Genova: Making The Most Of The Pits
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 07.31.06
The Mediterranean is an olive-lover’s paradise. From the tangy Greek Kalamata pickled in red wine brine to the working man’s bitter “marim defukim” smashed olives grown in Israel- olives and their oil are a must in every modern kitchen. A new company, Genova, says they have found a way to make good on all those leftover pits: by converting olive biomass to energy. The company claims their reactor works well processing the leftovers of wineries too. Our mouths are already watering.
According to Israel21c, Genova decided to focus on the biomass produced from olive presses, "because olive waste is difficult waste to process because of the pits," says Yonat Granot, an industrial engineer and CEO of the company.
This high efficiency and low cost (about $300, 000 for a 200kw/h unit) of Genova’s biomass reactor has attracted the attention of Israel Electric company, Israel's sole electricity provider which is looking for environmentally-friendly energy solutions.
A prototype has been built and is being tested as a pilot project in the Druze village of Julis in northern Israel. Israel21c says that olive waste from Julis' olive oil press will be fed into Genova's reactor and will produce enough electricity to power its own press- so it will be self-sustaining.
Genova focuses on building on-site small reactors not larger than 200 kw/h; preliminary tests have shown the bioreactor works well with olive pits, wine waste, corn, and sunflowers. ::Israel21c :: Genova
I believe that these small scale local ideas have a lot of potential. Olive pits here, turkey guts there, I've seen expired soda pop somewhere else. Each one may seem small, but if every facility in the world can get an extra 10% of their power from their waste stream, then we have 10% lower waste and less energy usage.
If I am not mistaken, Spain already has working plants that use olive wastes for energy generation. I think one plant burns pits for electric generation and another produces biodiesel. Maybe Israel should take a good look at these before building a prototype - no need making mistakes if you can learn from those of others.
RE: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration Using Algae
Our small, high tech comapny, Agricultural Management Systems, has published a variation that may yer work to save the environment:
Instead of attempting to sequester carbon dioxide in geological formations we have suggested that the algae used for capturing it be disposed of in deep ocean where there is reason to believe that the carbon will remain sequestered for thoudsands of years at least. (The mass of algae that would have to be transported for deep sea sequestering would be about twice the mass of the carbon dioxide that was captured.)
We have further suggested how to get the dead algae rapidly below the initial 3,000 feet of ocean so that very little of it is consumed; i.e., so that its carbon is not recycled, short term, back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
One further suggestion has been made: Buidling on a practical, microorganism-mediated low cost ($0.70/gallon) process of ethanol production developed by Infinitely Renewable Energy, we have shown that capturiing (with algae) and sequestering the copius amount of carbon dioxide that is released during ethanol production can render the ethanol carbon negative.
Others have shown how microalgae can be used as a potential source of biomass production for ethnaol production -- possibly enough to replace oil on a worldwide basis -- without using agricultural lands or forest and grasslands converted to biomass production.
If biomass from such sources were rendered carbon negative by our suggested process, and ethanol used as a widespread replacement for other fossil fuels -- bsed on cosr, primarily oil -- ONLY ETHANOL PRODUCTION PLANTS WOULD HAVE TO BE SET UP FOR CARBON CAPTURE; the ethanol could be burned everywhere and still remain carbon negative. THIS WOULD DRAMATICALLY REDUCE THE LOGISTICAL COMPLEXITY AND ENERGY NEEDED FOR CARBON CAPTURE AND DEEP OCEAN SEQUESTRATION.
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Stephen Paley, Ph.D.