The U.S.
Department of Energy has awarded up to $3 million to the SUNY College of
Environmental Science and Forestry to develop and demonstrate ways to
reduce the cost of delivering woody bioenergy feedstocks to
biorefineries.
Specifically, the grant will be used to lower the delivered cost of
short-rotation woody crops; rapidly, accurately, and reliably assess
feedstock quality; and improve harvest and preprocessing operations to
produce feedstocks that meet key biorefinery partner specifications. ESF
will work with partners including Case New Holland Industrial,
GreenWood Resources, University of West Virginia, Applied Biorefinery
Sciences, Idaho National Lab and others to complete the project.
Timothy Volk, a research scientist who leads the willow project for
ESF, said the ultimate goal is to make renewable biomass feedstocks more
affordable.
"The principal objective of this project is to lower the delivered
cost of short-rotation woody crops feedstock by optimizing and
demonstrating a commercial-scale supply system," he said.
Getting wood chips into the hands of businesses that produce
biofuels, bioproducts and bioenergy is a complex process, Volk said.
This project will focus on improving existing harvesting technologies
and handling, storage and transportation infrastructures. The project
will also monitor the quality of the biomass material in the process and
come up with recommendations to maintain high quality in the material
all along the supply chain. Also, the project will include the
evaluation of preconversion techniques and blended feedstocks to meet
biorefinery partners' target quality parameters and demand for
year-round supply.
ESF's work with short-rotation woody crops has focused on shrub
willow for more than 25 years. Shrub willow produces harvestable biomass
at a rate of about four to five dry tons per acre each year. It can be
grown on marginal land, thereby stimulating rural development. The crop
provides environmental benefits as a renewable energy source that does
not increase greenhouse gas emissions. It also reduces soil erosion,
mitigates water pollution and provides wildlife habitat.
The college is working with Re-Energy Holdings to provide a market
for shrub willow that is being produced on about 1,200 acres in northern
New York. Re-Energy runs a plant that uses wood chips from biomass to
provide renewable electricity to Fort Drum, home to the U.S. Army's 10th
Mountain Division.
In announcing the grant, the DOE also announced the University of
Tennessee will receive up to $3.5 million to study how blending
feedstocks could play a role in increasing the amount of available
feedstock within a given delivery radius. The project will develop and
demonstrate a state-of-the-art biomass processing depot to reduce
sources of variation along the supply chain of multiple, high-impact
biomass sources (pine and switchgrass) and deliver a consistent
feedstock optimized for performance.
Bioenergy feedstocks include corn stover, switchgrass, and woody biomass