Dynamotive Energy Systems
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (January 2008) |
 |
This article or section reads like a news release, or is otherwise written in an overly promotional tone. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view to be less promotional. Where appropriate, blatant advertising may be marked for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. |
Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation is an energy solutions provider headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. http://www.dynamotive.com/ The Company was incorporated in 1991, and is currently traded on the OTCBB under the symbol DYMTF. Dynamotive produces and now markets carbon-neutral liquid fuels produced from cellulosic biomass. They develop biofuel technology and products based on its patented fast pyrolysis technology The first company to have a license on this technology was Encon, a company that had the license from the University of Waterloo for the Waterloo Fast Pyrolysis Process but failed in the attempt to scale up due to the limited amount of heat that could be stored in the fluidizing gas stream.
The Fast Pyrolysis process produces three products, with yields in the range of (by weight): BioOil (65 – 72%) Char (15 – 20%) Non-condensable gases (12 – 18%).
Evolution
The design and development of the first commercial plant at West Lorne started in 2002.The plant started operations in early February 2005 with a design capacity of 100 tonnes per day of waste sawdust. However the plant never went into full production and hardly produced bio-oil, due to mechanical and design difficulties. The company did not wait for the West Lorne plant and started to build a second plant in Guelph in 2006 with a design capacity of 200 tonnes per day. The start up planned for the Q1 2007 has been delayed to Q4 2007 and is still in progress.
Future
About the chances for the Guelph plant, see the article in the Washington Post April 20 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ search:dynamotive :The Washington Post reporter : " A pilot plant by Dynamotive at West Lorne, Ontario, was heavily subsidized by government agencies, recorded large losses and never did achieve large-scale bio-oil production, a worrisome precursor to the plant being built in Guelph." In that same article the Washington Post reporter did some investigation and talked to researchers, concluding:" While the process works in a laboratory, there are pitfalls to making it successful on a scale large enough to be commercially profitable, researchers acknowledge." In November 2007 Andrew Karsner, the assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy mentioned in the New York Times Dynamotive and said about this and other approaches: “It’s not obvious, and I don’t think it will be obvious for a very long time” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/business/09fuel.html?ex=1352350800&en=700d5dc6e61c56c5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Gord Surgeoner, PhD, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies (Guelph, ON), identifies fuels, automotive products, fine chemistry and construction materials as some of the major bioproducts markets. Surgeoner says, noting that such a plant would cost between $10 million and $20 million, and the only way to know for certain that it will work is to spend the money and see the results. http://www.bioscienceworld.ca/ToMarketToMarket
CEO Kingston November 29,2007 :“The Company’s commercial activities were adversely affected during the quarter due to delays in the start-up of the Guelph plant resulting from the need for completion of non-core systems and civil works, as well as delays in the supply of equipment which were beyond management control."
