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    • Navy Awards $200 Million for 40 MW of Solar Power on Southwestern Bases March 10, 2010
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    • Recovery Act Funds 191 New Transit Projects in 42 States, Puerto Rico March 10, 2010
      Vice President Joe Biden has announced more than $600 million in Recovery Act funding for 191 new transit projects in 42 states and Puerto Rico. Recipients are spending the funds on improvements such as hybrid electric buses and conversions of vehicles to hybrids. […]

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    • ARRA money funds young neutrino physicist???s research March 17, 2010
      Alysia Marino, a particle physicist supported by DOE???s Office of High Energy Physics, always knew she???d be a scientist of some kind. […]
    • Roasting biomass may be key process in bioenergy economy March 17, 2010
      Biorefineries may soon rely on a process akin to roasting coffee beans to get more energy-dense biomass. […]
    • Researchers rediscover the structure of water March 17, 2010
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    • ARS Sends Third Seed Shipment to Norway Seed Vault
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Roasting Biomass For Energy

By | Published: March 15, 2010

by Nicole Stricker, DOE

Biorefineries may soon rely on a process akin to roasting coffee beans to get more energy-dense biomass. The process is called “torrefaction” — heating biomass above 250 degrees C in an oxygen-free environment. A new collaborative study between DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will investigate whether the process can create a more valuable product for the nascent biofuels industry. Initial studies suggest driving moisture and volatile compounds from wood or straw could make biomass more stable, compactable and energy dense. Torrefied biomass has almost no water and actually becomes water resistant, which could improve storage in humid climates. INL researchers are now studying physical characteristics of the dried product, its production cost and how much energy it could generate. Collaborators at PNNL will study whether the torrefaction process improves the quality of the resulting biorefinery product.

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