Gasification may convert mesquite and juniper wood to a usable bioenergy

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://today.agrilife.org/2012/06/05/gasification-may-convert-mesquite-and-juniper-wood-to-a-usable-bioenergy/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Gasification may convert mesquite and juniper wood to a usable bioenergy[/font]

June 5, 2012
Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, [e-mail]
Contact: Dr. Jim Ansley, 940-552-9941, [e-mail]

[font size=3]VERNON – Biomass gasification is being considered as a possible technology for converting at least 10 million acres of Texas brush into biofuel, according to Dr. Jim Ansley, Texas AgriLife Research rangeland ecologist in Vernon.

A study using an adiabatic bed gasifier to convert mesquite and redberry juniper species found in the Southern Great Plains into usable bioenergy gases was conducted by Ansley and Dr. Kalyan Annamalai, Paul Pepper Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Coal and Biomass Energy Laboratory, Texas Engineering Experiment Station at Texas A&M University in College Station.

…

The study found some of the basic thermal properties of these solid fuels, including chemical composition and heat values, and various heating factors affected syngas yields, he said. Syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide, ethane and hydrogen, can be used as a substitute for natural gas. A solid by-product of the conversion process, tar, may also be used for fuel or other chemical products.

With limitations for growing bioenergy crops on land normally used for growing food, Ansley is looking to the vast supply of unwanted woody plants on rangelands as a possible energy source. The down side would be increased transportation costs, because of the trees’ lower biomass density. One option might be to develop small-scale, localized gasification facilities to convert the trees into usable bioenergy.

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[BlueToTheBone]

1. great. let's strip the last vegetation from the plains. n/t

[FBaggins]

2. Stick to the juniper...

...mesquite already has a divine purpose.

[hunter]

3. Gads, this is a horrible idea!!!

Humans will eat everything.

Then we'll starve.

[Gman]

4. Anything that gets rid of Mountain Cedar is great

But Mesquite has only one purpose: BBQ.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Best thing I can say about it is…

Presumably, the “tar” (which I assume is carbon-rich) could be “sequestered” somewhere…

[PufPuf23]

6. Bad idea.

Juniper (and mesquite) are denser and have more energy content than a majority of woody species but ....

Cattlemen like to remove juniper for more wildland pasture. The conversion of juniper woodlands to grasslands will over time significantly reduce the carbon storage in the soil.

Juniper is about the most difficult and expensive tree to harvest and put through a wood chipper and takes lots of liquid fuels to cut, gather, chip, and transport.

Large scale harvesting of juniper is essentially mining accumulated biomass because of slow growth and reproductive rates.

etc etc just stupid and research that was done 25 years ago.

[GliderGuider]

7. Mankind never saw an ecosystem he couldn't "improve"...

...with a chainsaw...

[NickB79]

8. Good. All those shrubs and wildlife get in the way of the sand. nt

[malakai2]

9. Which we need for fracking