Chip Energy

With energy prices skyrocketing, America is looking for alternatives to reduce dependence on foreign oil, lower costs and help the environment. One local company plans to step into that niche with innovative products that run on recycled natural resources.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, Paul Wever wanted to find a way to help. After the storm, four million cords of wood were left lying on the ground—wood which likely would end up taking up precious space in landfills.

Wever, president of Paul Wever Construction Equipment Company, Inc. (PWCE), a manufacturer of earth-moving equipment based in Goodfield, Ill., came up with a possible solution to this problem.

His idea: to start a New Generation Cooperative (NGC) to cut and process this waste wood for use in the Upper Mississippi River Valley region. An NGC is a federal program used primarily in the value-added processing of agricultural commodities, with start-up costs partially funded by the government. Many ethanol plants operate as NGCs.

Wever presented his plan for the wood to be processed, cut, put on barges and shipped north to be used as firewood. But after thousands of hours of research and four trips to Mississippi, he came back empty-handed, unable to secure interested parties to help with the project. His original plans thwarted, Wever began looking for ways to better utilize waste stream wood for energy.

The Chips Fall into Place

That’s when he met Dr. Paul Anderson of Normal, a retired geography professor from Illinois State University who was working on a cooking stove for third world countries that involved the technique of gasification. Anderson showed Wever a small, primitive gasifier that impressed him and left him wanting to know more.

The two were a perfect match. Anderson had knowledge of the technique, and Wever had the equipment and know-how to build a commercial product. In 2008, the two founded Chip Energy, a company committed to building innovative products that run on recycled natural resources. Their initial product was the Biomass Stove/Grill. Based on Anderson’s cooking stove, the small appliance cooks meals using any dry biomass as fuel. Next, Chip Energy began developing a Biomass Furnace, a larger industrial system capable of effectively heating buildings using any biomass fuel.

An Important Investor

To commercialize the Biomass Furnace, the company needed outside funding. That’s when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took notice. Once or twice a year, the EPA publishes requests for proposals for their Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). Chip Energy sent a proposal, and about eight months later, the company became a recipient of the SBIR Phase I Grant. A preliminary six-month contract was attached to the grant, under which Chip Energy is currently working to automate the furnace’s functions, build a user-friendly interface and measure emissions content and combustion efficiency levels.

After the contract expires—and if the prototype proves itself—the company will be eligible for Phase II of the program, under which they would receive an extended contract and up to $235,000 of grant money to further the commercialization of the furnace.

Expanding Biomass Options

“Chip Energy is not the first company to attempt commercialization of gasification technology,” explained Wever. “It is very popular in Europe for wood pellet fuel to be used for home heating, using different types of gasification.” But current biomass heating systems focus on cordwood, wood pellets and corn—a limited assortment of options not universally available. Chip Energy will broaden that pallet of alternatives, utilizing a variety of biomass fuels that are abundant and locally available.