Nov 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ryan Schuster Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

Attendees of an Empower North Dakota Commission meeting Tuesday at the Energy and Environmental Research Center at UND heard, among other things, about the untapped potential and challenges of biomass.

Biomass one day may power our homes and fuel our vehicles through the use of organic materials such as wood chips, stalks and leftover plant materials from farmers' crops, waste materials and grasses. But when that may happen on a large scale and when the process becomes more refined and cost-effective is another question.

"We're going through a transition," said North Dakota State University extension service engineer Ken Hellevang. "Corn ethanol probably is not going to fulfill all our needs 15 to 20 years from now. We probably will be using new technology, but we unfortunately have to step our way through it."

Chris Zygarlicke, associate director for research at EERC, said biomass is not likely to be used by large utilities for power generation unless tax incentives or federal mandates take hold. Zygarlicke also mentioned the expensive cost of shipping much of the loose organic material used to make fuel and electricity.

But the potential for biomass still could be bright and far-reaching.

Producing cellulosic ethanol from green materials instead of ethanol currently made from corn is one goal.

"It is a lot more expensive than corn ethanol," Zygarlicke said. "But everyone thinks we will need to go to cellulosic ethanol if the ethanol industry keeps going, and we get enough cars to run on ethanol."

A current EERC project with GF Truss aims to convert wood scraps and sawdust into heat and to produce electricity to be added to the grid.

Another EERC area of study is developing a synthetic military jet fuel, to mimic JP-8 jet fuel, from plant materials.

The EERC is more than six months into a $5 million project with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the central research and development organization of the Department of Defense, to produce synthetic jet fuel from crop oils.

The EERC also is working on a project with the Air Force producing biojet fuel derived from crop oils, which includes testing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

But attendees at the commission meeting were reminded that biomass is just one piece of the renewable puzzle.

"We need to remember that biomass fits in with other things," said Brendan Jordan of the Great Plains Institute. "There is no silver bullet."