Green Electrical Power

Bio-Chemical Conversion to Hydrogen and Electrical Power

One highly efficient technology that can be used to produce hydrogen and electrical power is a bio-chemical and fermentation process to produce hydrogen and green electrical power.  This process has been successfully scaled in pilot plant operations and is reported to have a 10 fold production output of hydrogen and electrical power over similar footprints.  According to a report by scientists who are involved with the process and with whom CBR has met, the report claims a 130%+ more energy output than input (from biomass).  The downside to the process is that the biochemical phase of the biomass process is uneconomical due to the high cost of feedstock handling, transport, and milling and the high cost of the biochemicals associated with the process.  CBR’s novel fermentation technologies can reduce this cost by a factor of up to 10 fold, making this process a very exciting candidate for CBR’s applied technologies.  This process could also reduce the cost of electrical production to just a few cents per KW.  One of the major advantages to this technology is its expected low capital and operating costs, probably less than $1.0 million per MWH, in comparison to gasification processes at $6-7 million per MWH.  The dictating factor to the economical implementation of this technology is the cost of delivering and processing of the biomass.  The overall costs of this process are yet to be fully determined and a Schedule A Preliminary Engineering study will be required to ultimately verify these costs.  CBR plans to bring in a major engineering firm to complete the preliminary designs of the process as well as construct and operate this CBR Power Generation Phase.  Another advantage to these technologies is that they potentially could be scaled to a commercial-scale operation quickly within a year or so after completion of the beta-demonstration phase.  Another advantage to these technologies is that CBR has developed very low-cost processes to extract the lignin from the biomass for conversion to bioplastics, which process will allow for the recovery of feedstock costs.