On the Right Track: Sierra Energy Gets Smaller

Mike Hart, President and CEO Sierra Energy

Sometimes the best innovations come from trying to solve a different problem. After all, Post-It notes, microwaves and potato chips were all invented by accident. Sierra Energy, founded in 2004 in Davis, Calif., evolved in a similar fashion.

Bruce Claflin, the chief industrial engineer at Kaiser Steel and John Jasbinsek, initially developed Sierra’s technology. The duo was originally working on a way to produce iron more efficiently before coming to the realization that they had created an even better way of converting waste streams into energy.

Sierra Energy is owned by Sierra Railroad, which runs three scenic lines throughout Northern California. The parent company gives Sierra Energy the solid financial backing every new technology needs to get up and running. Railroads produce waste in the form of ties and could be the reason Sierra Railroad was so interested in furthering a clean and efficient gasification system.

The technology derives from the traditional blast furnace found in steel mills. By modifying the design to inject steam and oxygen into the system, Sierra’s FastOx gasifier creates a medium-BTU syngas capable of producing renewable energy. The company mentions it’s goal of retrofitting blast furnaces, which we view as an intelligent idea since having some of the infrastructure in place will save $$.

Sierra Energy has a demonstration system in place at the Department of Defense’s Renewable Energy Testing Center at McClellan Park, Calif. Known as the Mk4 Gasifier, it operates at a 5 ton-per-day rate, which is smaller than the 10 tpd FastOx Pathfinder the company plans to develop for commercial purposes. The price tag for the six containerized modular system is listed as $2.7 million.

Better BTU Take: We’ve long said that a smaller and more modular design is the best chance our industry has for development and it looks like Sierra Energy is on the same wavelength. We’ve yet to see numbers on the output of the demonstration model which leaves the question of its profitability but we’ll definitely be on the lookout for updates on this technology.

Thermoselect: A Big System for a Small Island

A Thermoselect high-temperature chamber.
Photo courtesy: Interstate Waste Treatment.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs revolutionized the computer industry when he took computers that once needed the space of an entire room and reduced them to fit into the palm of our hand. The smaller is better trend has infiltrated most areas of technology and renewable energy is no exception. Which begs the question, what happened to the mainframes?

Thermoselect designs large-scale partial-oxidation gasifiers. There are several plants in operation across Japan including Chiba, Mutsu, Osaka, Tokushima, Kurashiki and Nagasaki. Thermoselect is able to use MSW and industrial waste without sorting out metals and other recyclables and produces a low-BTU syngas that is exported and used in boilers and gas engines.

While the Japanese company appears to have done very well for itself in the Pacific Rim, licensees in Europe and America haven’t been as successful. A plant in Karlsruhe, Germany shut down in 2004 after five years and the initial plant in Fondotoce, Italy was also closed in the late ‘90s. Interstate Waste Management, based in Malvern, Pa., has been working on developing a commercial plant in the United States for several years but also hasn’t yet been successful.

So why has Thermoselect worked in Japan and not elsewhere? It’s hard to say but Better BTU thinks cost is a substantial part of the issue. Our information is that equipment costs run well above $5,000 per installed kW. With Japan being an island, landfills are limited and tipping fees are high. That coupled with high electricity costs make the system more economical in the Land of the Rising Sun than it might be elsewhere.

Better BTU Take: Thermoselect rushed onto the scene with facilities cropping up all over in the late 90’s but today only the plants in Japan remain. The massive cost associated with these systems may lead Thermoselect the way of the computer mainframe.

Thermoselect's Facility in Chiba, Japan.
Courtesy of Thermoselect.

For more on Thermoselect, visit http://www.thermoselect.com


For information on Interstate Waste Treatment, a Thermoselect licensee in the United States, visit http://www.iwtonline.com