March 2007 Digest

Bridging the Gap to Biofuels


When it comes to energy, we are all stakeholders – whether we are producers, refiners, developers, educators, policymakers, marketers, regulators, environmentalists, distributors, farmers, foresters, or simply commuters... we are all consumers with a vested interest in future development of renewable energy in concert with environmental sustainability.

Even though there is a growing global recognition that something must be done to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate carbon emissions, the potential for endless debate over the means to these ends is threatened by delays. We need to act now.

The success of any mission to achieve 25x’25 or Twenty in Ten is more dependent on our willingness to communicate and work together than it is on our technical achievements. Why? I am convinced it will take collaboration between all stakeholders to develop and deploy these emerging technologies.

Having attended three important conferences this month, perhaps the most important lesson I can share is one for “bridging the gap” that I learned at 25x’25. When negotiating all parties must take an attitude of “Yes, if...” rather than “No, because...”

For example, “Will you agree...?”:
• “Yes, if you will guarantee...
• “Yes, if you can convince...
• “Yes, if you can match...
• “Yes, if you will commit...

Without the proper spirit of collaboration no compact between stakeholders will be sustainable – even if the technology is.

BIOstock Blog--------------
• Will dead trees revive forest industries?
• Why ethanol from wood makes sense
• The Canadian action plan against the Mountain Pine Beetle
• 25x'25 Summit pressures U.S. Congress to act
• Environmentalists and industrialists meet at the BioEnergy Wiki

BIOconversion Blog--------------
• Multi-prong approach enhances energy security
• ACORE wins BIG in Vegas
• So. California Air Quality (AQMD) looks at Cellulosic Ethanol
• BIO World Congress is bio-energized by cellulosic ethanol

BIOoutput Blog--------------
• Using fungi to produce ethanol & biodegradeable material

BIOwaste Blog--------------
• Producing hydrogen from wastewater and MSW
• Fortune looks at waste source reduction

Each month we provide a similar breakdown of article titles from our favorite "companion" site - Biopact Blog. This list is kept current and is accessible in the right hand column of each of the three blogs.

Please forward a link to this digest to anyone you know who would be interested in keeping track of change that will affect us all. They can add their name to the mailing list on the BioConversion Blog.

Environmentalists and industrialists meet at the BioEnergy Wiki

One of the most encouraging signs that joint interests of environmentalists and industrialists are finally being addressed is the emergence of the online BioEnergy WIKI. Much like the Wikipedia that most use to find definitions and clarification of technical issues, this WIKI is in large measure written and edited by interested readers - often foremost experts in their fields.

It is the brainchild of an international Steering Committee that includes: Gustavo Best (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Italy); Barbara Bramble (National Wildlife Federation, USA); Bill Holmberg (American Council on Renewable Energy /ACORE, USA); Suzanne Hunt (Worldwatch Institute, USA); Juergen Maier (German NGO Forum on Environment & Development, Germany); Roberto Smeraldi (Amigos da Terra - Amazônia Brasileira, Brazil); Annie Sugrue (CURES, South Africa).

It is currently being ably managed by Barbara Bramble (l in photo) and produced by Richard Forrest (r) and Daniel Gillman (c) of the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. I visited them in their offices and was impressed by their dedication to making the Bioenergy WIKI a communal resource that would bring diverse stakeholders to a common repository of information. Aside from an online glossary and hierachical set of technical definitions, the website has newsfeeds from some of the most respected bioenergy websites and blogs. It also features an events area for tracking upcoming conferences around the world.

It is an important communications component of the American Council of Renewable Energy's Biomass Coordinating Council chaired by Bill Holmberg. One task of the group is to get its many members to write content for the WIKI as well as raise funds to help finance its maintenance and expansion.

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The BioEnergy WIKI
www.bioenergywiki.net
Building the Knowledge Base for the Future of Bioenergy

Join the BioenergyWiki community, and share your knowledge to promote sustainable bioenergy!

The BioenergyWiki was developed in cooperation with the CURES network and an international Steering Committee to serve as a tool to facilitate the sharing of information and views from experts and stakeholders. It is also being used to support the work of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, a multi-stakeholder process to develop international standards for sustainable biofuels production and processing, the Biomass Coordinating Council of The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), and other initiatives and networks.

The website is a “wiki,” which means that users can easily add to and edit the website content and develop a shared repository of knowledge. This wiki can serve as a comprehensive hub for sharing updated information in the months and years ahead, on technologies, policies, events, news, key organizations, and other resources.

We encourage you to visit this website to learn more about bioenergy, share your knowledge, and continue to refine the sustainability criteria for bioenergy.

technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, agriculture, forestry

25x'25 Summit pressures U.S. Congress to act

The 25x'25 alliance held its 3rd annual summit at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington D.C. packing numerous networking opportunities between solid conference sessions, stimulating speeches, and advocacy education. After a congressional breakfast held on Capitol Hill, attendees fanned out to contact their local congressmen about the needs of a concerned nation for agriculture and forestry policy legislation and reforms that will enable renewable energy to flourish.

At the heart of the summit is the 25x'25 Action Plan (see below). A detailed summary of the presentations is available for review and comment at the 25x'25 blog site.

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25x'25 Action Plan: Charting America's Energy Future

25x’25 Vision
By the year 2025, America’s farms, ranches and forests will provide 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States, while continuing to produce safe, abundant and aff ordable food, feed and fiber.

(T)he 25x’25 Steering Committee has assembled the following recommendations for accelerating the transition to America’s renewable energy future:

• Increasing production of renewable energy
• Delivering renewable energy to markets
• Expanding renewable energy markets
• Improving energy effi ciency and productivity
• Strengthening conservation of natural resources and the environment

To deliver the economic, security and environmental benefits of renewable energy to all Americans, 25x’25 is proposing that the government increase funding for programs to meet the 25x’25 goal by $13 billion annually and $66 billion over the next fi ve years. This taxpayer investment in renewable energy will yield substantial benefi ts for all Americans by putting the country on the path to create $700 billion in new economic development, reducing dependence on imported oil by 10 percent and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 1 billion tons.

"The 25x'25 Plan provides constructive ideas that Congress should consider, and I am proud to support its objectives." --Senator Lugar

"Any good plan that cleans up our air, secures our energy supply, helps make us energy independent and puts a few bucks in the back pockets of farmers and ranchers deserves our attention." --Senator Tester

"Helping the United States becoming more focused on home-grown, renewable energy and less reliant on foreign sources of oil is one of the most important things Congress will work on this year." --Senator Grassley

technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, agriculture, forestry, legislation

The Canadian action plan against the Mountain Pine Beetle

Previous posted was an article about beetle infestations and how they were ravaging forests and wildlife habitats - Will dead trees revive forest industries?.

The British Columbia government in concert with BC Hydro (the primary electricity provider of the province have published their Mountain Beetle Action Plan. In concert with that, they have issued the following press release...

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PROVINCE AND BC HYDRO LAUNCH BIOENERGY CALL PROCESS

VANCOUVER – In support of the BC Energy Plan, BC Hydro today launched the Bioenergy call process with a Request for Expressions of Interest to assess the potential of using wood fibre for power production. This Bioenergy Call will help meet the Province’s goal of making British Columbia a leader in clean energy.

BC Hydro is asking for preliminary proposals in order to identify potential projects that will generate electricity from wood fibre fuel sources such as beetle-killed timber, sawmill residue and logging debris.

“The BC Energy Plan recognizes the enormous potential to build on British Columbia’s natural bioenergy resource advantages,” said Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Richard Neufeld. “The steps BC Hydro is taking today will help us meet our goal of electricity self-sufficiency and secure B.C.’s position as a leader in Canada for the use of biomass for energy.”

“Energy production is an innovative way to use mountain pine beetle-damaged timber,” Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman said. “It helps to recover the value of the dead wood and creates a viable energy opportunity.”

“BC Hydro is committed to finding new, clean, renewable sources of power for British Columbians and we see wood fibre as one of the many potential sources of this clean energy,” said BC Hydro CEO Bob Elton. “Another potential benefit of these bioenergy projects is that they will provide us with firm power which we can schedule to use at times when we most need the electricity.”

B.C.’s new Energy Plan requires that at least 90 per cent of electricity come from clean, renewable resources. BC Hydro’s 2007 Bioenergy Call for Power will help address the surplus of wood residue.

The deadline for expressions of interest to be filed with BC Hydro is April 17, 2007. For more information, go to >www.bchydro.com/2007bioenergy.

technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, beetle, forestry

Why ethanol from wood makes sense

Taking a page from the urban waste management handbook, it is time to start thinking about a wood biostock hierarchy for the production of bioenergy. What wood, that isn't already being recycled, would we seek to use in biorefineries designed to convert wood into bioenergy? In what profile order would we seek woody biostock?

At the bottom of the pyramid would be wood industry residues and black liquor. They are part of the status quo - the waste of manufacturers that have long used them for cogenerating electricity.

Next would be wood waste that never makes it into the factory - including construction and demolition wood waste from municipal resorting facilities. Above that would be cleared unbrush and perhaps yard trimmings that isn't being composted. Next might be dead or diseased trees that represent a forestry health or fire hazard unless extracted and converted to bioenergy. Follow that with tree thinnings to prevent overgrown forests. Next would come fast growing "energy trees" developed, planted, and harvested for the specific purpose of producing bioenergy efficiently.

There are plenty of sources of wood that would be suitable short of logging live trees for the sake of producing renewable energy. Below are excerpts from an article found at the online version of The Economist on why wood looks attractive as a biostock for producing biofuels...

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Woodstock Revisited
Could new techniques for producing ethanol make old-fashioned trees the biofuel of the future?
from the online version of The Economist

Why use trees, rather than maize or sugar cane, as a feedstock for ethanol? Because “treethanol” has the potential to be much more energy efficient. The ratio of the energy yielded by a given amount of ethanol to the energy needed to produce it is called the “energy balance”. The energy balance for ethanol made from maize is the subject of much controversy, but America's energy department puts it at 1.3; in other words, the ethanol yields 30% more energy than was needed to produce it. For ethanol made from sugar cane in Brazil, the energy balance is 8.3, according to the International Energy Agency.

But for ethanol made from trees, grasses and other types of biomass which contain a lot of cellulose, the energy balance can be as high as 16, at least in theory. In practice the problem is that producing such “cellulosic” ethanol is much more difficult and expensive than producing it from other crops. But the science, technology and economics of treethanol are changing fast. Researchers are racing to develop ways to chip, ferment, distill and refine wood quickly and cheaply.

Trees are a particularly promising feedstock because they grow all year round, require vastly less fertiliser and water and contain far more carbohydrates (the chemical precursors of ethanol) than food crops do.

Grass, trees and other biomass feedstocks consist of a mixture of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, a tough material that helps plants keep their shape. Two large producers of industrial enzymes—Genencor, an American firm, and Novozymes, from Denmark—are working to reduce the cost of cellulase enzymes, which can break down cellulose, to below $0.10 per gallon of ethanol. For its part, Diversa is developing enzymes capable of breaking down hemicellulose. One approach, says Mr Shonsey, is to tweak the structure of existing enzymes to try to make them work better. Another approach is “bio-prospecting”—looking for natural enzymes in unusual places, such as in the stomachs of wood-eating termites.

Even if the right cocktails of enzymes can be found, sceptics say treethanol will still have several problems to overcome. In particular, trees take much longer to grow than grass or food crops—so it might make more sense to make cellulosic ethanol from fast-growing grasses, or the leftover biomass from food crops. Some environmentalists worry that having struggled for years to protect forests from overexploitation, demand for biofuels could undermine their efforts.

One idea is to create new, fast-growing trees to address this problem, either through careful breeding or genetic modification. A team led by Vincent Chiang, a biologist at North Carolina State University, is investigating the production of ethanol from genetically modified trees, with funding from America's Department of Agriculture. “Our preliminary results clearly point out that transgenic wood can drastically improve ethanol-production economics,” says Dr Chiang.

A tree's rate of growth is limited by its lignin structure, which is what determines the tree's strength and form. Trees containing less lignin and more cellulose would both grow faster and also produce more ethanol. Some transgenic trees of this kind are being tested in America. Dr Chiang and his colleagues are also looking at ways to modulate the genes that determine the structure of a tree's sugar-containing hemicelluloses in order to make the breakdown and fermentation processes more efficient.

technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, forestry

Will dead trees revive forest industries?

Whether or not global warming is responsible for creating the dry conditions that are conducive to the proliferation of bark and pine beetle infestations, there have been devastating blights in recent years affecting trees and wildlife throughout parts of Canada and the U.S.

Who in Southern California can forget the fearsom "Old Fire" that claimed 993 homes in an area surrounding Big Bear Lake in November 2003? Mornings broke with the fear that the fire would reach the bark beetle infested dead trees that surrounded the famous resort area. According to a website produced by the San Bernardino County Museum, if it had "the dry trees would burn faster and hotter than living trees within any given stand. Standing dead trees can burn to a crown fire. Whether or not the crown fire of a dead tree will be transferred to the surrounding living trees depends on the proximity of the live trees to the dead trees and the other conditions at the time of the fire."

As it was, the breadth of the fire devasted the habitats of flora and fauna of great variety - including many endangered species. The sun was blotted out with the release of carbon gases and particulate matter ending decades of relatively heathful air quality.

Removal of dead trees must become a priority if we are to reduce the kindling-like potential of the problem. Thinning dense forests and removing overgrown underbrush will serve to mitigate the threat of forest fires. The waste wood - unusable as lumber - would make a suitable source of biostock for clean biomass-to-liquids and biomass-to-electricity conversion facilities that could provide economic financing for the important work at hand.

That is where the declining forestry industries of pulp, paper and wood manufacturing have an opportunity. They are the experts at using wood waste as feedstock for renewable electricity facilities. New technologies would improve on the old combustion Tomlinson boiler models. They could build gasification and pyrolysis facilities to capture the greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter. Some of the resulting syngas could be converted into biofuels, ethanol, and green chemicals to replace fossil fuels.

Here is a recent story from the Vancouver Sun showing that British Columbia is engaged in a RFP process to identify clean, wood-to-electricity solutions to fund the bark beetle infestation problem.

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Beetle-damaged pine forests eyed as electricity source
Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, March 09, 2007

The British Columbia government is looking to tap into the “enormous potential” of bioenergy through development of new wood-fired electricity generation projects in remote and hard-hit regions of the province.

Energy Minister Richard Neufeld and Forests Minister Rich Coleman announced today a “bioenergy call” assessing the potential of using wood fibre for power production.

The ministers envision development of northern B.C generating facilities fueled by beetle-killed pine and non-commercial and waste wood, helping the province achieve its stated goal of energy self-sufficiency by 2016.

Neufeld said there’s as much potential for power generation from wood fibre as a half-dozen major hydroelectric projects the size of the Site C dam proposed for the Peace River.

“Energy production is an innovative way to use mountain pine beetle-damaged timber,” Coleman said in a prepared statement. “It helps to recover the value of the dead wood and creates a viable energy opportunity.”
----------------------

One company that is providing a means for the clean conversion of wood waste to biofuels is Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation of Vancouver, British Columbia. Using emissions control fast pyrolysis technologies, they can convert dead wood into commercial grade BioOil for fueling industrial equipment and char which could be used to fertilize topsoil. They recently announced the commissioning of its biofuel plant in Guelph, Ontario, Canada that will use dry biomass as a feedstock.

Other contenders would include some of the many cellulosic ethanol technologies that are mentioned in the round-up published in the BIOconversion Blog.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, forestry, beetles

February 2007 Digest

The IPCC finally released their long-awaited summary of findings on global warming. Al Gore's movie won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Does that mean that people are finally convinced of the truth about global warming? Does it matter?

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the state of the atmosphere without having to declare one way or the other on the issue of global warming. Living in Los Angeles, raising a daughter with lifelong battles with allergies, bronchial congestion, and asthmatic inhalers, I am more concerned with particulate matter and reactive organic gases than I am about gradual global temperature increases due to greenhouse gas. No one has to convince me that we need to act now to clean up the air we breathe.

As ACORE attests, a welcome consequence of a switch to renewable fuels is that we will move closer to a carbon-neutral balance for our atmosphere. If we can simultaneously reduce our mountains of decaying trash and fire-prone wood waste to produce biofuels through bioconversion, so much the better for our environment.

BIOstock Blog--------------
• SunOpta goes global with steam explosion biomass pre-treatment
• Wood beats corn stover in U.S. cellulosic ethanol race
• "Green Tags" reward Renewable Energy development
• Trees-for-Fuel Biomass Plants Mitigate Fires

BIOconversion Blog--------------
• BP invests in UC Berkeley/UIUC Biosciences Institute
• Banking big on Renewable Energy
• Corn Sugar Fermentation - Educational Videos
• Wood beats corn stover in U.S. cellulosic ethanol race
• Online game is a Climate Challenge
• U.S. DOE backs funding of six cellulosic ethanol biorefinery projects

BIOoutput Blog--------------
• The IPCC Report solution? Renewable Energy.
• Green Options is the place to be
• California's Transportation Action Plan targets 2020
• INDY 500: Drivers, start your ethanol-fueled engine
• Clean and Efficient Biogas Fuel Cells

BIOwaste Blog--------------
• PyroGenesis' BIOwaste Conversion Systems
• Small Town with a BIG green vision
• Green Options for Recycled Paper

Each month we provide a similar breakdown of article titles from our favorite "companion" site - Biopact Blog. This list is kept current and is accessible in the right hand column of each of the three blogs.

Please forward a link to this digest to anyone you know who would be interested in keeping track of change that will affect us all. They can add their name to the mailing list on the BioConversion Blog.


technorati digest, biofuels, conversion, bioenergy, cellulosic, feedstock, ethanol

Trees-for-Fuel Biomass Plants Mitigate Fires

Of the three major renewable energy processes under scrutiny today - wind, solar, and biomass - only biomass conversion offers the benefit of increasing control over an existing source of greenhouse gases. By reducing forest fires, wood industries can mitigate hundreds of combined tons/day of not only CO, NOx and SOx emissions but also the toxic reactive organic gases and particulate matter. Of course, the impact of saving wildlife and their habitats is beyond valuation.

The U.S. Congress is recognizing this benefit in concert with the need to provide incentives for the forestry industry to help add to our carbon-neutral energy production. For this reason, they reauthorized a federal energy production tax credit to aid in plant capitalization.

A recent article in the Washington Post reports on the decision by one company, (Rough & Ready Lumber Co. of O'Brien, Oregon) to construct a $5 million plant to burn logging debris while co-producing electricity for its regional power grid. Here is part of the Associated Press article...

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Fire Danger Fuels Trees-For-Fuel Plans
By JEFF BARNARD, the Associated Presss

The idea of burning wood waste _ known as hog fuel _ to produce energy at wood products and pulp mills is an old one that was going nowhere as long as fossil fuels were cheap, and logging was cut back to protect fish and wildlife habitat.

But leaders in the timber industry realize that energy production can help finance widespread thinning of national forests to combat wildfires and insect infestations. And the concept has a newer, catchier name _ biomass energy _ that helps align it with the wider movement linking economic and environmental concerns, including reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Since Congress reauthorized a federal energy production tax credit for biomass, solar and wind power last month, at least two other sawmills in Oregon are going forward with biomass projects.

Another is slated for Arizona in conjunction with a long-term U.S. Forest Service thinning project there triggered by the massive 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire. More are foreseen in California, which has a long history of generating electricity from forest thinnings.

Steve Mueller, president of DG Energy LLC of San Diego, which is building a new plant in Lakeview, said there are three keys. A generating plant needs to be close to the fuel _ trucking little trees much more than 35 miles is too expensive. It must be close to a major electrical transmission line. And it needs to be close to a mill to buy the excess steam.

Plants burning forest thinnings and waste from lumber and pulp mills generate about 2,500 megawatts nationally _ far behind wind power in production, popularity and government support _ said Bill Carlson, chairman of USA Biomass Power Producers Alliance.

Burning mill waste and logging debris, which formerly had gone to waste, can reduce the cost of thinning the millions of acres of national forest at high risk of catastrophic wildfire.

"We are giving the forester, the manager of the land, another economic tool to work with, whether it is to thin the forest, remove disease, or just for general economic activity," said Allyn Ford, president of Roseburg Forest Products, which already has a biomass generator at its mill complex in Dillard, Ore.

"When you compare the value of the electricity to the value of restoring the health of the forest, I would say restoring the health of the forest is at least as valuable as the energy that is produced," Carlson said.

A report for the Western Governors Association estimates biomass in the West has a potential to produce more than 10,000 megawatts _ about 1 percent of the nation's production by 2015. About half would come from forest thinning. The rest from urban waste and agriculture.

For now, the grants and tax credits make construction of a biomass plant too good to pass up, making it possible to pay back the estimated $5 million investment in four years instead of 10, said Phillippi of Rough & Ready Lumber.

"These plants were always unaffordable because of our size," said Phillippi. But with the grants and tax credits, "It looked pretty good. We went ahead and did it. We're glad we did."

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The second half of the article is available here.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, forestry

"Green Tags" reward Renewable Energy development

Now you can add green tags to the asset side of your renewable electricity business plan spreadsheet.

For many renewable energy developers, "green tags" will provide a necessary financial assurance that may mean the difference between proposal acceptance or rejection by investors. Under the green tag scenario, renewable electricity generated from a biomass waste-to-energy facility, wind farm, geothermal, hydroelectric plant, or solar array will earn valuable Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that can be sold in the open market as an additional source of income. It also provides state legislatures that don't already sponsor a green tag program a way of supporting the financing and deployment of these facilities.

For electricity producers, green tags are a counterpart to carbon credits - which is a program that allow countries that have accrued credits for sequestering carbon to sell their credits on the open market to countries that produce too much carbon under the Kyoto Treaty. Many major electric utilities have begun buying the electricity from renewable producers to reduce their deficit in credits or to otherwise comply with their state's environmental and energy programs.

According to Wikipedia:

Green tags, also known as Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are a market mechanism that represent the environmental benefits associated with generating electricity from renewable energy sources. Rather than functioning as a tax on pollution-causing electricity generators, as traditional carbon emissions trading programs do, green tags function as a non-governmental subsidy on pollution-free electricity generators.

In states which have a green tag program, a green energy provider (such as a wind farm) is credited with one green tag for every 1000kWh of electricity it produces. A certifying agency gives each green tag a unique identification number to make sure it doesn't get double-counted. The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid (by mandate), and the accompanying green tag can then be sold on the open market.

How do you participate in a green tag program? The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has collaborated with the ABA and the Environmental Markets Association (EMA) to develop a flexible, technology neutral certificate that will be easy to implement throughout every U.S. jurisdiction. Here is part of their latest press release:

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ACORE Announces Publication of New Master Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement

Washington, D.C. - The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), the Renewable Energy Resources Committee and Special Committee on Energy and Environmental Finance of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, and the Environmental Markets Association (EMA) announced the release of the long-anticipated standard form contract for national trading of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) also known as "green tags". The Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement is now available for online viewing.

Individuals and companies can use renewable resources to improve the environment by minimizing their own "carbon footprint." Even if people are far from the renewable resource, through this agreement, they can acquire the renewable attributes of such energy no matter where they are located in the national energy grid without incurring transmission costs.

Michael Eckhart, President of ACORE, stated, "This is an important step in creating a national system for REC trading, which will be essential to monetizing the environmental benefits of renewable energy and building those values into the long-term financing of the projects."

Active RECs markets maximize cost-effective resource allocation and allow states to implement aggressive renewable portfolio standard targets while minimizing increases in costs for electricity to consumers and businesses.

"This contract is intended as infrastructure, or a paved road, to help buyers and sellers transact, foster market mechanisms to promote renewable resource development and, perhaps most importantly, stave off potential balkanization of U.S. RECs markets. The contract is technology neutral, usable in both the voluntary and compliance markets, and legally robust regardless of American jurisdiction. This is release 1.0, and we look forward to monitoring legal and market developments to keep the contract current," said Jeremy Weinstein, Co-Chair of the working group.

The Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement can be viewed on ACORE's website.

technorati BIOblog, green tags, RECs, electricity, legislation

Wood beats corn stover in U.S. cellulosic ethanol race

We knew it was coming. Vinod Khosla has finally made a bold move to back up industry-wide speculation that cellulosic ethanol would soon emerge as the next phase in ethanol production. The surprise is that wood would be the feedstock of choice given the vast headstart of corn-based biorefineries in the country and the obvious synergy of basing corn stover conversion technologies near sugar fermentation plants.

However, the high energy potential of wood cellulose, the ready availability of cheap waste, and the search for a renaissance of forestry-based industries makes the announcement a welcome one to the "nation's woodpile" in the southeastern states.

Here is an abridged version of the press release issued by Range Fuels, Inc. (formerly Kergy, Inc.)...

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Khosla's Range Fuels to build woody cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia

Range Fuels, Inc., a cellulosic ethanol company, today announced it will build its first ethanol plant in Treutlen County, Georgia. Founded by Menlo Park, California-based Khosla Ventures, Range Fuels estimates that this plant – combined with others to follow – will have the capacity to produce over 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year. The first plant will create over 70 new jobs for the area.

Wood waste from the state’s millions of acres of indigenous Georgia Pine will be the main source of biomass for the ethanol production.

While most domestic ethanol production requires corn as a feedstock, Range Fuels' proprietary process does not. It also completely eliminates the use of enzymes, which have been an expensive component of traditional cellulosic ethanol production. Its innovative and proprietary technology transforms otherwise useless products such as wood chips, agricultural wastes, grasses, and cornstalks as well as hog manure, municipal garbage, sawdust and paper pulp into ethanol through a thermo-chemical conversion process. The company's system, K2, uses a two step process to convert biomass to a synthetic gas and from there, convert the gas to ethanol.

“The state of Georgia has provided us with an excellent opportunity to use its abundant renewable natural resources to help solve fuel issues for the country,” said Mitch Mandich, Range Fuels CEO. “Thanks to Georgia’s environmentally sensitive stewardship of its forests for the past 50 years, Range Fuels can take what is traditionally considered a waste product, and turn it into a source of transportation fuel.”

“The production of cellulosic ethanol represents not only a step toward true energy diversity for the country, but a very cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels. It is advanced weaponry in the war on oil,” said Vinod Khosla, managing partner of Khosla Ventures, who recently told a Reuters Global Biofuels Summit that he could see cellulosic fuel prices sinking to $1 per gallon within 10 years.

technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, cellulosic, Khosla, forestry

SunOpta goes global with steam explosion biomass pre-treatment

Abengoa's Spanish facility for converting cereal straw to ethanol.

SunOpta Inc. is leading the development and commercial deployment of cellulosic feedstock pre-treatment for the production of ethanol. Their steam explosion technology will help developers preprocess cellulosic biomass feedstock of various kinds to produce ethanol.

The globally diverse projects involve diverse feedstock - woodchips (in Japan and Canada), corn stover (in China), sugar cane bagasse (in Louisiana, U.S.A.), and wheat straw (in Spain).

SunOpta’s Staketech Division is a world leader in the preparation, pretreatment, steam explosion and extraction of value added compounds from plant biomass material. In steam explosion, biomass fiber are exposed to a high pressure steam (typically 200-450 psig) for 1 to 10 minutes. The resulting product is then explosively discharged to an atmospheric pressure.

Batch steam explosion processing is almost 75-years-old. Batch processing, however, had some limitations, and was difficult to optimize. One of SunOpta’s breakthroughs was the development of a continuous steam explosion process that supports a higher processing temperature and reduces the residence time. The process greatly reduces and in many cases eliminates the chemicals associated with current industrial practice, according to the company. - Green Car Congress

They have also announced a deal with China Resources Alcohol Corporation to help them produce cellulosic ethanol in large quantites from corn stover:

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Sunopta Updates Current Cellulosic Ethanol Projects

China Resources Alcohol Corporation (CRAC)

CRAC has announced their intention to construct sufficient cellulosic ethanol facilities to generate 330 million gallons of ethanol by 2012. SunOpta provided its patented systems and technology to CRAC in September 2006 and the plant began production of ethanol from local corn stover in October 2006. This facility is reported to be the first cellulosic ethanol production facility operational in the People's Republic of China. The SunOpta system is currently operating on a continuous basis and steps are currently being taken to scale the SunOpta process up to full commercial levels for use in future plants in China.

China has committed $5 billion to cellulosic ethanol production and recently announced that they would allow no further increase in ethanol production from starch (corn), due to the needs for starch as food. China's announcement illustrates the "Food vs. Fuel" issue, which continues to be a key driver for cellulosic ethanol worldwide, together with concerns regarding the impact of the world's "addiction to oil" on the environment and energy security.


technorati BIOblog, BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, pretreatment, cellulosic

January 2007 Digest

The Renewable Industrial Revolution

After more than 150 years, the Industrial Revolution is overdue for a major retooling. No longer can we heedlessly combust biomass and fossil resources without consideration for the carbon emissions and potential energy that "floats out the smokestack." But what can possibly replace the status quo paradigm that we have based so much of our energy, industry, transportation, and lifestyle liberties upon?

This BIO "BlogRing" - BIOstock Blog, BIOconversion Blog, BIOoutput Blog, and the new BIOwaste Blog - is intended to help identify the multi-faceted pieces of emerging biomass technologies. - is intended to help identify the multi-faceted pieces of emerging biomass technologies. Like a Rubik's cube, the parts are inextricably linked together, but currently in disarray. By addressing each facet independently, challenging issues will become clear. By shifting perspective, new collaborative solutions can be synthesized. Not just one solution but many, because the ultimate solution for any market will depend upon the resources, ecology, and stakeholders of that market.

Here are their most significant developments of January 2007, organized by blog...

BIOstock Blog--------------
• Utilizing Pine Beetle Wood Waste as BIOstock
• Japanese wood-to-ethanol facility uses Arkenol process
• CHINA: Choosing wood over corn for biofuels production
• Low heat gasification converts woody biostock to energy
• 25x'25 Vision of BIOstock Supply
• Food vs. Fuel: Over-reliance on Corn Raises Ag Prices
• Celunol produces Ethanol from Wood using Bacteria
• BIOethanol converted from pulping liquor
• Food vs. Fuel? U.S. Farmers Can Produce Both
• Black Liquor Gasification Technology Attracts Volvo Investment

BIOconversion Blog--------------
• Biomass: Year-in-Review
• Biomass Power Generation using Gasification
• ALT Energy Stocks: The Future of Ethanol
• FLORIDA: Cultivating a Bioconversion Industry
• Low heat gasification technique to convert biostock to energy
• Europe's "New Industrial Revolution"
• Celunol launches commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Japan
• Cellulose Ethanol Market Potential Report
• ACORE: President Bush on Renewable Energy in 2007
• Apollo Alliance pursues 'green-collar' jobs
• Ethanol and Net Energy - EROI
• The Renewable Path to Energy Security

BIOoutput Blog-----------------
• FAQ: BIOoutput Blog
• "Living with Ed" Begley, Jr. in Studio City
• CALIFORNIA: Governor Targets Fuel Emissions
• Electric cars - a boost for biofuels?
• CHINA: Pollution threatens 2008 Olympics
• BioButanol from Cellulosic Bioconversion
• From Food to Fuel to Fashion

NEW! BIOwaste Blog-----------------
• FAQ: BIOwaste Blog
• Spinning “Gold” Out of Trash
• Southern California Emerging Waste Technologies Forum
• The Benefits of Conversion Technologies
• Recycling’s “China Syndrome”
• Plasma Gasification and Incineration Compared
• CANADA: Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Options
• CHINA: Pollution threatens 2008 Olympics
• Using Algae to Recycle Flue Gas into Biofuels
• U.S. D.O.E.: Strategies for Reducing Greenhouse Gases
• CALIFORNIA: Air Resources Board tackles Global Warming
• Impact of Global Growth on Carbon Emissions
• Enforcing California's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Limits
• BIOwaste Energy as Explained on the Energy Kid's Page
• Expanded Recycling - a Key to Cutting Fossil Fuels and Global Warming
• Mayors seek $4B to fight Energy & Environmental Challenges
• MIT/PNNL Plasma Arc Waste-to-ethanol Solution

Each month we provide a similar breakdown of article titles from our favorite "companion" site - Biopact Blog. This list is kept current and is accessible in the right hand column of each of the three blogs.

Please forward a link to this digest to anyone you know who would be interested in keeping track of change that will affect us all. They can add their name to the mailing list on the BioConversion Blog.


technorati digest, biofuels, conversion, bioenergy, cellulosic, feedstock, ethanol

Black Liquor Gasification Technology Attracts Volvo Investment

Green Car Congress has run an article about an investment Volvo is making to help speed up the development of renewable fuels for the heavy vehicle industry.

They cite a Volvo Technology Transfer announcement and a report on the process developed by Chemrec AB of Sweden entitled Technical and Commercial Feasibility Study of Black Liquor Gasification with Methanol/DME Production as Motor Fuels for Automotive Uses—BLGMF.

Apparently their high-temperature gasification plant has recorded more than 1,100 hours of operating time producing syngas from black liquor.

Below is a snippet of the Green Car Congress article:

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Volvo Invests in Black Liquor Gasification Company

Volvo Technology Transfer AB is investing in Chemrec AB, a company that has developed a technology for gasification of black liquor, a residual product from the pulp industry.

Chemrec has shown that there is an efficient process for converting biomass into renewable fuels. The Volvo Group has no intention of becoming a fuel supplier but wishes instead to continue to conduct engine development on a broad front. On the other hand, we do want to participate in the development of new processes for the production of alternative fuels.
—Anders Brännström, President of Volvo Technology Transfer

Using gasification rather than incineration to dispose of the black liquor creates a number of by-products including synthesis gas. With this synthesis gas it is possible to utilize known techniques to produce a range of vehicle fuels such as methanol, DME (dimethyl ether), Fischer-Tropsch synthetic diesel and hydrogen gas.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, forestry, gasification

Food vs. Fuel? U.S. Farmers Can Produce Both

The Biotechnology Industry Organization has released a study that addresses the question “Can American farmers feed the growing biofuel industry?” The report details the potential of cellulosic biomass as an energy resource and the promise of no-till cropping for greater residue collection. It also proposes guidelines and incentives to encourage farmers to produce, harvest and deliver sufficient feedstock to the growing biorefinery and biofuels industry in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, said, “Industrial biotechnology has enhanced the efficiency of biofuel production and made possible production of a range of polymers and chemicals from agricultural starting materials. The next challenge facing the biorefinery industry is producing, harvesting and delivering abundant feedstocks in an economically and environmentally sustainable fashion. This report begins to address that issue.”

Here are some statements from the report's Executive Summary:

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Food Plus Fuel, Not Food or Fuel: U.S. Farmers Can Produce Both
The potential of cellulosic biomass as an energy resource and the promise of no-till cropping for greater residue collection.

In order to meet the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goal of 60 billion gallons of ethanol production and 30 percent displacement of petroleum by 2030, new feedstock sources will be required to supplement high-efficiency production from grain. A robust sustainable supply chain for cellulosic biomass from agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops will be needed within a few years. Nearly 1 billion dry tons of cellulosic biomass could be supplied by U.S. agricultural lands in the form of crop residues and dedicated energy crops.

A growing list of companies has announced intentions to begin construction of cellulosic biorefineries. One challenge for the emerging cellulosic biomass industry is how to produce, harvest and deliver this abundant feedstock to biorefineries in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.

An environmental and economic ‘optimum’ removal will balance sufficient retention of residues to avoid erosion losses and maintain soil quality while using excess residue as biorefinery feedstocks.

Ultimately, growing demand for crop residues will likely prove a strong additional driver for the transition to more widespread no-till cropping. Once a market for agricultural residues develops, individual farmers or groups of farmers may elect to adopt no-till cropping to attract biorefineries to their area. Residue collection may also enable notill cropping in wetter regions, such as the northern Corn Belt, where excess residues currently hamper germination and reduce yields.

In addition to economic benefits for farmers, sustainable production and collection of agricultural residues has the potential to deliver substantial benefits for the environment, such as reduced runoff of soil and fertilizers. But the greatest environmental benefits may be to the global climate through reduced emissions of fossil carbon and enhanced sequestration of soil carbon.

Congress should consider adopting supportive policy measures in the 2007 Farm Bill, including:
• Funding for accelerated development and production of one-pass harvesting equipment;
• Development and distribution of simple-to-use soil carbon models to allow farmers to compute how much crop residue can be collected without degrading soil quality;
• Assistance to farmers to encourage the transition to no-till cropping for biomass production;
• Incentives for the development and expansion of short line and regional rail networks;
• Funding for demonstration projects to streamline collection, transport and storage of cellulosic crop residue feedstocks;
• Development of a system to monetize greenhouse gas credits generated by production of ethanol and other products from agricultural feedstocks; and
• Funding for programs to help farmers identify and grow the most suitable crops for both food production and cellulosic biomass production.

Cellulosic biomass from agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops represents a highly promising new source of feedstock material for the production of ethanol, renewable chemicals and a range of commercial biobased products. Residues from existing crops can be utilized to greatly expand current biofuels production. American farmers are poised to deliver.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, agriculture, cellulosic, ethanol, biofuels

BIOethanol converted from pulping liquor

Just in from GRAINNET is a press release about a Wisconsin based-paper manufacturing company replacing their natural gas boilers with a biomass boiler or gasifier. The objective is to produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from the paper plant's spent pulping liquor.

The technology will come from American Process Inc. who claims:

Biorefinery Initiative
American Process Inc. is active in the lignocellulosic biorefinery field. Our proprietary process AVAP (American Value Added Pulping) produces ethanol from wood in an integrated biorefinery application.

This is a good example of the kind of initiative we can expect as forestry industry companies search for ways to reduce waste, mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions, cut costs by becoming more energy self-sufficient - all while providing new revenue streams by capitalizing on the sky-rocketing demand for renewable energy and biofuels. How many WINS is that?

Here is the entire release:

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American Process, Inc. to Provide Engineering Services to Flambeau River Bioenergy's 20 MMGY Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Park Falls, WI

Atlanta, GA and PArk Falls, WI -- Flambeau River Biorefinery, LLC of Wisconsin has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with American Process Inc. of Atlanta, GA to provide project management and engineering services for its cellulosic ethanol project at Park Falls, WI.

The new biorefinery will be constructed adjacent to the Flambeau River Papers facility in Park Falls, WI.

Flambeau River Papers, LLC makes 400 tons per day of book printing and copy grades on three paper machines.

The mill recently announced plans to replace its natural gas boilers with a biomass boiler or gasifier. This will make Flambeau River Papers the first energy independent integrated mill in North America.

The Flambeau River Biorefinery project will be the first modern U.S. based pulp mill biorefinery to produce cellulosic ethanol.

It will be designed to produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from spent pulping liquor. The technology selected for this biorefinery is AVAP(TM), a patent pending process technology of American Process Inc.

This technology enables production of ethanol without putting additional pressure on the wood basket and without fossil fuel consumption.

The new biorefinery, as designed, will have a positive carbon impact of ~140,000 tons per year.

That is, it will displace carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Once in operation, it will increase employment at the Park Falls area by approximately 100 people.

A feasibility study and preliminary engineering were completed in August 2006, when Flambeau River Biorefinery, LLC applied for the Integrated Commercial Biorefinery Demonstration grant from the Department Of Energy.

The production of ethanol expected to begin as early as 2009.

The commercial production of cellulosic ethanol got a boost after Tuesday's announcements in the president's state of the union address that increased the emphasis on domestic renewable fuels production.

The Flambeau River Biorefinery project will be amongst the first industrial co-producers of pulp and ethanol from wood.

Flambeau River Biorefinery, LLC is based out of Park Falls, Wisconsin and is the owner and developer of the pulp and cellulosic ethanol facility to be constructed in Park Fall, Wisconsin.

For more information, call Ben Thorp, Flambeau River Bioenergy, at 804-873-6561


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, ethanol, forestry, cellulosic, biorefinery

Celunol produces Ethanol from Wood using Bacteria

Celunol Corporation out of Dedham, Massachusetts is making good on its commitment to help open commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facilities this year using their proprietary wet biomass conversion technology.

The technology

The sugar in cellulosic biomass is locked up in the form of cellulose and hemicellulose. Cellulose contains glucose, the same type of sugar—a six-carbon (C6) sugar—that is found in cornstarch and that can be fermented to ethanol using conventional yeasts.  However, hemicellulose contains mainly non-glucose sugars—five-carbon (C5) sugars.  Conventional yeasts cannot ferment most non-glucose sugars to ethanol with commercially acceptable yields.

Celunol’s technology enables almost complete conversion of all the sugars found in cellulosic biomass.  This efficiency advantage, combined with the low input cost of cellulosic biomass, results in superior economics in the production of ethanol.

(Its) groundbreaking technology is based on the metabolic engineering of microorganisms. Its key element is a set of genetically engineered strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that are capable of fermenting into ethanol essentially all of the sugars released from many types of cellulosic biomass. This trait enables Celunol to achieve the required efficiency to make the process commercially feasible.

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BioEthanol Japan Begins Production of Cellulosic Ethanol from Wood Scraps; Uses Celunol Technology

BioEthanol Japan on Tuesday became the world’s first company to produce cellulosic ethanol from wood construction waste on a commercial basis.

The plant in Osaka Prefecture has an annual capacity of 1.4 million liters (about 370,000 gallons US). In 2008, it plans to boost production to 4 million liters (1 million gallons).

BioEthanol Japan was established in 2004 by five companies, including construction firm Taisei Corp., major trading house Marubeni Corp., Daiei Inter Nature System, and beermaker Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

Marubeni is supplying the process technology, which it has licensed from US-based Celunol (earlier post), to BioEthanol Japan. Marubeni is also supplying the same technology for a wood ethanol project in Asia, and is also involved in a bioethanol project using sugar cane in Thailand run by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Celunol is a privately held company headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts moving rapidly to commercialize its proprietary technology for producing ethanol from a wide array of cellulosic biomass feedstocks, including bagasse, agricultural waste, wood products and dedicated energy crops.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, BIOconversion, biomass, agriculture, forestry

Food vs. Fuel: Over-reliance on Corn Raises Ag Prices

Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute is a commited advocate for "an environmentally sustainable economy. He has written a book called Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble:

Sustaining our early twenty-first century global civilization now depends on shifting to a renewable energy-based, reuse/recycle economy with a diversified transport system. Business as usual—Plan A—cannot take us where we want to go. It is time for Plan B, time to build a new economy and a new world.

Plan B has three components—(1) a restructuring of the global economy so that it can sustain civilization; (2) an all-out effort to eradicate poverty, stabilize population, and restore hope in order to elicit participation of the developing countries; and (3) a systematic effort to restore natural systems.

Brown has been getting press lately for uncovering what he sees as a gross underestimation of corn demand numbers for the ethanol industry by governmental agencies.

There is clearly a major liability whenever producers or consumers shift precipitously from one energy resource to another. Just this last spring, the decision of oil producers to switch en masse from MTBE to ethanol in large measure precipitated the gasoline price spike.

Unlike Mr. Brown, I don't agree that there needs to be a government crack-down on the licensing of ethanol plants. Let the market "separate the wheat from the chaff."

I believe that a lasting solution is best achieved by diversifying the source of feedstock from a harmful overreliance on a single biostock (corn or sugarcane) to the introduction of new biostocks such as other crops, ag waste, forestry, and urban wastes. For this to occur, we need incentives and regulatory reform for R&D and deployment of more decentralized plants - especially cellulosic ethanol pilot plant scale-ups of promising emerging technologies.

Below is Mr. Brown's alarming account of the unrealistic forecasting being promulgated by the USDA:

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DISTILLERY DEMAND FOR GRAIN TO FUEL CARS VASTLY UNDERSTATED:
World May Be Facing Highest Grain Prices in History
by Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that distilleries will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008 harvest. But ...the Earth Policy Institute (EPI)...estimates that distilleries will need 139 million tons—more than twice as much. If the EPI estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging competition between cars and people for grain will likely drive world grain prices to levels never seen before....

According to the EPI compilation, the 116 plants in production on December 31, 2006, were using 53 million tons of grain per year, while the 79 plants under construction—mostly larger facilities—will use 51 million tons of grain when they come online. Expansions of 11 existing plants will use another 8 million tons of grain (1 ton of corn = 39.4 bushels = 110 gallons of ethanol).

In addition, easily 200 ethanol plants were in the planning stage at the end of 2006. If these translate into construction starts between January 1 and June 30, 2007, at the same rate that plants did during the final six months of 2006, then an additional 3 billion gallons of capacity requiring 27 million more tons of grain will likely come online by September 1, 2008, the start of the 2008 harvest year. This raises the corn needed for distilleries to 139 million tons, half the 2008 harvest projected by USDA. This would yield nearly 15 billion gallons of ethanol, satisfying 6 percent of U.S. auto fuel needs. (And this estimate does not include any plants started after June 30, 2007, that would be finished in time to draw on the 2008 harvest.)

This unprecedented diversion of the world’s leading grain crop to the production of fuel will affect food prices everywhere. As the world corn price rises, so too do those of wheat and rice, both because of consumer substitution among grains and because the crops compete for land. Both corn and wheat futures were already trading at 10-year highs in late 2006.

With corn supplies tightening fast, rising prices will affect not only products made directly from corn, such as breakfast cereals, but also those produced using corn, including milk, eggs, cheese, butter, poultry, pork, beef, yogurt, and ice cream. The risk is that soaring food prices could generate a consumer backlash against the fuel ethanol industry.

We need to make sure that in trying to solve one problem—our dependence on imported oil—we do not create a far more serious one: chaos in the world food economy.


technorati BIOblog, BIOstock, biomass, agriculture, forestry, decentralization

25x'25 Vision of BIOstock Supply

The 25x'25 Alliance lobbies Congress on behalf of the producers of agricultural and forestry feedstock producers in the United States. Its purpose is to explore agriculture and forestry’s role in helping the nation meet its energy needs. After canvasing the opinions of hundreds of producers and dozens of agricultural associations it formulated a target:

By the year 2025, America’s farms, ranches and forests will provide 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States from renewable sources, while continuing to produce safe, abundant and affordable supplies of food, feed, and fiber. This goal will be met by producing bio-based fuels for transportation, harnessing wind energy, capturing and converting sunlight into energy, converting agricultural wastes and by-products into energy sources, and growing biomass for energy production.

It has a rapidly growing number of members ranging from the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union to the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense. The 25x’25 vision has been endorsed by the “Big 3” U.S. automobile manufacturers, Deere & Company, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and the National Wildlife Federation. Others include the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Biodiesel Board and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Below is some of the testimony provided to the Sentate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry on January 10, 2007.

Total Energy Feedstock Quantities Produced



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Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry
Hearing on Agriculture and Rural America's Role in Enhancing National Energy Security
Testimony of J. READ SMITH, STEERING COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR, 25X’25 RENEWABLE ENERGY ALLIANCE

We represent a diverse collection of endorsing partners,
Our vision is a food, feed, fiber and fuel vision. With emerging technologies and appropriate policies, agriculture can produce multiple commodities. In 2005, we tested this vision with leaders representing all aspects of production agriculture and forestry. Their response was overwhelmingly positive. By the end of the year, we had secured endorsements from nearly 80 national and regional entities.

Forest residues, mill wastes and small-diameter trees from thinning forests to reduce the risk of forest fires comprise the woody biomass feedstocks evaluated in the study. The nation has over 400 million acres of privately owned forest land, with over 40 million of these acres in plantation forests. This forest resource could provide additional woody feedstocks. A follow-up study focusing on these specific feedstocks is planned.

We recognize that our partners in animal agriculture are experiencing significant price increases in many of their primary feedstocks. Even as demand for ethanol increases, the corn yield curve is increasing at an accelerated rate, due to advances in biotechnology and improved cropping practices. There are strong indications that as corn demand continues to increase, because of ethanol production, some acreage may be shifted in the short term to corn and away from other crops. Accelerated research and development is needed to help address the concerns of the livestock sector, particularly relative to the use of distiller grains and other challenges.



In the coming weeks, as you once again take up Farm Bill legislation, we urge you to ensure that the Energy Title is structured and funded commensurate with the challenge and opportunity facing the nation and our farmers, ranchers and forest land managers. In February we will be releasing the 25x’25 Implementation Plan, and we look forward to sharing these recommendations with you and the Members of this Committee.


technorati 25x'25, biofuels, conversion, bioenergy, agriculture, feedstock, legislation, forestry