‘Gasifier’ will burn garbage for power at Hickam

The first military “gasifier” waste-burning power plant on Oahu — using palms damaged by the coconut rhinoceros beetle as some of its fuel — is expected to be up and running by the end of the year as part of a $20 million Air Force energy “microgrid” demonstration project for the Hawaii Air National Guard at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, officials said.

The project benefiting the 199th Fighter Squadron is aimed at developing emergency electrical grids with energy production and storage that would be insulated from extended power outages or cyberattacks — key concerns for military bases reliant on commercial power sources such as Hawaiian Electric Co.

Stan Osserman, director of the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies, which is a partner in the project, said a variety of alternative energy sources will be looked at to power the five microgrids at Hickam, including photovoltaics built into the pavement and wind turbines.

“The whole idea is to demonstrate for the Air Force that they could take any Air Force installation, deployed or domestic, and they could apply similar renewable energy technologies to either reduce their dependence on outside power or be able to support themselves in an emergency, and isolate themselves if the grid comes under a cyberattack or something like that,” Osserman said.

U.S. Pacific Command, meanwhile, is expected to have operational in October a $14.7 million microgrid at Camp H.M. Smith called SPIDERS (Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security) that provides the first such energy protection installationwide within the Defense Department.

The photovoltaic and generator microgrid, which also covers U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific and Special Operations Command Pacific, can also be used to offset peak HECO power consumption, with the military previously predicting Camp Smith’s energy savings would be as much as $950,000 a year.

As the largest energy consumer in the United States, the military is pursuing ambitious renewable goals to lower its $4 billion annual installation bill, with the target of producing 25 percent of its energy from renewables by 2025.

“Moreover, these bases are largely dependent on a commercial power grid that is vulnerable to disruption from aging infrastructure, weather-related events and direct attack,” the Pentagon said.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz recently announced the $20 million cooperative agreement between the Air Force Research Lab and HCATT.

“The Air Force’s effort to develop a microgrid testbed in Hawaii will help ensure that the Air National Guard has access to the energy it needs to execute its defense and homeland security missions, while providing a proof of concept that alternative energy and microgrid technologies can support the Air Force’s broader energy security goals,” Schatz said in a news release.

The 199th Fighter Squadron flies the F-22 Raptor fighter in those defense roles.

Osserman, a former commander of the Hawaii Air Guard, said the five microgrids at Hickam will be used to explore a variety of power generation methods including waste, wind, solar and ocean thermal technologies with batteries and hydrogen used for storage.

“We’re kind of technology agnostic,” he said, adding, “We’re going to try and look at as many new technologies as we can.”

A 10-ton-a-day rotary kiln gasifier, along with photovoltaics, will be used as the first sources of energy for the Hickam project, Osserman said. The gasifier, the first of its kind on a military base on Oahu, would burn everyday waste including paper and green waste, he said.

The Navy wants the demonstration project to burn green waste resulting from the effort to eliminate the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle, which has been damaging palms on Oahu, he added.

Osserman said the gasifier will be used to heat waste products in a controlled way to produce “syngas” — synthetic gas — which is flammable.

“Ours is going to take the syn gas and put it into a diesel generator and make power off the diesel generator,” he said.

The microgrids eventually are expected to cover about 80 percent of the fighter squadron’s overall power requirements and 100 percent of its “critical” power requirements, according to Osserman.