considered a crop to be managed and harvested using conventional methods.

Back to Top