Johnson Calls Working With Biofuel Development ‘Exciting and Rewarding’

By Joan Sanstadt, News Editor
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:27 PM CST

It’s been almost nine months since Bill Johnson stepped into his new role at Alliant Energy. A role he says he’s enjoying more every day.

It all began last June when Bill was asked to assume the utility’s newly created position as Manager-Biofuels Development for Alliant.

He’s pretty much having to write his own job description. That’s because his overall charge is a pretty general-sounding one. It is to develop a steady biomass supply for Alliant generating plants in Wisconsin and Iowa.

That biomass will have to come from agricultural sources such as forests and farms and other agriculture businesses. The amount of biomass has to be sufficient to meet the plant’s needs and it must be a dependable supply. One more thing n the biomass has to be able to be made in a form (shape and size) that a generating plant can utilize.

While Bill acknowledges he’s “excited and honored” to have the opportunity to be on the front lines of this emerging technology, he also knows his new job won’t be anything like a cake-walk.

Yet, “it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had n other than teaching students.

“When I get up in the morning, I feel I’m doing something good n working with farmers. This program is good for ag and it is good for the environment,” he said.

“The reality is that everyone uses energy. Whenever you address a new generating capability, conservation is the first approach,” Bill said. “We put a lot of dollars into energy conservation every year. In fact, if people did not conserve, we’d be building more plants.”

New plants mean new costs and those especially impact people on fixed income, new income earners, start up businesses and new industries.

Adding new generating capacity at existing plants usually involves something called “clean coal” technology. Asked to explain what that term actually means, Bill said “it’s a technology that reduces emission from a coal-fired plant.”

Right now Bill’s work is closely affiliated with updates at Alliant’s plant at Cassville, also known as the Nelson-Dewey plant.

The plant is currently generating 200 mega Watts (mW) of electricity from two units, one installed in 1959 and the other in 1962.

Alliant wants to add a new unit with the capability of 300 mW by 2013. In addition, new technology would be added to upgrade those two existing units.

“Locating the 300 mW of additional generation capacity in Cassville, allows us to import 650 mW of electricity into Wisconsin from Iowa. If the new facility were put in Portage, for example, we’d only be able to import 50 mW from the west,” Bill said.

Therefore, Wisconsin gets access to more electrical transmission capacity. “Because we can’t determine, minute-to-minute where the electricity is generated, suffice it to say there is a lot of wind-generated power in Iowa and more access to a renewable source of power is a good thing.

The Nelson-Dewey plant will generate a total of 500 mW, new combustion and emission controls will be added to Nelson-Dewey One (100 mW) and Two (100 mW), while the new facility Nelson-Dewey Three (300 mW) will have the same controls and will burn both coal and biomass. (The existing One and Two units are coal-fueled.)

“The added emissions controls and new technologies to units one and two, plus the use of biofuels, and you will be reducing emissions of nitrous oxide by 55 percent, sulfur dioxide by 90 percent and mercury emissions by 75 percent.

“Nitrogen oxide,” Bill explained, “contributes to smog and formation of ozone. Sulfur dioxide is what contributes to acid rain n but it also adds sulfur to soil for forage crops.”

“Through selection of fuels and by using new technologies carbon emissions can be reduced through the more efficient use of fuel within a plant - and by burning biofuels,” Bill added.

A pilot project at the Alliant plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 2006 has already provided important information on the burning of switchgrass. The $45 million dollar project began back in 1995-96 with grants from USDA and the Department of Energy (DOE).

“At Ottumwa we burned switchgrass as 5 percent of our fuel mix in a 1,700 hour-burn that used 15,000 tons of switchgrass. This was the longest switchgrass burn ever. What’s more, the boiler used in this project had been designed for coal,” Bill noted.

To burn a variety of fuels, a plant needs to have a special boiler called a Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler (CFB). Fuel n both coal and biofuel, is injected into a CFB containing a bed of ground limestone that has been heated to more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Air and fuel are pumped into the bed from the bottom of the bed to support combustion of the fuel and provide a mixing action.

“This type of boiler allows for the burning of high moisture fuels and it accommodates a variety of fuel types and sizes giving it fuel flexibility. Another advantage is that the fuel remains in the boiler until it is completely combusted. The lime bed helps provide effective control of certain emissions, especially sulfur dioxide,” Bill explained.

By comparison, a Pulverized Coal Boiler, like the one at the Alliant plant in Portage, is designed for using a specific fuel and that fuel must be ground into a talc-like consistency. Not only does this type of boiler not allow for much fuel flexibility, it operates at a higher range of temperatures than the CFB boiler.

“One design is not necessarily better than the other, each has its advantages,” Bill continued. “But in order to burn a large percentage of biofuels we chose the CFB for the new unit at Cassville because it will accommodate the intended more flexible fuel supply.”

To ensure that sustainable supply of fuel, Alliant will be supporting field trials in Southwest Wisconsin to determine “what are the best mixes, varieties, and species in available grasses. Switchgrass can be a staple, much as corn has been in present day ethanol plants,” he said.

“The foresters and loggers we’ve already talked with are excited about the possibilities,” Bill said.

One reason for that excitement has to do with some of the “do’s and don’ts” in the Managed Forest Law. Once allowable logging has been done and firewood removed there are still “leftovers.” This term applies to low value products such as dead, dying and diseased trees that end up being a cost to the owner to remove.

Bill sees these “leftovers” in terms of their biofuel potential. For the woodlot owner, the “leftovers” could be transformed into a profit center.

“We’ve worked closely with the Southwest Badger RC&D on what they call the Driftless Area Initiative. With money from the U.S. Forest Service and a matching grant from Alliant, they’ll conduct five woodlot test harvests. We’re trying to estimate the anticipated yield from a typical southwest Wisconsin woodlot,” he said.

“The fuel mix at Nelson-Dewey Three will begin at a mix of 10 percent biomass/90 percent coal, with the goal to expand the biomass portion of the fuel as we learn the supply and market structure necessary to provide the plant with a sustainable fuel supply,” Bill said.

“As CRP contracts expire, landowners may be interested in cover crops such as switchgrass,” Bill added.

“My job is to figure out how to make this happen in Wisconsin and in Iowa,” Bill said. “It keeps me busy, but I’m finding there are a lot of good people willing to help.”

One of the challenges of working with biofuels is getting it into the proper shape so it can be burned. “Biomass in the field is a raw product. It has to be made into biofuel that we can burn. Agrecol, which has an experimental pelleting facility and fields near Evansville, is looking at how some of the biomass can be made into pellets. However, wood does not have to be pelleted,” Bill added.

Looking ahead, Bill sees a possible biomass supply chain that begins with the farmer in his fields and forests and ends up providing energy to industry.

“We need to have defined biofuel standards, we know what No. 2 corn is; but what is the standard for a certain grade of fuel? For us, it is the BTU value of a potential biomass product,” Bill said.

To obtain tons of biomass at a certain BTU value, BMPs for growing, harvesting, transporting and processing will have to be developed. BMPs help assure a sustainable biofuel supply for the future, this will also help drive down costs, Bill said.

Just finding the right biomass that can be used in a generating plant is a challenge. But it doesn’t end there. “We still have to be permitted to burn each material n switchgrass, corn stover, forest products, grain co-products such as distillers grain, oat or soybean hulls,” Bill said.

“Alliant Energy wants to buy the fuel locally, but we know that type of supply chain has not existed. We’re going to have to develop it together,” he added.

As Bill goes around southwest Wisconsin talking with producers and agribusinesses about renewable fuels he’s not a stranger.

He’s worked for Alliant (then Wisconsin Power & Light) since 1991. Those were the days of the stray voltage concerns and the utility wanted someone with a background in animal physiology to work with producers on these issues.

Bill grew up in Crete, Ill., and earned his undergrad degree in animal science from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He went to grad school at UW-Madison, where he earned degrees in animal science and reproductive physiology. He was involved in research at the V-A Hospital in Madison and worked for the Wisconsin Technical College System for 16 years as both a teacher and an administrator.

Working closely with Jim Gibson, Wisconsin Technical College System’s education director for agriculture, food and natural resource systems, training classes for rural electricians were developed. Later Bill worked with Gibson on the farm rewiring programs now being offered by utilities across the state.

“Farms are a rough environment and electricity for a farm involves more than just flipping a switch,” Bill acknowledged.

“I loved my teaching years,” Bill confided, “because teaching is an exchange.”

As president of the Midwest Rural Energy Council (MREC), Bill is busy preparing for that group’s annual meeting set for Feb. 28 and 29 in La Crosse.

While stray voltage is still a topic at MREC’s annual meeting, a number of other issues are also highlighted. These include renewable energy, energy conservation and farm wiring.

“Besides providing stray voltage training for utility and other stray voltage investigators, I think the MREC has also helped utilities, co-ops and municipal electrical providers grow their energy conservation and renewable energy programs,” Bill told Agri-View.

As Bill looks into his silver ball he sees the move toward biofuels as more than a win-win situation. “It can provide opportunities to improve soil and water quality, new markets, improved wildlife habitat and woodlot quality, as well as becoming a catalyst for new jobs and new industries.”

“We are trying to do what in the long term is good for our economy and at the same time creating a new economy, through biomass, for rural Wisconsin,” Bill said.

“It’s important because it is the right thing to do,” he concluded.

Bill and his wife, Tana, and their dog Katie live outside Pardeeville. They also own a 150-acre farm near Ontario, Wis. Bill and his wife enjoy hunting, fishing and other wildlife enhancement and conservation activities.

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