Biofuel Tests in Milwaukee Zoo Locomotives a Success

(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.

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