Ban on field burning prompts plan to convert straw to energy

Sep 13 - The Oregonian

After decades of controversy over the air pollution and safety hazards of field burning, Oregon grass-seed growers hope to start spinning their ocean of post-harvest straw into gold.

They propose breaking ground next year on a $25 million bioenergy park somewhere in the Willamette Valley.

The multi-faceted facility would convert straw and other waste materials into saleable products such as ethanol, electricity, fertilizer, compost and a compacted wood product capable of replacing cord wood for residential heating.

A number of obstacles stand in the way, most notably the twin challenges of attracting private investment and qualifying for state business energy tax credits. But with a feasibility study and detailed business plan already completed, the growers and other project participants say now is the time to move a decidedly old-school industry into the future.

"If absolutely everything goes according to plan, this will be a tremendous boost for a lot of people," said Jerry Marguth, who has raised grass seed for the past three decades on his farm near Junction City. "It could be very beneficial for the entire valley."

Sites near Junction City, Corvallis, Salem and Canby are being considered for a pilot project. According to hundreds of pages of market analysis, one or more demonstration plants would combine up to four types of technology, with each plant capable of producing enough electricity to power of 2,000 households.

Grass-seed farmers produce enough straw to support several such facilities, according to project documents.

A single plant, hosting private companies relying on integrated green technologies, would create 76 construction jobs for six months, lead to full-time employment for 20 to 30 workers and consume 25,000 to 40,000 tons of straw, according to the recently finished business plan.

Finally, sales of electricity, compost, fertilizer and compacted wood products could eventually generate several million dollars annually.

Integrated technologies And fueling it all are the thousands of tons of straw that mats the lower Willamette Valley late each summer after combines roll through golden fields, separating seed from stem.

Gathering some of that straw and trucking it no more than 40 miles to an energy park -- any distance longer than that becomes prohibitively expensive -- could provide the raw material, or "feedstock," for:

Anaerobic digestion, a bacterial process which, combined with municipal food waste, produces biogas rich in methane. Anaerobic digesters, widely used to help treat municipal wastewater, break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen to release energy. A liquid byproduct can be used as agricultural fertilizer.

A cellulosic ethanol facility for production of ethanol for blending with gasoline. Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses and the non-edible parts of plants.

A "Bio Brick" facility, which would combine grass straw and woody waste from forestry operations to turn out 12,000 tons of burnable Bio Bricks annually.

A compost facility, which would convert remnants from the anaerobic digester to crank out 100,000 tons of compost per year.

"It's an awesome story with all of the pieces fitting so nicely together," said Joe Berney, a Eugene-based renewable energy consultant who is familiar with, but not involved in, the project. "We need some prudent partners at the state level to make it happen, but all the pieces are there."

Chris Beatty, president of Trillium FiberFuelsin Corvallis, specializes in the cellulosic ethanol portion of the equation. The work involves the difficult task of fermenting all of the various sugars in the feedstock for eventual conversion to ethanol.

Private investors have told him that a pilot project is needed to prove that such a facility can operate efficiently and at a profit.

"The only way they can really gauge what we're doing," he said, "is to touch it, look at it and get real data off it. If we can get to that point, we'll be an awfully long way down the road toward success."

Opposition to the energy park -- unlike the enmity that accompanied seasonal field burning for decades -- has yet to materialize.

Lisa Arkin, director of the Eugene-based Oregon Toxics Alliance, said she is still researching the proposed park's various components.

"We feel like the residue from grass-seed production is best used for mulching the fields and, second, in a biodigester," she said. "But this is clearly superior to burning it in an open field."

Burning debate For decades, starting in the early 1940s, Oregon's grass-seed farmers torched their fields after harvest. The intent was to control weeds, insects and plant diseases, improve yields, reduce use of pesticides and herbicides and, of course, to inexpensively get rid of tons of straw.

Smoke intrusions, especially into Lane County, sparked continual conflict between mid-valley growers and residential populations to the south. A particularly egregious incident in August 1969, dubbed "Black Tuesday," prompted then-Gov. Tom McCall to suspend the practice for 10 days.

Then, in 1988, everything changed. A 21-vehicle pileup on Interstate 5 near Albany was blamed on decreased visibility caused by field burning smoke. The crash killed seven, injured a number of others and led to passage of a bill that phased down field burning from 250,000 acres to 65,000 acres.

Fast forward to 2007, when several Eugene-area legislators proposed banning all open-field burning. Seed growers responded by saying, help us find an economical use for the straw, and we'll agree to a phase out.

"It had been one long fight, and farmers were tired of it," said Dave Nelson, the retired executive secretary of the Oregon Seed Council. "They didn't want to be stared at in the grocery stores anymore."

The finished product, a 180-page feasibility study titled, "Grass Straw BioEnergy Facility Project," now constitutes the heart of a multi-faceted recycling project not found anywhere else in the country.

Money search "Projects like this are operating in Europe and elsewhere, but not here," said Michael McKenzie-Bahr, Lane County's community economic development coordinator. "No one in this country is using straw in this way."

As promising as the project appears on paper, however, the lack of a track record makes investors nervous.

On the advice of potential investors, project planners followed up the initial feasibility study with a 118-page business plan. It details not only the types of technology that would be used, but lists the pros and cons of the four prospective building sites, the projected revenues from sales of the various end products and how much of the facility could be financed using public incentives such as business energy tax credits.

The availability of such credits is considered critical for the project's success. Yet due to a cap placed on such credits earlier this year, the project isn't expected to be eligible for partial financing until sometime in 2011.

Project planners, meanwhile, are pursuing both state and federal grants, which could provide additional incentives to lure investors from the sidelines.

Berney, the energy consultant, said he is confident that investment capital is waiting to pounce on the right project, despite a sluggish overall economy.

"What we're talking about are jobs, waste mitigation and energy creation," he said. "If it can all pencil out, that's a very attractive package."

The match, in other words, may already have been lit.

-- Dana Tims

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