gasification

Ever wondered what we could do with those annoying used coffee grounds?

Engineer Martin Bacon and a group of volunteers from Teesdale Conservation in Durham, England, have been hard at work making those often-overlooked grinds into something special: gas for a speedy coffee-powered car.

This is not a joke; in fact, the car earlier this month broke a Guinness World Record "for vehicles run on gas from organic waste," according to the BBC. The coffee car--a modified Rover SD1--topped out at 77.5 miles per hour and hit average speeds of 66.5 mph after many modifications, including the removal of more than 550 pounds of excess weight from inside the vehicle.

The previous speed record in this category was 47.7 mph, set by the wood-burning Beaver XR7 in 2010. … Read more

Enerkem today said that it raised $60 million from fuel refiner Valero and others to build plants that convert municipal waste to biofuels.

The company said that investment from Valero could lead to a commercial agreement between them. Other companies to invest include existing investor Waste Management, Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, and Cycle Capital.

There are a number of companies with methods for converting municipal garbage into fuels, but Enerkem is one of the farthest along. The company said the money will finance construction of future plants and its third ethanol plant in Pontotoc, Mississippi, which is slated to … Read more

WALTHAM, Mass.--In the quest for renewable sources of energy, the military is giving garbage a go.

The Edwards Air Force base in Southern California will test out a shipping container-sized trash-to-energy unit from IST Energy. The Air Force will be the first customer for IST Energy's Green Energy Machine (GEM), which is designed to convert waste into electricity and heat, according to the company.

Two years ago, IST Energy showed off the prototype of the GEM and earlier this month began showing the unit to potential customers. About 20 companies, which either have a sustainability initiative or pay … Read more

Canadian company Enerkem broke ground on a facility Tuesday that plans to convert 100,000 tons of household trash a year into ethanol.

The $75 million plant in Edmonton, Alberta, is expected to be completed in late 2011. By 2013, the city will be able to divert 90 percent of its residential waste, Mayor Stephen Mandel said in a statement.

Enerkem hosted a groundbreaking for the waste-to-ethanol plant, which it said will be the first industrial-scale project of this kind. The facility will sort recycled and compostable material and convert the remaining into about 10 million gallons of ethanol a … Read more

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles discussing how people in the tech industry are working with or around federal and state governments.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.--Bill Davis has the unenviable job of selling people on the benefits of garbage.

Six years ago, Davis, the president and CEO of Boston-based Ze-gen developed high-tech tools to measure the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns. Now, the 52-year-old entrepreneur can talk at length about waste: the amount of waste Americans produce (over 250 million tons a year), the energy content of different types of waste streams, the … Read more

General Electric on Tuesday said that it has reached an agreement to deploy its coal gasification technology in China, a move the company says will advance underground storage of carbon dioxide.

The energy giant announced a set of agreements in a ceremony in Beijing, including deals for GE's high-speed rail and hybrid locomotive engines. The activity comes the same day that China and the U.S. announced a number of energy-related research initiatives in coal, electric vehicles, and smart-grid technologies.

GE and coal power plant operator Shenhua Group signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture to … Read more

Municipal trash giant Waste Management on Thursday created a joint venture that will turn waste into energy using technology that it says is cleaner than incinerators.

S4 Energy Solutions is a joint venture which will use plasma gasification technology from InEnTec of Bend, Ore., to build distributed energy systems. Waste Management financed the creation of the venture, marking the first time that the trash collector has invested in gasification technology, said Senior Vice President Joseph Vaillancourt.

The new company plans to build distributed energy systems that use separated industrial waste as a "feedstock." For example, the company plans … Read more

SOMERSET, Mass.--When it comes to covering green technologies, the color can sometimes be black as coal.

On Monday I drove to Southern Massachusetts to visit GreatPoint Energy's $37 million Mayflower Clean Energy Center, a demonstration plant for converting coal to natural gas. Built down the road from the state's largest coal plant at the mouth of the Taunton River, the plant started producing natural gas last month and is now gathering data to optimize the operation.

As a technology reporter, it's fascinating to see the energy industry's version of "hardware"--a 200-foot-high reactor, … Read more

If your mission is to make coal less polluting, China is a good place to start.

GreatPoint Energy, a start-up with technology to convert coal to cleaner-burning natural gas, expects to open a demonstration plant in China in three years.

The plant would cost between $100 million and $200 million and be located at a coal-fired power plant operated by Datang Huanyin Electric Power. Most of the financing for the plant will come from Datang, one of the biggest single polluters on the planet, according to GreatPoint Energy CEO Andrew Perlman.

Although GreatPoint Energy's business is focused on fossil … Read more