March 17, 2010
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 economical 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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Salvatore Salamone
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