The Ames Municipal Power Plant, along with Iowa State and Prairie Rivers Resource Conservation and Development, recently began to investigate the possibility of using locally grown biomass as additional fuel for the Ames Municipal Power Plant.

The goal of the study is to reduce the amount of coal the plant is currently using. To do this, the plant is looking at agricultural waste called corn stover and other refuse-derived fuels as fuel for the plant.

“We’re burning 1,300 tons of coal a day right now,” said Donald Kom, director of Ames Municipal Electric Services. “We want to reduce that and get rid of more garbage and agricultural waste in the process.”

The coal the plant uses now has to be brought in from Wyoming. Being able to produce fuel locally would help deter high costs associated with the coal, said Sheila Lundt, assistant city manager.ÿ

Currently the plant is burning 90 percent coal and 10 percent RDF. The study is going to look at whether using this type of fuel would be feasible both economically and environmentally.

“The study is trying to find out what the cost [is] to get the same amount of heat value out of the biocrude as the coal,” Lundt said. “Ideally, we’d like to reduce coal use by 10 percent or more if we can.”

Currently, the RDF doesn’t burn instantly or completely. The study is looking to make the biofuel as efficient as possible.

“The quality of the fuel varies with the garbage,” Kom said. “Right now, it’s not burning clean.”

Robert Brown, director of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technology, and Samy Sadaka, associate scientist at the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technology will be working to assess the physical and chemical properties the fuel would contain and if, or what, types of modifications would be necessary for the plant to begin using it.

“The main goal of this project is to determine what it will take to convert RDF into biofuel in a gas or liquid form,” Sadaka said.

In addition, the study aims to find if there are any harmful contaminants in this material or not.

Other issues that must be considered of this type of fuel are the heat value and how many British thermal units one pound of the biofuels can produce.

Another issue is whether there will be an aging problem – if the fuel will change characteristics over a period of time – and if so, how long before a change would take place, he said.

The city is currently working with the state to get permission to do some of the testing since they don’t know what it will produce and what the byproducts will be, Lundt said.