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SilvaGas Corporation (f/k/a FERCO Enterprises) is a renewable energy technology company
engaged in the development of clean energy and waste disposal
solutions. The Company is the exclusive licensee to the patented
SilvaGas® process. The SilvaGas process generates clean
medium Btu gas through the gasification of biomass feedstock,
including forestry, pulp and paper residue, agricultural byproducts,
municipal solid waste and energy crops. Unlike existing technologies,
the SilvaGas biomass gasification process produces gas that can
be substituted directly for natural gas in most applications,
including conventional gas turbines, advanced gas turbines and
fuel cells.
The SilvaGas process is currently the only large-scale
biomass gasification technology in existence that generates
a medium heating value gas. Unlike the low heating value product
gas produced by competing gasification systems, the SilvaGas
process product gas can be used as a direct substitute for natural
gas for distributed generation or can be blended with natural
gas for large existing turbines. This process is highly flexible
in that it can accommodate a wide variety of feedstocks of varying
moisture content without impacting the heating value product
gas. In addition, the system produces reduced emissions of greenhouse
gases, at 98% below conventional fossil fuel plants and 40%
below conventional biomass plants, with near zero net carbon
emissions on a closed loop (life-cycle) basis.
The US Department of Energy and private investors
have provided over $64 million in funding to develop the SilvaGas
process. The process was first tested at a 10 ton per day pilot
scale plant for over 22,000 hours of operation on a broad range
of biomass feedstocks. Following the conclusion of pilot testing,
the SilvaGas Process was demonstrated at commercial size at
the McNeil Generation Station in Burlington, Vermont, one of
the largest wood-fired power generation plants in the world.
The Vermont Gasification Project (“VGP”), which is capable of
processing 500 tons per day, was constructed to demonstrate
the commercial scale viability of the technology. The operational
results to date from this full-scale pilot plant have exceeded
the Company’s expectations.
Based on the results of the testing in Vermont,
the Company is currently focused on project development efforts
of SilvaGas plant sizes equivalent to 10 to 50 MW in size (200
to 1,000 tons per day). The Company also recently filed a process
patent for a smaller scale system of 1 to 5 MW (less than 100
tons per day) which would be ideally suited for use with distributed
generation technologies.
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