Biofuel Tests in Milwaukee Zoo Locomotives a Success

Business News/Analysis, Feedstocks, Forestry/Wood/Residues/Waste, Minnesota, Performance, R & D Focus, Wisconsin

November 15, 2017

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(Coalition for Sustainable Rail/Biomass Magazine) Two steam locomotives at the Milwaukee County Zoo were fueled with a renewable wood-based solid fuel last week to reduce fossil coal emissions, and the test runs were a success.

The Coalition for Sustainable Rail and the Natural Resources Research Institute completed a final series of three biofuel trials following more than a year and a half of development of the fuel at NRRI’s Renewable Energy Lab in Coleraine, Minnesota. Thanks to the generosity of the Milwaukee County Zoo, its small 15-inch gauge railroad has served as a demonstration platform for CSR and NRRI to see how a wood-based torrefied biomass fuel product burns in locomotive-style boilers. Tests in June and October 2016 revealed that the biofuel could make sufficient steam, but improper pelletizing methods resulted in spark emissions from the locomotive.

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NRRI is currently researching the opportunities in “torrefied biomass,” a wood-based biofuel that is made in a kiln not unlike a coffee roaster. After being “roasted,” the wood is transformed into a fuel that burns and reacts much like coal, with virtually no heavy metal pollutants and reduced carbon emissions. READ MORE

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