AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate seeks to turn waste into energy

  • Published
  • By Holly Jordan
  • AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  It may seem like a scene from Back to the Future, but AFRL is looking to turn fiction into reality with the Waste-to-Energy project demonstration.

The AFRL Advanced Power Technology Office embarked on this $6.8 million Waste-to-Energy system demonstration at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, to convert waste products such as wood, plastics, biomass, and other materials into alternative fuel that can be used in a variety of military base applications.  The project involves a gasification process, developed by Biomass Energy Systems, Inc., to convert wastes into synthesis gas (syngas), which can then be used to produce electricity.

The demonstration runs through the summer of 2016 and will demonstrate a system capable of converting up to ten tons of waste per day into 300 kilowatts of continuous electric power, or the equivalent of the total electrical load for approximately 100 U.S. homes.

This project is sponsored by the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies and is part of a larger microgrid effort demonstrating alternative energy technologies that could allow military installations to operate independently of the power grid for extended periods of time.  This capability would be critical in the event of a break in power operations due to a public-grid outage, cyber-attack, or other interruption of service.

Through the Waste-to-Energy project, AFRL aims to demonstrate this technology in an operationally representative environment.  In doing so, AFRL researchers collect data that will help determine the best use for the technology and how to best and most efficiently incorporate it in future applications.

"From an Air Force perspective, mission assurance is paramount," said Lt Col Scott Fitzner, Chief of AFRL's Acquisition Systems Support Branch, which leads the Advanced Power Technology Office.  "If a technology can provide mission assurance through energy assurance, it can then be considered for more widespread implementation."

Waste-to-Energy technology offers a number of benefits beyond energy production.  Fitzner adds that the data collected through this effort helps researchers evaluate the technology to reduce the use of landfills and toxic burn pits on military installations.  Reducing landfill waste helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by the decomposition process.

The 154th Air National Guard Wing complex on JBPHH was chosen as an alternative energy demonstration site because it represents a Pacific Region environment where energy costs are high but the environment is conducive for various renewable energy technologies.  Additionally, it demonstrates integration into an operational mission and addresses the need to explore independent means of energy production.  Hawaii Governor David Ige recently committed the state to a 100 percent renewable energy standard by the year 2045.

Following this initial demonstration, AFRL plans to implement the gasification process into the first phase of the base microgrid project.  Longer-term efforts may explore the expanded use of the technology to produce fuel for vehicles and ground support equipment.