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NREL Looks To Expand Biofuels Partnerships

WIND MEASUREMENTS

  • 03 2011 01

    Colorado, USA --The scenario for your business dream plays out like this. You have an idea to make a fuel from biomass using a biochemical conversion processes. You and your investors have completed bench-scale tests of your process, but now it is time to take it to the next level and process up to one ton of dry biomass a day. However, in a tough economy you don't want to build your own demonstration facility, but still need somewhere to test it. It turns out that "somewhere" is located at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).This past year, NREL completed construction on phase one of its Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility (IBRF) and phase two is currently underway. The idea for the IBRF is deliberate — a place for NREL and industry to test demonstration-scale projects and speed the commercialization of biofuels.

    "The IBRF is designed specifically to help industry scale up their technology," NREL Team Leader for Partnership Development John Ashworth said. "We have created an empty bay in the facility so someone can bring in their own pretreatment reactor or other equipment required for biochemical biomass conversion. Companies can use part of our system or they can use their own technology and we can run it in parallel with ours. That way, they can see if their system is better than ours."

    Sursa: renewableenergyworld.com