January 2, 2012, Grand Forks, ND - The University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is leading a project to develop an efficient renewable electricity technology for coffee-processing plants.
The project specifically focuses on the waste from the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) plant. GMCR's waste stream includes coffee residues, plastic packaging, paper, cloth or burlap, and plastic cups.
"This project is an extension of work performed by the EERC for NASA, which explored the conversion of waste from a space station and future Martian and lunar bases into heat and power," said deputy associate director for research Chris Zygarlicke. "This project will similarly utilize a mostly renewable and bio-based waste and convert it into electricity for the coffee industry."
"The first step of the project is to demonstrate that we can gasify the complex mixture of waste and produce clean synthetic gas, or syngas, by utilizing the EERC's novel advanced fixed-bed gasifier (AFBG) system on the biomass-residue mixture," said project manager and research scientist Nikhil Patel.
The syngas will then either be utilized in an internal combustion engine (or a fuel cell) for efficient production of electricity and heat or be converted to high-value biofuels or chemicals. The pilot-scale tests will evaluate the quality of syngas that can be produced from the Green Mountain waste. EERC researchers will fine-tune the technology to meet the highest environmental standards possible.
The EERC will use the outcome of the pilot-scale efforts to propose a full-scale commercial demonstration system for installation at various Green Mountain sites.
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