Posted on 10/24/2016 9:32:24 AM PDT by nickcarraway
By year's end, Portland General Electric will fire up its 550-megawatt power plant in Boardman for a daylong test burn, feeding 8,000 tons of pulverized, roasted wood into its boilers instead of the usual diet of coal.
The exercise is meant to gauge whether the aging fossil fuel plant could reliably generate electricity using renewable feedstock such as "torrefied" wood after its scheduled closure in 2020. If it works — technically, economically and environmentally — Oregon's only coal-fired power plant could one day become the country's largest biomass power plant.
It's an uncertain, embryonic effort, but some believe the payoff could be substantial. The conversion of Boardman and other coal plants could extend the life of existing equipment, benefiting ratepayers, while helping utilities comply with state renewable power mandates. It could cut pollution from power plants and logging operations. And it could boost forest restoration efforts, particularly in overstocked national forests east of the Cascades, by creating a viable market for the small trees, tree tops and limbs left over from thinning and logging projects.
"There are job creation opportunities. We can take more material out of the woods. It's a big winner — if it works," said Bruce Daucsavage, president of Prineville-based Ochoco Lumber Co., which operates the only remaining sawmill in Grant County.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
“Roasted wood”.......do they really mean CHARCOAL?
What’s next after this? Giving up our cell phones for telegraph machines?
“Democrats: Building A Gateway To The 19Th Century!”
CC
What a concept, burning stuff to make power.
I actually like the idea. There’s lots of small branches and deadfall that needs to be disposed of.
It's artisanal roasted wood. Small batch!
Everyone who is concerned about plant food (C02) should stop exhaling. We would die without plants, which live on CO2, and produce oxygen.
I can hear the SCREAMS from the EPA and the CreenParty now.
Burn the Federal Register.
run the energy balance. Spend energy to toast the wood in order to make energy? Probably a net loss when you add it all up (including the energy used to grow and extract the wood from the forests which are highly over regulated as it is)
Typical greener logic.
Ooooh, nothing like totally organic, artisanal craft charcoal.
Coal = Ancient Wood
Holographs of frikkin’ sharks with frikkin’ laserbeams on their heads?
CC
a daylong test burn, feeding 8,000 tons
Insane!! This idea died years ago after it was discovered the manpower and fuel cost to gather, collect, and transport the biomass to the power plant made it way to expensive. It does work on a much smaller scale.
Maybe they are planning on burning hemp?????
That’s enough to power a city of 30,000 for a week
I wondered about that but figured they had figured out a way to maximize yield.
There is a lot of Aspen/Popular that grows near there. Collins was operating a sawmill producing that species. It grows very fast.
Austin Energy spent $2 billion dollars for a brand new 120 MW pulp burner in East Texas.
It is too expensive per MWH to generate, so it just kind of sets there.
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