Extraction of cypress oil and small-sized biomass energy system

According to the trend of needs for renewable or sustainable energy in the world, issues for wind power, solar, and biomass energies have become a large concern. Among such renewable energies, biomass energy is thought to have a great potentiality. In Kochi, prefectural feasibility studies regarding the biomass energy from trees were planned and studied. However, the wood-based biomass energy system is not economical, and no actual biomass energy projects have started yet in Kochi. The income from the biomass energy (electricity and heat) is much lower than the expenditure for purchasing trees and the depreciation for a biomass plant. Therefore, the items to be discussed here are: 1) how to achieve an economical system considering income and outcome of wood-based biomass energy and 2) how to obtain an efficient biomass system for continuous running operation. The first issue is to find an economical way to obtain some by-products such as ethanol or sugar, which is the idea in the US. Herein, we have tried to produce cypress oil as a by-product from cypress trees. The second is to find an efficient way for biomass energy production. We selected a spouted bed technique rather than conventional fluidized bed techniques which are widely used for biomass energy production. The method was selected so that tar removal is easy compared to the conventional fluidized bed. This report is the interim report on the development of cypress oil extraction and small-sized biomass energy system using the spouted bed technique.