System and method for biomass growth and processing
AssigneeBrisa International, LLC
InventorsKevin C. Harmon, Shannon M. Johnson, Eugene T. Holmes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system comprising a collocated thermal plant, water source, CO2 source and biomass growth module is disclosed. A method of improving the environment by utilizing the system is disclosed.
Claims77
A system comprising:
- a. a biomass growth module (BGM) that grows a biomass and then discharges a BGM outflow fluid comprising a plurality of BGM outflow fluid components wherein at least one of the plurality of BGM outflow fluid components is the biomass:
- b. a thermal plant module producing energy from combustion with an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide fueling the BGM to grow the biomass;
- wherein the BGM is optionally configured to be supplied by a BGM feed water:
- c. wherein the system is configured to refine the discharged BGM outflow fluid in whole or in part by heat from the thermal plant module using a process selected from the group consisting of pre-heating the discharged BGM outflow fluid as a first step for other processes;
- separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components;
- purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged BGM outflow fluid;
- converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude;
- converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas;
- adding chemicals to the discharged BGM outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol;
- d. wherein the exhaust gas provides a substantial portion of the carbon content of the BGM outflow fluid.
A system configured for biomass growth comprising a biomass growth module (BGM) that grows a biomass and then discharges a BGM outflow fluid comprising a plurality of BGM outflow fluid components wherein at least one of the plurality of BGM outflow fluid components is the biomass wherein the BGM comprises one or more biomass growth units (BGUs) selected from the following configurations
- a) Single;
- b) dual serial;
- c) dual parallel;
- d) dual parallel connected;
- e) serial simple networked;
- and/or
- f) complex networked;
- and
- wherein the one or more BGU's is optionally configured to be supplied by a feed water,
- wherein the BGM is operatively connected to a thermal plant module with said thermal plant module producing energy from combustion said thermal plant module producing an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide with said carbon dioxide fueling the BGM to grow the biomass and said thermal plant module producing heat to refine the discharged BGM outflow fluid using a process selected from the group consisting of preheating the discharged BGM outflow fluid as a first step for other processes, separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components, purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged BGM outflow fluid, converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude, converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas, adding chemicals to the discharged BGM outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol.
A method for growing biomass comprising networking a set of biomass growth units (BGU) that grow a biomass and then discharges a discharged BGM outflow fluid comprising a plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components wherein at least one of the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components is the biomass in a biomass growth module (BGM) wherein the set comprises a biomass growth module which comprises:
- a) a single biomass growth unit;
- b) a dual serial biomass growth unit;
- c) a dual parallel biomass growth unit;
- d) dual parallel connected biomass growth unit;
- e) serial simple networked biomass growth unit;
- and/or
- f) complex networked biomass growth unit;
- and
- the BGU is configured to be supplied by a feed water and wherein the BGM is operatively connected to a thermal plant module producing energy from combustion with an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide fueling the BGM to grow the biomass and heat to refine the discharged BGM outflow fluid wherein the system is configured to refine the discharged BGM outflow fluid in whole or in part by heat from the thermal plant module using a process selected from the group consisting of preheating the discharged BGM outflow fluid as a first step for other processes, separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components, purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged BGM outflow fluid, converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude, converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas, adding chemicals to the discharged BGM outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol.
A system configured to grow and process biomass comprising a biomass growing subunit selected from:
- a. an autotrophic growing subunit;
- b. a heterotrophic subunit;
- and/or
- c. a mixotrophic subunit;
- and
- wherein the biomass growing subunit is optionally configured to be supplied by a feed water and wherein the biomass growing subunit is operatively connected to a thermal plant module producing energy from combustion with an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide fueling the biomass growing subunit to grow the biomass and heat to refine a biomass growing subunit outflow fluid discharged from the biomass growing subunit using a process selected from the group consisting of preheating the discharged outflow fluid as a first step for other processes, separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged outflow fluid components, purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged outflow fluid, converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude, converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas, adding chemicals to the discharged outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol.
A system for biomass growth resource management comprising a pollution control module, a pollution entrainment module, and/or one or more heat recovery modules configured to optionally provide heat, water, gases, carbon dioxide, other fluid(s), and/or pollutants to a biomass growth module and/or other heat or water use module or process in the system and wherein the amounts of heat, water, gases, carbon dioxide, other fluid(s), and/or pollutants are selected in relationship to a selected rate of biomass growth in the biomass growth module (BGM) which module is in operative communication with the heat recovery and/or pollution entrainment modules and wherein the biomass growth unit is optionally configured to receive a feed water-operatively connected to a thermal plant module producing energy from combustion with an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide fueling the BGM to grow the biomass and heat to refine a discharged BGM outflow fluid discharged from the BGM using a process selected from the group consisting of preheating the discharged BGM outflow fluid as a first step for other processes, separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components, purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged BGM outflow fluid, converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude, converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas, adding chemicals to the discharged BGM outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol.
A system configured to grow biomass comprising a recovered volatile organic compound solvent input configured to provide recovered volatile organic compound solvent to a biomass growth module (BGM) wherein the BGM is operatively connected to a thermal plant module producing energy from combustion with an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide fueling the BGM to grow the biomass and producing heat to refine a discharged BGM outflow fluid using a process selected from the group consisting of preheating the discharged BGM outflow fluid as a first step for other processes, separating the biomass from the plurality of discharged BGM outflow fluid components, purifying at least one of the plurality of components of the discharged BGM outflow fluid, converting a portion of the biomass into a biocrude, converting a portion of the biomass into a biogas, adding chemicals to the discharged BGM outflow fluid, hydrothermal processing, rapid thermal processing, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, catalytic hydrothermal gasification, conversion to biodiesel, conversion to biochar, conversion to ethanol, conversion to isobutanol, and conversion to butanol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.