ThermalNews GM assembly plant to implement Detroit waste-to-energy project General Motors and Detroit Renewable Energy have announced a new waste-toenergy project that will convert municipal solid waste (MSW) into steam used to heat and cool portions of GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. Once complete, the project is expected to fulfill 58 percent of the assembly plant’s energy needs. “We have 107 landfill-free facilities across the globe that recycle or reuse their waste, with some of it turned into energy,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy. “It made sense to explore this option with DRE at Detroit-Hamtramck, given their quality work in helping us manage our energy use at some of our other GM plants.” Detroit Renewable will process more than 1 million tons of
26 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2014
MSW per year into power and steam, while recycling an estimated 40,000 tons of metal. The resulting steam will travel through an 8,300-foot pipeline, delivering 15.8 MW of renewable energy to the assembly plant. Once the project is complete, Detroit-Hamtramck will be the top GM facility in the world by percentage of renewable energy used. The project is expected to be operational this spring.
Innovative wood stove designs featured in international contest The Alliance for Green Heat’s Wood Stove Decathlon kicked off at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in mid-November. During the event, 12 teams from the U.S., Denmark, New Zealand, Austria and Finland competed for the title of the cleanest, most efficient and innovative wood stoves. To judge the teams’ products, experts from a U.S. EPA-accredited wood stove test lab were onsite to complete emissions and efficiency testing. The winner was selected from nine judges who inspected the stove designs, components and construction to assess durability and the potential of innovative technological features. The event also featured panel discussions on residential heating with biomass stoves. In some areas, pellet stoves are selling faster than wood stoves, which is partially explained by the complexity of cordwood. John Crouch, Pellet Fuels Institute director of public affairs, discussed the varying properties of cordwood and how pellets offer consumers a more uniform biomass fuel.