Alaska's most important biomass fuels are wood, sawmill wastes, fish byproducts, and municipal waste. AEA's biomass energy program focuses on developing wood-fired systems that displace fuel oil for heating public facilities, demonstrating fish oil biodiesel performance, and recovering energy from municipal solid waste. AEA is part of the Pacific Regional Biomass Energy Partnership, a state and federally supported effort that encourages bioenergy development in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Wood Energy Conference Presentations Site - 2007

Wood remains an important renewable energy source for Alaskans, with over 100,000 cords per year used for residential space heating statewide. Closure of the major pulp mills in Sitka and Ketchikan in the 1990s brought an end to large-scale wood-fired power generation in Alaska; however, recent increases in oil prices have raised interest in using sawdust and wood wastes as fuel for lumber drying, space heating, and small-scale power production. Alaska has also seen renewed interest in converting low-value wood and wood wastes to liquid fuels such as ethanol.

AEA is a member of the Alaska Wood Energy Development Task Group. Based on direction from the Task Group, AEA and the U.S. Forest Service Region 10 (USFS) are providing partial funding for the design of a wood-fired district heating system in Craig . If the porject proceeds into construction, the facility will displace up to 36,000 gallons of fuel oil per year with local sawmill waste. AEA and USFS are also working with the Juneau Economic Development Council to conduct reconnaissance level feasibility assessments of wood heated facilities in other communities.

[Back to Top]

Shore-based and floating groundfish procesors produce approximately 8 million gallons per year of fish oil from as a byproduct of fish meal plants. Much of the oil is used in the process as boiler fuel for drying the fish meal or exported to Pacific Rim markets for livestock and aquaculture feed supplements and other uses. In 2001, with the assistance of AEA and the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation, processor UniSea Inc. conducted successful tests of raw fish oil/diesel blends in a 2.2 MW 2-cycle Fairbanks Morse engine generator. Since then, the company has expanded the operation and used over two million gallons of 50-50 raw fish oil-diesel blend for power production between July 2002 and June 2004.

Biodiesel is an engine fuel manufactured from renewable sources, such as vegetable oils, recycled cooking greases or oils, or animal fats. Biodiesel is a U.S. EPA-approved substitute manufactured to established industry standards. Currently AEA is working with University of Alaska Fairbanks ' (UAF's) Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the National Park Service to test performance of biodiesel in generators at UAF and Denali National Park . The team has produced a brochure describing the project.

[Back to Top]

Alaskans generate approximately 650,000 tons of garbage per year. Currently there is no large scale recovery of energy from burning unsorted garbage in Alaska. The Sitka Waste-to-Energy facility operated from 1985 to 2000 and provided heat to nearby Sheldon-Jackson College. Fairbanks Memorial Hospital operated a small onsite heat recovery incinerator from 1989 to 2001. Channel Sanitation's Juneau incinerators, under consideration for power production and heat recovery in the 1990s, halted operation in 2003 after a change in ownership.

Eielson Air Force Base, near Fairbanks, densifies paper separated from the local waste stream and co-fires the 4 cm square “cubes” at the Base's coal-fired power plant. Beginning in 1997 the facility has produced 600-3000 tons per year of “refuse-derived fuel” providing 1 to 1.5% of the Base's heat and power load. Co-firing densified paper at local power plants is a component of the AEA-assisted Fairbanks North Star Borough Solid Waste Plan's least cost alternative. Conventional recycling of paper, around half of the waste stream, is economically marginal at best due to Fairbanks ' distance from Lower 48 markets.

Energy recovery from Anchorage landfill gas is viable, according to an assessment prepared for the Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services with assistance from AEA. The report estimates that the landfill will produce an average energy equivalent of approximately 1.9 million gallons of diesel fuel per year over the next ten years. The gas could be used to heat nearby military or school facilities, or be converted to 2.5 MW of power, enough to supply 2,500 homes in the Railbelt. Over the next thirty years gas and energy output from the landfill is expected to more than double. The Municipality has produced a brochure summarizing the project.

[Back to Top]

_____________________________________
Biodiesel

Demonstrating the Use of Fish Oil in a Large Stationary Diesel Engine by J.A. Steigers, Steigers Corporation Prepared by Steigers Corporation, 2002. Report  (150kb)

Organic Waste Characterization Project, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.  Prepared by Steigers Corporation, September 2000. Report  (13.2mb)

[Back to Top]

_____________________________________
Municipal Waste

Burning Garbage and Land Disposal in Rural Alaska.  Alaska Energy Authority and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, 2004. (size 2617kb)

Juneau Heat Recovery and Distribution Prefeasibility Assessment. Assesses heat recovery from Juneau incinerator for local space heating. Prepared by Peter Crimp, Alaska Energy Authority, Anchorage, Alaska, 1993.

Landfill Gas Utilization Economic Evaluation for Anchorage Regional Landfill.   Prepared by Shaw EMCON/OWT for Municipality of Anchorage Sold Waste Services 2004.

Toxic and Hazardous Emissions Associated with Co-Firing Mixed Fuels in Direct Combustion Systems.  Air emissions from co-firing biomass and fossil fuels. Prepared by David C. Junge, Ph.D., School of Engineering, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 1990.

Use of Mixed Fuels in Direct Combustion Systems. Operational, environmental, and economic considerations for co-firing fossil fuels, wood, and municipal solid waste. Prepared by David C. Junge, Ph.D., School of Engineering, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 1989.

Waste-to-Energy Feasibility Study for Channel Landfill Inc.   Assesses feasibility of heat and power recovery from Juneau incinerators. Prepared by Harris Group Inc., Seattle, WA, 1997.

[Back to Top]

_____________________________________
Wood and Wood Waste

Analysis of Wood Fiber Feedstock Availability for a Proposed Ethanol Plant in Southeast Alaska.  Delivered cost and quantity of logging and mill waste in Southeast. Prepared by Charles Nash for Division of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1998.

Dot Lake Wood-Fired Boiler Final Design. Drawings and analysis of small wood boiler retrofit in Dot Lake.  Prepared by Alaska Energy Engineering, Anchorage, Alaska, 1997.

Feasibility Study for Building and Operating a Power Generating Plant for the City of Thorne Bay, Alaska. Assessment of wood residue-fired power plant. Prepared by Carroll, Hatch & Associates, Inc. and Paul E. Oliver, P.E. Portland, Oregon, 1995.

Logistics of Wood Fiber Collection and Processing for the Production of Ethanol in Southeast Alaska.  Options for processing, handling, and transporting wood residue in Southeast. Prepared by Charles Nash for Division of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1998.

McGrath Biomass Heating Project, 35% Design.  Analysis and design of a hybrid biomass / diesel waste heat system. Prepared by J.S. Strandberg Engineers, revised by MBA Engineering, Anchorage, Alaska, 1998-9.

Seward Wood Waste to Energy Prefeasibility Assessment. Assesses use of mill waste as fuel for heating of an industrial area.  Prepared by Peter Crimp, Division of Energy, Department of Community and Regional Affairs, Anchorage, Alaska, 1994.

[Back to Top]