Green Options

An update from Emerson Process Management’s Alan Novak on progress made at bringing second generation biofuels into commercial production.

Advanced biofuels will add thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

Alan Novak, Director of Alternative Fuels for Emerson Process Management and host of at least three BioEnergy Summits throughout the country, is optimistic for the future of advanced biofuels in meeting the nation and the world’s future transportation fuel needs.

“I’m going to engage in hands-on organic gardening and culinary studies while immersed in the world of local and sustainable food systems.”  If a college student told me this, I would assume that he or she planned to step away from the classroom and take a hiatus from secondary education.

But for Montana State University students, this seemingly implausible scenario is the real deal.  Last month at the launch of the spring semester, MSU unveiled the brand-new Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems undergraduate degree program.

It sounded to me like the biblical story of Moses and the Burning Bush. As an African who maintains a second home (nearly all of us do) somewhere deep in the African bush, what more use of the bush could I think of other than to put my livestock to graze in the scorching sun whole day, then return home with a few dry wood sticks to light up the yard fire under the twilight moon while ebbing away at my favorite roast corn cob? Or where the wild animals make their homes?

Aha, the African Bush! Savor a-bush-to-electricity energy project in the African hinterland! What’s the connection? Well, it controls the wildlife habitat in a positive way that ensures an ecological balance in the Namibian bush, provides a source of livelihood to surrounding communities by opening more space in the farmlands as a way of community conservation and powers local homes and businesses by feeding the electricity grid!

I like what they called the project: CBEND or Combating Bush Encroachment for Namibia’s Development because an 1MW electricity plant will be entirely powered by harvested invader bush and the electricity produced will be supplied to the national grid using technology dubbed wood gasification.

Ten million hectares of land containing up to 10,000 bushes per hectare will be freed to produce between 5 to 25 tons of biomass per hectare in a bush thinning process that allows re-growth from the roots with a repeat maturity period of 10 to 15 years. This translates to 125 million tons of biomass or 500 TWh.