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As fossil fuel resources become more difficult to find, the cost of extraction becomes inherently more expensive. Thus, alternative energy solutions must be explored to meet exponentially increasing energy demand due to population growth and industrial development. Solutions that derive energy from alternative resources, including sunlight, wind, tides, and biomass, are in various stages of maturity, ranging from theoretical concepts to commercially available commodities. Power derived from biomass, for example, is widely promoted as an alternative to both transportation fuel and electricity for the national power grid. Before biomass-derived power can be realized on a wide scale, however, several technological and political hurdles need to be overcome. Current challenges include extending the sources of available biomass, optimizing conversion processes to increase yield, effectively utilizing land, and developing the infrastructure to accommodate the new industrial processes. The following review addresses the 21st century techniques and challenges associated with growing and extracting power from biomass. The summary assesses challenges in three specific areas: 1) growing biomass, in regards to the energy available from a variety of sources; 2) engineering challenges associated with thermo-chemical conversion of biomass; and 3) management challenges associated with land and resource requirements necessary to create a sustainable biomass-to-energy industry. The information will be analyzed to determine the feasibility of biomass-based power as a solution to address dwindling conventional resources., Published in Industral Biotechnology, v7 n6 p437-447, Dec 2011.

Algae has the potential to be a useful source of biomass derived energy due to the high lipid content and rapid growth rate of the organism. Currently, there are many methods available to harvest the energy from algae, such as transesterification of lipids to biodiesel or thermal gasification of the cells to produce synthesis gases. A new approach was identified to use algae in a biological gasification process in which the algal cells were digested into methane. By using biogasification, traditional thermal processes requiring large amounts of thermal energy input can be replaced by methods that require minimal additional input of energy, thus raising the overall energy efficiency of the system. Initial experiments obtained 248 L methane/kg Volatile Solids algae and still increasing. Using algae has the potential to more than double the available methane production over traditional terrestrially derived biomass under optimized growth conditions given these results., Presented at the Florida Chapter of the Biological Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Conference held 9-12 June 2010 in Jupiter, FL.

The AFRL/RXQD Energy program demonstrates current technologies in solar power generation and the integration of these technologies onto deployed base structures. This presentation is to describe those efforts along with the capabilities and competencies that have come as a result of this program., International Congregation Collaboration Meeting, 15 September 2009, Karlsruhe, Germany. The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white. Document contains briefing charts.

The AFRL/RXQD Energy program demonstrates current technologies in solar power generation and the integration of these technologies onto deployed base structures. This presentation is to describe those efforts along with the capabilities and competencies that have come as a result of this program., International Congregation Collaboration Meeting, 17 September 2009, Stuttgart, Germany. The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white. Document contains briefing charts.

Post-treatment of an anaerobic fermentation broth was evaluated using a 150 gal/day, single cartridge prototype reverse osmosis (RO) system. Baseline tests were conducted at 25 C using six organic model compounds representing key species found in the fermentation broth: ethanol, butanol, acetic acid, oxalic acid, lactic acid, and butyric acid. Correlations of the rejection and recovery efficiencies for these organic species, individually and in simulated mixtures, were obtained as a function of feed pressure with and without recirculation of the retentate. The actual fermentation broth obtained from a continuous-flow biohydrogen process was treated by the RO system under the operating conditions similar to those used in the baseline tests, resulting in greater than 95% removal of total organic carbon. These results are encouraging and useful for further studies on the feasibility of incorporating the RO technology into an integrated and field deployable wastewater management and water recovery system., Published in Bioresource Technology, v98 p686-695, 2007.The original document contains color images.