Identifying Opportunity Fuels
An opportunity fuel is any type of fuel that is not widely used, but has the potential to be an economically viable source of power generation. Opportunity fuels are typically unconventional, and usually derived from some sort of waste or byproduct. Most of the time, opportunity fuels are inferior in one way or another to conventional fossil fuels, but this is to be expected. After all, the widespread use of coal, petroleum, and natural gas as fuel sources is not a random coincidence – they are plentiful resources with high heating values and easy combustibility (i.e. they make good fuels). However, natural resources are limited, emission controls are getting stricter, and the price of many fossil fuels is extremely volatile. Opportunity fuels can provide a cheap and reliable alternative. With the increasing and unstable prices of fossil fuels, and the need for more environment-friendly energy sources, opportunity fuels are likely to gain in market share¹.

The following list does not identify all opportunity fuels, but those which were identified with high CHP potential in the Resource Dynamics Corporation report titled Combined Heat and Power Market Potential for Opportunity Fuels. This report was developed for the U.S. Department of Energy office of Energy Efficiency and Energy Reliability in August 2004.

Biomass Fuels
1. Anaerobic Digester Gas (ADG)
2. Biomass Gas
3. Black Liquor
4. Crop Residues
5. Ethanol
6. Food Processing Waste
7. Landfill Gas (LFG)
8. Municipal Solid Waste (and Refuse Derived Fuel)
9. Sludge Waste
10. Wood and Wood Waste

Industrial Process Waste and Byproducts
11. Blast Furnace Gas
12. Coke (Coal and Petroleum)
13. Coke Oven Gas
14. Industrial VOC’s
15. Textile Waste

Fossil Fuel Derivatives
16. Coalbed Methane
17. Wellhead Gas

Processed Opportunity Fuels
18. Orimulsion
19. Tire Derived Fuel
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1. Information and text obtained from Combined Heat and Power Market Potential for Opportunity Fuels, developed by Resource Dynamics Corporation, August 2004

Project Profiles
Project Profiles are two page documents that are meant to provide enough consistent, reliable, and accurate information to inform end-users of existing CHP applications that are similar to their facility and needs, inform engineering companies and equipment manufacturers of “basic” information that will peak their interest in finding out more details about CHP and CHP installations and; inform CHP advocates of a wide variety of CHP installations located in different (wide) geographic regions. Listed below are Project Profiles developed on installed CHP applications utilizing opportunity fuels.

Fuel	Site Name	Power Capacity, kW	Location
ADG	Afxantiou Farm	250	Limassol, Cyprus
ADG	Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Center	120	Albert Lea, MN
ADG	Barham Farms	120	Zebulon, NC
ADG	Colorado Pork, LLC	115	Lamar, CO
ADG	Essex Junction Wastewater Treatment Facility	60	Essex Junction, VT
ADG	Norswiss Farms	848	Rice Lake, WI
ADG	Smithfield Foods	70	Kenansville, NC
Biomass	New Belgium Brewery	290	Fort Collins, CO
Biomass	University of Iowa	24,900	Iowa City, IA
Gasification Products	Forrest Service Laboratories	15	Madison, WI
LFG	Antioch Township High School	360	Antioch,
LFG	Onyx Seven Mile Creek Landfill	2,700	Eau Claire, WI
LFG	SC Johnson	3,200	Racine, WI

Events and Activities

• Methane Recovery from Farm and Food Processing Waste Workshop
  Peru, IN (June 6, 2006)
  
  
• Workshop: CHP Opportunities with Alternative Energy Sources
  Detroit, MI (March 14, 2006)
  
  
• 2nd Annual Waste Heat to Power Workshop
  UC-Irvine, CA (February 15-16 2006)
  
  
• Clean Fuels for California and the West Workshop
  Napa Valley, CA (January 18, 2006)
  
  
• 5th Annual BioCycle Conference on Renewable Energy From Organics Recycling
  Madison, WI (September 12-14, 2005)
  
  
• Workshop: CHP and Bioenergy for Landfills and Wastewater Treatment Plants
  Salt Lake City, UT (August 11, 2005)
  
  
• Landfill Gas Energy: A Sustainable Energy Source for Ohio’s Future
  Toledo, OH (May 18, 2005)
  
  
• CHP for the Food and Beverage Processing Industries
  Syracuse, NY (January 27, 2005)
  
  
• Waste-to-Energy Workshop for Iowa's Swine Industry
  Cedar Rapids, IA (November 4, 2004)
  
  
• Waste-to-Energy Workshop for Iowa's Swine Industry
  Sioux City, IA (November 3, 2004)
  
  
• "Opportunity Fuels for CHP: Alternative to High Gas Prices?"
  5th Annual CHP Roadmap Workshop, Austin, TX (September 22, 2004)
  

Resources & Tools

• The AgSTAR Program
  
  
• AgSTAR Handbook
  A Manual for Developing Biogas Systems at Commercial Farms in the United States
  
  
• Software: AgSTAR FarmWare 3.0
  A pre-feasibility software package that accompanies the AgSTAR Handbook
  
  
• Anaerobic Digesters - Agriculture Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC)
  A national information resource for value-added agriculture.
  
  
• CHP in the Food & Beverage Manufacturing Industry
  
  
• Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)
  
  
• Industry Directory for On-farm Biogas Recovery Systems
  A listing of digester designers and equipment suppliers
  
  
• Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP)
  
  
• Software: LFGE Benefits Calculator (LMOP)
  
  
• U.S. DOE EERE Biomass Program
  
  
• Washington State Biomass Inventory By Category
  An online tool to identify the available feedstocks in the State of Washington by County.
  

Reports and Documents

• An Analysis of the Projected Energy Use of Future Dry Mill Corn Ethanol Plants (2010-2030), October 2007
  
  
• An Analysis of the Global Warming Impact of Corn Ethanol Plants (2010-2030), October 2007
  
  
• Biomass Inventory and Bioenergy Assessment - An Evaluation of Organic Material Resources for Bioenergy Production in Washington State, Washington State University and Department of Ecology, December, 2005
  
  

• The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Clean Energy Development in Illinois, Energy Resources Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago, June 2005
  
  
• Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, April 2005
  
  
• Combined Heat and Power Market Potential for Opportunity Fuels, Resource Dynamics Corporation, August 2004
  
  
• Anaerobic Digestion of Animal Wastes: Factors to Consider, NCAT, October 2002
  
  
• Agricultural Biogas Casebook – 2004 Update, Resource Strategies, Inc., September 2002
  
  
• Final Report: Haubenschild Farms Anaerobic Digester, The Minnesota Project, August 2002
  
  
• A Dozen Successful Swine Digesters, RCM Digesters, Inc.