Our Northwest Energy

NWPR Energy Series Part Two: Cogeneration or CHP

Listen to the audio file of this interview here .

As we explore ways to reduce greenhouse gases and increase energy efficiency, "cogeneration"  or "combined heat & power"  becomes an important concept to remember.  In this  discussion, energy expert Dave Sjoding* and correspondent Mary Hawkins look at how new systems are creating less waste and more energy in the Northwest.

(A very simple CHP diagram from the US Dept. of Energy CHP site)

Hawkins: CHP - "combined heat and power" - refers to systems that capture and maximize what used to be released into the atmosphere, the water supply, or the ground - to create sources of energy or useable materials.

A few years ago "Our Northwest" energy expert, Dave Sjoding, sat on a governor's climate change initiative subcommittee called "Beyond Waste", where they decided to turn the idea of waste on its head. Instead of thinking of waste as a liability, why not think of it as an asset? So, as we move beyond traditional thinking, every waste stream now becomes a potential revenue stream.

Sjoding: So, starting at the trash can  - separating out front - recyclables in one bucket - organic waste in a second - then your straight "trash-trash" in a third bucket - right off the bat you have isolated your organic materials early in the stream. The whole process of "beyond waste" comes from our Department of Ecology - who say's let's NOT put this stuff in a landfill. Let's get beyond the whole mindset of waste and make them revenue streams.

Hawkins: The "Beyond Waste" Ecology initative began in 2002. Now Washington State recycles and "recovers" about 50 percent of its household waste.  In recent years cogeneration systems have been created to mine energy in a variety of industries. Researchers have built systems that work well in Northwestern climates - which have their own special challenges. According to Dave, if you're a dairy farmer in California, for instance, and you want to produce methane  - you could throw a blanket over your field and - with help from your warmer climate, you'd be in business.

In the northwest, you need to build insulated tanks for the same process. This involves a greater investment out front. But, with new models of regeneration, you can also build in potential revenue streams.

They are now looking at 9 potential revenue streams from dairy digester systems.  For instance - from the liquid byproducts, phosphorous is being extracted and - instead of polluting the groundwater - its being used as sources of fertilizer.  

Sjoding: The Vander Haak Research Dairy that we have up in Linden, Washington has an operating system that's now pulling the phosphorus it's our basically - first commercial scale that's starting to run - we're getting real close to full commercialization. And when we get both nitrogen and phosphorus extraction working on these digester systemsthat's two new revenue streams additional that's part of the 9 that you can get.

Hawkins: The other revenue streams that are being explored in the anaerobic digestion systems include electricity back to the grid, compost, a peat moss replacement, carbon credits and others still in development.

Cogeneration systems are cropping up across the Northwest. The city of Olympia is creating a wastewater CHP system where biogases are captured and heat and power is generated - which also helps to break down wastes much more efficiently.

Sjoding: This thing will work on the farm or at the dairy. It'll work at wastewater treatment plants.  It'll work at food processing facilities, and then for us at the home level -  the increasing source separation to get the organics out so they never even show up at the landfill, they're already separated out front - gives us a nice step forward in that process. These things are starting to tie together in some very wonderful ways.

Hawkins: For more information about cogeneration systems, including links to regional CHP projects, go to Our Northwest, online at N-W-P-R dot org.

Links:

Governor Gregoire Takes Action on Climate Change, Announces "Washington Climate Change Challenge" (Governor Press Release, Feb 07)

Washington Department of Ecology on Climate Change

Washington Department of Ecology and Beyond Waste

Seattle Times: "Gregoire joins the West's war on warming: 5 governors target pollution":

Federal Energy Management Program and CHP Basics with diagrams:

EPA on Wastewater Treatment Facilities

NWPR Energy Series Part One: Biofuels

Listen to the audio file of this story here .

Intro: Most people associate biofuel with the corn industry of the Midwest. But biofuel crops are now emerging in the dry interior climates of the inland Northwest. Next time you go to the pump, your gas may contain ethanol or biodiesel grown here.

Mary Hawkins spoke with WSU energy expert, Dave Sjoding, about ethanol and biodiesel fuels in this interview from “Our Northwest”:

Hawkins: Cellulose is contained in just about every natural, free-growing plant in the world. It also happens to be the key ingredient in something called “cellulosic ethanol”. It’s in the stalks left over from harvest; wood products are made of cellulose. It can even come from city dumps.  

Here’s Dave Sjoding:

Sjoding: WSU did a study of how many tons of cellulosic feedstock can our state produce. Year in, year out there's about seventeen million tons of organic waste streams that would be potentially available for use to make ethanol. Well, this is where our state gets a chance to play, and our region gets a chance to play as well I might add, because the same is true in Oregon, and Idaho, and Montana  -throughout the Northwest.

Hawkins: Cellulose as a byproduct of agriculture, industries and city waste is big. There are also emerging dryland crops that may soon grow in a field near you. Here’s Dave again:

Sjoding: Camelina's one of them I'm going to flag here for the drier parts of our state.

It's an oil seed crop, so you can use it to make bio-diesel, for example. Some of these crops have really strong roots, so they'll go down, they'll crack the pan if you've got one, and those root structures then open up the soil bed in a nice healthy way. A lot of farmers are seeing the follow on crop, whether it's wheat or whatever, to be improving yield what it was before, simply because of the benefits to the soil that they've had from the oil seed crop that was the year before.

Hawkins: For researchers like Dave, It’s all about less dependence on oil…  for most car engines there is a limit to how much ethanol can be in the mix… Diesel is a different story…

Sjoding: As you pull up to the pump, you get a blend of both, for gasoline a blend of ethanol, as well as regular gasoline. And on the diesel side, you can have a much stronger range of blending. Generally ethanol is limited to 10% unless you have something done to your engine.  Some research and development is looking to bump that to 20, 25% but on the diesel side you can blend up to 99, 100% straight bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel is a very slick type of substance, so it really does clean up your engine, and gives you a slipperiness that if you're using, for example, low sulfur diesel, you need that slipperiness as an additive anyway. So this is a nice combination that again is thinning down our demand for oil.

Outro: For more information about biodiesel, ethanol and how these fuels will help reshape our energy future, go to "Our Northwest"  at N-W-P-R dot org.

KWSU Media Presents: Human Activity and the Environment

				Episode 117
	3:30 min.
	Eugene Rosa
	Professor, Sociology , WSU
	Dr. Rosa’s concern for the environment is manifested in greatly varied ways. His role as a sociologist allows him to study how human activities impact our ecological system. He also shares his passion about nature with a series of art pieces he creates out of trash and junk. He simultaneously inspires and informs in his pursuit to leave his surroundings better than he found them. Watch additional videos at KWSU Media .

KWSU Media Presents: Organic Farms

				Episode 111
	2:13 min.
	John Reganold
	Professor, Crop & Soil Sciences, WSU
	Dr. Reganold studies the sustainability of farms and, like the best of farmers, he is outstanding in his field. After working with over 100 farms, he has found multiple indicators of sustainability. Sustainability starts with protecting the soil, he says, so that it can continue to be used by future generations. Come visit an organic farm and find out whether the higher price of its produce is warranted Watch additional videos at KWSU Media .

KWSU Media Presents:

				Episode 312
	58:30 min.
	WSU Nuclear Radiation Center Tour
	by Donald Wall, Director, WSU Nuclear Radiation Center
	WSU’s Nuclear Radiation Center has been operating for many decades and facilitates tours for the public year-round. Join KWSU Media on this tour of the nuclear reactor within the Center. Learn about its functions, its safety mechanisms, the efficiency of fission and why the reactor glows a pretty blue while operating. Watch additional videos at KWSU Media .

KWSU Media Presents:

					Episode 310
	46:00 min.
	China: Energy, Economy and the World
	by David Fridley, Staff Scientist, China Energy Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
	Over the past few decades, unprecedented industrial growth has caused China to become a world leader in the consumption of coal. Among the negative environmental impacts of so much industry are other social and economic trends relating to energy consumption that Dr. David Fridley examines in this timely talk. Watch additional videos at KWSU Media .

A brief Primer on Cellulosic Fuel and Washington's BioMass System

Strictly speaking, the term "biomass" means the entirety of living biological organisms in a given area.  But in the area of energy production when we talk about "biomass" we're usually talking about available biomass - anything from crop residues to waste byproducts to crops grown specifically for use as fuel or to feed an energy system.

Like most places on earth, Washington ’s most abundant biomass resources are complex lignocellulosic materials: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.  The issue is how to turn these resources into energy.

Grand Coulee Dam: A History Link Essay

This article is from the free online encyclopedia of Washington State History, History Link.

Grand Coulee Dam, hailed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" when it was completed in 1941, is as confounding to the human eye as an elephant might be to an ant. It girdles the Columbia River with 12 million cubic yards of concrete, stacked one mile wide and as tall as a 46-story building, backing up a 150-mile long reservoir, spinning out more kilowatts than any other dam in the United States. As gargantuan as it is, Grand Coulee is only part of the massive Columbia Basin Project, which includes four other dams, three storage lakes, and 2,300 miles of irrigation canals, snaking through half a million acres of desert.

Read the entire posting here.

Bush Administration to Sign Deal to Tear Down Klamath Dam

Posted Thursday, November 13, 2008 The Bush Administration expects to sign a deal today with the utility company Pacificorp to begin tearing down four dams on the Klamath River by 2020. The 450 million dollar project would be the largest dam removal in history. Correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

Lonnie Donegan Sings Grand Coulee Dam (1957)

The "King of Skiffle" was a musical hero to an adoring public.