June 8, 2006
Got Biomass for Alternative Fuels? You Betcha, Forestry Expert Says
Writer: Robert Burns, (903) 834-6191,rd-burns@tamu.edu
Contacts: Dr. Eric Taylor (903) 834-6191,eric-taylor@tamu.edu
Dr. Darwin Foster (979) 845-1351,cdfoster@ag.tamu.edu
OVERTON – When it comes to alternatives for petroleum, ethanol from row crops is not the only game in town, said a Texas Cooperative Extension expert.
In Texas alone, nearly 3.5 million tons of woody biomass – scrap left over from forest harvests – could be had for essentially the cost of bundling and hauling, said Dr. Eric Taylor, Extension forestry specialist. Technology is available that could be used to convert the woody biomass into automotive fuel, 'green-diesel' or a substitute for the other use of petroleum that is rarely talked about: the manufacture of films, adhesives and plastics.
And woody biomass has several advantages over ethanol from row crops, Taylor said.
First, it's already available. Of the 3.5 millions tons of wood residue burned or left to rot at harvest sites, about 65 percent could be easily harvested for biomass, he said. And growing the biomass doesn't require any additional inputs of those used to grow the more valuable forestry products such as wood for timber or pulp for paper. Moreover, disposal or management of the residue – if not used in the biomass industry – is expensive.
"It's essentially 'free goods,'" he said.
The catch? Currently there are no operational bio-energy plants in East Texas, where most of the state forest residue is created. And there's a lot to do both on the education and research fronts, Taylor said.
Taylor and Dr. Darwin Foster, also with Extension forestry, are already involved remedying the need for education as partners with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the University of Georgia, and other southern region land-grant universities. The partnership is producing educational materials on how to "sustainably and economically manage, harvest and process woody biomass in the southern U.S.," Taylor said.
The products will include fact sheets, a video and distance learning courses.
"Our target audience is (composed of) forest management professionals and forest landowners," Taylor said.
The idea is to collect and integrate available scientific information on woody biomass and make it assessable to the general public.
Meanwhile some commercial concerns are already seriously considering using woody biomass for on-site energy production, Foster said.
Delton Smith, site facilities manager with Abitibi-Consolidated in Lufkin, said his company is considering refitting the plant with a woody biomass fired boilers. The boilers would be used to generate steam, which would in turn be used to generate electricity.
In 2003, the Lufkin plant was one of two Abitibi-Consolidated newsprint Texas plants closed due to high energy costs and dropping product demand. Before the closure, the plant employed more than 600 people. Now idled, it has a full-time staff of 12.
Plants such as the Lufkin mill are energy intensive, Smith said, relying primarily on natural gas-fired boilers. Prior to the closing, the Lufkin mill was no exception. It had a small wood-fired boiler that utilized scrap from processing on site, but the major boilers used natural gas. The plant was profitable until energy prices went up, and the demand for newsprint went down, Smith said.
Smith is hopeful woody biomass energy production could mean a restart for the plant, but nothing is definite yet.
Debbie Johnston, Abitibi-Consolidated public relations manager, said if the plant goes back online, it would not produce newsprint, but instead retrofit to make lightweight coated stock and other paper products.
"Such papers are used for magazines, coupons, etc.," she said. "We're looking for investment partners for both the energy production side and the paper side."
Taylor said the education materials produced by the southern regional forestry group only constitutes the first step.
"There's a lot we need to know yet," he said. "Such as how the various (forestry) management strategies affect production of woody biomass and how harvesting woody-bio mass might affect the residual tree crop.
"But I am encouraged that a new market like the bio-energy/bio-based products industry will lead to more valuable timber products and improved wildlife habitats, reduce losses to catastrophic events like fire and greatly improve overall forest health," he said.
Taylor is currently seeking grant funding for such a study.
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