I am a retired aerospace engineer who is an environmental consultant working on processes for utilization of organic wastes such as cereal straws, bagasse, corn cobs, wood slash, etc. I developed a successful process for disposal of spent rocket propellant for which open burning releases Al2O3 particulate to the atmosphere. Thus, I became interested in the utilization of rice straw for which open burning releases SiO2 particulate to the atmosphere. Lately. I am working on a Rice Straw Fuel(see attached data sheet) which utilizes anaerobic digestion of biomass at a collection site to produce biogas which is shipped via natural gas transport methods such as pipelines to a central power plant thereby eliminating costly shipment of bulky biomass .. At the power plant, the biogas is combuste in order to make steam for electric power. I even have another process to contain the carbon dioxide from combustion of the biogas. It is called Modified Solvay Process and a data sheet is available upon request.

Is it possible to present this information to the Sacramento Entrepreneur Academy.

Thank you for your attention to my inquiry.

Sincerely, R.J."Jim"Robinson

CONVERSION PROCESSES

9700 Elmira Circle

Sacramento, CA 95827-1120

Tele/FAX: 916-363-9705 Email: ROBSACROB@cs.com RICE STRAW FUEL

Removal of the epicuticular wax coating on rice straw which contains the silica content (from 11 to 20%) would create a rice straw fuel. This silica forms a slag coating on the refractories of the incinerator used to create steam for a power plant and shuts down the incinerator after only a short period of operation. I understand from an article in Wikipedia on epicuticular wax that hexane and chloroform are appropriate solvents for the wax. A solvent extractor for the rice straw would remove the wax resulting in a mixture of silica, wax and solvent which upon filtration would yield a high silica sand for sale to the glass industry, and a wax solution which would go to an extraction column for recycle of the solvent and yield of a wax for typical wax applications. After extraction, the reduced silica straw could be combusted for power.

Another alternative for use of rice straw fuel is to produce biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, by means of anaerobic digestion of the rice straw and transport of the biogas via pipeline to a central power plant for combustion to produce steam for generation of electric power. The carbon dioxide generated by combustion of biogas would be captured as soda ash by means of a modified Solvay Process with hydrochloric acid rather than calcium chloride as a byproduct. In this manner, expensive shipment of bulky biomass is eliminated.

Organizations that have built biogas pipelines are Ameresco, BioEnergy Solutions, University of New Hampshire and PG&E.