Biomass is Mixing it Up
March 17, 2010
Salvatore Salamone
Biomass energy generation seems poised to compete with solar, wind, and
even hydro in some regions as a source of renewable energy.
Currently, biomass energy accounts for only a small percent of the total
electricity produced in the United States. But with Department of Energy
prodding and funding, its use is expected to double each year for the
foreseeable future. And some believe biomass might supply anywhere from
5 to 15 percent of U.S. power needs by 2030.
Already there are a number of biomass power plants across the country
that burn agricultural waste to generate electricity and some
conventional power plants mix a small amount of biomass in with coal to
reduce emissions.
Globally, the situation is similar with new biomass generation plant
projects being undertaken on a regular basis. For example, in late
December, the Chinese company A-Power Energy Generation Systems signed
an $86 million contract with Biomass Electricity, a Thai biomass
company, to build a 150-megawatt biomass plant in Thailand. The company
signed similar deals to build plants in Pakistan and in several regions
of China.
To date, much of the debate about biomass generation has focused on
which crops, plants or trees to use. Currently, switchgrass is getting
lots of attention. However, as more generation facilities come online,
another issue is emerging. Namely, how do you devise systems to handle,
in an eco¬nomical manner, the huge volumes of biomass that will be
required for power generation?
"Establishing systems for handling the amount of biomass needed to feed
energy generation stations is a gigantic undertaking," said Jude Liu,
assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Penn
State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Liu recently received $100,000
from the Sun Grant Initiative funded by the Departments of
Transportation, Energy and Agriculture to study the logistics associated
with using massive quantities of biomass.
Beyond the Sun Grant Initiative work, there are many other efforts
focusing on this matter. One such effort involves the Idaho National
Laboratory and a variety of industrial partners working with the
Department of Energy on its Biomass Program.
The DOE program focuses on feedstock logistics and its main areas of
research and development include harvest and collection, preprocessing,
storage and queuing, and handling and transportation. For example, when
it comes to harvesting and collection, the program is looking to develop
new technologies to cost-effectively separate grains, straw stems and
leaves in one pass in the field, while putting the biomass in a form
that can be easily stored and transported to a bio-refinery.
Interest in the use of biomass for producing chemicals and alternative
fuels for transportation means these industries will bring resources and
ideas on how to solve the logistics problems as biomass use becomes more
widespread.
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