The newest project is in the midst of western Minnesota’s corn and soybean country where the land is mostly flat and 90 percent is planted to row crops. The University of Minnesota-Morris is building a biomass gasification plant to help heat its campus, and to provide a platform for biomass research.
In east Tennessee, the farms are small, nestled in the rolling hills and among the multiple tributaries of the Tennessee River in the valley between the Smokey Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. Cow/calf operations and dairies still dot the wooded landscape and the most common crops are soybeans and wheat. The University of Tennessee is partnering with Mascoma Corp. in the Tennessee Biofuels Project to develop a demonstration research facility using switchgrass, and eventually wood, to produce cellulosic ethanol.
Not all of Iowa is flat with miles of corn and soybean fields lining straight roads. Southeastern Iowa has less productive soils with rolling hills that are prone to soil loss when planted to row crops. With more than a decade of switchgrass research lead by the Chariton Valley Resource and Conservation District, the project is in a holding pattern and some of the acres planted to switchgrass for the research phase are being put back into row crops to take advantage of record corn and soybean markets. The regional power utility, Alliant Energy Corp., is ready to cofire 5 percent switchgrass with coal at its 726 megawatt Ottumwa (Iowa) Generating Station. However, the utility wants to buy a ready-to-fire switchgrass powder. That puts the ball back into the court of the nonprofit Prairie Lands Bio-products Inc., which was organized during the research phase to put together a business to contract with growers to transport and process switchgrass. Prairie Lands Biomass LLC is a skeleton business awaiting the completion of the feasibility study and business plan needed to raise the capital to launch on a commercial scale.
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Each locale shapes the design of the biomass procurement system, giving each one a unique dimension. However, these common themes emerge when talking to project organizers:
› It is critical to engage farmers early in discussions with the end users so each party understands the issues faced by the other. In essence, they hold each other hostage: the farmer will have one market, and the biomass user will be dependent on a limited number of farmers within an economical trucking distance of the facility.
› Commoditization isn’t likely to happen with biomass. Due to the sheer bulk involved, farmers aren’t likely to be able to sidestep the local market and load their biomass on barges headed for export in the way corn and soybeans are handled. Thus, public forums for price discovery that exist for commodities like corn, soybeans and oil are not like to emerge for biomass.
› Quality discounts or premiums will likely be site specific. Tolerances for high moisture, weathering, mold and contaminants such as dirt may vary greatly depending on the technology used to convert the biomass into energy. For example, the tolerance for dirt in some cellulosic processes may be as low as 0.025 percent and high moisture switchgrass can increase grinding costs by nearly one-third.
› Biomass prices are going to vary greatly from region to region because a major component of the pricing structure will be the price needed to make the dedicated biomass crop competitive with alternative land uses in that specific region.
› Harvesting and transportation costs will vary depending on the existing infrastructure when the biomass crop system begins to develop—whether farmers have baling equipment or other harvesting systems that can be adapted. Each region will differ in the number of trucks and kinds of trailers available to haul the biomass, not to mention road limits which vary not only by state, but by individual highways.
› Conservation concerns will have a major impact, and are likely to be different depending on the specific ecosystem involved. The points where dedicated biomass crops and crop residue harvests interface with federal farm and conservation programs will require close attention.
Minnesota: Biomass for Heat
One of Joel Tallaksen’s objectives as the biomass project coordinator for the University of Minnesota-Morris is to develop a tool box for others contemplating a biomass project.
UMM began construction last summer on an $8.9 million biomass gasification plant to heat nearly 1 million square feet of campus buildings. Future plans include adding absorption coolers to provide summer air conditioning as well as a steam turbine to generate electricity. The primary feedstock will be corn stover, although research projects are planned to investigate other feedstocks. Studies will also focus on ash properties, impact of residue removal on soils and more.
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