Progress 09/01/21 to 05/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of this work for commercialization purposes are members of the general public, policymakers, regulators, private investors, and industry in the City and Counties of Honolulu and Hawaii of the State of Hawaii; and Cities of Seattle and Tacoma, Counties of Pierce and King, and Tribes of Puyallup and Tulalip in the State of Washington. The target audience of this work for technical purposes are original equipment manufacturers and licensed-art operators, engineering firms, renewable fuel and energy project developers, infrastructure investors, academia, and industrial research and development researchers. Changes/Problems:No-Cost Extension PeriodCompleted: Since there were unexecuted funds remaining at the end of Year 2, we received a no-cost extension from August 31st 2023 to May 31st 2024. We used this additional time to add some data to the final report, and add new experimental technical questions, as well as complete new opportunity tasks for a second feedstock processing design spiral, and public presentations of the research findings. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Thirteen (13) interns participated in paid technical undergraduate and graduate internships for this research, with focus areas in civil, mechanical, electrical systems, and chemical engineering; as well as social science and community engagement and scientific communications. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We gave technical and project overview briefings to state legislators of the State of Hawaii; residents and industry of the Counties of Honolulu, Maui, and Hawaii in the State of Hawaii; staff of King County WA, City of Tacoma WA, Port of Tacoma WA, Port of Seattle WA, State of Washington Department of Commerce; civilian and military employees of the State of Hawaii and U.S. Department of Defense; members of the public and staff at workshops at the Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii, native Hawaiian landscape restoration non-profit Papahana Kuaola, Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii, Oahu Agriculture and Conservation Association, Hawaii Arborists Association ;industry partners and representatives; and staff of the Tulalip Tribe and Quil Ceda Village located in the State of Washington. We gave a commercialization, technical, and project overview to State of Hawaii legislators and industry, "Our journey to develop a community-informed bioenergy project for Oahu's West Side" at the Annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum held 28 February 2023 held virtually in Honolulu. Presented by Joelle Simonpietri, Founder of the Aloha Carbon project & owner, Simonpietri Enterprises LLC and Naomi Kukac, Communications and Community Engagement Manager, the Aloha Carbon project. This annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum is free and open to the public. We gave a technical and commercial overview presentation "Aloha Carbon: Converting "dirty biomass" from Construction & Demolition debris to Renewable Fuels" presented 13 August 2024 at the Annual Waste Conversion Technology Conference and Trade Show of the Southerm Waste Information Exchange held 12-14 August 2024 in San Diego, CA. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Overall: Results show our concept, to gasify waste wood including treated, painted, and resinated lumber from construction and demolition debris and convert it to advanced biofuels, continues to be technically and commercially feasible: we can separate organic waste including contaminated waste wood from mixed real-world construction and demolition (C&D) debris, and convert it via gasification to a hydrogen stream of sufficient quality for downstream hydrocarbon fuel refining, at costs competitive with fossil fuels. Gasification trials conducted at sub-awardee UND EERC were very successful, we were able to get over 100 hours of physical gasification testing done on real C&D waste at 6-times larger and 20-times longer scale than in our Phase I SBIR. We produced a physical hydrogen gas stream of sufficient quality for standard petroleum refining distillate hydrotreating systems. We were able to gather multi-factor variable data and evaluate our proprietary techniques for arsenic and chromium sequestration, deposition and poisoning in guard beds and shift catalysts, contaminant removal with quench water, contaminant removal in a sulfur sorbent solvent column, sour gas cleanup to remove carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide operating at near-ambient temperature and two different pressure levels, as well as process water condensate environmental profile for safe treatment and disposal. Overall, results indicated the ability to refine renewable natural gas from C&D waste at under $30/MMBTU, and Sustainable Aviation Fuel at under $120 per barrel in 2023 dollars. In other words, we were able to show the ability to reduce the cost of cellulosic jet fuel. Our proprietary techniques to sequester the heavy metals from the treated lumber away from the syngas upstream of catalytic process units appear to have been very effective, with less than 2ppm breakthrough to downstream catalysts. Negative surprises included a higher level of chlorine in the feedstock and gas than we had expected,so we will be focusing on chlorine reduction and mitigation in our follow-on research from this project. Waste characterizations were performed on 25,000lbs of locally sourced real-world C&D debris from the Honolulu metropolitan area, categorizing the material into 20 separate groupings. Data from these waste characterizations directly fed into our technoeconomic model, which guided how much material can be recycled for a profit, what can be gasified and turned into sustainable aviation fuel, and how much of the material would need to be recycled or disposed at a loss. Technoeconomic analysis informed by the waste characterizations indicated very favorable results for a profitable business model, with an estimated internal return on capital to equity investors of over 18%. The latter assumes U.S. Production Tax Credits but no other policy measures such as U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard credits. With the successful proof of concept and all of the data acquired under this grant, we were able to complete two design spirals that have guided the basis of design for a commercial gasification system to process construction and demolition waste into sustainable aviation fuel. In addition, the results from this research were used to prepare and file two U.S. and four international non-provisional patent applications; over a dozen public presentations and regulatory consultations for our C&D waste-to-energy pilot plant; a USDA Rural Development Program National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for a construction funding grant under the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, and the Draft Environmental Assessment for the first commercial project using the processes to gasify construction and demolition debris. This research also provided the opportunity and data needed to succeed in acquiring a first private equity investment, as well as anon-SBIR grant subawardfrom the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
ÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ¿Our journey to develop a community-informed bioenergy project for Oahuÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ¿s West Sideÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum 2023, 28 February 2023, Hawaii Bioeconomy Trade Organization, held virtually in Honolulu. Presented by Joelle Simonpietri, Founder of the Aloha Carbon project & owner, Simonpietri Enterprises LLC and Naomi Kukac, Communications and Community Engagement Manager, the Aloha Carbon project.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Aloha Carbon: Converting ÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ¿dirty biomassÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ from Construction & Demolition debris
to Renewable Fuelsÿ¢ÿ¿ÿ presented 13 August 2024 at the Annual Waste Conversion Technology Conference and Trade Show of the Southerm Waste Information Exchange held 12-14 August 2024 in San Diego, CA.
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience is members of the general public, policymakers, regulators, and industry in the City and Counties of Honolulu and Hawaii of the State of Hawaii; and Cities of Seattle and Tacoma, Counties ofPierce andKing, and Tribes of Puyallup and Tulalip in the State of Washington. We gave technical and project overview briefings to state legislators of the State of Hawaii; residents and industry of the Counties of Honolulu, Maui, and Hawaii in the State of Hawaii; staff of King County WA, City of Tacoma WA, Port of Tacoma WA, Port of Seattle WA, State of Washington Department of Commerce; civilian and military demployees of the State of Hawaii and U.S. Department of Defense; members of the public and staff atworkshops at the Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii, native Hawaiian landscape restoration non-profit Papahana Kuaola, Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii, Oahu Agriculture and Conservation Association, Hawaii Arborists Association;industry partners and representatives; and staff of the Tulalip Tribe and Quil Ceda Village located in the State of Washington. We gave a commercialization, technical, and project overview to State of Hawaii legislators and industry at the annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum held 28 February 2023. This annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum is free and open to the public. Changes/Problems:All tasks and objectives proposed for this project have been completed and the final report has been drafted. Since unexecuted funds remain, we have requested to continue work under a no-cost extentsion to the period of performance for another 3-6 months, to develop engineering designs and estimates to a greater level of detail. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?5 undergraduate students were employed as paid technical interns for this project during this reporting period 3 undergraduate student interns were hired into full-time technical positions at this company for this project after graduation How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Public presentation of technical and business overview of converting construction and demolition organic waste into hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel was given to the Hawaii Bioeconomy Trade Organization's Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum in February 2023 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?All tasks and objectives proposed for this project have been completed and the final report has been drafted. Since unexecuted funds remain, we plan to continueunder a no-cost extentsion to the period of performance to: 1) Develop data, cost estimates, and engineering designs and analyses to a greater level of detail 2) Begin the Front End Engineering Level 2 (AACE III) design for the C&D waste-to-feedstock processing portion of the full-scale commercial plant 3) Perform additional dissemination to communities of interest
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During this reporting period, we: Completed technoeconomic analysis and comparison to benchmark performance metrics, including: • Completed analysis of results of the physical integrated system gasification trial • Began second and final engineering design spiral on a full-scale commercial plant to be located in an opportunity zone and industrial park in Honolulu, HI • Began transfering experimental results and research to a technoeconomic model for a full-scale commercial biorefinery: • Capable of a positive financincial internal rate of return; and also • Modeled capital cost for a commercial biorefinery at least 30% lower than the current state of the art of $550 million to $1.4 billion; • Modeled feedstock cost at least 30% below the current market cost fo clean forest biomass delivered to the plant gate; • With additional sensitivity analysis to key cost and revenue drivers • With and without federal and state subsidies
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Technical presentation to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Bioeconomy Project Directors meeting, 13-14 July 2023
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:We gave technical and project overview briefings to the Makakilo-Kapolei and Nanakuli Community Neighborhood Boards ofthe City and County of Honolulu at their January and February monthly public meetings, respectively. We gave a commercialization, technical, and project overview to State of Hawaii legislators and industry at the annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum held 28 February 2022. This annual Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum is free and open to the public. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Five undergraduate students were hired as paid technical interns to support this project during this reporting period. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Local television news KHON2 Honolulu aired a 5-minute segment using photographs and script derived in part from the work under this SBIR in August 2022. The video is avaialble at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg6Q2TNebt8&t=185s Public briefings under City and County of Honolulu sunshine law were given to the City and County of Honolulu Neighborhood Boards for Makakilo-Kapolei and Nanakuli-Maili Jan-Feb 2022. The briefings are available online athttps://alohacarbon.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Aloha-Carbon-HI-for-website-2022-01.pdf Public presentation of technical and business overview of converting construction and demolition organic waste into hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel was given to the Hawaii Bioeconomy Trade Organization's Bioeconomy Hawaii Forum in February 2022 Toxic Characteristics Leachate Protocol and other data of interest to regulators was briefed to staff of the Hawaii Department of Health SOlid Waste Management, Water and Wastewater Management, and Air Emissions management branches. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete physical analysis of effluents from the gasification trial Complete a second engineering design spiral to update the AACE Level IV cost estimate for the capital and operating cost of a commercial-scale plant to be constructed in Honolulu, and update the estimated delivered cost of sustainable avaition fuel Iterate the technoeconomic analysis with physical experimental data, engineering, and product specification information develped through the first year of this project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our research is focused on developing and scaling up techniques to divert construction and demolition debris wood waste (C&D) containing treated lumber, gypsum, and other common building material contaminants from landfills and re-use it as a feedstock to make sustainable aviation fuel and green hydrogen, while safely sequestering the heavy metal, sulfur, and other contaminants from the waste. Objectives completed: Prepared over 1000lbs of organicconstruction and demolition debris simulated to match a 10-year average profile for Honolulu's C&D landfill Gathered physicochemical data on mixed real-world C&D waste as well as component waste streams Completed a 120-hour, ten-fold scale up in a 10 pound-per-hour system of an integrated gasification and gas cleanup system which produced industrial-quality green hydrogen from syngas made from fluidized-bed gasification of real-world C&D waste Benchmarked commercial-scale biorefinery plant design capital cost, operating cost, return on investment, and other technoeconomic metrics Began analysis of results of the physical integrated system gasification trial In progress of transfering experimental results and research to a technoeconomic model for a full-scale commercial biorefinery: Capable of a positive financincial internal rate of return; and also Modeled capital cost for a commercial biorefinery at least 30% lower than the current state of the art of $550 million to $1.4 billion; Modeled feedstock cost at least 30% below the current market cost fo clean forest biomass delivered to the plant gate; Without federal or state subsidies
Publications
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