biomass magazine - april 2008

Fresh-Squeezed Ethanol Feedstock

Research Aims to Commercialize

Orange-Waste-to-Fuel Conversion Process

www.BiomassMagazine.com

INSIDE: BIOMASS BRIQUETTES PACK A BIG ENERGY PUNCH

April 2008

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4|2008 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

INSIDE APRIL 2008 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4

FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 DENSIFICATION The Beauty of Biomass Briquettes

Two companies have developed efficient processes to produce high-energy, clean-burning

briquettes from biomass in response to their customers’ needs.

By Jessica Ebert

30 FUEL Seeing the Forest for the Trees

After witnessing the popularity of wood pellets in Europe, a northeast Minnesota logger is

offering that option to U.S. consumers seeking relief from high-priced heating oil.

By Timothy Charles Holmseth

36 TRANSPORTATION Managing Woody Biomass

Price Biostock Services relies on 40 years of experience in the timber industry and its

specialized equipment to procure, harvest, deliver and preprocess woody biomass for refiners.

By Jerry W. Kram

44 INNOVATION Northwestern Ingenuity Takes Shape

A Washington company is fulfilling its mission to expand and find new markets for its wood-

munching machine and patented WoodStraw erosion-control material.

By Bryan Sims

50 INDUSTRY Organizing Biomass Farmers

Project coordinators are learning that biomass collection systems may vary depending on

the landscape, available transportation and the farmer-suppliers.

By Susanne Retka Schill

56 POLICY National Forest Biomass Off-Limits for RFS

Lawmakers are attempting to change the renewable fuels standard in the Energy

Independence & Security Act of 2007 to include the use of slash piles and other waste

material from national forests to make cellulosic ethanol.

By Hope Deutscher

64 PROFILE Construction Waste to Biomass to Energy and Back Again

Jim Taylor wants to be known as the wizard of waste and put his biomass gasification

technology to good use.

By Sarah Smith

70 FEEDSTOCK Fresh-Squeezed Ethanol Feedstock

A Florida research chemist is working on a way to efficiently and commercially convert citrus

peels to ethanol. The millions of tons of citrus waste produced in the state could be turned

into 30 MMgy to 50 MMgy of ethanol.

By Kris Bevill

76 RECYCLE What to do With the Remnants of a Plastic Culture

Several barriers to recycling plastic exist, and oftentimes perfectly recycleable material is

dumped in the landfill. Biomass Magazine investigates these obstacles to recycling and looks

at the issues surrounding the burning of plastic for power.

By Ron Kotrba

82 RESEARCH Developing Yeast Strains for Biomass-to-Ethanol Production

USDAscientists continue to examine the types of biomass—and the conversion pathways—

that will make cellulosic ethanol production a success.

By Ronald Hector, Stephen Hughes and Xin Liang-Li

DEPARTMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

06 Editor’s NoteIs It Time for a New Home Heating Fuel?

07 Advertiser Index

09 Industry Events

12 Business Briefs

14 Industry News

87 In the LabGrow It on Glycerin

By Jerry W. Kram

89 EERC UpdateRefueling Today’s Military:

Reducing the Dependence on Oil, Part Two

By Ted Aulich

INDUSTRY | PAGE 50

Correction from our January 2008 issue:In the Industry News story on page 18, titled “SRI Consulting exploreschemicals derived from biomass,” it incorrectly stated that natural productsobtained from plant material have long been used to process difficult-to-synthesize products, such as lignin. The natural products obtained fromplant material have instead been used as a source of difficult-to-synthesizeproducts, such as lignin.

iving on North Dakota’s wind-swept prairie and

listening to my husband complain about the cost

of propane to heat our home, I was especially

interested in reading this month’s BiomassMagazine features, “The Beauty of Biomass Briquettes”

and “Seeing the Forest for the Trees,” on pages 22 and

31, respectively.

This winter was particularly expensive as we had

several weeks in a row of subzero temperatures.

Although the cost of propane hasn’t gone up as far nor as

fast as heating oil, the cost is up substantially compared

with the previous year. That being said, is it enough for

consumers to consider switching to alternatives, such as

wood pellets or biomass briquettes?

I believe it's not so much that people don't want to switch to something cheaper. It's the

cost of switching that keeps people hooked on high-priced fuel. A year ago, my husband

decided to switch from fuel oil to propane. That required a new furnace and a propane tank.

It was an expensive process that might have paid for itself relatively quickly had propane

prices not risen so much.

It’s also a matter of convenience. I have to agree with Gerald Brown, marketing direc-

tor for Valley Forest Products LLC, in "Seeing the Forest for the Trees" when he said that

Americans just don't want to deal with bags of wood pellets. That's not something that the

company, which is just getting into the business of marketing its product as a heating fuel

option, is taking lightly. Brown describes systems in Europe where a truck blows the pellets

into a holding room or tank that's built into the house. That sounds like a more viable solu-

tion to me, and I would think that would make the choice of switching to wood pellets more

palatable. Plus, if wood pellets continue to be half the price of other heating fuels, and pro-

duce just as much or more energy, that will probably get more people's attention. If gas

prices rise to nearly $4 a gallon, as some have predicted, companies such as the ones fea-

tured in this month's magazine may have more work on their hands than they can handle. I

know if I were the one writing out the check to the propane company every month, I would

be looking at alternatives, rather than just complaining about it to my significant other.

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 4|2008

editor ’sNOTE

Is It Time for a New Home Heating Fuel?

L

Rona JohnsonFeatures Editor

[email protected]


EDITORIAL

Tom Bryan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR [email protected]

Jessica Sobolik MANAGING EDITOR [email protected]

Dave Nilles CONTRIBUTIONS EDITOR [email protected]

Rona Johnson FEATURES EDITOR [email protected]

Ron Kotrba SENIOR STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Anduin Kirkbride McElroy STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Jerry W. Kram STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Susanne Retka Schill STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Bryan Sims STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Jessica Ebert STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Sarah Smith STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Kris Bevill STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Timothy Charles Holmseth STAFF WRITER [email protected]

Marc Hequet INTERNATIONAL EDITOR [email protected]

Hope Deutscher ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

Jan Tellmann COPY EDITOR [email protected]

Craig A. Johnson PLANT LIST & CONSTRUCTION EDITOR [email protected]

Amber Armstrong ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

ART

Jaci Satterlund ART DIRECTOR [email protected]

Elizabeth Slavens GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

Sam Melquist GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

Jack Sitter GRAPHIC DESIGNER [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALES

Mike Bryan PUBLISHER & CEO [email protected]

Kathy Bryan PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT [email protected]

Joe Bryan VICE PRESIDENT OF MEDIA [email protected]

Matthew Spoor SALES DIRECTOR [email protected]

Howard Brockhouse SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Clay Moore ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Jeremy Hanson ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Chad Ekanger ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Chip Shereck ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Tim Charles ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Marty Steen ACCOUNT MANAGER [email protected]

Marla DeFoe ADVERTISING COORDINATOR [email protected]

Jessica Beaudry SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER [email protected]

Jason Smith SUBSCRIBER ACQUISITION MANAGER [email protected]

Tim Greer CIRCULATION COORDINATOR [email protected]

Erika Wishart ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

Christie Anderson ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT [email protected]

Subscriptions Subscriptions to BiomassMagazine are free of charge with the

exception of a shipping and handling fee

of $49.99 for any country other than the

United States, Canada and Mexico.

Subscription forms are available online

(www.BiomassMagazine.com), by mail

or by fax. If you have questions, please

contact Jessica Beaudry at (701) 746-

8385 or [email protected].

Back Issues & Reprints Select back

issues are available for $3.95 each, plus

shipping. To place an order, contact

Subscriptions at (701) 746-8385 or

[email protected].

Article reprints are also available for a

fee. For more information, contact

Christie Anderson at (701) 746-8385 or

[email protected].

Advertising Biomass Magazine provides

a specific topic delivered to a highly tar-

geted audience. We are committed to

editorial excellence and high-quality print

production. To find out more about

Biomass Magazine advertising opportu-

nities or to receive our Editorial Calendar

& Rate Card, please contact Matthew

Spoor at (701) 746-8385 or mspoor

@bbibiofuels.com.

Letters to the Editor We welcome letters

to the editor. Send to Biomass MagazineLetters to the Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N.,

Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or e-

mail to [email protected]. Please

include your name, address and phone

number. Letters may be edited for clarity

and/or space.

advertiserINDEX

2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo 42

Advanced Trailer Industries 68

Amandus Kahl USA Corporation 54

Bandit Industries Inc. 38

Barr-Rosin Inc. 52

BBI Project Development 63 & 69

www.biodiesel-jobs.com 13

Biofuels Australasia 43

Biofuels Canada 29 & 48

CBI Continental Biomass Industries, Inc. 11

Christianson & Associates PLLP 46

Competitive Energy Insight Inc. 60

ConAgra Trade Group Inc. 2

Detroit Stoker Co. 39

Distillers Grains Quarterly 26

Duratech Industries International Inc. 61

EBW Expo & Conference 59

Eclipse Inc. 10

Cert no. SCS-COC-00648

Energy & Environmental Research Center 20

Ethanol Producer Magazine 58 & 60

www.ethanol-jobs.com 40 & 86

Factory Sales and Engineering Inc. 27

FCStone 47

Frontline BioEnergy LLC 32

Inland Power Group Inc. 33

International Biomass ’08 Conference & Trade Show 28

International Fiber Corp. 72

Keith Manufacturing Co. 67

Laidig Systems Inc. 73

Life Science Association of Manitoba 74

Marcus Construction Company 41

Midwest Process Solutions 78

Morbark Inc. 34

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 75

New Horizon Corp. 79

Novozymes 8

Percival Scientific Inc. 81

Peterson Corp. 35

Price BIOstock Services 80

Rath, Young and Pignatelli PC 24

R.C. Costello & Associates Inc. 53

Robert-James Sales Inc. 92

Rockwood Materials Handling, Inc. 4

Ronning Engineering 21

Rotochopper Inc. 90

Supreme International Limited 91

Taylor Biomass Energy LLC 25

The Teaford Co. Inc. 84

UOP LLC 88

U.S. Energy Services 49

Vecoplan LLC 3

Wanzek Construction Inc. 55

West Salem Machinery 66

Woods End Laboratories Inc. 85

© N

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Novozymes North America, Inc.77 Perry Chapel Church Road · Franklinton, NC 27525 Tel. +1 919-494-3000 · Fax +1 [email protected] · www.novozymes.com

Transforming corn and other grains into biofuels is a major industry

today. But what about tomorrow? The future of biofuels will

also rely on the next generation of raw materials – biomass. At

Novozymes we’re taking a fresh look at all types of biomass, and

considering how we can turn it into something useful. And you

know what? Corn cobs and wheat straw are just the beginning.

Who knows what other types of waste we can transform into fuel?

The future of fuel

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation.

Together with customers across a broad array of

industries we create tomorrow’s industrial bio-

solutions, improving our customers’ business and

the use of our planet’s resources. Read more at

www.novozymes.com.

Waste-to-Fuels Conference & Trade Show

April 6-8, 2008Wyndham Orlando ResortOrlando, FloridaThe Florida Biofuels Association will host this inaugural event to highlight theeconomic and environmental benefits of converting waste materials to alterna-tive fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, along with other energy recovery meth-ods. Topics include municipal solid waste, biomass, waste oils and greases,landfill gases, and ag waste.(800) 441-7949 www.waste-to-fuels.org

International Biomass Conference & Trade Show

April 15-17, 2008Minneapolis Convention CenterMinneapolis, MinnesotaThis inaugural event, which stemmed from the Energy & EnvironmentalResearch Center’s biomass conference last year in Grand Forks, N.D., aims tofacilitate the advancement of near-term and commercial-scale manufacturing ofbiomass-based power, fuels and chemicals. Topics include biopower, bioprod-ucts, biochemicals, biofuels, intermediate products and coproducts, which will bepresented through general sessions, technical workshops and an industry tradeshow.(719) 539-0300 www.biomassconference.com

New World Biomass Conference

April 22-24, 2008Albuquerque Convention CenterAlbuquerque, New MexicoThis conference will explore new opportunities in the biomass industry and thereinvention of existing technologies. The agenda includes a pre-conferenceworkshop, which will address the national energy plan, the national fire plan andthe healthy forests initiative through woody biomass utilization; a general ses-sion, which includes Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez; manufacturer ses-sions; and track classes, which will be announced as the event approaches.

www.newworldbiomass.com

World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing

April 27-30, 2008Hilton ChicagoChicago, IllinoisThis event’s program tracks will focus on biofuels and bioenergy, including cel-lulosic ethanol; feedstocks, including forestry residues and energy crops; andchemicals and biomaterials. The agenda includes plenary sessions, breakoutsession, exhibits and a poster reception, among many other events. Breakoutsessions topics include biofuels and bioenergy, renewable feedstocks, andrenewable chemicals and biomaterials.(202) 312-9274 www.bio.org/worldcongress2008

30th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals

May 4-7, 2008Astor Crowne Plaza HotelNew Orleans, LouisianaHosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory, this event will feature discussions on the latest research break-throughs and results in biotechnology for fuels and chemicals. Twelve dual tech-nical sessions will accommodate 80 presentations, and there will also be a ple-nary session and two poster sessions. Plus, an evening session will highlightinternational bioenergy centers.(703) 691-3357, ext. 26 www.simhq.org/meetings/30symp/index.html

Renewable Energy Finance & Investment Summit

May 19-21, 2008Firesky Resort & SpaScottsdale, ArizonaThis third-annual event, themed “Exploring Key Deals & Developments in theRenewable Fuel & Renewable Power Markets,” will discuss state-of-the-artfinance structures, deal mechanics, tax incentives, investment trends, more effi-cient technologies, regulatory changes and creative financing solutions. Threetracks address renewable power, biofuels, and carbon and greenhouse gasemissions. Aseparate workshop will detail renewable energy project finance fun-damentals.(704) 889-1287 www.frallc.com

24th Annual International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo

June 16-19, 2008Opryland Hotel & Convention CenterNashville, TennesseeThis conference will follow the record-breaking 2007 event, in which more than500 exhibitors were on display and more than 5,300 people attended. The pre-liminary agenda includes general sessions, concurrent technical workshops andvarious networking opportunities. More information will be available as this eventapproaches.(719) 539-0300 www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

Energy From Biomass and Waste

October 14-16, 2008David L. Lawrence Convention CenterPittsburgh, Pennsylvania More than 1,000 people are expected to attend this event, which will addresssustainable waste management, the commercial viability of waste-to-energyand biomass-to-energy technologies, positive effects of energy from biomassand waste programs, domestic and international markets, business opportuni-ties, and legal and financial issues. More than 100 exhibitors will showcase thelatest in sustainable energy production and safe waste handling, as well. +49-2802-948484-0 www.ebw-expo.com

industryevents


IF YOU CAN MAKE IT,IF YOU CAN MAKE IT,TT,,,,

ECLIPSE CAN BURN IT.ECLIPSE CAN BURN IT.

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THE FIRST 100 YEARS

Greener, more effi cient manufacturing is not a trend; it’s

a new way of doing business. Interestingly, it’s a way of

doing business that family owned Eclipse has practiced

for 100 years. We’ve always been focused on fuel and

emissions reduction. Now, we’re bringing our innovative

engineering skills to bear on alternative fuel production

through our partnership with Dynamotive. We’re helping

this Canadian company break new ground with their

cutting-edge BioOil production technology fi red by an

Eclipse burner system. Our Vortometric system features

a specially engineered combustion chamber, valve train,

BMS panel, combustion air/dilution fan, Exothermic heat

exchangers and custom duct work. For more information

on this and other Eclipse biofuel case studies, visit

eclipsenet.com or call 800-800-3248. And hurry,

because green is good - and it’s getting better all the time.

Eclipse And Dynamotive Are Burning Our Way to a Greener Future.

Doug Perks, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Offi cer

BioOil_9x11.375.indd 1 2/18/08 11:04:29 AM


Alternative Energy Technology Center acquires Meridian Biorefining

The Alternative Energy Technology Center Inc. has acquiredMeridian Biorefining Inc. and its vertically integrated biorefining sys-tem that uses nonfood, cellulosic feedstocks to produce ethanol, gaso-line and biocrude, which can be further processed to produce a widerange of biofuels, chemicals and other compounds. According toAETC Chief Executive Officer Brown Marks, the company expectsto complete its commercial-scale research facility by the end of Marchand begin producing biofuels by July. “Meridian’s technology willmake the processing of cellulose into fuels far more cost-effectivethan any current technical models in development,” Marks said. BIO

Georgia Power signs with Greenway Renewable PowerGeorgia Power recently

signed a 15-year deal withGreenway Renewable PowerLLC for electricity generated ata biomass-fueled facility to belocated near Franklin, Ga.

The Greenway facility will process timber harvesting residu-als, noncommercial tree species, tree thinnings, lumber scrapsand wood waste reclaimed from landfills. Under the contract,Georgia Power will purchase 100 percent of the plant’s 50-megawatt capacity, which is enough to power 12,500 homes. Theplant is expected to be operational in 2010. BIO

Corle plays for new ‘team’Tom Corle has founded G-team, a mar-

keting and communications company serv-ing the biofuels industry. He plans to use histalents in marketing and communications,combined with his knowledge of the biofu-els industry and world markets, “to make adifference to the planet,” he said. Launchinghis new group of biofuels consultants giveshim a chance to work with clients “who wanta faster track in turning biofuels green into gold,” he said. Corlewas formerly director of communications and marketing forDelta-T Corp. He can be reached at (717) 626-0557. For moreinformation, visit www.biopowered.biz. BIO

businessBRIEFS

ZeaChem, GreenWood announce feedstock agreementPortland, Ore.-based GreenWood Resources Inc. signed a feed-stock agreement to supply poplars from its intensively managedtree farm to cellulosic ethanol developer ZeaChem Inc., based inMenlo Park, Calif., for a planned 1.5 MMgy production plantnear Boardman, Ore. The two companies also agreed to exploreexpanding their collaboration to include an expansion of theplant’s capacity, as well as the development of other facilitiesintegrated with short-rotation poplar tree farms. BIO

IET consolidates headquartersSince securing a $50 million recycling contract with Dow

Corning Corp. in October, Integrated EnvironmentalTechnologies LLC in Richland, Wash., continues to see changes. “Ijust consolidated my management team to one location,” said IETPresident and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Surma. The manage-ment team will now be headquartered in Bend, Ore. Surma saidthe company is optimistic about the future of methanol andbiodiesel. Despite occasional slumps in the market, it “looks like[biodiesel is] here to stay,” he said. BIO

Corle

Alliant Energy issues RFI for biomass sourcesAlliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power & Light Co. is issuing a

request for information to determine interest and the economiccapabilities of providing biomass for an expansion project at itsNelson Dewey Generating Station in Cassville, Wis. WisconsinPower & Light intends to add a 300-megawatt electrical-generat-ing unit, which will burn coal and biomass such as waste wood,corn stover and switchgrass. Interested agricultural, forestry orother businesses should submit responses online by April 18.Register at http://alliantenergy.enterprisesourcing.com/openregistration. BIO


businessBRIEFS

Two energy companies to cogasify using biomassSt. Louis-based Peabody Energy announced in late January its

intent to become a minority investor in GreatPoint Energy Inc.The two companies are commercializing a proprietary gasificationprocess using biomass.

A Peabody spokesman said the two companies will look at avariety of feedstock options, including poplars, switchgrass, cornstover, bagasse and municipal solid waste. They are experimentingwith how much biomass will make the perfect mix with coal orpetroleum coke, and the percent eventually used will be a project-specific determination, Peabody said. BIO

DOE announces biomass investmentsIn late February, the U.S. DOE

announced plans to invest up to $33.8million in four projects developingimproved enzyme systems that willconvert cellulosic material into sugarssuitable for biofuels production.Funding will be dispersed through2011 and, combined with industrycost share, could result in more than$70 million in project investments.

The companies selected for funding are DSM InnovationCenter Inc. in Parsippany, N.J.; Genencor, a division of DaniscoUSA Inc., in Palo Alto, Calif.; Novozymes Inc. in Davis, Calif.;and Verenium Corp. in San Diego. BIO

Dynamotive proposes bio-oil facilitiesDynamotive Energy Systems Corp., which has two operat-

ing bio-oil production facilities in Ontario, may locate similarfast-pyrolysis facilities in Willow Springs, Mo., and NorthWebster Parish, La. Its subsidiary Dynamotive USA Inc. would-n’t release project timelines but estimated that the proposedplants would process 220 tons of wood waste per day into225,000 barrels of bio-oil and 14,000 tons of carbon char peryear. BioOil and BioOil Plus are the company’s trademarkedreplacements for No. 2 heating oil. BIO


industryNEWS

The carbon footprint that is left byprinting BBI International Inc.’s publicationshas been neutralized. Joe Bryan, vice presi-dent of media, said the company has imple-mented an environmentally friendly carbon-neutral printing process.

BBI addressed the carbon-neutral issuein 2007 and was surprised at the differencesome basic changes can make, Bryan said.The company prints its magazines and direc-tories at R.R. Donnelly. Just a change in thetype of paper had positive results. “The car-bon output in the production of the paperthat BBI was originally using per issue (oneindividual magazine) was 49,102 pounds ofcarbon dioxide,” said Timothy Portz of R.R.Donnelly. “The carbon output for the newpaper is 32,155 pounds. The savings is 16,947pounds, the equivalent of taking two cars offthe road for a year.”

BBI, which publishes six trade maga-zines (three monthly, two bimonthly and onequarterly), in addition to two annual directo-ries and two biannual wall maps, implement-ed its carbon-neutral plan for the printing ofthe 2007 directories. Bryan said when Portz

explained the effects of the change in paperafter the first printing run, he was stunned.“It was unbelievable,” Bryan said. ”For thatone publication, it was enough to power fourhouses for a year, just by changing the weightof our paper.” BBI clearly views paper as anoperational necessity, Bryan explained.

The printing run of the directories wasthe springboard that started a completeprinting overhaul. “Tim explained to us thatif we invested ‘x’ amount of dollars, wewould be one of the very first publications in

the country to be completely carbon-neu-tral,” Bryan said. “We knew right away wehad to do it.”

Portz said the collaborative effortbetween R.R. Donnelly and BBI is the realdeal, and not just what he called “green-washing,” which refers to companies tryingto hang a green marketing message on some-thing that’s not truly worthy. “We spent a lotof time getting an accurate assessment of[BBI’s] carbon footprint as it stood before wetook over,” he explained. “We drew a base-line and then developed real strategies todrive out real carbon. It wasn’t just, ‘OK,here is the carbon footprint. Let’s buy offsets.See you later.’ We came up with a manufac-turing strategy that reduced [BBI’s] total cost[and] reduced the environmental footprint.We cut the carbon footprint nearly in half.”

Bryan said BBI is pleased with theresults of carbon-neutral printing, and thecompany will continue to implement viableand environmentally friendly projects when-ever possible.

-Timothy Charles Holmseth

BBI International becomes carbon-neutral

NASA-funded study to explore biomass impacts on weatherChanges in cropping patterns and the

introduction of more perennial biomasscrops such as switchgrass may have animpact on the weather and climate predic-tions. Scientists at South Dakota StateUniversity's Geographic Information ScienceCenter of Excellence have received a$738,000 grant from NASA for a three-yearstudy to focus on land use in North Dakota,South Dakota, Nebraska, western Minnesotaand northern Iowa. SDSU’s GIS center willbe working with the U.S. Geological Survey’sEarth Resources Observation Systems DataCenter, and the South Dakota School ofMines and Technology.

The project will generate scenarios ofpossible landscape changes, and the impact

on weather and climate, explained GeoffreyHenebry, an SDSU professor and senior sci-entist at the GIS center. “The change incropping patterns will be driven by the loca-tion of ethanol plants,” he said, with eachethanol plant drawing feedstock from a givenarea. As cellulosic ethanol technology devel-ops, there’s potential for corn-based ethanolplants to retrofit to cellulosic processes,resulting in a feedstock change from corn toswitchgrass. The change in crops will haveconsequences in the amount of energy andwater that is released into the atmosphere,primarily because perennial crops green ear-lier and remain greener later in the fall. Theproject will project how that may affect pre-cipitation patterns and the potential for

severe weather. The research will also studythe impact of landscape changes that occurin patches throughout a region, rather thanthe entire landscape being converted toswitchgrass as some studies have hypothe-sized, Henebry said.

The researchers will also project theimpact of potential fire scenarios. “There is apotential for fire that hasn’t been there sincethe European settlement,” Henebry said.Switchgrass research indicates a sustainableharvest will occur in the fall after the firsthard freeze. Plus, there is an emphasis onhigh yields. “It will be dry and extremelyflammable,” he said.

-Susanne Retka Schill

R.R. Donnelly account representatives TimothyPortz, left, and Seth Porter run press checks beforeprinting Biomass Magazine.

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industryNEWS

In response to rising concerns about the security of energy sup-plies for present and future generations of Canadians, nonprofitBioCap Canada conducted a study to determine the best biofueloptions for Ontario. The report, titled “Analyzing Ontario Biofuel

Options” and published by Resource EfficientAgricultural Production-Canada, showed thatbiomass pellets are the most cost-effective wayfor government incentives to reduce green-house gas emissions in Ontario.

“This study demonstrates how an incentiveprogram for the large-scale production and useof solid biofuels for commercial and industrialapplications could be an effective and sustain-able way to grow our economy,” said David

Layzell, president and chief executive officer of BioCap. “The use ofbiomass pellets would not only create new market opportunities for theforest and agricultural industries, it would reduce dependence on coal,as well as the greenhouse gas emissions associated with coal use.”

Roger Samson, lead author of the report and executive director ofREAP-Canada, said the report was consistent with other research andwas significant because it was the first Canadian study to look at carbondioxide mitigation costs. “That was the unique part,” he said. “No onehad really put a price on [carbon dioxide] by government incentives.”

The study concluded that if government subsidies were applied tolarge-scale solid biofuels, those fuels would surpass wind power—cur-rently No. 1 in Canada—as most effective at reducing greenhouse gasemissions. If a subsidy of $4 per gigajoule was implemented for bio-mass pellets, carbon dioxide emission offsets would be created at lessthan $50 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions abated when displacingcoal. Current ethanol programs cost eight times the amount of carbondioxide emissions avoided per ton than potential solid biofuel subsidies.Current biodiesel incentives cost twice as much as biomass incentives.

Samson said policy, not technology, is why governments are unwill-ing to subsidize solid biofuels. There are 442 pellet plants in Europe,and solid biomass production is recognized as a leading technology,which according to Samson and Layzell is due to the European govern-ment’s willingness to provide incentives and enforce carbon dioxidetaxes. He hopes North American politicians will embrace this newstudy, and begin to pass carbon dioxide taxes and greenhouse gas miti-gation incentives.

-Kris Bevill

Study: Biomass pellets effectively reduce carbon dioxide

Samson

A study recently conducted by three researchers at theUniversity of Minnesota concluded that by using biomass for fuel,corn-based ethanol plants can effectively reduce carbon footprints,improve net energy balances and become more profitable at thesame time. University research fellow Doug Tiffany, graduate stu-dent Matt DeKam, and Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineeringprofessor Vance Morey hosted several workshops to discuss thestudy results. Tiffany will also highlight the study at the InternationalBiomass Conference & Trade Show in Minneapolis on April 15-17.

The study found that for an investment of approximately $57million, a 50 MMgy corn-based ethanol plant could use biomass toproduce enough heat and power to operate the plant and sell ener-gy back to the power grid. Tiffany said utility companies wouldmore than likely be supportive of plants that make such an invest-ment. According to the study, a 50 MMgy plant could produceseven megawatts to sell back to the power grid. “This could be verysubstantial and maybe also become very attractive to those powerutilities that face requirements in the future,” Tiffany said. The studyalso found that a 50 MMgy plant using biomass as an energy sourcewould spend $15 million per year on local energy feedstocks versus$17 million per year on natural gas.

Mark Schmidt, vice president of AgStar Financial Services,attended a workshop in Mankato, Minn., and presented the lenderviewpoints on the study. He told Biomass Magazine that lenders arewilling to finance projects suggested in the university study. “It’s acase-by-case process,” he said. “Plants have different theories onhow they want to embrace biomass for their particular plant accord-ing to what they believe will be the most successful and economicalthing for them to do.” While Schmidt said lenders find comfort inthe study because it confirms previous theories, financing is difficultright now, and new plants might not have success in financing sucha project. “If an ethanol plant costs $2 per gallon to build it fromscratch and these energy features are costing another 30 to 40 centsper gallon, they’re not raising the bar for initial financing becausethey don’t have a track record,” he said. “It takes a while for any mar-ketplace to absorb new things, and it’s the same thing here.”

-Kris Bevill

Left to right: Matt DeKam, Vance Morey and Doug Tiffany conductedresearch at the University of Minnesota to determine the profitability ofcorn-based ethanol plants producing electricity from biomass.

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Biomass-to-electricity study may benefit corn-based ethanol plants


industryNEWS

The gap between corn-based ethanol andcellulosic ethanol became smaller when KLProcess Design Group, a Rapid City, S.D.-based ethanol plant designer and marketingfirm, brought the nation’s first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol facility on line inUpton, Wyo., in January.

The 1.5 MMgy facility, called WesternBiomass Energy LLC and located one milesouth of Upton, began production Jan. 5,according to Tom Slunecka, KL ProcessDesign vice president of business develop-ment. The plant is a culmination of develop-ment efforts between KL Process Design, theSouth Dakota School of Mines andTechnology, the Wyoming Business Counciland the Wyoming Department of Forestry. Ithas the ability to operate intermittently, sowhile a feedstock is in the production cycle, thecompany can concurrently test different feed-stocks in its research laboratory.

“Because it’s a small plant, we can affordto bring the plant on and off-line, and do vari-ous test runs of other feedstocks while in pro-duction,” Slunecka said. “If [the feedstocks]prove out efficient in the lab, then we would beable to run that particular feedstock at full scale

in the plant itself.”The plant is using ponderosa pine gath-

ered from the Black Hills National Forest byforest thinnings operator Backer TimberProducts. KL Process Design intends to testother feedstocks such as hard woods, con-struction waste, corn stover and switchgrassafter the first year of operation, Slunecka said.“Though we’ve tested other cellulose-basedmaterials in the lab from switchgrass to card-board, the plant itself is focused on ponderosapine,” he said. “There’s plenty of privateground thinnings to operate this small plant

without ever entering into the national forest.”According to Slunecka, KL Process

Design utilizes specially designed enzymessupplied by Novozymes to efficiently pretreatthe various biomass feedstocks to be used. “It’simportant that KL doesn’t use acids in its pre-treatment process, not only from the environ-mental standpoint for the permitting of a plantsuch as this, but it also adds a great deal ofvalue in the coproducts, making them organicin nature,” he said.

KL Process Design’s fuel was officiallyintroduced to the commercial market when itsupplied the American Le Mans Series withE85 for its season-opener in Sebring, Fla., onMarch 15. “It’s probably the most robust test-ing platform you can possibly find,” Sluneckasaid. “The American Le Mans Series cars arebasically production-level cars that have beenmodified for the track, so it’s long been thedesire for the ethanol industry to work withthe auto industry to create engines that opti-mize the use of ethanol.”

-Bryan Sims

Western Biomass Energy LLC began ethanol production from wood waste at the beginning of theyear.

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KL Process Design starts cellulosic ethanol production

ICM undertakes cellulosic ethanol venturesICM Inc. has been busy

pursuing cellulosic ethanol ven-tures this year. Not only has itformed an alliance to designand build Coskata Inc.’s firstcommercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, but ithas also signed several contracts to advance aseparate cellulosic ethanol facility in St. Joseph,Mo.

“One of ICM’s strengths is our ability tobring processes and engineering design to themarketplace, commercializing these types oftechnologies,” said Greg Krissek, ICM’s direc-tor of governmental affairs. “You’re seeing usworking on a number of types of projectsbecause no one conversion process has clearlywon the day, and I suspect that there are goingto be multiple ones to accomplish the [renew-able fuels standard] goal.”

The Coskata plant, which has yet to selecta site, will produce between 50 MMgy and 100

MMgy using Coskata’s biologi-cal fermentation technology,which can convert most organ-ic matter into fuel at a low cost.

LifeLine Foods LLC,which came on line in St. Joseph in September,is a unique facility that separates corn starchesfor use in the food and fuel industries. It alsoburns corn fiber to partially power the plant.ICM helped to build the facility, and now thetwo companies are planning to build a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, and research anddevelopment lab.

ICM has contracted with EdenspaceSystems Corp. to evaluate numerous feed-stocks in the biomass-to-ethanol researcheffort in St. Joseph, which includes corn fiber,switchgrass, corn stover and sorghum. Energycrop company Ceres Inc. will supply the seedsof these crops to local farmers, who will growthe crops and harvest the biomass. “It’s almost

a foregone conclusion that we’re going to havemultiple types of feedstocks,” Krissek said.“That’s why we’re not necessarily focused onone or the other.”

ICM wants to experiment with a varietyof technologies to invent the most commer-cially viable technology, Krissek said, notingthat there may not just be one best method.Regional variability and availability of certainenergy crops will also figure into the equation,he said.

Nearly 21 billion gallons of cellulosicethanol will be developed in the coming yearsdue to the renewable fuels standard in theEnergy Independence & Security Act of 2007,Krissek said. The U.S. DOE has set a goal toget costs “around $1.07 a gallon,” he added.“That’s a huge opportunity to figure out howto do that.”

-Sarah Smith


industryNEWS

BlueFire Ethanol completes vendor testing BlueFire Ethanol Inc., a California-based

cellulosic ethanol company, recently completedvendor testing of three key systems as part ofthe final engineering for the company’s full-scale waste-to-ethanol production process.

At press time, the company planned tobreak ground on a 3.1MMgy ethanol plant inLancaster, Calif., in mid-March and a 17 MMgyethanol facility in Corona,Calif., by the end of theyear. “We’re ready to go,”said Arnold Klann, chiefexecutive officer and president of BlueFire.“We ran these tests strictly to help the equip-ment suppliers finalize their designs on theequipment for the right sizing.”

The equipment is designed to process avariety of biomass feedstocks ranging fromwood chips to municipal solid waste. The test-ing was carried out at the headquarters of B&P

Process Equipment in Saginaw, Mich., the ven-dor for the decrystalyzer that BlueFire will usein its process. In addition to the decrystalyzer,BlueFire tested hydrolyzer and filter pressequipment from separate vendors. “Everycompany that manufactures equipment has

different performancecharacterizations,” Klannexplained. “We set up atesting protocol at B&Pand ran the feedstock thatwe will be utilizing at theLancaster facility throughtheir equipment using our

process conditions.”The three pieces of technology represent

three early steps in the waste-to-biofuelprocess. The decrystalyzer is the first piece ofequipment that the cellulose feedstock comesinto contact with. It’s a kind of mixer that cov-ers the feedstock with sulfuric acid. This initi-ates the early chemical reactions that will ulti-

mately break the cellulose free from its lignincage. From the decrystalyzer, the slurry goesinto a hydrolyzer. Water is added at this stage tochange the concentration of the sulfuric acid,and allow for the complete separation of thecellulose sugars and lignin. From there, the vis-cous solution is pumped into a filter press, andthe sugary liquids are squeezed from the solids,which form a lignin cake. The resultingsugar/acid/water solution then goes into achromatographic system for the separation ofthe sugars from the acid, which is then recy-cled. This step in the process is currently beingtested at a separate vendor facility.

Based on information from a biorefineryin Izumi, Japan, which also uses an acid-hydrol-ysis process, the results of BlueFire Ethanol'svendor tests show improved yields and betterperformance, Klann said. “The next step is tobreak ground and start building,” he added.

-Jessica Ebert

Lanworth uses satellite tools to estimate biomass suppliesBiomass resources in a given area can be

ascertained via satellite, thanks to technologydeveloped by Itasca, Ill.-based Lanworth Inc.The information technology company spe-cializes in the application of aerial and satelliteremote sensing for natural resources manage-ment, as well as geographic information sys-tem (GIS) analysis, digitization and softwaredevelopment. Its technology is individualizedfor the agriculture, real estate, electricity andgas, transportation, government, and acade-mia sectors, and the data can be updated daily.

The company was founded in 2000under the name Forest One Inc. Fittingly, itfocused on timber supply studies, GIS-basedland management systems, due diligence onland acquisitions, and higher- and better-useanalyses. It recently expanded its forestryfocus to include woody biomass resources.Previously, companies in the forest productsindustry had used the technology to estimatepulp and timber volumes. “Now, we added

another module that will help clients figurehow much woody biomass can be extractedbeyond sawmill and pulp extractions,” saidShailu Verma, vice president of Lanworth. “Ithas been a natural extension for us to deploy

our tools to organizations pursuing wood-pel-let plants, biomass boilers, cellulosic ethanol orother woody biomass-based facilities.”

Using data of global forest covers thatdate back to the 1970s, Lanworth tracks forestcover growth and can estimate the trajectoryof growth of any forest in the world, accord-ing to Verma. “Then we build proprietarymodels that can tell us how much woody bio-mass is available,” he said. The models use soil,elevation, slope, wetlands and other data layersto estimate extraction costs, as well as the totaldelivered cost of fiber to a processing site.The models also show the environmentalimpacts of additional biomass harvesting. “Ibelieve we can help make these significantinvestment decisions, which not only have animportant impact on the economics of fibersupply in a region, but also help manage theregion’s environmental balance,” Verma said.

-Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

Lanworth Inc. produced this satellite-imagery-basedestimation of fiber volume in Texas. It has mappedthe entire United States in a similar format.

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industryNEWS

Harvesting forests has become the latestgold rush in the race to convert biomass intoenergy. The Vermont-based Biomass EnergyResource Center has developed a tool forassessing the state’s available low-grade woodfor biomass harvesting. It can also be adaptedto any location in the United States to assessannual forest sustainability.

The tool, which uses data from the U.S.Forest Service’s Forest Inventory andAnalysis Unit, looks at regional wood supply.It calculates the portion of the total forestedland area that is available for harvesting low-grade wood and examines the resource on asustained-yield basis, considering the standinginventory, species mix of trees and net annu-al growth rate. “We want to make sure we’renot overharvesting for biomass fuels, and wedon’t want to encourage projects that won’thave a supply of biomass,” said BERCspokeswoman Cindy Wyckoff. The BERC

found that land ownership impacts biomassavailability, so it factors that, as well.

Program Manager Adam Sherman saidthe tool has “big picture” policy implicationsfor state and federal agencies. The data givesa conservative estimate to assure the availabil-ity of biomass for various projects. “Not onlydo we calculate how much surplus low-grade

wood is out there, but we explore the poten-tial of moving wood to the market as a com-modity fuel,” he said. “This calculation allowspolicymakers to ask how far the availablewood will go. Then they can ask what sort ofdiversified biomass energy portfolio shouldutilize this material [efficiently].”

The BERC hopes to help other statesassess their resources for forest biomass har-vest using this tool. Once a net annual growthrate of new wood in the forest is established,a spatial look will tell planners where thegreatest concentration of wood is, enablingthem to develop a biomass energy industryand marketplace. “So you don’t end up truck-ing wood across the state, burning a lot offossil fuels in the process,” Sherman said.

For additional information, visitwww.biomasscenter.org.

-Sarah Smith

Vermont organization develops tool to assess biomass supply

Wood gathered from Vermont forests can be used toproduce biomass-based fuels.

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Environmental Power Corp., based inTerrytown, N.Y., announced that itsHuckabay Ridge facility in Stephenville,Texas, reached full capacity production levelsof pipeline-quality biogas in late January. Thefacility is expected to produce approximately635,000 million British thermal units of bio-gas per year from manure and other agricul-tural waste. Environmental Power's whollyowned subsidiary Microgy Inc. has the exclu-sive American license for the technologyprovided by Danish Biogas Technology AS.

“This project is the largest of its kind inNorth America,” said Mark Hall, senior vicepresident of external affairs. “We’re locatedin a compost yard in Stephenville becauseErath County is the largest milk-producingcounty in Texas. We take manure from about10,000 cows, borrow it for about 20 days andreturn the solids to the compost yard. Theliquids are used for fertilizer.”

The biogas, which is refined to have thesame characteristics as natural gas, is current-ly being sold to the Lower Colorado RiverAuthority, a utility in Texas. In October,Environmental Power will sell the biogas toPacific Gas & Electric Co. in California aspart of a 10-year contract for 8,000 MMBtuper day.

To fulfill this contract, EnvironmentalPower is following an aggressive develop-ment plan. “We expect to have seven to 10facilities under construction in 2008,” Hallsaid. These facilities under development havean anticipated annual production of 4.9 mil-lion MMBtu. The first facility broke groundin December. The biogas plant will be locat-ed at the JBS Swift & Co. beef processingfacility in Grand Island, Neb., and is expect-ed to generate 235,000 MMBtu per year.Other projects are to be sited in California,Texas, Colorado and Idaho.

Environmental Power refined its tech-nology at three much smaller facilities inWisconsin, which started production in2005. Each site processes manure fromapproximately 1,000 dairy cows, and the bio-gas is used on-site in generators owned by arural electric cooperative.

-Anduin Kirkbride McElroy

Environmental Power ramps up

In January, the Huckabay Ridge facility in Stephenville,Texas, reached full production capacity at 635,000MMBtu of biogas per year.

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industryNEWS


NDSU begins BioEPIC journeyFrom seed to harvest to factory to final product, all phases of the

biomass industry are fair game for study at the Bio Energy andProduct Innovation Center, part of North Dakota State University inFargo, N.D. BioEPIC offers a focus on research, education and tech-nology for the biomass industry, said center Codirector KenHellevang, a professor in NDSU’s Agriculture and BiosystemsEngineering Department.

The program is looking at more than just biofuels. One set ofprojects is looking at composites of biomass-based resins and fibers,which can replace fiberglass and plastics in a multitude of applica-tions. One project is focusing on making tiny cellulose fibers called“nanowhiskers” from wheat straw. Preliminary work indicates thatmanufacturing nanowhiskers could add as much as $770,000 to thebottom line of a cellulosic ethanol plant using wheat straw as a feed-stock.

More than 60 faculty and staff from 15 departments andresearch extension centers are involved in BioEPIC, and the programis continuing to grow. NDSU is seeking candidates for a tenured fac-ulty position in its Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering depart-ment, as well a research scientist in the same department. Theresearch will involve evaluating biomass species for quality and quan-tity under different environmental and agronomic conditions todetermine appropriate bioenergy crops for biofuel production, and todevelop ways for farmers to add bioenergy crops to their operations.

Hellevang said the center embodies the interdisciplinaryapproach to biomass at NDSU. “We really come at biomass fromwhat we call a systems approach,” he said. “We are looking at every-thing from soil health to the production of various biomass products.We’ve got people involved in the harvesting and handling of biomass,and the processing of the final products.”

One focus of the center will be the development of biomass-related industries in North Dakota by helping rural communitiesaddress the complicated issues surrounding this new potential indus-try. “We are pushing economic development to help our rural com-munities survive,” Hellevang said. “There are local issues concerningeducation for these new jobs. There are issues of creating highwaysthat can handle moving the products in and out. There are many dif-ferent interactions that will have to take place to make this industry asuccess.”

Hellevang said the goal of the center is to create linkages amongall the different strands of biomass research that is ongoing at NDSU,and provide a connection to government and industry. More informa-tion about the center and its activities is available at www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/bioopportunities.

-Jerry W. Kram

Biomass definition may be broadened

Bills to expand the renewable biomass definition in Section 201 ofthe Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 have been introducedin the U.S. House and Senate by respective members of the SouthDakota congressional delegation.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced Senate Bill 2558 on Jan.25, which would revert the definition of “renewable biomass” to abroader definition that received widespread support when the Senateversion of the energy bill was passed last year.The final law changed the definition of renew-able fuel feedstocks to limit the crops and cropresidues to those grown on land cleared or culti-vated prior to the EISA that is either activelymanaged or fallow, and non-forested.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.,introduced the Renewable Biofuels FacilitationAct in the House on Feb. 7 to amend the EISAto promote the use of energy from waste prod-ucts gathered on federal land. Her bill wascosponsored by a geographically diverse andbipartisan group. The Renewable BiofuelsFacilitation Act would change the definition toclarify that federally sourced biomass is eligiblefor consideration under the renewable fuels stan-dard (RFS) and is identical to the languageincluded in the Senate’s current version of thefarm bill. Additionally, the bill would allow RFS credit for broad cate-gories of biomass from nonfederal and tribal lands, including agricultur-al commodities, plants and trees, algae, crop residue, waste material(including wood waste and wood residues), animal waste and byproducts(including fats, oils, greases and manure), construction waste, and foodand yard waste.

In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural ResourcesCommittee, Executive Director of the Environmental and Energy StudyInstitute Carol Werner said the exclusion of any thinning or residuesfrom federal forestland eliminates an opportunity to support hazardousfuels reduction, and reduces the number and amount of cellulosic feed-stocks for renewable fuels production. “This could shatter the hopes ofmany communities in rural areas that wish to rid themselves of suchexcess materials and at the same time create job opportunities,” Wernertold the committee. Public and private forests cover approximately one-third of the nation’s land area, and much of that acreage is in need ofthinning through a variety of sustainable forestry management practices,the EESI director explained.

At the same hearing, U.S. DOE Assistant Secretary for EnergyEfficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner also recommendedthat the definition of woody biomass in the EISA be modified to paral-lel the definition contained in the farm bill proposal.

-Susanne Retka Schill

Herseth Sandlin

Thune

45 years ago Ronningbegan our business around one important notion: to build a team of engineers and scientists with a passion for delivering the world’s best ingredient preparation and production systems. Five decades later, we’re still pursuing that goal along with a commitment to meet the unique challenges involved in converting diverse biomass feedstocks into energy.

– The push to make biofuels and energy out of

alternative feedstocks may be just now heating up, but at Ronning, we’ve been working with customers to add value to biomass

for as long as we’ve been in business. Whether it be our work with animal manure, alfalfa, or perennial grasses, Ronning’s

dehydration know-how combines with our patented Three-Stage drying system to get the results you need.

– While we look to the future of biomass and cellulosic energy production, we are

committed to provide the ethanol industry of today with the premium solution for DDGS production – a solution that delivers

the high-protein, good tasting light-gold feed that is so valuable in your markets.

– We know that the future success of biofuels hinges on our ability to

deliver manufacturing systems with lower energy, water, and emissions needs. That’s why Ronning is focused on building the

Waste Heat Evaporation solution of the future – one that can cut dehydration costs in your existing facility while integrating

with a wide range of process technologies. For customers thinking of biomass-fired energy systems, Ronning has the field

installations to prove that we know how to deliver cost savings without sacrificing quality, reliability, or safety.

– In the end, it all comes down to an attitude of service to our customers. Our goal is to lead your

supply chain in delivering value with flexibility and a spirit of teamwork. We invite you to experience the Ronning difference on

your next project.

The Science of Dehydration

www.ronningengineering.com 913.239.8118 Toll free 866.RONNING


densification


densification

Whether it’s going mobile with technology for producing biomass briquettes or aligning with a major mining operationeager to reduce its coal use, two U.S. companies describe their efforts to grow their biomass briquetting businesses.

By Jessica Ebert

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Biomass Briquettes


densification

early two years ago, BradCole was put to task. As theowner of Cole’s OutdoorWood Stoves, he wasapproached by potentialcustomers wanting to know

how they could fuel a furnace if theyweren’t able to go out and chop wood. Notknowing the answer, Cole started research-ing alternatives. “We were unable to findanything here in the U.S.,” he explains. “Theonly thing we could find was in Europewhere they had been doing this process ofdensifying wood material into a solid bio-mass fuel for more than 40 years.” After apilgrimage over the “pond” and several vis-its to various companies involved in manu-facturing densification equipment, Cole,who now serves as sales manager for Iowa-based Renew Energy Systems, and fellowcompany founders, Chief ExecutiveOfficer Steve Smith and Dan Freeman, amillwright and professional welder, pur-chased equipment from C.F. Nielsen, aDanish manufacturer of briquetting press-es. “They have been in the business thelongest and were able to produce the equip-ment that we needed,” Cole says.

Renew Energy Systems is now the U.S.distributor of C.F. Nielsen’s technology forthe agricultural and waste managementareas. In addition, the company has part-nered with Kansas-based Alternative

Energy Systems, which distributes biomassboilers. “We’ve aligned our forces now,”Cole says. We produce a solid biomass fuelwhile AES distributes the biomass gasifier.”

In addition to distributing briquettes,

Renew Energy Systems also produces andmarkets the fuel. The company leases build-ing space in an industrial warehouse inOsage, Iowa, where it recently began massproducing briquettes from wood wastes

Contact Attorney Charles G. Willing, Jr. [email protected]

Got wood?• Legal work on more than 100 energy projects in over 20 states,

Nova Scotia, Ontario, Mexico, Peru and United Kingdom• Assisting developers, owners, operators, investors and lenders• Projects include wood-burning, landfill gas and other

power/fuel projects that use biomass or waste materials• We know biomass

National Impact. Uniquely New Hampshire.

Rath, Young and Pignatelli, P.C.www.rathlaw.com Concord (603) 226-2600

N

This C.F. Nielsen briquette press is in Renew Energy Systems’ Osage, Iowa, facility.

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densification

such as ground pallets, construction materi-al and cabinetry waste—material that wouldotherwise be landfilled. The first step in theproduction process is grinding the feed-stock to a diameter that the briquetter

accepts, Smith says. The ground waste istransferred to a large hopper on top of thebriquetter where it enters the machine.“The briquetter is essentially a pistonengine,” Smith says. “It has ports where

augers bring the matter in front of a largehammer that’s on a crankshaft. The crank-shaft turns and hammers the materialthrough a conical-shaped die.” The die isheated to about 225 degrees Fahrenheit andthe material is pressed through it at about3,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.It forms into something akin to a long, rel-atively thick spaghetti noodle. “When thebriquette comes out it is a continuouslylong, three-inch-wide piece of biomass,”Smith explains. At the end of the line, thelog is broken into 9- to 12-inch long chunksof renewable fuel. The chunks are baggedand distributed for use in private woodburners and fireplaces, or broken intohockey-puck-sized pieces that can be fedinto boilers and used for industrial cogener-ation.

Testing that Renew Energy Systemshas conducted in collaboration with TwinPorts Testing Inc., a Superior, Wis., testingservices company, show the company’s bri-quettes produce on average 7,400 Britishthermal units per pound. The energy con-tent is typical of wood pellets. However,Cole and colleagues are quick to point outthat the initial capital requirement and costsfor operating the briquetter are muchcheaper than those for a pelletizing process.In addition, briquette presses can process awide range of feedstocks and depending onthe blend that is put in the hopper, a pound

A close-up of Renew Energy Systems’ woody biomass fuel pucks

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of biomass briquettes can release up to10,000 Btus of energy, Cole says. “That’s atremendous fuel output.”

The company’s technology is currentlybeing trialed at universities in Wisconsinand Iowa and several large power genera-tors in the Midwest are interested in cofir-ing the briquettes with coal, Cole says. Inaddition, Renew Energy Systems is workingwith C.F. Nielsen, to develop a portable bri-quetting system. The company will soonreceive its first unit, which will initially beused to process wood waste on-site on pri-vate land in north-central Minnesota. “Theportability of this equipment is a huge fac-tor,” Smith says. It transcends the econom-ic challenges of transporting feedstocks toa processing site. “We can go after piles ofbiomass that have been sitting around foryears,” he says. It may also provide a solu-tion for managing diseased and quarantinedwood like the stands that have been infest-ed and killed by the emerald ash borer orthe west pine beetle. This wood can’t betransported for fear of further contamina-tion but, “there’s a lot of interest in con-verting diseased and quarantined feedstockinto a viable fuel,” Smith says. “This is partof the reason why we’re looking to put thisin a 20-foot container and be mobile. Wecan take the machine to the matter.”

This is one approach to successfullymass produce and commercialize biomass

briquettes. The business model ofRenewafuel LLC, another up-and-comingcompany specializing in the densification ofwaste biomass, involves teaming with acompany that wants to start meeting its sig-nificant energy needs with renewable fuels.Jim Mennell, an environmental lawyer, andfounder and managing partner of theEnvironmental Law Group Ltd. inMinneapolis, is president of Renewafueland founded the company in 2005. In hispractice, he represents a number of largeinstitutions in the Midwest. “There wasreally a strong interest and a need for sometype of alternative to natural gas and coal asa way to power institutions and industrialoperations and also to satisfy their sustain-ability objectives,” he says. However, “therewas always a number of impediments tothat taking place.”These challengesranged from findingconsistent and effec-tive alternatives to dif-ficulties in getting per-mits to use biomass.

In an attempt toovercome some ofthese obstacles,Mennell teamed with one of his clients,Leon Endres, founder and owner ofEndres Processing LLC, a producer ofhigh-quality livestock feed. Endres had

experience in aggregating waste food prod-ucts from restaurants and food manufactur-ers and processing that material into animalfeed. “I looked at the way he was collectingmaterials from all over, mixing them andrunning them through a series of processesto result in a really consistent, high-specfeed that he could sell to most of the majorpoultry houses as a feed ingredient,”Mennell explains. “I saw that as the recipefor what we could do on the biofuel side.”

Renewafuel was ultimately backed byfour leverage capital firms including JMHCapital of Boston, to undertake a three-year research and development effort,which included processing different feed-stocks, identifying their fuel characteristicsand monitoring how the briquettes burn indifferent systems such as direct-fired units,fluidized beds and pulverized coal applica-tions.

Renewafuel leverages EndresProcessing’s aggregation network of 75trucks that collect waste feedstocks from 18states. The material, including corn stalks,switchgrass, grains, soybean and oat hulls,wood and wood byproducts, is transportedto the company’s production-scale researchand development facility in Battle Creek,Mich., where Renewafuel has tested differ-ent biomass blends and collected emissionsdata. The company has developed a seriesof proprietary feedstock blends that result

Mennell

in briquettes that can be used in the solidfuel systems typical of industrial or institu-tional settings with little or no modification.The cubes generate about 8,000 Btus perpound, which is comparable to the energyreleased from coal mined from the WesternUnited States. The difference is thatRenewafuel’s solid fuel releases 90 percentless sulfur dioxide, 35 percent less particu-

late matter and 30 percent less acid gasesthan coal, as demonstrated in tests at theUniversity of Iowa’s power plant. In addi-tion, the briquettes can be customized tothe specific requirements of the user.

As the company started movingtoward commercializing its product, itbegan marketing to Cleveland Cliffs Inc., anOhio-based international mining and pro-

cessing company. In a strategic investment,Cleveland Cliffs recently acquired a 70 per-cent controlling interest in Renewafuel.“They became interested in the fuel andwanted to secure it in part as a way to hedgeagainst pending carbon legislation,”Mennell explains. “As a large energy userthey wanted to ensure that they had a suffi-cient supply of our fuel products.” In addi-tion to supplying biomass briquettes toCleveland Cliffs, Renewafuel will be astand-alone business unit that will marketand sell the fuel to other users.

To meet the demand for its product,Renewafuel is currently planning to buildproduction facilities near large energy con-sumers. The first two of these facilities areplanned for the Upper Peninsula ofMichigan and in eastern Minnesota. Bothplants are expected to be on line by the endof the year. “We’re hiring additional peopleand looking to site develop and to growquickly,” Mennell says. “We’re adding valueto local farms and local businesses. We’recreating jobs. We’re making a renewablefuel that could potentially reduce energycosts and significantly reduce environmen-tal impacts. It’s pretty exciting.” BIO

Jessica Ebert is a Biomass Magazine staffwriter. Reach her at [email protected]

or (701) 738-4962.

densification

Renewafuel collects waste feedstock from several states and densifies it into briquettes like these at its BattleCreek, Mich., facility.

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15-17 April 2008 . Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Presented by In partnership with

The full program agenda is posted on the website.

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. Policy and Project Implementation

. Biopower: CHP Technologies

. International Perspectives on Biomass Utilization

. Permitting and Lifecycle Assessment

. Alternative Bio-syngas Production

. Water Issues for Biomass Utilization

. Feedstock Alternatives

. Alternative Biofuels: Biobutanol, Green Diesel, and Jet Fuel

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. Commercial Applications

. Anaerobic Digestion

. Project Finance

. Bioproducts

. Biorefining

The objective of the

International Biomass ‘08 Conference & Trade Show is to act as a catalyst for the

sustainable advancement of biomass utilization on a global scale.


fuel


fuel

��

Joann (Tink) Birchem is a Minnesota logger and wood pelletmanufacturer whose goal is to see wood-pellet furnaces usedas the primary source of heat for Minnesota, North Dakotaand South Dakota. With the rising price of fuel shebelieves it’s a matter of economics that will soonbe unavoidable.

By Timothy Charles Holmseth

��


fuel

oann “Tink” Birchem says she“can see the forest for thetrees.” In time, everyone elsewill see it too, she says. Birchemand her husband Jerry, ownValley Forest Wood Products

LLC in Marcell, Minn., and BirchemLogging Inc. in Mt. Iron, Minn.

Somewhere in northeast Minnesota,where thousands of trees dot the land-scape, Tink Birchem saw the forest thatshe believes holds the future of heating.That future is in the form of a smallwood pellet that burns hot and cleaninside special furnaces. Eventually, every-one is going to need them and the reasoncan be explained in one word—cost,Birchem says. As people struggle withrising energy costs, they will take noticeof the relief wood-pellet furnaces offerthe pocketbook.

There is a noticeable differencebetween the price of wood pellets versusfuel oil, and there’s no getting around theoutcome. “Wood pellets cost half ofwhat fuel oil is right now,” Birchem says.Despite the large price gap, the heating

alternative has not had much of a behav-ior-changing impact on consumers, a factthat doesn’t surprise Birchem. “I thinkit’s just a matter of educating the public,”she says. “A lot of people don’t knowabout wood pellets.”

Americans don’t seem to be awareof the green-friendly fuel’s success inEurope. The informational disconnect inthe United States between the generalpublic, and the option of wood pellets asa source of heat didn’t always exist.“[Wood pellets] were actually invented inthe late 1970s in the United States,” saysChristian Rakos, chief executive officerof proPellets Austria. “[Pellets] led a veryquiet life in small niches for two decadesbefore a furious market developmentstarted in Europe.” The growing use ofpellets as a heating source in Europedemonstrates an awakening in this coun-try that can’t be ignored, Rakos says.“Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germanyand Italy have been growing on the aver-age of 30 percent to 50 percent per yearduring the past decade,” he says.

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Valley Forest Wood Products in Marcell is pictured here from the south.

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Valley Forest Wood Products, says thesuccess of pellets is a proven fact over-seas. “If you look on an [industry] mapin Europe, you’ll see in 2005 there were242 pellet plants listed,” he says. “Thatwas back in 2005, there’s more than thatnow. When you look on a map for 2005in the U.S. you will see 60.”

Although the Europeans are aheadof the United States in terms of pelletuse, it didn’t come on the scene thereuntil recently. “Generally speaking, noteven one bag of wood pellets was sold inEngland 30 months ago,” he says. “Lastyear there was a million tons sold in all ofthe U.K.” The big difference is in thebehavior of the Europeans, Brown says.“It’s the difference in lifestyles.”Europeans have always viewed the bio-mass resources that lie in their own back-yards much differently than Americans.“Biomass has been around a long time inEurope, in the consciousness of thecountry, and the people who live there,”he says.

Brown credits Birchem for introduc-ing the wood-pellet heating industry to

northwest Minnesota. “Tink Birchemwas the first one to catch on in our areathat biofuels are a big-ticket item becauseof what she was hearing about inEurope,” he says.

Europe is a real-time demonstrationof the promise wood pellets hold, andthe country has proven that it can veryquickly become vibrant when economicconditions are optimal, Birchem says.“My husband and I have been to Finlandand Sweden five different times,” shesays, explaining the methodical econom-ic utilization of lumber and forest prod-ucts there. “They really work the tree.They utilize every part. The tops andlimbs they use for biomass.”

Even a cursory look at the numbersas one scans Europe to assess industrygrowth is an eyebrow raiser, Rakos says.“Ireland is an example of how fast amarket can be established by financialincentives,” he says. Pellet-heating inIreland was virtually nonexistent untilMarch 2006, when a program called theGreener Home Scheme was available.Within a year, 4,000 applications were

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Pictured are the finished product out-loading tanks at Valley Forest Wood Products. The facility is capable of generating 50,000 tons of wood pellets per year.

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water to supply city buildings, including ahospital. “They call their forests “greengold,” she says.

Birchem’s observations of com-mon-sense solutions and prudent use ofthe obvious and available, lend them-selves to the vision she has forMinnesota, North Dakota and SouthDakota. “It’s the least expensive thingthe Europeans have to make heat andelectricity,” she says. “Sweden andDenmark are leading the world in bio-mass electricity generation.”

A speed bump to progress in thewood pellets industry in the UnitedStates is subtle, but significant. The ideaof handling a bag of pellets can be seenas an unattractive and inconvenientprospect to some Americans, Brownsays. It has become a commonly accept-ed state-of-affairs that Americans simplydon’t want to deal with a bag of pellets.

Brown says the notion that usingwood pellets would be an inconvenienttask in someone’s day is misguided;explaining how the process of heatingthis way in Europe is far past the log-cabin mentality some may still possess.“Europe is already 10 years ahead of uson wood pellets,” he says, explaininghow the process has been modernizedthere. “They’re ahead of us to the pointof delivery by trucks that blow the pel-lets into holding rooms and tanks built inhouses, with augers that automaticallyfeed a furnace, the same as fuel oil andpropane.” He says. “A person fills uponce a year, turns on the thermostat andnever touches anything again—it’s allautomated.”

Birchem has incorporated automa-tion technology into her optimistic plans.“There are furnaces coming on line nowwhere a truck would just come in and fillup your furnace with pellets, and withanother hose would suck out the ash,”she says. “That’s what they are doing inEurope.”

Production and consumption atValley Forest Wood Products for thetime being is running quite smoothly.

received and, according to SustainableFuels Ireland, 1,900 pellet boilers, 240central heating stoves and 330 stoves wereinstalled between April 2006 and August2007.

During her global travels, Birchemsays she was able to fully process andappreciate how and why wood-pellet fur-naces and heating in other countries havebeen so successful. She described onetown she visited where a biomass plantwas used to generate steam heat and hot

‘There are furnaces coming online now where a truck wouldjust come in and fill up your furnace with pellets, and withanother hose would suck outthe ash. That’s what they aredoing in Europe.’


fuel

“Wood pellets being produced right noware going to schools,” Birchem says. Shesays the success of Minnesota schoolsutilizing wood pellets serves as a virtualmirror, albeit on a smaller scale, of thesuccess that is been experienced inEurope. Brown says he talked with theperson who handles the heating at theschool in Goodridge, Minn., and learnedthe school’s money was going up insmoke. “All fuels are calculated to com-pare the cost per million Btu (Britishthermal unit),” Brown explains. “Theschool was paying $28.17 per millionBtus,” he says. “Pellets would cost $10.81per million Btus, delivered. That’s almosta 65 percent savings to use pellets.”

The pellets are also more environ-mentally friendly than fuel oil, Brownsays. “They are 92 percent cleaner in par-ticulates than cord wood,” he says.“That’s documented, both by a Swedishstudy and a New Zealand study.”

Birchem’s desire to offer an econom-ical heating alternative to the region is anongoing process. The company is con-stantly testing and improving its product.Although she admits she’s often frustrat-ed with some of the industry standardssurrounding labeling and quality issues,stronger oversight is something shepushes. “We test our pellets to make surethat we’re getting a premium pellet,” shesays. “A lot of manufacturers say theyhave premium pellets and they don’t, andthere are no regulations to monitor this.”There is a significant difference betweenpremium and standard pellets, much of itrelates to ash production. A furnace thatisn’t made to handle a high percentage ofash can get clogged, Brown says. “If [acompany is producing] a standard pellet,they should say it’s a standard pellet, andpeople should have to pay less for that,”Birchem says.

Birchem believes that Europe isproof that pellets are the heating fuel ofthe future. Although Europe is fertileground for sales and Valley Forest WoodProducts has business relationships firm-ly established in Italy, Birchem doesn’t

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expect to export any product, yet. “If Imake more pellets than what I can sellhere in the states, I can ship them toEurope and they will sell them there,” shesays. However, she would prefer that theforest resource be kept “here at home.”

Birchem says the industry she worksin is fascinating and exciting, but it can betiring at times. “I’m heading to Atlantatoday and then it’s on to [Washington]D.C.,” she says. As it is with pioneers, itappears the enigmatic part of a personthat is inclined to look back before going

any further into the great unknown, does-n’t exist in Birchem. Soft spoken, friendly,intelligent, matter-of-fact and worldly, thegirl, dubbed “Tinkerbell” by her father,has a picture in her head of the wood-pel-leting industry, and it most certainly isn’tmake-believe. BIO

Timothy Charles Holmseth is a BiomassMagazine staff writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (701) 738-4962.


transportation

PHOTO: THE PRICE COMPANIES INC.


ManagingWoody Biomass

transportation

The renewable fuels standard will require the production of more than 15 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol in the coming years requiring millions of tons of biomass. Moving that biomassfrom the fields and forests will be a logistical challenge. Some companies are gearing up to meetthat challenge.

By Jerry W. Kram

ometimes advocates of cellulosictechnologies can become overenthused with their vision of a bur-geoning industry. In their fervorthey underestimate the complexityof even the most basic processes

that will be required to build the industry. Thatincludes the collecting, transporting and storingof feedstocks. Producing billions of gallons ofethanol will require millions of tons of cellulosicfeedstocks. Moving that feedstock efficiently,safely and with as little impact on infrastructureand the environment as possible will be a majorchallenge in the years ahead.

While the grain industry has developed anetwork over a couple of hundred years enablingit to deliver corn from Dubuque, Iowa, all theway to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, bio-mass-based industries such as pulp and paperproducers have been sited as close as possible tothe biomass source. The economics of haulingbulky biomass such as wood precludes long-dis-tance transport of feedstocks, says DickCarmical, president of Price Biostock Services, asubsidiary of The Price Companies Inc., whichhas been part of the timber industry for morethan 40 years. Price Biostock was formed tooffer a broad range of management and opera-

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transportation

tions technology services to companiesinvolved in the rapid growth of biofuelsrefineries in North America and abroad.“We are the wood guys,” Carmical says.“If a company wants someone to takecare of all areas of procurement, deliveryand preprocessing, and putting the woodybiomass on a conveyer belt going intotheir converter, we can provide everythingfrom that point back.”

One of the issues facing the industryis that moving biomass more than 50miles to a processing facility could take amajor bite out of profits. “In today’s mar-ket, it takes something like 12½ cents perton mile to move stuff around or maybemore,” Carmical says. “If you move theprocurement circle out to 100 miles,adding 50 miles of freight costs, you’vejust added $6-plus on a green weight basisto the cost of your biofuel. Figuring a 1million ton per year facility, that’s at least$6 million added to your raw materialcosts.” Increasing the distance also makessupplying a biomass plant less attractive tothe timber producer. “The producer is justlike you or me,” Carmical says. “He needsso much money everyday just to pay hisbills. If you have him at a distance where

he can make three or four loads a day, hehas one set of economics. If you stretchhim out to 100 miles, then he may onlysell two loads a day. You as the consumerare going to have to pay the costs so hecan make his living on two loads a dayinstead of three or four.”

This makes the siting process forprospective biomass plants crucial. Otherconcerns that need to be considered in thesite selection process include infrastruc-ture, the type and quantities of biomassthat are available on a sustainable basis,and who will be supplying the biomass.Carmical says the latter is one of the mostimportant but underappreciated facets ofthe biomass industry. “Are we going tohave to bring in a work force to do this?”he asked. “Or will we be able to use exist-ing suppliers and are they amenable to theidea of expanding?”

A lot of the potential woody biomassin the United States is located in remoteregions of the country. In areas such asthe Southeast, property rights have beendivided and subdivided so that within acertain procurement circle, a biomasscompany may be faced with making leas-ing agreements with hundreds of

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Cellulosic ethanol plants will have to be located close to feedstock supplies. An extra 50 miles can addmore than $6 a ton to feedstock costs.

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landowners or biomass producers. “It’snot like you are going out and buying clayor iron ore,” Carmical says. “There is apersonal investment in that land by thelandowner whose dad or granddadcleared it. As you go out to harvest thatstuff, you have all these personalitiesinvolved.” That is one reason many com-panies contract with biomass supplierslike Price Biostock rather than developtheir own biomass delivery system. “Youcan get involved in brouhahas betweenthe landowner and the harvesters,”Carmical says. “That’s where we reallyearn our keep. We need to keep peoplehappy so we can come back and harvestnext time, but we also need to get theproduct delivered on a timely basis.”

Heavy IndustryHarvesting and transporting woody

biomass is an industrial process in itself.Price Biostock specializes in reducinground wood logs into high-quality wood-chips that can be easily transported bytruck or rail to processing plants. Thisinvolves huge equipment that can move50-foot logs around like matchsticks.Obviously, this equipment requires a

tremendous investment and highly skilledoperators. It isn’t an investment a biofuelsproducer should take lightly.

Carmical says he expects the firstgeneration of cellulosic biofuels plantswill get their biomass from existing sup-pliers using existing equipment. As theindustry develops, manufacturers willstart to develop equipment especially toharvest biomass for biofuels. “They willwait until they see if biofuels is an ongo-ing industry or just a little hiccup,”Carmical says.

When working with a new processor,Price Biostock will determine if there areexisting suppliers that can furnish theneeded biomass. “That’s our preference,”he says. “We will even give them long-term contracts to help them feel comfort-able expanding. We know that if we justdemand they gear up in equipment andmanpower, we will just be driving theprice up.” The company also analyzesalternative sources of biomass in the area.“We go after the low-hanging fruit, thecheapest Btu (British thermal unit) acrossthe scale,” he added. Wood waste fromexisting processors and constructiondebris are some examples of alternatives.

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Wood harvesting equipment is highly specialized. Carmical believes the first generation of biomass plantswill be fed by suppliers using conventional equipment, but machinery designed specifically for the needsof cellulosic ethanol producers will become available as the industry becomes established.


transportation

The availability of alternatives depends on the type of processbeing used to produce biofuels. Thermochemical processes suchas gasification have more latitude in feedstocks than processesbased on enzymatic hydrolysis.

Moving OnA supply chain is only as good as the roads and rails it moves

on. Carmical says it is important to bring local officials on boardearly in the planning process to address any upgrades needed tokeep the trucks moving safely and efficiently. If needed improve-ments are not in place before the trucks begin to roll, it may beharder to get them done down the road. “Normally, most of thebiomass is in rural areas,” he says. “Most rural areas are strugglingso they will be very happy to see you, so those issues can usuallybe dealt with up front. But they do need to know it up front.”

With dozens of deliveries being made daily, liability is a hugeconcern when moving woody biomass. Carmical says any businessneeds to make safety a top priority regarding both personnel andequipment. “We’ve been in business long enough to know that ifwe aren’t safety conscious, we won’t be in business long,” he says.“We have to be safe both for the public and our own people.That’s just a fundamental part of our business.” Price Biostockdrivers attend mandatory safety meetings and receive safetybonuses. “They hear about safety until they are tired of it,” headds. “It always surprised me as a young manager that you had towork to keep a man safe. They don’t recognize there are things

they have to do for their own good.” All Price Biostock trucks alsocarry a toll-free number so drivers can report any unsafe activity.“I’m proud to say we get about as many people calling to compli-ment us on how our drivers work, as complain.”

Wood burns and it contains energy that can be converted intobiofuels or electricity, which makes it valuable. It also makes it apotential hazard when thousands of tons of woody biomass aregathered in one area. There are solid fire codes already in placethat will make biomass processing facilities as safe as possible, aslong as those codes are followed, Carmical says. Some of the stepsinclude keeping only enough biomass on-site as is necessary forcurrent production, implementing and following safety plans, andcooperating with safety regulators when they do inspections. “Wecall those the checker guys who make sure we are applying prop-er procedure to everything we do,” he adds.

Supply and DemandBecause of the complexity of handling and transporting bio-

mass, Carmical thinks a good percentage of cellulosic ethanolcompanies will eventually opt to contract with a company such asPrice Biostock to develop their supply systems rather than createa supply chain from scratch. “I think there will be some that doboth,” he says. “There is some misinformation out there thatmakes people think biomass is like a chemical or something thatwill show up on order. Biomass is unique with the headaches dueto weather and seasonality. Just like the pulp and paper industry

transportation

found out when it moved to the U.S. South, sometimes it is bestserved by someone who specializes in that field.”

Biomass startups often neglect the fine details of procure-ment until they get close to breaking ground. Even then, at timesit’s not the processor but the investors in the project that wantassurances that there will be a smoothly operating supply line forthe plant. “The investors aren’t satisfied with the answer, ‘We’ll

take care of it.’ That’s when companies like ours will get the call,”Carmical says.

One example of something a new entrant into biomass pro-cessing might not be aware of is the seasonality of wood harvest-ing. Carmical says that in the Southern forests, there are periodsduring the spring when timber harvesting ceases. This is done topreserve the forest soil from being torn up by heavy equipmentwhen the ground is saturated. “The forest industry has adoptedwhat are called best management practices,” he says. “We volun-tarily don’t harvest during wet periods so we don’t rut up thewoods and track mud on the public roads. You have to take thatinto account and maybe store more inventory on-site. Companiesneed to be prepared to have a lot of flexibility.”

Carmical sees a parallel between the petroleum industry andthe future of the biomass industry. “When you look at oil and gas,nobody talks about refineries and pipelines. The discussion andbuzz is always on the exploration, the development of the rawmaterial. I think exactly the same thing is going to happen withbiofuels. After we start getting the issues of technology addressed,the race will be for the biomass to make the product.” BIO

Jerry W. Kram is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach him [email protected] or (701) 738-4962.

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There is some seasonal variation in timber harvesting. Cellulosic ethanol produc-ers using woody biomass will need to plan for extra storage in the spring whensoils are too wet for harvesting.


innovation

Dave Lanning, Jim Dooley and Mike Perry, left to right, stand next to the “muncher,” a machinethat makes Forest Concepts LLC’s patented WoodStraw erosion control material.


innovation

NorthwesternIngenuity Takes

S H A P EBacked by a solid vision and a wealth of ingenuity and experience inthe wood products industry, Forest Concepts LLC is poised to revolutionize the way wood products are manufactured and distributedwithin the wood-based biomass industry.

By Bryan Sims

young, innovative company in the Evergreen State hasbecome a valuable player in the biomass industry usinga machine it calls the “muncher” to produce its patent-ed WoodStraw. Forest Concepts LLC, a small researchforest products company with headquarters in Auburn,Wash., develops, manufactures and markets wood

products for environmental restoration, watershed protection, habitatenhancement and sustainable landscapes. Formed in 1998 by forest andnatural resource industry professionals, the company’s mission is to usetechnology to increase the value of nonvalued wood-based materials.

The muncher is a compact sawmill that can rapidly shred industrialwaste material—off-spec veneer strips called “fishtails” because of theirunique shape—from plywood mills and turn it into a product calledWoodStraw. Dave Lanning, a mechanical engineer, led the design anddevelopment of the machine. The company’s first production-scalemodel was developed in 2005 and it built three production-scale modelsin 2006.

“[The muncher] is like a heavy-duty paper shredder of sorts,” saysLanning, a 2003 graduate of the University of Washington where hedeveloped the first benchmark prototype as an undergraduate, beforeeventually being hired by Forest Concepts. “We basically used conceptsthat have been around since the 1800s with a little bit of finesse and mas-saged it to make it work with our material. We ended up with a real effi-cient system.”

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Jim Dooley, chief technology officer and cofounder ofForest Concepts, views the machine as a result of what can beachieved when science and disciplined engineering cometogether. “The concept is really 120 years old,” says Dooley,who spent 18 years at Weyerhaeuser, one of the world’s largestpulp and paper companies.

How the Muncher WorksThe muncher produces 1 to 2 wet tons of WoodStraw per

hour (roughly 1 dry ton per hour in the biofuels arena), andexpends one-third the amount of energy of conventional man-ufacturing processes. The company uses a pragmatic approachto energy efficiency in its research platforms, Dooley says.“When we formed Forest Concepts, we chose to form under adifferent paradigm,” he says. “That paradigm was that energywas precious and that producing waste is to be avoided.”

Forest Concepts employees manually unload the veneerfrom pallets and then slide the wood-based material onto themunchers’s tabletop where it’s transformed into WoodStraw, awood-strand erosion control material the company developedin 2002 in response to the increasing number of wildfires, man-made and other natural disasters in the United States. Inventedby Dooley, WoodStraw was supported in part by a USDA SmallBusiness Innovation Research grant in addition to collaborativeresearch and feasibility studies by the USDA Forest ServiceRocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow, Idaho,Washington State University, the USDA Agricultural ResearchService and the Washington Technology Center in Seattle.

In addition to energy efficiency, mitigating dust was anoth-er priority that was considered when the muncher was beinginvented, Dooley says. Out of 100 tons of WoodStraw pro-duced, about 10 pounds of dust is emitted. With minimal dust

Dooley Selected ASABE President-Elect,Forest Concepts Receives Award

Jim Dooley, chief technology officer and cofounder of ForestConcepts LLC, has been chosen as president-elect of the AmericanSociety of Agricultural and Biological Engineers for 2008-2009.Dooley, who will serve as president beginning this year, previouslyserved as president of the Institute of Biological Engineering.“Through leadership in ASABE society, it has allowed me to go toforums with people who are trying to figure out how to apply engi-neering to meet the national goals of reducing our dependence onforeign oil,” Dooley says. “The office of president-elect, shortly pres-ident and then consequentially the year as former president pro-vides me lots of communications opportunities both to influence thedirection of the profession but, more importantly, to be in meetingswith really bright people who can influence what we do and how wedo it.”

Dooley, who holds agricultural engineering degrees fromCalifornia Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and theUniversity of California, Davis, has held a number of engineering,technical management and business development positions withmajor corporations, including Weyerhaeuser and Amfac Inc. Dooleyhas been awarded five U.S. patents. He has published more than60 conference papers, journal manuscripts and book chapters.Commercial products resulting from his development programshave won recognition from ASABE, the International ErosionControl Association, the U.S. Forest Service and the Renewing theCountryside Foundation.

Additionally, Forest Concepts’ patented WoodStraw technolo-gy has been selected as the Rain Bird Engineering Concept of theYear by ASABE. One of ASABE’s major awards, it will be given attheir 2008 International Meeting, to be held June 29-July 2 inProvidence, R.I. The company will also present a related technicalpaper at the meeting.


innovation

emissions, Forest Concepts isn’t required to file for an air per-mit because it doesn’t produce enough dust to measure at itssmall industrial complex. The company also painstakingly stud-ied the biology of the material itself before developing themuncher and WoodStraw technologies, which is a reflection ofits research and development roots. “We’ve spent a lot of time

figuring out the first principles of how the material behaves inthe physical properties and the anatomical structure of thematerials before we decide how we make big pieces becomesmall pieces,” Dooley says.

According to Dooley, the development of WoodStrawprompted the creation of the muncher, which is a ratherunorthodox business strategy in today’s climate, but effectivenonetheless. “That’s backwards to what a lot of people dotoday,” he says. “Most people that make erosion control mate-rial start with the process or waste products and then they tryto make their adjustments. Fortunately, the muncher technolo-gy not only makes [WoodStraw] very well but we believe that itapplies to other stuff pretty well too.”

Attracting AttentionWith a positive track record backed by its WoodStraw ero-

sion control technology and the muncher, Forest Concepts israpidly increasing its market presence and is garnering atten-tion from a variety of markets.

Some of the most notable accomplishments involvingWoodStraw include its application in fire rehabilitation projectssuch as after the California wildfires last year. Another was areclamation project in Utah’s Crandel Canyon Mine where itwas used to stabilize holes in the ground after six miners weretrapped. WoodStraw is currently approved by the WashingtonDepartment of Transportation and the Oregon Department ofTransportation, and accepted by the Washington Departmentof Ecology as erosion control mulch. Public agencies, non-profit environmental groups, hunting and fishing organiza-tions, contractors and private landowners are the primaryWoodStraw customers. In its first two years of commercialproduction, Forest Concepts delivered more than 2,700 tons to

Employees of Forest Concepts hand-feed wood veneer into the muncherfor conversion into WoodStraw.

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the USDA’s Forest Service. In 2007, the company producedapproximately 87 truckloads from its Auburn facility for ero-sion control projects in the western United States. “When theyneed something that works in a really sensitive area, they callus,” says Forest Concepts Chief Executive Officer Mike Perry.

WoodStraw is unique because it handles like hay and canbe baled in common sizes for easy transport. It can be appliedby hand, blower or helicopter, which is referred to as“helimulch.” According to Perry, the USDA Forest Service andthe Bureau of Land Management represent about 85 percentof Forest Concepts’ business. One of the most prevailingadvantages of using WoodStraw is that it prevents weedgrowth and promotes revegetation, Perry says. “It just costs anenormous amount of money to get rid of [weeds] and most ofthe time [customers] can’t get rid of them,” he says. “Becausewe manufacture it from wood, there’s definitely no weeds orseeds involved. It gives [customers] a lot of comfort in know-ing it’s not going to introduce invasive weeds.”

Forest Concepts’ proprietary muncher technology is alsogaining ground, developing distribution partnerships andlicensees for its proprietary wood-munching process. Demandfor the machine could be even greater as cellulosic ethanolplants start to look for efficient feedstock procurement meth-ods. Additionally, Forest Concepts is keeping its options openand would be willing to sell its entire WoodStraw brand to athird party who could take it national or international. “For the

underlying [wood-munching] technology, we’re continuing todevelop the patent process that enables us to invest intellectu-al property protection on it,” Dooley says. “If there were a bio-fuels plant today that wanted to install this technology wewould work with them to adapt it to their specific needs undera license. If there were an equipment manufacturer that want-ed to compete based on our technology, it would be available.”

Improving LogisticsIn an industry where wood collection, removal and recy-

cling is a necessity, finding the most cost-effective and efficientmeans of handling and transporting wood can be a challenge.However, Forest Concepts has discovered a practical methodthat could relieve short-term impediments.

As part of the USDA Small Business Innovation Researchcontract initiated in 2005, Forest Concepts has developed abiomass baling system that can be installed at the end of itswood-munching process. After two years of characterizing thewoody biomass resources in three western states, the companydetermined that the project reduces the cost of transportationand distribution. Forest Concepts began design work on thebaler last year and has since completed the second phase of theproject. At press time, the baler was 90 percent complete. Onceit’s finished it will undergo rigorous field trials. “It’s not just anormal baler that you would see in an industrial plant or youpull behind a tractor,” Lanning says. “It’s actually a pretty smart

innovation

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machine that uses a third of the energy that you would normal-ly use for [producing bales of] this size. A lot of engineeringwent into making this highly efficient and effective baler.”

Baling and collecting wood-based materials isn’t new forForest Concepts. The company has been baling WoodStrawsince 2002. The company intends to introduce its proprietarybaling technology to the biofuels sector where it could easily beused to bale cellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover, switch-grass, woody biomass and other cellulosic material.

While it was conducting problem analysis on the baler,Forest Concepts discovered that tree service companies andlandscapers use chippers because the chipped material is easierto haul than loose brush, and to avoid costly tipping fees,Dooley says. Forest Concepts’ baling technology would notonly enhance biomass handling activities but also improvetransportation methods at a reasonable cost. “What you wantto do is expand on existing capabilities and so what we’re doingis leveraging the existing systems for recycling,” Dooley says.“We can add value to them either by consulting, partnering orforming joint ventures on the logistics side.”

The muncher is also being repurposed to convert urbanwoodwaste into bundles that can be more efficiently transport-ed than wood chips. “For us, as we go forward, we think thereare lots of ways for integrating urban woody materials as feed-stocks into the traditional wood products industry, and as feed-stocks for the solid/liquid biofuels markets,” Dooley says. “We

probably won’t operate collection centers because there arepeople who already do that for other materials. But, we willcontinue to develop the logistics and the management systemsfor that because we understand both the source and the mar-ket.”

Although the widespread consensus in the industry is thatcellulosic biomass cannot be cost effectively shipped more than50 miles, Forest Concepts’ baling and transportation project isdesigned to endure a 150- to 300-mile-transport radius. Tomake sure it was feasible, Forest Concepts conducted 350-miletest shipments from Seattle to Medford, Ore., last summer withpositive results.

As for drying the woody biomass, Forest Concepts has rec-ognized the need for creating cost-effective drying methods.However, the company doesn’t anticipate it will tackle thatissue in the immediate future. “Today, huge amounts of ener-gy go into drying the wood material,” Dooley says. “There aredefinitely big opportunities in drying for us or somebody else.We just haven’t gotten to it yet.” BIO

Bryan Sims is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach him at bsims

@bbibiofuels.com or (701) 746-4962.


industry


industry

Organizing BiomassFarmers

Biomass projects don’t typically follow a cookie-cutter approach. The lay of the land, the existing farmstructure and transportation system make each oneunique.

By Susanne Retka Schill

iomass is local. That may be an obviousstatement, but when it comes to design-ing biomass supply systems for thefuture, all of the implications of thatstatement will be front and center.Biomass Magazine highlights three proj-

ects that are organizing farmers and learning about thechallenges that lie ahead.

The newest project is in the midst of westernMinnesota’s corn and soybean country where the land ismostly flat and 90 percent is planted to row crops. TheUniversity of Minnesota-Morris is building a biomassgasification plant to help heat its campus and to providea platform for biomass research.

In east Tennessee, the farms are small, nestled in therolling hills and among the multiple tributaries of theTennessee River in the valley between the SmokeyMountains and the Cumberland Plateau. Cow/calfoperations and dairies still dot the wooded landscapeand the most common crops are soybeans and wheat.The University of Tennessee is partnering withMascoma Corp. in the Tennessee Biofuels Project todevelop a demonstration research facility using switch-grass, and eventually wood, to produce cellulosicethanol.

Not all of Iowa is flat with miles of corn and soy-bean fields lining straight roads. Southeastern Iowa hasless productive land with rolling hills that are prone tosoil loss when planted to row crops. With more than adecade of switchgrass research led by the CharitonValley Resource and Conservation District, its project isin a holding pattern and some of the acres planted to

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switchgrass for the research phase are beingconverted back into row crops to takeadvantage of record corn and soybeanmarkets. The regional power utility, AlliantEnergy Corp., is ready to cofire 5 percentswitchgrass with coal at its 726 megawattOttumwa (Iowa) Generating Station.However, the utility wants to buy a ready-to-fire switchgrass powder. That puts theball back into the court of nonprofit PrairieLands Bio-products Inc., which was organ-ized during the research phase, to develop abusiness contracting growers to transportand process switchgrass. Prairie LandsBiomass LLC is a skeleton business await-ing the completion of the feasibility studyand business plan needed to raise the capi-tal to launch on a commercial scale.

Although the locale shapes the designof each biomass procurement system,these common themes emerge when talk-ing to project organizers:

�It is critical to engage farmers earlyin discussions with the end users so eachparty understands the issues faced by theother. In essence, they hold each otherhostage: the farmer will have one market,and the biomass user will be dependent ona limited number of farmers within an eco-nomical trucking distance of the facility.

�Commoditization isn’t likely to hap-pen with biomass. Due to the sheer bulkinvolved, farmers aren’t likely to be able tosidestep the local market and load their bio-mass on barges headed for export in theway corn and soybeans are handled. Thus,public forums for price discovery that existfor commodities like corn, soybeans and oilare not likely to emerge for biomass.

�Quality discounts or premiums willlikely be site specific. Tolerances for highmoisture, weathering, mold and contami-nants such as dirt may vary greatly depend-ing on the technology used to convert thebiomass into energy. For example, the tol-erance for dirt in some cellulosic processesmay be as low as 0.025 percent and highmoisture switchgrass can increase grindingcosts by nearly one-third.

�Biomass prices will vary greatly

from region to region because a majorcomponent of the pricing structure will bethe price needed to make the dedicated bio-mass crop competitive with alternative landuses in that specific region.

�Harvesting and transportation costswill vary depending on the existing infra-structure when the biomass crop systembegins to develop—whether farmers havebaling equipment or other harvesting sys-tems that can be adapted. Each region willdiffer in the number of trucks and kinds oftrailers available to haul the biomass, not tomention road limits which vary not only bystate, but by individual highways.

�Conservation concerns will have amajor impact, and are likely to be differentdepending on the specific ecosysteminvolved. The points where dedicated bio-mass crops and crop residue harvests inter-face with federal farm and conservationprograms will require close attention.

Minnesota: Biomass for HeatOne of Joel Tallaksen’s objectives as

the biomass project coordinator for theUniversity of Minnesota-Morris is to devel-op a tool box for others contemplating abiomass project. UMM began constructionlast summer on an $8.9 million biomassgasification plant to heat nearly 1 millionsquare feet of campus buildings. Futureplans include adding absorption coolers toprovide summer air conditioning and asteam turbine to generate electricity. Theprimary feedstock will be corn stover,although research projects are planned toinvestigate other feedstocks. Studies willalso focus on ash properties, the impact ofresidue removal on soils and more.

Heating the university campus isexpected to take 8,000 to 10,000 tons ofbiomass per year, Tallaksen says, of whichtwo-thirds have already been contracted forthe first year. Initial meetings were held lastsummer to contract a limited amount ofbiomass to be baled last fall for the gasifier’sstartup runs after construction is complet-ed this summer. The university developed arequest for proposals and asked farmers to

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bid the cost per ton they would need todeliver baled biomass throughout the yearto the university. “I told them we don’t wantto make bad neighbors, and to let us knowwhat they felt they needed,” he says. Theaverage bid for corn stover was $74 per tondelivered. The university also received lowercost bids for wood chips, which they includ-ed in the feedstock mix to bring the overallaverage cost for biomass to $54 per ton. Inorder to collect and evaluate biomass fromas many suppliers as possible, the maximumtonnage accepted from any one producerwas 400 tons. “One well-organized suppliercould potentially supply UMM’s entireneed,” Tallaksen says. “But to maintain thecommunity nature of the project it wasimportant to have multiple biomass pro-ducers involved.” Exploring different bio-mass handling systems, developing qualitystandards and testing protocols are all partof the research design as the projectadvances.

Tennessee: Biomass for EthanolThe University of Tennessee is anoth-

er university deeply involved in developinga biomass system. After several years of

work on switchgrass production practices,this year the Tennessee Biofuels Projectbegan gearing up to enroll 8,000 acres tofuel a 5 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant beingbuilt in cooperation with Mascoma Corp.Tennessee granted $40.7 million for build-ing the demonstration-scale plant, whichwill include ongoing research capabilities.The state also provided $8.5 million forfarmer incentives to plant switchgrass.

Based on the economic analysis donein earlier research, UT established a price of$450 per acre which amortizes the switch-grass establishment costs over the threeyears of the contract, says Burt English, UTprofessor of agricultural economics. After around of meetings planned by his col-league, Clark Garland, UT senior agricultur-al economist, the researchers chose 16farmers from the nearly 40 who expressedinterest in signing contracts. Most of the725 acres signed up for the first year arecoming from cropland, he adds, although afew are currently in pasture or hay. The landwill be used this fall for trials designed toestablish switchgrass in existing grassland.The second round of contracts will besolicited this summer for 2,000 more acres,

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The University of Minnesota-Morris expects to burn 8,000 to 10,000 tons of biomass to heat the campuseach year. The gasification plant will be completed this summer.

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which will allow more hayland and grassland to be enrolled since thecontracts will be awarded in time for fall field preparation. By thethird year, the goal is to reach the full 8,000 acres of switchgrass.“The reason we aren’t planting 8,000 acres the first year is becausethere is a lack of seed,” English adds. He says the contracts arerather complex, and include a fuel-charge index which will adjust thecontract price up or down depending on the price of tractor fuel inOctober of each year.

The first switchgrass harvest this fall is expected to yield 2 drytons per acre, which is about one-third of its full potential of 7 drytons per acre. Harvesting and storage methods are being studied thiswinter, comparing square and round bales that are both tarped andleft uncovered, as well as being set on the ground, on gravel and onpallets. Another system being investigated is the encasement ofbales in plastic tubes that can hold up to 30 bales and protect themfrom weathering, English says. Next year, researchers want to exper-iment with the cotton module harvest system, which transformedthe cotton harvest in the 1970s. Special wagons are used to transfercotton from the picker working its way through the field to a mod-ule builder parked on the field’s edge. The load of cotton is dumpedover the top of the module builder which has a hydraulic tampertraveling along the top edge to compress the fluffy cotton bolls intoa solid bale that measures about 8-feet-wide, 8-feet-tall and 30-feet-long. When it’s full, the back door of the module builder is opened,the side walls lift up on wheels, and a tractor pulls the machine away

from the bale. The bale is left sitting on the ground and is coveredwith a tarp if it’s going to be left in the field for any length of time.When the gin needs more supplies, a module truck backs up to thehuge bale. The truck bed tilts to slide under the leading edge of thecotton bale and the live bottom on the truck bed helps to draw thebale onto the truck as it backs up. Loading the approximately30,000-pound-bale of cotton takes just a few minutes and the truckcan travel at highway speeds to the cotton gin. Such a system, if itcan be modified to successfully compact switchgrass, promises togreatly reduce the handling costs associated with square or roundbales.

English sees a number of issues that have yet to be workedout—how large a contingency supply will be needed above a one-year supply for the biorefinery, whether to store on farm or in a cen-tralized location, and if bales are stored in a central location whotakes ownership of the biomass. He believes because of the size ofthe farms and the availability of equipment in this area ofTennessee, farmers will be harvesting and stacking their own switch-grass bales, although they may not be loading the trucks.

Iowa: Biomass for CofiringThe Iowa switchgrass project is further along than most with

more than a decade of research. “There’s a big difference betweenfeasibility studies and commercialization, and there’s a differencebetween taking a crop residue and developing a dedicated energy

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industry

crop,” says Bill Beldon, who organized a group of farmers in theearly stages of the Iowa project and is now the consulting managerfor Prairie Lands, the nonprofit farm group that is organizing aswitchgrass procurement and processing system to supply AlliantEnergy’s Ottumwa generating station. A core group of 30, out ofan original group of 40 farmers, are still involved in the project,which is looking to raise about $150,000 to pay for a final feasibili-ty study and business plan for the biomass harvest system. The

group estimates it will cost $7 million to $8 million to launch theproject—an exact amount will be determined in the business plan.

To support the research phase, the farmer cooperators seeded5,000 to 6,000 acres to switchgrass, although only about 3,200 acreswere harvested in any one year because the grass was planted onmarginal land with environmental and wildlife sensitivity. To gocommercial, Prairie Lands estimates it will have to expand thatacreage 10-fold or more to supply the 200,000 tons of switchgrassthat Alliant will require each year. They’ve lost ground, however, assome of the switchgrass was broken up to seed row crops. Otherland has changed hands since the program began, and the new own-ers are not involved. On the positive side, the Natural ResourceConservation Service is enrolling biomass acres in theEnvironmental Quality Improvement Program, signing up 2,000acres last year, Belden reports. The program involves a cost-sharefor establishment and allows harvesting for biomass.

Belden says that the deeper he digs into commercializing alarge-scale project, the more questions he has about the details.“There’s value just in getting those questions down on paper,” hesays. BIO

Susanne Retka Schill is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach her [email protected] or (701) 738-4962.

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The University of Tennessee is testing methods to determine how the baling system and storage affects quality.


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National Forest Biomass

off-limits

In national forests from Arizona to Montana, thousands of slash piles left by the timber industry could be used to produce cellulosic ethanol. Before that can happen,the language in the Energy Bill must be changed.

By Hope Deutscher

for RFS


policy

rom renewable energy companies to pri-vate organizations, many entities see thepotential for energy derived from biomasssitting in piles in the United States’ 155national forests.

The Energy Independence & SecurityAct of 2007, which was signed into law in December,includes a historic 36 billion gallon renewable fuelsstandard (RFS), a portion of which will be made frombiomass. A last-minute change in the legislation’s defi-nition of renewable biomass, however, prevents almostall federal land biomass—such as trees, wood, brush,thinnings, chips and slash—from counting toward the

mandate if it is used to manufacture biofuels. “At timeswe get calls for prospective biomass consumers andcellulosic ethanol investors who want to know howmuch wood the Black Hills can provide,” says BlaineCook, a forest silviculturist with the Black HillsNational Forest, who is also the biomass coordinatorfor the forest.

Currently there are 3,126 slash piles in the BlackHills National Forest from saw timber harvest andthinning, which Cook says is equivalent to 239,000green tons. And there are slash piles totaling more thana million tons (air dry) that are 1 to 4 years of age inthe forest.

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U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., notesthat biomass was eligible to be countedtoward the 2005 RFS, but when the 2007energy package was crafted behind closeddoors, it changed the way that waste mate-rial from national forests could be used.“America’s national forests provide one ofour greatest renewable resources,” Thunesays. “To exclude slash piles and otherwastes from within our national forests tobe counted towards the renewable fuelsstandard simply makes no sense. It isunfortunate that the harmful definition ofrenewable biomass was inserted by theHouse Democratic leadership at the lastminute, and it is critical that Congress fixthis definition before the new RFS rulestake effect on Jan. 1, 2009.”

The U.S. Forest Service, timber andalternative energy groups have met withSouth Dakota’s congressional delegationto discuss the exclusion of this biomassfrom the federal Energy Bill. Thune andU.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., have since introduced separate billsto change the definition of renewable bio-

Slash piles, consisting of tree tops and limbs left by the logging and timber industry, lie in a clearing of theforest.

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mass, as it was written in earlier versionsof the Energy Bill. The legislation alsopromotes the development and use ofcellulosic ethanol derived from woodybiomass on federal lands. The Black HillsNational Forest, a dense ponderosa pineforest covers an area 125 miles long and65 miles wide in western South Dakotaand northeastern Wyoming. “This provi-sion not only discourages the use of suchbiomass, but in doing so could result in a

decrease in responsible forest manage-ment by denying land managers an impor-tant outlet for the excessive biomass loadsthat often accumulate on public lands,”Herseth Sandlin says. “Amending the def-inition of renewable biomass in theEnergy Bill will greatly improve our abili-ty to manufacture renewable energy fromour forestlands, both public and private,all over the country. This would bringtremendous benefits, not only to our envi-ronment, to forest health, and to ournational security, but it will also providean economically viable outlet for forestbyproducts that could revitalize the localeconomies of hundreds of small forestcommunities across the country, includingthose in the Black Hills.”

Herseth Sandlin’s bill significantlybroadens the definition of cellulosicethanol within the RFS to include morebiomass gathered from federal land andwould allow RFS credit for broad cate-gories of biomass from nonfederal andtribal lands including agricultural com-modities, plants and trees, algae, crop

residue, waste material (including woodwaste and wood residues), animal wasteand byproducts (including fats, oils, greas-es and manure), construction waste, andfood and yard waste. The RenewableBiofuels Facilitation Act was cosponsoredby a geographically diverse and bipartisangroup, including representatives GregWalden, R-Ore., Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.,Bart Stupak, D-Mich., Mike Ross, D-Ark.,Chip Pickering, R-Miss., Jo Ann Emerson,R-Mo., Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Jo Bonner,R-Ala., and John Peterson, R-Pa. Underthe proposed legislation, biomass projectsconducted on federal lands would stillhave to comply with federal and state law,as well as applicable land managementplans. On Feb. 7, the Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee held ahearing on the RFS.

The National Forest System andForest Service, an agency of the USDA,manages 155 national forests and 222research and experimental forests, as wellas 20 national grasslands and other specialareas, covering more than 192 million

‘We’re thinning and logging inareas of high risk from insectsand fire so the bugs can’t getestablished and fires can burnat low intensity.’


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acres of public land. The national forests,which were first called forest reserves,began with the Forest Reserve Act of1891. The act allowed presidents to estab-lish forest reserves from timber-coveredpublic domain land. Throughout the years,leaders and visionaries have worked withscientific and conservation organizations,as well as forest professionals to retain mil-lions of acres of federally designated for-est land for future generations.

Black Hills National Forest officialssay their goal is to have a healthy forest

that is green, diverse and productive, andprovides homes for wildlife and fish. Theforest is actively thinned to fend offmountain pine beetles and reduce the riskof crown fires. As well, the logging andtimber industry helps the forest servicethin the forest. “We’re thinning and log-ging in areas of high risk from insects andfire so the bugs can’t get established andfires can burn at low intensity,” says DaveThom, Black Hills national resources staffofficer. Trees that are thinned and logged,and treated with prescribed burns don’thave to compete with so many other treesfor water and nutrients. They grow faster,are healthier and result in stronger moreresilient forests, Thom says.

Energy SourceKL Process Design Group, a biofuels

design-build company based in RapidCity, S.D., recently started a cellulosicethanol facility in Upton, Wyo. The com-pany is utilizing wood chips from privatelandowners in the Black Hills. “The BlackHills National Forest has several pocketswithin it of private landowners so we willbe utilizing those particular pockets ofwooded area for now. And, of course, ourhope is that on the backend the EnergyBill will be changed and open that up.” Ajuvenile corrections facility south ofCuster, S.D., which just put in a biomassfurnace, and a Rapid City cabinet makerare also using wood waste from the for-est. All three sources just want a coupletrucks a week, Cook says. “The remainingpiles out there reach a point of starting todecay and once the wood fiber starts togo, after about a year and a half, they areburned.”

Tom Martin, media relations manag-er for KL Process, says the company isworking with the state’s congressionalleaders to change federal policy. “We’retrying to work hard with our congression-al leaders in South Dakota to perhaps getsome concessions on that or even turn itaround,” Martin says. “We don’t thinkfrom a useable standpoint that it makes alot of sense, it kind of takes the teeth out

‘What I foresee for managementstrategies and logging systemsis that there will be slash pilesfor a long time into the futurethat will be available for somesort of utilization.’


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of the cellulosic part of the Energy Bill,and so we’re working hard to try and getthat turned around a bit.” At public meet-ings, KL Process President Dave Litzenhas said the biomass in the Black HillsNational Forest slash piles could produce30 million gallons of ethanol.

It’s difficult to find anyone who isopposed to using federal forest biomassfor energy. Representatives from theSouth Dakota Chapter of the Sierra Clubhave said that the national Sierra Club andthe local chapter don’t oppose usingwood waste from the national forests forenergy. However, they don’t want theBlack Hills National Forest to be used aas a fuel farm; any biomass gathered foralternative fuel should be done within theexisting forest management plan.Headquartered in Rapid City, the BlackHills Forest Resource Association is anonprofit membership-supported organi-zation devoted to improving forest man-agement, decision-making and policies onthe Black Hills National Forest. BHFRAmembers support protecting the BlackHills’ forest environment while maintain-ing its relationship with dependent com-munities and economies.

BHFRA Director Tom Troxel saysthe association supports Herseth-Sandlin’s bill. “When the loggers are log-ging, they bring the trees into the landingwhere the tops and limbs are cut off,” hesays. “And so we have these great big pilesat every landing. For the most part theyare just burned and there’s nobody thatwants them left in the woods. The wildlifebiologists don’t want those piles left at thelandings. If those [slash piles] were all leftin the woods, it would be a fire hazardand really, anything that we can do nowthat would encourage any sort of utiliza-tion of that is common sense. If we canutilize it rather than burn it, then I think itbenefits all around.”

As more companies around thecountry research the use of wood wasteas an economical alternative fuel source,Troxel says he would like to see federalpolicy support for that. “I’d like to see

federal energy policy such that it wouldencourage use of these piles,” he says.“It’s an economic benefit and it fits intothe whole energy independence a lot offolks are thinking about for the UnitedStates. If there’s a way that we can pro-duce this energy here at home with ourown resources, that’s a plus.”

Troxel says for the foreseeable futurethere is energy potential from the biomasssupply in the Black Hills National Forest.“I think there’s going to be an ongoingand continuous need for forest manage-

ment in the Black Hills,” he says. ”What Iforesee for management strategies andlogging systems is that there will be slashpiles for a long time into the future thatwill be available for some sort of utiliza-tion.” BIO

Hope Deutscher is the Biomass Magazineonline editor. Reach her at hdeutscher

@bbibiofuels.com or (701) 373-0636.


profile

An aerial view of Taylor Recycling Facility LLC in Montgomery, N.Y.

PHOTO: TAYLOR BIOMASS ENERGY LLC


profile

Construction Waste to Biomass

to Energy & Back Again

Jim Taylor is living his version of an old saw: One man’strash is another man’s treasure. New York-based Taylor

Biomass Energy LLC recycles construction and demolitiondebris, waste wood and municipal garbage to feed a

revolutionary biomass gasification system. His system useshot circulating sand to heat the feedstock and convert it into a

synthesized fuel gas, which powers a high-efficiency turbine orgenerator.

By Sarah Smith


profile

im Taylor’s rubble-to-riches foray into the biomassgasification industry was a natural outgrowth of hisother business ventures. In his formative years he wasa mogul of mulch, a guru of garbage, composting andlobbying for refuse reform and changes in humanbehavior that contributed to overflowing landfills. He

targeted the governments that allowed it. “Stop wasting ourwaste!” is one of his favorite catch phrases.

His tree trimming business evolved into an operation thatcleared land of trees, stumps and debris. By 1987, his flagshipcompany, Taylor Recycling Facility LLC, began perfecting aprocess to sort mixed waste streams and recycle the debris.Taylor Recycling, located in Montgomery, N.Y., recognized amarket for scrap metal, cardboard, mulch and landfill cover.

In late 1989, his business hit a snag when New York passedlegislation making tree residue a regulated waste. “We were told,‘You gotta take it to an approved place,’” he recalls. There was-n’t one, and it turned out to be Taylor’s eureka moment. A gasi-fication idea was born. But he got sidetracked along the way.

When the twin towers collapsed on thatfateful day in September 2001, Taylor usedhis company’s expertise to implement twocustom forensic systems that filtered a half-million tons of rubble. Taylor Recycling’sprocesses enabled the FBI and New YorkPolice Department investigators to siftthrough ashes and waste materials to recov-er potential evidence and human remains. Ittook nine months.

Now the Big Easy is calling. The bayou has been burdenedby more than 20 million tons of construction debris from thedevestation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Taylor has his sights

J Taylor’s Technology Process ABCs

Jim Taylor doesn’t believe waste should be catego-rized by where it originated, such as municipal, com-mercial, household, hazardous, etc. “It’s organic, inor-ganic or hazardous,” he says. “Otherwise you get intoa constant regulatory battle.” The owner of TaylorBiomass Energy LLC admits this philosophy will causeeducational hurdles with the regulatory arena and con-sumers. To help people understand his business Taylorhas devised his ABCs of process technology.

�A is all about the sorting, separating and recyclingat the waste handling facility.

�B is the gasification process. In the case of his fastpyrolysis gasification system, B is for blender.

�C is the power island, the power generation, thepower interconnect area.

�D is the finance world.

“Not only does the industry side have to learnabout the finance side of the arena, worse yet, thefinance arena has to learn about this brand new indus-try sector called the biomass renewable energy tech-nology world,” Taylor says. “It’s exciting to move andtransform the world forward and yet very difficult.”Taylor


profile

set on New Orleans and its mountains of garbage. Area scrapwood and other materials traditionally found in the mixed con-struction and demolition stream are ideal for his process.

This will be a time-consuming process and Taylor admits tobeing frustrated at the pace of the clean-up and Louisiana reg-ulatory hurdles. He’s actually eyeing nearly two dozen sites inand around New Orleans, but is keeping busy at other projectsin the meantime.

One of those endeavors is a waste project in Uganda, cur-rently in the due diligence stage. Another is a partnership withAbengoa Bioenergy, the St. Louis affiliate of a Spain-based

company. Abengoa Bioenergy Corp. was selected by the U.S.DOE in the 2007 round of grant awards to build a celluslosicethanol plant in Kansas. The grant application submittal includ-ed using a Taylor gasifier to produce steam energy for the proj-ect.

Meanwhile, Taylor occupies himself with his waste-to-bio-mass technology that is awaiting a patent. It resembles ablender. But, because Taylor thinks big, this model would be abartender’s high-torque special.

One Gigantic Cocktail: Hold the TequilaTaylor’s proprietary system is called fast pyrolysis biomass

gasification. It uses two vertical tubes nearly 70 feet tall. Eachhollow tube is 4-feet in diameter. Sand is heated to 1,800degrees Fahrenheit in one tube, and is then jettisoned into thesecond tube along with a smaller quantity of chopped biomass.The mixture is blended like a mega cocktail so that the whirlingsand granules convert the engulfed biomass into methane,hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Some residual fly ash and charremain.

The gas is then siphoned off and cleaned. The fly ash hasconstruction applications as a stabilizer in concrete and asphalt.The char and sand are fed back into the first tube, where thechar is burned off to heat the sand and the process starts all

‘I’m in the waste business and I’m solving wasteproblems, and it starts out with reducing, reusing,recycling, sorting, separating, cleaning andpreparing it.’

Taylor’s gasification technology

SOURCE: TAYLOR BIOMASS ENERGY LLC


profile

over again.Emissions are minimized by the removal of recyclables,

household hazardous waste, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plasticsand treated wood during front-end separation. But emissionsare also eliminated because wood and other biomass fuels haveno sulfur, and Taylor is emphatic that his process doesn’tinvolve combustion. He says construction and demolitionfeedstock has inherently high reactive qualities, so don’t everask him to “burn” your cocktail.

Taylor’s gasification system also results in the destructionof hydrocarbon tars, which he views as an essential element ingas cleanup. Taylor Biomass employs a proprietary method ofconverting the tars into additional synthesis gas. The composi-tion of the synthesis gas is altered to significantly increase itshydrogen-to-carbon-monoxide ratio.

The process hasn’t been flawless. The company is workingto perfect the separation process crucial to the initial phase ofthe operation. In September 2007, fireworks didn’t get culledout of the waste stream and exploded in the grinder.Pyrotechnic debris injured two of his employees and causedsignificant damage to the equipment.

His road to solid waste success has had other bumps alongthe way. In late 2007, Taylor and his companies emerged suc-cessfully from a brutal lawsuit filed by a competitor claimingthey had stolen trade secrets when Taylor hired away the rival’schief engineer. A U.S. District Court in Georgia dismissed theclaim. Taylor isn’t breaking out the waste cocktail blender yet,however, as an appeal is expected. The lawsuit would haveessentially forced Taylor and his waste empire out of business,so he waits while the appeals process slowly churns.

He’s good at the waiting game. He’s currently dealing witha half-dozen local, state and federal regulatory agencies await-ing approval to get his behemoth blender shaking. He tenta-tively plans on the first commercial gasification in late 2009.

In the end, Taylor simply wants to be known as the wizardof waste. He envisions a world where refuse-fired generatorswill power the globe. “I tell everyone I’m not in the energyworld,” he says. “I’m in the waste business and I’m solvingwaste problems, and it starts out with reducing, reusing, recy-cling, sorting, separating, cleaning and preparing it.”

Taylor sees biomass gasification as the culmination of hisdreams. “We’re not out to solve the energy problem eventhough we’re going to contribute to doing that. I say we con-tinue to waste our waste.” BIO

Sarah Smith is a Biomass Magazine staff writer. Reach her [email protected] or (701) 663-5002.

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feedstock


feedstock

Fresh-

Ethanol FeedstockSeventy-five percent of U.S. oranges are grown in Florida. The Sunshine State’s citrus processing industry produces

nearly all of the orange juice consumed in the country, resulting in up to five tons of citrus waste each year. Options forturning that waste into something useful are limited, so the possibility of using citrus waste as a feedstock for ethanol

plants is being closely monitored.

By Kris Bevill

mericans love oranges.According to the USDA, thefruit consistently ranks thirdamong the nation’s favoritefresh fruits and it’s the No. 1fruit juice. Americans con-

sume two-and-a-half-times more orange juicethan apple juice, making juice production a

huge industry for Florida citrus processors. Butbefore you drink that next glass of OJ, consider

that half of the orange used to make that juicebecomes waste material. In fact, the Florida citrus

industry produces 3.5 million to 5 million tons ofcitrus waste every year. Which begs the question:

What possibilities are being explored to turn that wasteinto something useful, and who’s brave enough to try?

Bill Widmer, a research chemist at the USDAAgricultural Research Service’s Citrus and SubtropicalProducts Laboratory in Winter Haven, Fla., has been work-ing on the conversion of citrus peels to ethanol the pastfour years. His work is a continuation of research first con-

ducted in the 1990s by Karel Grohmann, who developedthe conversion process. At the time of Grohmann’sresearch, gas prices were relatively low and enzyme costswere high. When Widmer took on the project four yearsago, gas prices were substantially higher and enzyme costshad come down enough to make it possible to furtherexplore citrus-peel-to-ethanol technology. Widmer set outto modify the process into something would be economi-cally feasible and that could be a continuous process forcommercialization purposes.

Technology His research was a success. Four years ago it took $12

to $15 worth of enzymes to produce 1 gallon of ethanol.Widmer was able to lower the enzyme cost to approximate-ly 80 cents per gallon and create a pretreatment processcapable of running on a continuous basis. The processconsists of using the raw waste citrus peels and treatingthem to remove the peel oil present in the waste streambefore liquefying the peels to begin the conversion toethanol.

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feedstock

The peel oil removed in the pretreatment process is calledd-limonene and is considered to be a valuable byproduct of cit-rus peel conversion. Widmer has developed a way to removethe oil and recover it for use in solvents and as a fragrance incleaning products. “D-limonene has a value of 50 cents to $1per pound,” Widmer says. “If we were to convert citrus peel toethanol and only get ethanol it wouldn’t be feasible, but forevery gallon of ethanol we produce, we also get one pound ofd-limonene.” Widmer says it costs approximately $2 to produceone gallon of ethanol and producers can expect to receive$1.50 to $2 per gallon of ethanol sold. Add to that approxi-mately 75 cents per pound of d-limonene recovered, and theadditional revenue of pelletized animal feed that can be pro-duced from leftover waste and the citrus peel conversionprocess is a money maker.

The PlayersWidmer says there are three patents pending concerning

his research. The USDA and Southeast Biofuels LLC haverights to all three patents. Southeast Biofuels will be able tonegotiate with the USDA for exclusive rights to the technology.The company, a subsidiary of Xethanol Corp., received a$500,000 grant through Florida’s Farm to Fuel initiative inJanuary and plans to construct a $6 million pilot plant inAuburndale, Fla. The plant will be colocated on propertyowned by Cutrale Citrus Juices USA Inc. After initial testing,

‘We’ve got a little niche feedstock and we’vegot to play to the strengths of that feedstock.’

Citrus waste at a Florida processing facility is moved by conveyor to a peel binfor further processing.

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Xethanol plans to expand the plant to produce up to 8 MMgyof ethanol from about 800,000 tons of citrus waste annuallysupplied by Cutrale.

Jay Levenstein, Florida’s deputy commissioner of agricul-ture and consumer services, says his department supports thecontinued development of citrus waste to ethanol. “The quick-er we have a local ethanol supply, the better,” he says.According to Levenstein, the ethanol market in Florida isgrowing. The department will continue to support citrus-waste-to-ethanol projects through grant programs such as theFarm to Fuel initiative. He says the department would ultimate-

ly like to see citrus growers benefit economically from theseprojects via cooperative agreements with processors, somewhatlike the ethanol co-ops in parts of the Midwest.

In order for citrus-peel-to-ethanol facilities to be success-ful, it is vital for those plants to be collocated with citrusprocessors. Because the waste product is 80 percent water, theproduct needs to be converted within 10 hours of its produc-tion, Widmer says. “Even though the d-limonene is a stabilizer,it is localized so there are parts [of the waste] that will fermentand rot in a very short time,” he says.

David Stewart, president of Citrus Energy LLC in BocaRaton, Fla., also believes that colocating is the key to a success-ful ethanol plant. “We’ve got a little niche feedstock and we’vegot to play to the strengths of that feedstock,” he says. “Webasically just get the material delivered to us via conveyor andwe’ve got a continuous supply of feedstock for seven or eightmonths of the year. By colocating, having a continuous supplyand by piggybacking on top of the citrus processors permits,the project becomes a lot more economically attractive.”Stewart formed his technology company two years ago tofocus on converting citrus waste to ethanol and received a$250,000 grant from the Farm to Fuel program for that pur-pose last year. Citrus Energy and FPL Energy LLC haveteamed up to start a commercial-scale citrus-peel-to-ethanolplant. FPL is the nation’s leader in wind energy and operatesthe two largest solar fields in the world. The company isbranching out into citrus-peel-to-ethanol production as part ofits strategy to become a clean energy company, according toproject manager Cindy Tindell.

Tindell says that although the FPL-Citrus Energy projecthas a long way to go, their planned 4 MMgy plant could be


feedstock

Orange waste being processed into ethanol at the USDA/ARS citrus lab’s 100gallon pilot system in Winter Haven, Fla.

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operational in two years. Cost of feed-stock, capital and technical factors areall need to be considered in developingthis project. “The technology is there ata price,” Tindell says. The proposedFPL/Citrus Energy plant will cost $35million to $45 million to build, whichwhen broken down will cost producers$10 for each gallon of ethanol made.

Stewart says they are negotiatingwith citrus processors and, as soon as alease is signed, construction on a plantcan begin. The technology is ready tobe used, Stewart says. “We’re usingenzymatic hydrolysis,” he says. “Thereare various technologies out there onbiomass conversion to ethanol, fromgasification to acid hydrolysis or somecombination thereof. Ours is relativelystraightforward, but actually building acommercial plant is a challenge. It’s thesame challenge that people using woodwaste are facing. There are a lot of pilotplants and small-scale facilities but actu-ally building a commercial facility is yetto be done.”

Southern Gardens Citrus is thethird-largest grower of oranges inFlorida and produces 120 million gal-lons of not-from-concentrate orangejuice each year. President Rick Kress iscautiously optimistic about convertingcitrus waste into ethanol. “Technology-wise, it’s doable,” he says.“Commercially it’s yet to be deter-mined. It’s very expensive. Questionsare still to be answered, but we alwayshave to look at the opportunity. Wehave to take the steps to utilize everyounce of whatever we purchase.”

Florida Oranges by the Numbers

Oranges grown in Florida: 75 percent

Orange juice produced for U.S. consumption: 90 percent

Amount of citrus waste produced annually in Florida: 3.5-5 tons

Amount of waste required for each gallon of ethanol: 150-180 pounds

Potential amount of ethanol production: 50 MMgy

If all the citrus waste in Floridawere to be used in ethanol facilities, the state could produce 30 MMgy to 50 MMgy.


feedstock

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Southern Gardens Citrus will process850,000 tons of oranges this year, halfof which will become waste material.

Current Waste UsesFrom the citrus processor’s view-

point, it may be less profitable toprocess waste into ethanol today than itwould have been a year ago. It is illegalfor processors to dump citrus wasteinto landfills, so they must dry the wasteproduct and turn it into pelletized ani-mal feed. Feed prices have increaseddramatically over the past year, whichmeans that what was once a break-evencitrus waste solution at best for proces-sors has become slightly more lucrative.According to Widmer, the price of pel-lets has fluctuated from $40 to $80 perton and cost producers $50 to $90 perton to produce for almost two decades.However, at one time last summer pel-let prices hit $180 a ton. Widmer saysthe stability of pellet prices is unsure. Inthe meantime, fuel costs are certain toincrease which should keep ethanol anattractive option for producers.

Kress says that while processorshave benefited from the rise in feedprices, their production costs have goneup cutting into profits. “Making animalfeed is very expensive because it takes alot of energy to dry the feed material toa suitable moisture level,” he says.

Future Possibilities While ethanol may prove to be cost

effective, Kress says he is still con-cerned about how to deal with thewaste after ethanol production. Fiftypounds of waste material used to pro-duce ethanol will leave behind 45pounds of waste. It may be possible toturn that remainder into animal feed,but the nutritional value of the productis debatable because carbohydrates arelost in the ethanol production process.Southern Gardens and Citrus Energyare currently conducting nutritionalanalysis of the waste. Stewart says it is amistake to think that there is no food

value in the byproduct. “If you look atcorn to ethanol, a very significant part ofthe revenue is distillers grains and we arethe same,” he says. “We would havesomething called distillers peels that isvery palatable to cows and has a signifi-cant feed value.”

According to Widmer, “The (citrus)industry has a lot of interest in value-added coproducts from citrus processingwaste because they feel they’re not mak-ing much on cattle feed. With fruit andjuice price fluctuations the juice industryis up and down and many producers havefound it hard to make a profit someyears,” he says. If all the citrus waste inFlorida were to be used in ethanol facili-ties, the state could produce 30 MMgy to50 MMgy. That amount would satisfylocal demand and would keep moremoney in the local economy. However,Widmer will be exploring even more

potential uses for waste in the next fewyears. While much progress has beenmade, there is still more research to bedone. He hopes that by 2014 there will bemultiple uses for citrus waste. His groupis researching citrus waste as a cementadditive, paper product additive andmaterial for removing heavy metals fromwaste water. He says that because citruswaste has good ion exchange capacity andwater holding capacity, these uses are realpossibilities. “We will not have a commer-cial product ready in 2009,” he says. “Wehope that in the next five years we’ll havesome of these materials ready and hope-fully people will be interested in them. It’sall a matter of industry interest.” BIO

Kris Bevill is a Biomass Magazine staff writer.Reach her at [email protected] or (701)373-0636.


recycle


Plastic CultureWhat t o do W i t h t he Remnan ts o f a

Plastics permeate every facet of modern industrial life, so what can be done with that material afterit has served its useful purpose? Alternative energy sources are increasing in popularity but onesuch potential alternative—plastic—is contentious.

By Ron Kotrba

recycle

PHOTO: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

Nuggets of fuel made at Penn State University from waste plastic, trademarked Plastofuel,are a controversial way to reuse nonrecyclable plastics.


recycle

mericans purchase tons ofplastics daily in the formof bottled water, soda,laundry detergent and ahundred-million otherconsumer goods and

industrial equipment. It’s on houses gen-erously sided with vinyl, plumbing andelectrical conduits are almost all moldedfrom polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and autoparts once largely forged of iron andchromed steel are all now made fromplastics. Oddly enough, the purchase ofmany of the plastic goods is transactedon plastic credit cards. It’s as clear asPlexiglas—Americans rely on plastic.

The invention of these useful poly-mers derived largely from crude oil hasbeen of great use to society but, at thesame time, concerns over environmentaldamages exacted by the proliferation ofindustrial plastics’ production and dis-posal are not without their merits.Plastics such as PVC have a high chlo-rine content that, when burned, producedangerous dioxins. The U.S. EPA states,“Dioxins and ‘dioxin like’ compoundsare a group of 30 highly toxic chlorinat-ed organic chemicals. They are producednaturally in small quantities but are pri-marily the result of human activity. Theycan be produced through industrial

processes such as chlorinated chemicalmanufacturing and metal smelting.Currently, however, the largest quanti-fied source of dioxin emissions is theuncontrolled burning of householdtrash (backyard burning). Studies haveshown that only small amounts of chlo-rinated materials in waste are required tosupport dioxin formation when burningwaste.”

Penn State University researcherJames Garthe says, “We are our ownworst enemy.” For the past 15 years,Garthe’s professional emphasis at PSUhas been on solid waste managementand recycling, mostly in the agriculturalsector. The term “plasticulture” refers tothe use of plastics in agriculture. “Itstarted after World War II, when plasticswere coming into mainstream life,” hesays. “Someone in their wisdom said thisstuff (plastic mulch film) is good forholding back water or retaining water ifit’s laid on the ground and crops aregrown on it—there’s no water evapora-tion and it’s good for weed suppression.So after World War II, it saved the farm-ers, growers and greenhouse operatorsall sorts of money in their operations.”

Barriers to Recycling PlasticsA resin identification code, one

through six, is given to all plastics.Varieties that can be recycled must bemixed only with like material. “So manydifferent resin types cannot—will not—mix,” Garthe says. “That’s a problembecause you can have a nursery potmade from No. 2 (high-density polyeth-ylene) right next to a No. 5, and they

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Garthe says on a pound-for-pound basis plasticscontain more energy than gasoline.


recycle

look the same but they are differentresins. That causes confusion and therecyclers are saying, ‘Hey, I’m not goingto turn over every container to look atthe number on the bottom.’ And thenthe other problem is you’ve got similaritems coming in from Asia or elsewhere,and they may not have the chasingarrows on it, so you just don’t know.”

Not only must like resins be recy-cled together, but the dye used to colorthe plastic throws another variable intothe mix. Everything goes into black, butif white plastic is desired then blackplastics cannot be mixed in—even ifthey are the right resin number. “Sothere needs to be a separation systemnot only for resin type but for color,”Garthe tells Biomass Magazine. “Peoplesay, ‘I’m holding a penny’s worth ofplastic and now they’re telling me I haveto color sort as well?’ It gets complicat-ed.”

Another barrier to recycling is thatthe plastic must be clean. “The word‘extrusion’ is a very critical word to theplastic guys,” Garthe says, adding thatone spec of dirt can plug injectors usedin injection molding. Dirt is a hugeproblem in recycling materials used inplasticulture. When mulch film hasserved its useful purpose, it is laden with

chunks of clay, soil and more.“Sometimes when you pull it up whatyou have is 100 percent dirt,” Garthesays. The material is only one-thou-sandth of an inch thick. Cleaning thematerial to make it suitable for recyclingis cost prohibitive. “It’s easier and

cheaper to go with virgin plastic, andthat makes the petroleum and naturalgas companies happy because we’re buy-ing new product.”

Then there is inadequate infrastruc-ture for collection of plastics in manyplaces. Given all of these obstacles to

Garthe is a PSU researcher and inventor of Plastofuel.

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recycling plastics, people simply throwperfectly recyclable material away whereit occupies valuable landfill space andmay release toxins once it begins tobreak down long after disposal. Whileno one seems to know precisely howmuch plastic is produced and consumedevery year, some experts suggest that,whatever that number is, only a smallfraction of it is actually recycled. Forplasticulture material, Garthe says onlyabout 1 percent of mulch, greenhouseand forage film, nursery pots, trays,flats, etc., are actually recycled.

At PSU, Garthe has been workingto develop positive, creative uses for theabundance of waste plastics producedby our convenience-oriented society. “Ikept hearing from folks that we’ve gotall this plastic out there and that it savesmoney, but what do we do after it’scompleted its useful purpose?” Garthesays. “In 1994, I came up with thePlastofuel concept.” Simply put, hisconcept was to push waste plasticsthrough a heated die, melting the outerlayer and producing plastic nuggets for

cofiring. Garthe says on a pound-for-pound basis plastics contain more ener-gy than gasoline. In times past, thiswaste agricultural plastic was burnedopenly in the field producing hugeplumes of billowing black smoke.“That’s why I got involved,” he says. “Ikept hearing how it’s a problem for usto manage, especially if it’s thrown in apile or down a sinkhole, and later ondown the pike it’s affecting someone’swell water supply.”

Although he admits he’s not anemissions expert, Garthe distinguishesbetween the toxicity of burning plasticin a burning barrel versus high-temper-ature and oxygen-enriched combustionat a power plant, reaching 2,000 degreesFahrenheit. “The higher the tempera-ture of combustion, the less the prod-ucts of incomplete combustion,” hesays. The opposite is also true: Thelower the temperature, the higher theproducts of incomplete combustion.While Garthe doesn’t have all of theanswers with respect to the dangers ofheavy metals and dioxins from com-

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Pictured is the Plastofuel mobile demonstration unit.


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busting plastic, he says, “I’d be less con-cerned about [industrial incineration ofplastic] because of the watchful eyes ofthe regulators out there looking afterpublic health. Much more concerning isJoe Schmo who’s out there burning thisstuff in a burning barrel.”

Burning Plastic for EnergyMadison Gas & Electric owns a 200

megawatt power plant in downtownMadison, Wis., called the Blount gener-ating facility. The plant has been burn-ing what the utility dubs poly-derivedfuel (PDF) for more than 10 years. Itdescribes PDF as a mix of “shreddedpreconsumer waste [that] cannot other-wise be recycled.” Blount was one ofthe first electric generating stations inthe country to burn “alternate fuels suchas wastepaper and plastic … [and] in1997, MGE added 7,200 square feet ofstorage for paper and PDF to increaseuse of the fuel,” MGE states. The utili-ty says it has undergone all of theapproval processes necessary to burnPDF, but Jim Powell, a board memberwith the Madison Environmental JusticeOrganization—whose mission it is toprotect minorities and the poor frominordinate exposure to environmentalhazards of industrial modern life—sayswhen the utility was first going throughthe permit process for these alternativefuel sources, the potential for dioxinemissions was discussed only briefly.“The regulators requested MGE tocome back with more information aboutdioxin emissions,” Powell says.Somehow the request was lost in redtape and no further investigation wasrequested. Now, 11 percent of theBlount generating facility’s power comesfrom PDF—the remainder is coal,according to Powell. “There is a wholeslew of chemicals to be concernedabout—the biggest is dioxin, which is abyproduct from burning chlorine-basedplastics,” he tells Biomass Magazine.Powell says some of the material comes

from a nearby Oscar Meyer plant andother industrial facilities, and is virtuallyfree. It also has a high energy content.

After weighing a variety of environ-mental impacts like global warming, acid-ification, eutrophication, human toxicityand ecological toxicity, Jeffrey Morris, aneconomist and author of “ComparativeLCAs (life cycle assessments) forCurbside Recycling Versus EitherLandfilling or Incineration with EnergyRecovery,” concludes that the recyclingof plastic bottles—one of many types ofplastics but a prolific example nonethe-less—from household and municipalsolid waste streams “consumes less ener-gy and imposes lower environmentalburdens than disposal … via landfillingor incineration,” even after accountingfor energy production from incineration.“I must stress that John Q. Public has tochange his attitude about solid waste

management,” Garthe says. “We can nolonger say, ‘Out of sight, out of mind,and I’m going to take this bag of junkand set it out on the curb and say I don’thave to deal with it anymore.’ He is goingto have to have some accountability forthat because it’s a resource. It has a rawmaterial value and should not be hauledoff to the landfill to deal with for thenext 10,000 years.”

While U.S. consumers often bear theonus of recycling all the plastic we con-sume, where is industry’s accountabilityfor selling it in the first place? BIO

Ron Kotrba is a Biomass Magazine seniorwriter. Reach him at [email protected] (701) 738-4962.


lthough grain supplies willlikely meet the immediateshort-term needs forethanol production, expan-sion beyond this to meetmore ambitious targets will

require alternative feedstocks.Lignocellulosic biomass from agriculturalresidues, municipal paper waste, dedicatedenergy crops and multiple other sources isprojected to be a major renewable feed-stock for sustainable production of biofu-els.

The conversion of lignocellulose toethanol involves a series of enzymatic stepsfor hydrolysis or saccharification of theconstituent polysaccharides, and subse-quent fermentation of the released hexoseand pentose sugars. Additionally, a pretreat-ment step is required to disrupt the tightlypacked cellulose structure and allow accessto the enzymes. Many popular pretreatmentconditions are not mild, and the yeast andenzymes must survive the chemicals used inthe process.

According to Joseph Rich, leader ofthe USDA Bioproducts and BiocatalysisResearch Unit in Peoria, Ill., “Industry isawaiting the microorganism that can pro-duce high levels of ethanol in large-scale

fermentation containing the hydrolysateconsisting of both pentose and hexose sug-ars released by mechanical, enzymatic andchemical treatment of lignocellulosic feed-stocks.”

Streamlining the ProcessMany of the enzymes proposed for

use in separate hydrolysis and fermentationprocesses are inhibited by their products,necessitating the addition of large quanti-ties of enzyme to reach significant mono-

saccharide concentrations prior to fermen-tation. Anticipated costs of enzymes andpretreatment make the process of convert-ing biomass to ethanol more expensivethan the presently used and well-establishedstarch-based processes. These costs are par-tially offset by the use of less expensive andabundant sources of lignocellulose fromtrees, shrubs, switchgrass or agriculturalcrop residues. Further economic advan-tages might be attained through morestreamlined processes such as simultaneous

research

A

Developing Yeast Strains for Biomass-to-Ethanol Production

By Ronald Hector, Stephen Hughes and Xin Liang-Li

The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the viewsof Biomass Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

Separate hydrolysisand fermentation

Enzymeproduction

Cellulose andhemicellulosehydrolysis

Hexose andpentosefermentation

Simultaneoussaccharification

and fermentation

Consolidatedbioprocessing

O2 O2

A variety of processes show potential for cellulose conversion into ethanol.

SOURCE: USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE


saccharification and fermentation and con-solidated bioprocessing.

The simultaneous saccharification andfermentation process combines polysac-charide hydrolysis and fermentation in onestep, but still relies on the addition ofexogenously produced enzymes. The simul-taneous saccharification and fermentationthat occurs in this type of process is anattractive method for keeping monomericsugars at low enough concentrations toavoid enzyme inhibition, thus reducingcosts by decreasing the amount of enzymeneeded for the process.

The consolidated bioprocessingprocess takes streamlining a step furtherand combines the production of enzymeswith the same organism used to fermentthe released sugars to ethanol, all occurringin a single reactor. “To achieve the DOE30x’30 plan goal of 60 billion gallons ofbiofuels, [or] 30 percent of the motor gaso-line supply by 2030, will certainly requireadvancements such as the one-step biopro-cessing with Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” accord-ing to Seth Snyder at Argonne NationalLaboratory.

Lee Lynd of Dartmouth College andWillem van Zyl of the University ofStellenbosch have succeeded in expressingcellulases in S. cerevisiae. As a promising firststep toward a consolidated bioprocessingprocess, the recombinant yeast strain theygenerated was able to produce someethanol from cellulose without addedenzymes.

Pentose FermentationOrganisms that can ferment pentose

sugars like xylose and arabinose, in additionto glucose, are essential for an economicalprocess. Hemicellulose, which accounts forapproximately 25 percent to 40 percent oflignocellulose, is mainly composed ofxylose. While S. cerevisiae is good at convert-ing glucose to ethanol, it does not have themetabolic capacity to utilize xylose.

Many years of research have been

applied to engineer a yeast strain that canmetabolize xylose as well as the hexose sug-ars found in biomass. Much of this researchhas recently focused on enhancing the fer-mentation performance of S. cerevisiaestrains expressing heterologous enzymesfrom bacterial or fungal xylose utilizationpathways. Research labs around the worldhave been trying to solve the problem ofpoor xylose utilization. Identifying the lim-iting metabolic steps that block efficientconversion of xylose to ethanol in thesestrains has been one of the goals forThomas Jeffries at the USDA ForestService’s Forest Products Laboratory inMadison, Wis.

Various xylose fermenting yeast strainshave been produced and some have foundindustrial application for processes usinglignocellulosic feedstocks. Jack Pronk andhis group at Delft University ofTechnology recently achieved rapid anaero-

bic fermentation of xylose and arabinoseby engineered S. cerevisiae strains thatexpress heterologous, pentose-isomerasebased pathways. “Now that the hurdle ofefficient pentose fermentation by yeast isbeing overcome, functional expression ofhydrolyzing enzymes in the yeast is animportant next challenge for yeast metabol-ic engineering,” Pronk says.

Xylose fermenting yeast strains thatexpress the fungal xylose pathway geneshave also been improved upon and arebeing used in industrial processes, such asthe yeast strain from Purdue University’sNancy Ho and strains being developed atLund University by Bärbel Hahn-Hägerdal.

Yeast strains developed at the NationalCenter for Agricultural Utilization Researchhave been engineered for enhanced pentoseutilization by adding metabolic correctiongenes in addition to the genes required forgrowth on xylose. These genes were

research

Bales of corn stover, such as these collected from an experiment near York, Neb., could be used tocreate ethanol.

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obtained from collaborations with JoshLaBaer, director of the Harvard Institute ofProteomics. To further improve theseethanologenic yeast strains for industrialuse, scientists at NCAUR are also engineer-ing yeast to express proteins that increaseuptake of pentose sugars.

Enzyme Requirements forLignocellulosic Feedstocks

Although S. cerevisiae is a proven indus-trial ethanol producer in traditional starch-based processes, it will be no easy task toprovide this microorganism with the abilityto convert lignocellulosic biomass toethanol. The carbohydrate components oflignocellulose (cellulose and hemicellulose)are tightly bound to lignin, making the sug-ars largely inaccessible to enzymes. “Beforeenzymatic hydrolysis, pretreatment withacid or alkali is generally needed to fully

maximize the release of sugars from anylignocellulosic biomass,” says Badal Saha atthe NCAUR Fermentation BiotechnologyResearch Unit.

For consolidated bioprocessing, S. cere-visiae must not only ferment both hexosesand pentoses under industrial conditionswith high ethanol yield and productivity, itmust also express and produce enzymes atsufficient levels to maintain hydrolysis andfermentation of biomass to ethanol.Enzymatic conversion of cellulose to sug-ars that yeasts can ferment requires theconcerted action of three types of cellulase.Due to the heterogeneity and complexity ofhemicellulose, its conversion requires aneven larger list of enzymes. For robust andcomplete conversion of polysaccharideslocked in biomass, the ultimate ethanolo-gens will need to produce at least a dozenenzymes of different catalytic activities.

Developing New BiocatalystsProducing a yeast strain with opti-

mized sets of cellulases and hemicellulasesrequires screening thousands of combina-tions of these biomass-degrading enzymesfor enzyme activity. Automation is essentialin carrying out these operations. A team ofscientists at the NCAUR laboratory hasbeen successful in designing a robotic plat-

research

Lignocellulose model showing lignin, celluloseand hemicellulose

A depiction of xylose metabolic pathwaysSOURCE: USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

SOURCE: USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE


form and creating the automated molecularbiology routines necessary to screen for themost effective set of enzymes.

The genes for these enzymes may existin organisms contained in the ARS culturecollection and from organisms isolatedfrom environments such as cattle rumen,hot springs, termite guts and ocean thermalvents. Sookie Bang at the Center for

Bioprocessing Research and Developmentlocated at the South Dakota School ofMines and Technology is isolatingextremeophiles from the National ScienceFoundation-sponsored Deep UndergroundScience and Engineering Laboratory as asource of novel enzymes that have beenselected for more than 125 years at temper-atures in excess of 140 degrees Fahrenheit

in the harsh deep-mine conditions. Theseenzymes hold great promise for use in pro-ducing lignocellulose-degrading yeaststrains.

Assuming appropriate enzymes areidentified, a critical question remains. Is S.cerevisiae capable of simultaneously express-ing the genes for all the different enzymesnecessary to hydrolyze cellulose and hemi-cellulose as well as ferment pentose sugars?Indications are increasing that ethanol pro-duction by an ethanologen that has the abil-ity to efficiently hydrolyze pretreated bio-mass and metabolize the resulting sugars isfeasible. However, says Michael Cotta,leader of the Fermentation BiotechnologyResearch Unit at NCAUR, “Considerableresearch and development are still neededto develop the optimum enzymes, organ-isms and processes that will be able to gen-erate a sustainable biomass to ethanolprocess.” BIO

Ronald Hector, Stephen Hughes and XinLiang-Li are research molecular biologists withthe USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.Reach Hector at [email protected] or (309) 681-6098. ReachHughes at [email protected] or(309) 681-6176. Reach Liang-Li at [email protected] or (309) 681-6327.

research

Left to right: NCAUR scientists Cotta, Hector, Hughes, Liang-Li and Rich

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hat are biodiesel producers to do with all

that glycerin? That’s been the question ever

since the biodiesel industry ramped up pro-

duction and saturated the market with the

three-carbon polyol byproduct.

Glycerin has a multitude of uses in the

food, pharmaceutical and chemical indus-

tries, among others. However, with the growth of the biodiesel indus-

try, there is more glycerin than the current market can easily absorb.

This presents an opportunity to create new processes that use glyc-

erin to produce more valuable chemicals, says Katherine Taconi,

assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials

Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. “This is a huge

issue, not just for biodiesel but for biorefining in general,” she says. “If

we want biorefining to replace traditional refining to any significant

extent, you can’t just make ethanol and biodiesel. Only about 60 per-

cent of a barrel of crude goes to making fuel. The rest goes to making

all sorts of other stuff.”

Taconi, whose work is funded by the USDA, is investigating

strains of bacteria that can ferment glycerin into other chemicals, a

process she calls “bioconversion.” Her current project is attempting to

make butanol from glycerin. Her lab is using both pure and mixed cul-

ture methods to transform the glycerin into butanol and a variety of

byproducts. “Organisms never produce just one product, unfortunate-

ly,” she says. “They produce several, but if you are lucky, it’s not more

than three or four.”

Taconi says from an engineering perspective, glycerin is a three-

carbon compound, and carbon should never be wasted. It can be con-

verted to other chemicals through a catalytic process, but as a biolo-

gist, she first looked to fermentation. “There aren’t a lot of organisms

you can use to ferment glycerol into value-added chemicals,” she

says. “Almost all organisms can ferment glycerol as an intermediate

compound, but they use it for growth.”

Research led Taconi to investigate a handful of anaerobic organ-

isms that could ferment glycerin into other chemicals. These include

the genuses Clostridium, Klebsiella and Enterobacter. One species of

glycerin-fermenting bacteria—Clostridium pasteurianum—just hap-

pened to be good at producing butanol, 1,3 propanediol and ethanol.

“This strain of Clostridium is not very well-studied,” Taconi says.

“People have generally looked at sugar as the main feedstock. The

species I am looking at can use glycerol.”

Taconi’s current work involves screening mixed cultures of “wild-

type” anaerobic organisms for the production of useful chemicals and

optimizing the environmental conditions of pure cultures to maximize

butanol production. “These are very fundamental studies, just looking

at what parameters affect product distribution and substrate utiliza-

tion,” she says. “The biggest is pH. [Other anaerobic fermentations]

are highly pH-dependent, but nobody has really investigated C. pas-

teurianum enough to know if that pathway is pH-dependent or not.”

She is also investigating whether trace metals can influence butanol

production.

Nothing in scientific literature indicates whether this organism

could produce butanol from crude glycerin, which would contain water,

methanol and salts from the neutralized caustic catalyst, and this is

one of the things Taconi wants to learn. Other future research topics

she is interested in include elucidating the enzymatic pathway that C.

pasteurianum uses to convert glycerin to butanol. “For better or worse,

the pathway that the industry is taking is metabolic engineering, but

you won’t get there until you understand what enzymes are in the

pathway and what enzymes are active in the pathway,” she says. BIO

—Jerry W. Kram

Grow It on Glycerin

WTaconi holds a culture flask of anaerobic bacteria. She is researching organismsthat will ferment glycerin into other valuable chemicals.

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EERCUPDATE

ast month’s column discussed replacing petroleum-based military fuels with nonpetroleum alter-natives. Options included coal and gas-to-liquid technologies.

At least one U.S. Department of Defense entity, the Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency, is pursuing another angle—renewable JP-8 from biomass in the form of 1) triacylglyc-eride, the primary component of vegetable oils, animal fats and algae oils or 2) lignocellulose, theprimary component of wood, grass and other nonfood fibrous materials. Because triacylglyc-

eride chemistry is reasonably similar to petroleum chemistry, processing triacylglycerides to JP-8 can utilize,with some tailoring, many of the same technologies developed for refining petroleum. Because lignocellulosechemistry is significantly different from petroleum chemistry, converting lignocellulose toJP-8 will likely require significant technology development rather than simple tailoring ofexisting refinery processes.

Unlike traditional biodiesel processing in which the oxygen content of triacylglyc-eride feedstock is carried through production and incorporated into the finished methylor ethyl ester fuel, triacylglyceride conversion to JP-8 requires oxygen removal to yield ahydrocarbon-only fuel with the same mass-based energy content of petroleum JP-8.While the major technical challenges of producing JP-8 from triacylglyceride have beenovercome, a major question remains: where can we get enough triacylglyceride to replace5 billion gallons of oil? If you are aware of the food-versus-fuel debate, you know it is a debate that fuel advo-cates probably cannot win. To address these concerns, DARPA recently initiated a program to develop newtriacylglyceride sources, an important one of which is algae.

Key advantages of algae versus traditional crop oil triacylglyceride sources are 1) algae are theoreticallycapable of producing up to 1,000 times more triacylglyceride per acre than the highest-yielding crop sources,2) algae do not require premium agricultural land for cultivation, 3) many triacylglyceride-producing algae donot require freshwater but thrive on salty, briny water, much of which is located under deserts, and 4) mostpeople do not eat algae.

A future algae-to-fuel industry could work like the following. First, algae cultivation centers could be setup in sunny deserts with access to large underground briny water supplies. Coal-fired power plants would beequipped to capture carbon dioxide, and a carbon dioxide pipeline network would be built. Then, carbon diox-ide could be captured at power plants and piped to algae cultivation centers, where algae could be grown withthe combination of carbon dioxide, briny water and sunlight. The algae could then be harvested, converted tojet (and diesel) fuel and piped into the fuel market.

Of the biomass-to-fuel concepts currently being developed, few, if any, appear to offer greater potentialfor more petroleum replacement than an algae pathway. Strong leadership and high oil prices will help makethat happen. BIO

Ted Aulich is a senior research manager at the EERC in Grand Forks, N.D. He can be reached at [email protected] or(701) 777-2982.

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