“Basically we will set the cuttings in year one and clip out the tops to help promote multiple sprouts,” Stelzer says. “The trees will grow for three years and reach a height of up to 20 feet with several stems (eight to 10) coming from that clump. The neat thing is, especially with willow and cottonwood trees, is the ability to harvest the trees about every three years or six times over the 20-year life of the tree. At 20 years of life the trees will be removed and the process starts all over.”

Stelzer says that producers can expect to produce 9 to 13 dry tons woody biomass per acre at the end of the three-year growing cycle, and this number will go up as the university identifies higher yielding varieties over time. At the current price the power plant is paying ($35 per ton) that would generate $315 to $473 in revenue to the farmer on just one acre. That’s enough to get a farmer’s attention considering the input and production costs are minimal.

Harvesting the woody biomass is another issue, but a team of researchers at the State University of New York have been working with New Holland, a leading agricultural equipment manufacturer, to develop specialized equipment to harvest the woody biomass. Basically, the team has created a harvesting head that is fitted onto a New Holland forage harvesting machine. As the machine moves through a field of trees, the harvesting head clips off the trees, which are then fed into the machine and a cutter drum chops the woody biomass into small pieces, similar to processing a tree in a brush chipper. The resulting processed woody biomass is placed onto trucks and transferred to a storage site.

The MU Forestry Department, in cooperation with the MU Center for Agroforestry, is developing a pilot program at the Horticultural and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin, Mo., that will include test plantings of various tree species to produce woody biomass. The pilot will also test harvesting options and deliver the resulting wood chips to the power plant. The purpose of the pilot project is to show farmers how they can adapt this new crop to their farms.

“Woody biomass production has the potential to be more profitable and economical than traditional row crops, especially in the Missouri river bottoms laid waste by the floods of 1993 and 1995,” Stelzer says. “It also allows farmers to regain lost production acres with fewer disturbances to the land compared with traditional agronomic production. We’re also enabling the farmer to integrate forestry practices into other areas of the farm that will not only provide another source of income, but also serve as a sediment, nutrient and pesticide trap in the root systems of these trees.”


Considering More Than Woody Biomass

Coffin and his team are also seriously exploring how to utilize corncobs in the new boiler as the university is located in the heart of Missouri corn production. Plus the new boiler technology burns at a lower combustion temperature making it more suitable to agricultural-based fuels.

“The new boiler can handle a full-size cob and the opportunities to source cobs as a fuel source are abundant in our state,” Coffin says. “The biggest challenge is collection and storage. However, companies are developing innovative collection systems that are showing promise. We just need to address how to deal with such a large volume of material.”

This project will truly be a test to see how the biomass industry can and will develop in the state.

Should the price of biomass become more expensive than natural gas, however, Coffin has the ability to switch the boiler over to gas until the price of biomass comes back in line with fossil fuels.

Either way, the university and the Columbia community will see a reduction in conventional emissions.

“I believe the campus community appreciates this opportunity to produce energy from a renewable crop and reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions,” Coffin says. “We’re creating something here that’s a win-win for everyone involved and from the calls we’re receiving, there’s a lot of support for the direction we’re taking.”


Greg Ehm is a features writer for Two Rivers Marketing in Des Moines, Iowa. Reach him at grege@2rm.com.

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