August 21, 2024 — National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Research Group Manager Dan Schell says he gets to do the fun part.
“I get to use a big piece of equipment and turn wood into very small particles with continuous explosions,” Schell said.
Schell’s team conducts experiments like these to help DTE Materials, which has access to NREL expertise and equipment through the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) program. DTE’s patented process, called Clearwash, is designed to make anatomical changes to biomass to make it integrate with ceramic binders more effectively.
With NREL equipment, Schell is performing steam explosions repeatedly to test the feedstock from DTE Materials. They will run the equipment over an eight-hour day, followed by a second round of testing in about two weeks.
“What we are doing is operating the reactor in different conditions,” he said. “It’s going to produce material with different properties, and DTE will determine which conditions produce the best material for them.”
The explosions are well controlled and not hazardous, and Schell describes it as a release of pressure.
DTE Materials (DTE stands for “down to Earth”) wants to create bioaggregates to mix in with cement for a new method that would yield carbon-neutral concrete. The feedstock is debris from agriculture and forestry. If that debris is left to degrade, it will naturally degrade the biogenic carbon back into carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. By entombing it in the concrete, DTE Materials stops that process. Unprocessed biomass has multiple issues when introduced into cement that this steam process alleviates. Clearwash also standardizes the bioaggregates for performance because there is so much diversity across feedstock sources.
