HM3 Energy, Inc.
Our Process
HM3 Energy is dedicated to clean fuel production from biomass that is sustainably harvested. Our process now uses sustainably harvested forest waste (bark, twigs, and small limbs). The Oregon Department of Energy in 2004 estimated that 3.93 million bone dry tons of forest biomass residue is economically available per year. This figure does not include other sustainable resources, such as farmed poplar trees and urban waste wood.
HM3 Energy has demonstrated processes in its lab to produce “T-Wood” briquettes made of forest waste as clean fuel replacing coal at coal fired power plants. We are currently working with equipment manufacturers to create a pilot plant to demonstrate production capabilities, with plans for a commercial facility in 2011.
These briquettes can replace coal without modifications to the plant’s present coal handling and preparation systems. Notably, these briquettes:
- are hydrophobic (repel water so that they can be stored outdoors next to a coal pile)
- are easily pulverized by the existing power plant coal processing equipment
- have a heating value per ton on a par with the best grade of coal
- can withstand rough handling (with little dust formation during handling)
- are cost competitive to coal
Major Challenges and Solutions
One of the most expensive challenges of utilizing forest waste as a heat source is the cost of transportation. Since forest waste is normally wet and bulky, it is prohibitively expensive to transport long distances. HM3 plans to produce dense briquettes in proximity to the harvest site of forest waste utilizing transportable production modules. The transportation cost of the dense, water resistant briquettes is expected to be one tenth or less in comparison to transporting raw forest waste. The concept of a transportable production capability is unique as no other competitor is working on a re-locatable processing facility to convert forest waste to briquette .
In appearance, the briquettes are dark brown and pack the energy equivalent to coal with the added effect that they burn very cleanly. Our process is unique in that the energy required to dry the forest waste, to perform pretreatment and to produce briquettes is supplied by a small portion of the very inexpensive feed stock (which is forest waste) and by volatile chemicals produced in the processing of the feed stock.
The briquettes are specifically designed for coal-burning power plants to immediately reduce their CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by supplementing or replacing coal. As a renewable alternative fuel to coal that is CO2 neutral, it is a clean burning high BTU biomass fuel that can be mixed in any ratio with coal. When the life cycle of wood based fuel is taken into account, the fuel is carbon neutral. The results of replacing ten or twenty percent coal would result in an immediate reduction of CO2 generated by coal emissions by that percentage. Higher substitution rates would yield corresponding decreases in emissions as associated carbon credits are also realized. In addition there are not other harmful materials such as SO2 and mercury released to the atmosphere eliminating the need for expensive scrubbers and the landfill for disposal of scrubber residue.
The T-Wood Process
Forest waste is first shredded and stones and soil are removed. Key T-Wood process includes thermal processing including drying, conditioning and size reduction to a feature size of nominal size. The heat required for this step comes from burning about 10% of forest waste of the feed. The next step is a continuation of the thermal processing operation except that volatile organic materials which are generated will be separated and used as the heat source. The feed is heated gradually to a temperature high temperature.
Following a cooling section to reduce the mass temperature to a medium temperature, the friable, dry, brown mass is fed to a briquetting machine. Here, under compressive force of several tons per square inch, the mass is transformed into dense briquettes of nominally diameter, cylindrical shapes. These HM3 Energy T-Wood briquettes are expected to have an energy value of approximately 11,000 BTU per pound, very comparable to coal.
The briquettes are then placed into a temporary inventory on their way to being transported to the regional power plant. The customer will dictate the shape of the production briquettes, as the briquettes must fit well with the customer's front end handling equipment. The finished briquettes would then be loaded into a truck for transportation to a rail line for shipment to a power plant.
The final thermal process is environmentally friendly as the volatile organic compounds released by heating the raw biomass are separated and used as fuel in the reactor.
