Using Pollution to Make Clean Energy
Friday, June 18, 2010
A Cranston company says its has found a way to turn the pollution spewed out from smoke stacks into renewable energy.
“It’s like a double win,” said Michael Trainor, the publicist for Tomorrow Biofuels, Ltd.
Tomorrow Biofuels plans to harness the toxic emissions from factories or electrical plants to grow algae that produce vegetable oil, which can be used as biodiesel fuel. It is the first project of its kind in the entire Northeast, according to Trainor.
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Next month, the company will break ground on its first experimental facility, next to a set of methane-gas powered generators between Route 5 and Interstate 95. The fumes released in that process will be piped into the facility, where they will pass through a special filter, dubbed FALCON, which has a patent pending.
“It acts as a sponge,” Trainor said. “You put the dirty gas through. It separates the dirty part of the gas from the clean part.”
That leaves a combination of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which is ideal for accelerating the growth of the high lipid algae, according to Trainor. “What you get out of the algae is a kind of vegetable oil that burns cleanly, with no emissions in the atmosphere,” he said.
The algae could yield an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of the biodiesel fuel, which could be utilized to generate electricity, according to Trainor.
Start Small, Think Big
Tomorrow Biofuels is starting out small. Its 5,900-facility, which will open in the fall, will have four vats with algae, harvesting equipment, and a biodiesel lab. Trainor said most of the facility will look like a “fancy greenhouse.”
“This pilot facility will demonstrate the commercial viability of our business model—one that is centered on development of sustainable, renewable fuel technologies—and will lay the groundwork for launch of a scaled-up commercial facility in the near term future,” said Lawrence Dressler, the president of Tomorrow Biofuels.
Future facilities could expand from man-sized vats of algae to ponds or small lakes full of the algae. Trainor said any factory or plant with a smokestack would provide the necessary gases to fuel the process.
Some funding for the pilot project came through the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund, although the exact amount has yet to be disclosed. The facility will sit on land that is being leased from the Howard Conservation Area, which is managed by the Pawtuxet River Authority.
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