BIOMAXX received $90,000 grant to Produce Wood Bricks in Addition to its Wood Pellet Business
HARRISBURG PA — A biofuels project in Potter County will receive state funding
the state Department of Community and Economic Development announced
on May 28, 2014. The grant funds are part of the state’s commitment to advance
clean and alternative energy sources with the investment of more than $3.4 million in grants through the Commonwealth Financing Authority. The funding is part of the Alternative and Clean Energy program.
Biomaxx Inc. will receive a $90,000 grant for the purchase and installation of wood brick fuel production equipment at its facility located in Ulysses Borough, Potter County. The company will optimize its existing wood pellet manufacturing plant and add a wood brick fuel production line by acquiring equipment from U.S. Recycled Wood Products Inc.
The process optimization equipment will help maximize wood pellet production by eliminating the bottleneck that presently exists in the dry hammermill process that limits pellet production. This will increase annual capacity from 26,000 tons per year to 36,400 tons per year.
In addition, the new wood brick fuel product line from U.S. Recycled Wood Products Inc. will be added to the plant. The equipment will produce wood bricks at a capacity of 6,000 tons per year and will utilize lower grade raw material and feeds stock. The company will create nine full-time jobs as a result of the $276,180 project.
Other approved projects — four will receive funding — include two compressed natural gas fueling stations which have the benefits of reducing emissions and one high performance building project. The investments in Allegheny, Carbon and Potter counties are projected to result in more than $31 million in additional economic investments, state officials said.
The ACE program provides financial assistance in the form of grants and loan funds that will be used by eligible applicants for the utilization, development and construction of alternative and clean energy projects in the state. http://www.bradfordera.com/news/business/article_1a117dd0-e5f2-11e3-a4db-001a4bcf887a.html Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Others see a way to provide electric power through the roads to power battery vehicles. That could be a major breakthrough for proponents of alternative energy, offering a way to overcome the limitations of battery-based vehicles.
Volvo is pairing up with the Swedish Transport Association to create short stretches of electrified roadway in Gothenburg, the Scandinavian country's second-largest city. Using a concept called inductive charging — essentially, what's used to wirelessly charge many electric razors and toothbrushes — specially designed city buses would simply have to drive along dedicated portions of pavement to partially replenish their batteries.
Because there are no exposed wires, the system would be safe for humans and animals, who might inadvertently walk across the chargers. "Vehicles capable of being charged directly from the road during operation could become the next pioneering step in the development towards reduced environmental impact," said Niklas Gustavsson, executive vice president of corporate sustainability for the Volvo Group.
Other induction charging systems have been put to use in several locations, including Utah; Turin, Italy; and Gumi, South Korea, with more under study. Longer-term, proponents believe the technology could be incorporated into highways for use by electric passenger cars such as the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S — perhaps built into existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes or dedicated lanes for use by battery cars only.Right now, such induction charging systems have to be linked to the conventional electric power grid. But the Brusaws have suggested that they could combine in-road chargers with their solar roadways, eventually allowing highways to both generate power and use that energy to operate a fleet of zero-emission cars, trucks and buses.