Electricity generated from biomass is clean, cost effective

What if the future of greener, more sustainable energy solutions isn’t to be found in wind, solar, hydroelectric, and/or ethanol-based power, but instead lies in the efficient combustion of cellulosic biomass (e.g., wood chips, sawdust, switch grass, corn husks, pine needles, paper pulp, etc.) that can be used to create green electricity?

“Unlike oil and coal, power generated from biomass is clean, renewable, and environmentally friendly,” says Tyson Rohde, chief executive officer of Biotricity; a Houston-based company that is manufacturing a commercial-scale power generation technology to produce green electricity from biomass with low emissions. “To give a sense of the potential of biomass: It was estimated Hurricane Ike left over 5.6 million cubic yards of woody biomass that contained enough energy to power over one hundred thousand households for one year. This is real energy that’s mostly wasted.”

Biotricity’s process has the potential to make use of unwanted, low-cost biomass, such as forest and agricultural byproducts as feedstocks to create electricity with minimal emissions. Biotricity will use discarded wood products that would normally end up in landfills. In the U.S. alone, there are over one billion tons of annual biomass that can be directed toward biopower.

“The benefits of an alternative energy model based on biomass are myriad,” says Rohde. “Biomass energy has low emissions, utilizes low-cost multiple feedstocks, boasts relatively high thermal efficiencies, is a carbon neutral process, and is easily scalable. This is a pragmatic solution to sustainable power generation that is as profitable as it is socially responsible.”

The “secret sauce” behind Biotricity’s seemingly simple energy solution: the company’s power station technology. The design uses a proprietary vortex combustion chamber to efficiently convert the energy in biomass into green electricity to be sold to the power grid. Unlike wind and solar facilities, biopower stations can run continuously and be installed for half to one-fourth the cost per megawatt as compared to wind and solar.

“Biomass power generation also promises to avoid the problems that have plagued other alternative energy options,” explains Rohde. “These include the high capital costs of wind and solar, permitting challenges involved with hydroelectric dams, and the negative effect on food costs from ethanol and biodiesel.”

Rohde currently manages the development and construction of Biotricity’s first biomass power generation station. He is currently also engaged as the chief operating officer of Southfield Energy Corporation. He has also been integrally involved with the capital financing and management of a research and development company that built and tested a highly efficient, external combustion rotary engine.

He has served as financial analyst and partner at Houston-based investment firms including Brewer Capital Group and Goldbridge Energy Partners LLC. Rohde has been active in the energy sector and participated in the origination and execution of capital market financings, mergers, acquisitions, and divestiture advisory, and private equity transactions. He has been involved in small business development for over ten years. Rohde earned a B.A. with honors from the College of Economics at the University of Texas in Austin.

About Biotricity
Biotricity was formed to address America’s growing demand for energy in a socially responsible, economically sustainable and environmentally conscious fashion by converting non-food, organic matter into electricity with very low emissions.

The company is building its proprietary Biotricity Generator to produce electricity from biomass such as wood chips, sawdust, waste paper, switchgrass, processed grains and other organic matter by processing biomass and burning it in a highly efficient combustion chamber to power a turbine and generate electricity. Visit http://www.biotricitypower.com to learn more.