Breaking Bioproducts Industry News
Breaking News: OSU Recieves Major USDA-NIFA Award for Bioenergy Research and Development Project
The Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center has been awarded a major grant through USDA's NIFA Biomass Research and Development Initiative. This $6.5 M project, led by Dr. Yebo Li, will result in an anaerobic digestion system for the production of liquid transportation fuels and electricity from animal manure, agricultural residues, woody biomass and energy crops. The novel anaerobic digestion system will be integrated with partial oxidation and Fisher-Tropsch technologies to produce gasoline. A life cycle analysis will incorporate thermodynamic principles to assess the resource use, energy/fuel production and the environmental impact of the conversion technologies.
Read the full announcement here.
Breaking News: From Garbage to Groceries: Integrated Biorefinery Announced
OBIC to collaborate with Team Gemini and SWACO on innovative waste recycling facility project to reduce landfills using integrated conversion technologies
OBIC collaborator Team Gemini, a sustainable project design and development company based in Orlando, Florida, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) to build a landfill receiving facility (LRF) and materials recovery facility (MRF) on SWACO property in Grove City, Ohio.
This collaborative project is a major step in establishing Ohio as a world leader in the bioproduct and integrated biorefinery industries. Ohio is already uniquely positioned to play a crucial role in this emerging bioeconomy because of its industry leadership in polymer, rubber, and specialty chemical production. By providing both the means to access new low cost feedstocks as well as bioprocessing technologies, this project allows Ohio to further capitalize on its existing resources and to demonstrate its leadership in the new green economy.
Initially, the MRF will be able to process up to 2,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day, with plans to process the entire waste stream in the future—thus achieving nearly 100 percent recycling of the MSW received from the LRF. After recyclable materials are recovered, which include metals and plastics, the balance of the organic waste will be preprocessed for use in anaerobic digesters and other sustainable energy generation technologies.
In addition Team Gemini plans to create a sustainable industrial park that will serve as a sustainable business cluster powered by these waste streams. An integral benefit for tenants of the sustainable industrial park will include access to recyclable byproducts recovered from the MSW processing, which can be used to generate power or create new products from recycled materials.
Team Gemini plans to become the anchor tenant in the industrial park, which will be named Gemini Synergy City, and will build process facilities for recycled products and manufacturing to be powered by the MSW waste stream—including a biogas/biomass plant, a facility for converting compost into fertilizers and hybrid soil, and the conversion of plastics into oil using pyrolysis. In addition, Team Gemini will manage an additional 35 acres of state-of-the-art automated greenhouses that can grow organic food year-round.
Additional information can be found:
