The second grant, for $100,000 from the UC Discovery Program, which pairs industry and university research to boost the California economy, will connect CERT researchers with Irvine-based Food Recycle Science Corporation, which has developed a process to turn food waste into a concentrated biomass. The biomass will be evaluated as a feedstock for CERT’s steam hydrogasification reactors. Initial testing has found the concentrated biomass is 10% more efficient than other biomass feedstocks evaluated, said Sean Lee, the CEO of Food Recycle Science.

Hydrogasification has been used since the 1930s as a method of making methane gas from coal. CE-CERT’s patented breakthrough was adding steam and high pressure to the process, making a slow carbon conversion reaction ten times faster.

The steam hydrogasification reaction, which CERT engineers began developing in 2005, has been found to be 12% more efficient, with 18% lower capital costs, compared to other mainstream gasification technologies when evaluated by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy.

The process has high carbon conversion rates at lower temperatures, and can be used to make numerous liquid transportation fuels (i.e., diesel, gasoline, jet) at low cost. The reaction can be used with mixed fuel stocks, including agricultural byproducts, waste wood, municipal wastes and sewage sludge. The optimal plant size can be smaller because of the lower capital investment needed. This means smaller fuel plants can be located near sources of feedstocks, reducing the cost and carbon emissions released by transportation of fuel stocks.

The grant from the California Energy Commission will allow for the evaluation of new feedstock sources, including algae, which can be readily grown at waste water treatment plants, and the concentrated biomass produced by the Food Recycle Science process.

Another goal is to produce synthetic natural gas from a mix of biomass, food waste, and biosolids as a renewable replacement for natural gas found in the earth and sea.

CERT engineers project that substantial synthetic natural gas could be gasified out of the carbonaceous wastes produced annually in California. They estimate that more than 132 trillion cubic feet of synthetic natural gas could be produced in the state. That could replace 5.5% of natural gas found in the earth and sea with a renewable resource.

If successful, the process could also cut greenhouse gases released by the burning of natural gas by an estimated 10.5 million tons each year. Just as importantly, estimates show that synthetic natural gas can be produced for nearly half the current price of natural gas, reducing the annual price tag by $606 million.

Food Recycle Science (FRS) has developed a proprietary process, eCorect, for the hydrothermolytic decomposition of food wastes. The process and steam hydrogasification reaction are environmentally “closed,” meaning they produce no methane or carbon emissions and therefore no global-warming-producing greenhouse gases.

The FRS process is already in use at more than 130 restaurants and food handling facilities. Up until now, the Highly Concentrated Organic (HCO) biomass it produces has been discarded.

Food Recycle Science and CERT researchers will work to integrate the two technologies during the next year. Their first goal is to evaluate the optimum moisture content and particle size of the feedstock. They will then measure the carbon conversion efficiency of the process in CERT laboratories.

Using lab experiments and computer simulations, the final step will be to calculate the economic return of the production of different energy types—including synthetic diesel, natural gas, or electricity—that can be produced by the process.

Resources

• Production of Synthetic Fuels from Carbonaceous Matter Using Steam Hydrogasification