ScSEED - Biomass & By-product Business Innovation

Biomass & By-product Business Innovation Competition WINNER and Runner-Up

were announced at the SLV Energy Fair on Saturday, August 29th!

 

ScSEED would like to thank our contributing partners, SLV Development Resource Group with a grant from the El Pomar SLV Regional Council; and the Saguache County Commissioners for their Sales Tax Grant Award!

 

Congratulations to:

 

WINNER, Nick Chamber, Living Arts Systems for his pre-commercialization efforts for AART 1: Automated Anaerobic Reactive Technology, a domestic scale Biogas Digester.

 

 

 

Runner-Up, Frederick Dunets and Peter May, Windhorse Botanticals, LLP for their utilization of wildfire mitigation slash for creating Essential Oils and Products.

 

 

 

 

 

We hope to be able to offer this competition on a yearly basis!  Please check back with us to get instructions for future competitions!  If you are interested in sponsoring this competition by making a financial contribution, please send your check to ScSEED, P.O. Box 102, Villa Grove, CO  81155.

 

Click here for 2009 Application guidelines and Inventory list.

Applications must meet the eligibility requirements which include:
 

• Complete application packet before 5pm on June 30th
• Completed business plan
• Grow or expand an existing business or start a new business
• Environmentally friendly
• Plans must be “Shovel-Ready”, no research and development or feasibility studies
• End product must use one or more of the Saguache County biomass/byproduct inventory items
• Final business must benefit Saguache County (job creation, revenue building, etc) and must be registered and located in Saguache County
• End product must be branded or identified as originating in ‘Saguache County’
• Electronic submission (preferred): minimum 12pt font size, 1” page margins OR hard copy submission: must be typed with 12pt font size, 1” page margins and provide 6 copies
• Be prepared for a 20 minute presentation/interview
• Provide a report six months after award
  
  
  Project Goals:
  
  ScSEED will partner with SLVDRG to provide coordination services for a new conceptual project that resulted from the TIS meetings held throughout Saguache County.  Several ideas resulted from the meetings (see outcomes below). One idea that encompasses several of the ideas included inventorying agricultural by-products and biomass and offering a entrepreneurial competition for an innovative concept for using the biomass in a commercial capacity. ScSEED will develop a project which will accomplish the following tasks:
   

1. Organize a steering committee to guide the project; review guidelines and competition submissions.
2. Develop a comprehensive set of guidelines and review procedures for the entrepreneurial competition.
3. Develop a comprehensive list of SLV biomass and by-products.
4. Create a web-based competition submission system.
5. Find additional funding to increase the available award $ for the competition winner(s).
6. Recruit a team of volunteer professionals (lawyer, accountant, etc.) to provide counseling services to competition winner(s).

 

Targeted Industry Study Meetings Outcomes (download):

On October 22nd & 23rd ScSEED (www.scseed.org) and SLV Development Resource Group (www.slvdrg.org) hosted several meetings in Saguache, Center and Crestone to discuss the Targeted Industry Study (TIS).  Mike Wisdom, from DRG, presented an executive summary copy of the TIS to all forty-three (43) of the citizens who attended these meetings over the two days.

Several outcomes and ideas were generated as a result of the meetings.  Below is a list of the comments, ideas and information that was shared.  Some of these ideas will be developed further by ScSEED in the coming months.  If you have any interest in working on a committee to develop these ideas further please contact Kim Smoyer, ScSEED Program & Development Director at development@scseed.org. 

Saguache:

• Transplant technology for producing solar panels and other related industry from Ohio and elsewhere to SLV. Studies in progress about solar gain in SLV, NASA researching here, fact-finding underway.
• Establish larger scale manufacturing here. It would take laborers and local individuals initiating industry, e.g. SLV sand being analyzed for its potential to produce glass; ‘Earth’ batteries and 8ft. deep underground hold/cold cells for household use. SLV rural electric can install. Business should be created to retrofit homes with this inexpensive and efficient heat/cold source.
• Carbon Offsetting Co-Operative for property owners. Wetlands and easements pursuing market to profit from and conserve important lands.
• People attraction must be environment-centered. Create stronger relationships with people/places/groups in different places with similar attractions and/or economic development goals, e.g. attract quality labor. Technical/Tourism based training programs, through colleges and independently. Outreach to past SLV residents- family members, etc. Connections with “like” communities. Retain youth and attract young families.
• Concentrate on residential solar power more than corporate. Training and classes needed at Adams State to be valley centered. More certified solar installation training centers should be throughout the valley. Bridge intellectual property data on solar industry from universities, large groups, national agencies to local institutions.
• Educational piece critical to all ED development- relationship to higher education and local schools.
• Artists Co-Operative for SLV- localizes economy and brings outside wealth in which then reinvests back into our communities. Grants programming potential, relationship to schools has great potential.
• Attract athletic/Olympic trainees/adventurers. Associate with appropriate sources to advertise attributes of our terrain.
• Need to assist towns with infrastructure hurdles to facilitate business growth, e.g. Center’s gas line and relying agriculture processing plants, or Saguache’s recreational land acquisition for trails and paths.

 

Center:

• ScSEED can be an agent of action for local needs. Letter’s in support of projects to appropriate recipients.
• Business desire expansion- we must be able to facilitate that growth by providing electric, gas, water, etc. Partnerships are very important- business, community organizations, state agencies, schools, public, etc.
• Need 3-5 and 10 year plans for development of renewable energy industry owned and operated by SLV residents to be ahead of growth while simultaneously addressing current challenges. Need concrete plan for solar power industry to be smart, environmentally responsible, sustainable, and tailored to the values of SLV residents.
• Develop niche markets- find uses and market existing by-products from agriculture and other industries. Use E-Bay to sell surplus commodities such as potato starch. Need for complete inventory of all our unused by-products, commodities and reusable materials. Involvement with school children to determine new uses for materials. Innovation competitions that incorporate rewards and/or scholarships.
• Entrepreneur Fair- Start-Up Grant money reward for winning project to be turned into a business. Partner with National Science Foundation, DOLA, SLVDRG, Small Businesses Groups, as many supportive groups as possible.
• Community Event where everyone brings their ‘trash’ and reusable materials to one place for swapping before being hauled to the landfill. Could be a good alternative to ‘Free Day’ at the SC Landfill, also fundraising potential. Inventory of landfill waste streams. Use recycled glass as “glassfault” product for repaving roads.
• Research project on what various agricultural waste (biomass) can be used for. Inventory or list of agricultural by-products and biomasses.
• Small scale potato chip factory.
• SLV partner with SLV REC to build transmission lines and produce our own solar energy to sell. Utilization of Center power plant to for renewable energy sources (wind, solar, waste, etc.).

 

Crestone:

• Energy audit training; finding a local person to be able to accomplish audits in the region.
• Reduce carbon footprint by using sustainable methods. Identify SLV 'closed loop' industries and business opportunities. Emphasis on reducing carbon footprint.
• Manufacture solar panels.
• Non-profit loan fund for home owners; retrofitting current homes for conservation and alternative energy.
• Higher precision manufacturing.
• Need for transportation mass.
• Solar base load generation - 24/7 day guaranteed power. Work with DRG and ScSEED toward a community solar power authority.
• Bright minds and innovation.
  
     

Other Biomass Projects in the San Luis Valley:

 

Cochetopa Biomass Energy and Enterprise Development:
Wood-chip Electricity, Heat, and Agricultural Biochar
Saguache, CO

 

Project Manager:  Nicholas Chambers, Living Arts Systems, LLC
Biomass Industry Rep:  Brett KenCairn, Community Energy Systems
Owner: John Baxter, Mountain Valley Lumber, Cochetopa Land and Cattle, Colorado Natural Compost

 

The Cochetopa Biomass Energy is a year old project that received feasibility study funding from The Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Advancing Colorado’s Renewable Energy (ACRE) program and Saguache County’s Sales Tax Renewable Energy program.  The feasibility study assessed the viability of biomass gasification of the wood-chip byproducts from the owner’s lumber mill, Mountain Valley Lumber, to create electricity for center pivot irrigation, heat for commercial greenhouses and a biodiesel plant, as well as provide the utilities to any new industries that would co-locate in a Renewable Energy Industrial Park setting.  The other significant co-product of this proposed endeavor is the production of biochar, a revolutionizing soil amendment that aids in nutrient retention, water absorption, and overall contributes to higher yields and long term soil stability and productivity.  It also contributes to genuine carbon sequestration where every pound of biochar taken out of the fuel cycle removes 2.5 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere.  This biochar can easily be included in John Batxer’s compost operation and bagging facility for wholesale and retail sales.

As a result of this study, Cochetopa Biomass Energy is also looking to license and develop a unique wood chip boiler system for agricultural and other large district heating applications with the design of a proven manufacturer from Prince Edward Island, Canada.  This would enable the San Luis Valley access to biomass energy in a much more economic and highly competitive way.  Instead of the propane truck delivering a million BTUs of a fossil fuel at $20-23, local Saguache County personnel would be delivering a million BTUs at about half this price keeping fuel expenditures within the community and strengthening the local economy.   Manufacturing, marketing, and installing these boilers within the county would create jobs while enabling Mountain Valley Lumber to diversify its markets and maintain its significant payroll.

Lastly, developing a manufacturing capacity for the relatively simple wood-chip boilers would enable Cochetopa Biomass Energy to develop the wood chip gasifiers that would produce the entire range of assets from electricity, heat, and biochar.  We are currently working with a consultant from Golden, CO in demonstrating a small 20 kW gasifier pilot project, which could lead to the development of a 250 kW to 1 megawatt gasiifer.
 

 

Scaleable and Standardized Biogas Digesters for Local and Perpetual
Food and Fuel:

Applications:  Domestic, Integrated Community, Farms, and Agro-Industrial

Living Arts Systems (LAS) is currently seeking capitol to install a series of pilot biogas digesters in Saguache County to establish a North American small scale biogas digester market.  The digesters would treat animal manures, kitchen scraps, garden debris, potato wastes and other by products to create gas for cooking, heating, and/or electricity generation while producing high-grade fertilizer for gravity-fed drip irrigation (fertigation) applications.  These installations would use the system developed by Puxin Science and Techonology of Shenzhen, China where LAS owner Nicholas Chambers completed a hydraulic-pressure biogas digester training in April of 2008.  With the financial support of a private investor, LAS, and Saguache County LAS has been able to invest in the Puxin steel molds necessary to cast concrete digesters in various sizes of 3 m3, 6 m3, 8 m3, and a 10 m3.  Several 10 m3 can be put is series and Puxin also offers a 100 m3 mold.  These digesters can serve various applications where there is sufficient organic material, a demand for high-grade liquid fertilizer, and will be heated by solar hot water.  These digesters are an extremely proven method of food and fuel security in Asia, while they have not been fully exploited in America, which means Saguache County could be an ideal launching ground for the market for small scale biogas digesters.  LAS currently has the equipment and materials, and has received much interest, in installing 10 digesters in the upcoming 2009 season.  Having a well-funded and installed prototype at Chokecherry Farm in Crestone, CO will be essential to gaining sufficient operational experience and demonstrating the system to potential clients.

Concurrently with these pilot installation, LAS is preparing to develop a series of original innovations to biogas digestion that will help small-scale digesters compete in the American market.  The first is an original design of a fixed dome 1 m3 that would be in a plastic tank suitable for turn-key domestic applications taking about 6 lbs a day of food waste or similar and providing enough gas for a family’s cooking.  Secondly, will be the solar heating applications to maintain optimal digester temperature.  The final points will be the importance of the fertilizer value and ensuring this gets utilized in the most effective and productive way possible, and the design of simple automation features that will reduce labor.   There also will be microbiological R&D that would be conducted under the auspices of one of LAS’ colleagues. Manufacturing opportunities/demands include the production of gasholders from recycled glass and plastic from the county dump.


For more information about these projects contact:

Nicholas Chambers
Living Arts Systems, LLC
719-256-5572