BIOCHAR

In one sense, proving Carbonscape's novel one-step process can cheaply produce highly porous charcoal was the easy part.

Now the Blenheim-based cleantech company faces the potentially far greater challenge of nationally and globally commercialising its method of turning biomass such as sawdust into what is known as activated carbon (AC).

Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI) and NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corp. (NewPage) today announced agreements to develop a new 60 MW biomass co-generation facility.

SAN FRANCISCO — Woody biomass provides just 0.94 percent of all U.S. energy now, supplying the equivalent of 3.5 million American homes. But Bob Cleaves, president of the Biomass Power Association, a group in Portland, Maine, that represents about 80 plant-burning incinerators in 16 states, says available raw material would allow the industry to double its output. New incinerators are already being planned in many states.

VANCOUVER, Sept. 10 /CNW/ - Nexterra Systems Corp. (www.nexterra.ca), aleading supplier of biomass gasification solutions announced today that it has
been selected by the City of Stamford, Connecticut to develop a biomassgasification system for the Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority("SWPCA"). The energy system will supply Stamford with clean renewable thermal energy that will reduce Stamford's fuel costs and carbon footprint.

It didn't take long for the debate on biofuels to heat up again, despite the bottom-of-the-barrel price of oil and an economy in the drink. This time, it was a study published in the February issue of Science that said corn-based ethanol could add nearly twice as many greenhouse emissions as fossil fuels. Not to be left out, the California State Regulators, among others, have jumped into the fray and now seem ready to declare that biofuel will not help reduce global warming.