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Biomass Feasibility Project Final Report - Xcel Energy

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To date at least three commercial facilities have successfully used bio-oil as a fuel source. One<br />

has used bio-oil to generate electricity, one has used it for heat, and one has used it for<br />

combined heat and power.<br />

• In Wisconsin, the Manitowoc Public Utilities Power Generation Station successfully co-fired<br />

bio-oil from the nearby Red Arrow Products Company at a 5% rate in a 20 MW coal-fired<br />

boiler (Ensyn Group, Inc. 2001; Sturzl, 1997).<br />

• Red Arrow eventually began to use bio-oil to make their own heat and discontinued<br />

deliveries to Manitowoc Public Utilities.<br />

• In West Lorne, Ontario, the DynaMotive <strong>Energy</strong> Systems Corporation has installed at a<br />

wood floor manufacturing facility a fast pyrolysis plant that converts sawdust to bio-oil.<br />

The bio-oil provides heat and fuels a 2.5 MW combustion turbine (Stephens, 2006).<br />

DynaMotive recently signed a contract with the Ontario Power Authority, under Ontario’s<br />

Standard Offer Program, to provide power to the grid ("Dyanmotive", 2007).<br />

Biodiesel<br />

Biodiesel, which is refined from bio-oil, is best known as a bio-based transportation fuel that<br />

substitutes for petroleum diesel fuel. But it also can power an electric generator through an<br />

internal combustion engine, combustion turbine, or boiler.<br />

Minnesota’s Biodiesel Mandate requires that all diesel fuel sold for use in an internal combustion<br />

engine contain at least 2% biodiesel fuel by volume (Biodiesel Content Mandate, 2006). This<br />

means that all utilities and institutions in Minnesota operating diesel-powered generators, or<br />

gensets, now consume B2 fuel. Blended at low levels (

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