Date: Mar 28, 2011 Source: OregonLive (
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Hiroshi Morihara likes to stay active.
At the age of 73, he still runs marathons and skis at Mt. Hood Meadows. "I am really healthy," he says, quite matter-of-factly.
Why is he so energetic? He credits having a purpose in life.
Morihara's current purpose, as the president and CEO of HM3 Energy, a Gresham-based clean-energy company, is figuring out a way to turn woody biomass into a clean fuel source that doesn't emit carbon or other toxins.
He thinks he's close.
Woody biomass is wood waste, such as tree branches and tops cut by loggers that's normally left on the forest floor, and which cannot be used to make particle board or other wood products. Morihara uses a process, called "torrefaction," that heats the wood at high temperatures without oxygen. "Essentially, you're roasting wood," he says, comparing the process to roasting coffee beans. "Because there is no air, it doesn't burn."
The heat changes the wood's chemical form, making it brittle instead of fibrous as the wood loses all of its moisture. When it burns, it emits no chemicals or toxins. Morihara says the product has the potential to replace coal as a clean fuel source in coal-fired power plants.
"If we accomplish this, it will be a fantastic thing," Morihara says.
David Smith, an instructor at Oregon State University's school of wood science and engineering, says the concept has promise.
"This is probably the best way for replacing coal as a source of electricity," Smith says.
HM3 Energy comprises Morihara, five engineers and four consultants. Morihara says the company's product was conceived from an "ah-ha! moment."
"This group, including myself, is very inventive, very creative," he says. "We don't fit into a corporate mode. We fit into more of a crazy, nerd mode."
Morihara received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Buffalo and has spent his entire career doing research and development in the energy sector, including working on Department of Energy contracts.
HM3 Energy was founded in 2008 and first was a small pilot research program at Mt. Hood Community College. Morihara came out of retirement to found the company.
"My wife was encouraging me to invent something again," he says.
It was first named HM3 Ethanol, because Morihara was working to produce ethanol using biomass. His interest in biomass stems from it being readily available in Oregon and "for many, many years to come."
According to the state Department of Energy, Oregon generates between 10 million to 12 million tons of woody biomass each year.
The company's name changed to HM3 Energy in 2009 after Morihara heard a presentation by a senior executive at PGE regarding the haze and other environmental effects of the utility's coal-fired Boardman plant.
"I thought, well, maybe we could find some clean fuel from biomass to replace coal," Morihara says, and switched the company's focus away from ethanol.
A demonstration plant in Troutdale opened in late February after the company in August received a $241,000 grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities to help pay for its operation.
The company also will start construction on a Prineville facility to create the torrefied wood starting in spring 2012.
Morihara says HM3 Energy will continue refining the product and test burning it before pursuing commercialization. He says the company is discussing selling it to PGE for use at Boardman.
"I feel really good about the future of biomass fuel, especially this torrefied biomass," he says. "I have a feeling that this will become a huge industry, not just in the U.S., but in the whole world."
Whether that can happen is still to be determined. Smith worries that Oregon may not produce enough woody biomass each year to fully supply Boardman. He also says using torrefied wood as a fuel on a large scale -- such as fueling Boardman -- "has not been demonstrated."
"The big question," Smith says, "is whether it can be economical."
