Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The central landfill site in Gelsenkirchen is one of the largest waste dumps in Europe - and a copious source of energy. Why? The organic waste at the dump is fer­menting. That generates biogas, which can be burned in a special combined heat and power plant at the site. In the meantime, 3,000 households in Gelsenkirchen re­ceive electricity directly from the waste dump. Irrespec­tive of whether liquid manure, cow dung, wood shavings or plant residues are involved, no other renewable en­ergy source produces energy from waste and is as eco­nomical and versatile as biomass. It can be used to pro­duce fuel and generate heat and electricity.

Not only waste, but also renewable raw materials like wood, sugar beet, rapeseed or reeds are ex­cellent energy sources. Unlike pe­troleum and natural gas, biomass reduces the output of greenhouse gases, is perma­nently available and independent of the wind and the weather.

Biomass is booming: 800 new biomass plants were in­stalled in Germany in 2005 alone. Last year, almost ten billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated using biomass-four billion kilowatt-hours more than the pre­vious year. Biomass's share of overall energy production will continue to rise: in the long term, according to Fed­eral Environment Ministry estimates, 10% of the total electricity supply and 20% of supplied heating in Ger­many will be generated from biomass.

Choren: Fuel from the Farm

Will today's farmers be to­morrow's winners? Anyone who is acquainted with the Choren company can only an­swer "yes". The east German firm based in Freiberg, Sax­ony, plans to invest hundreds of millions of euros jointly with the Shell oil group to pro­duce SunDiesel. The basis for this environmentally friendly fuel is biomass, primarily wood, straw and agricultural waste. An ex­perimental plant planned for 2007 aims to produce 16.5 million liters of fuel a year from 67,000 tones of biomass. SunDiesel production is planned in five large-scale plants from 2008. Shell, Choren's partner, will distribute the product.

As a result, a new market will be created for farmers in Germany - one that will above all benefit the environment. This liquid miracle fuel pro­duces 30-50% lower emissions than fossil diesel, is tar-free, biodegrad­able and is considered carbon dioxide-neutral: when burned, it only re­leases the same amount of harmful greenhouse gases as the plants used in its production absorbed while growing. Unsurprisingly, SunDiesel is regarded as the world's cleanest diesel fuel.

This revolution in the tank has been made possible by the Carbo-V process patented by Choren. The process involves processing the biomass into a gas from which the end product is created by adding other ingredients. In addition to Shell, Choren founder Bodo Wolf (photograph)

has also been able to convince car makers DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen. Both companies are supporting Choren in the research field. DaimlerChrysler will even be using the fuel from 2007 onwards: all new diesel models will then be delivered with SunDiesel.

(Courtesy: Deutschland, Apr/May 2006, Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu.)