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Dedicated to Change University of Iowa’s Cofiring Plans Create Market Opportunities For Local Energy Crop Growers Page 10 www.biomassmagazine.com February 2015 Plus: Codigesting Energy Perennials Page 24 And: OEMs Discuss Energy Crop R&D Efforts Page 30

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Page 1: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

Dedicated to ChangeUniversity of Iowa’s Cofi ring Plans Create Market Opportunities For Local Energy Crop GrowersPage 10

www.biomassmagazine.com

February 2015

Plus:Codigesting

Energy Perennials Page 24

And:OEMs Discuss Energy

Crop R&D EffortsPage 30

Page 2: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

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Page 3: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 3

INSIDE¦

FEBRUARY 2015 | VOLUME 9 | ISSUE 2

POWER08 NEWS09 COLUMN

Biomass, Oil and GasBy Bob Cleaves

10 FEATURE Pioneering Perennials in Iowa SoilAs the University of Iowa looks to cofi re dedicated energy crops at its on-campus power station, farmer recruitment and education efforts ramp up. By Katie Fletcher

PELLETS 16 NEWS17 COLUMN

Handwriting on the WallBy Bill Bell

18 CONTRIBUTION Invasive Plants as Pellet Feedstock A research project in Michigan explores the practicality of densifying invasive species as a means of funding their removal.By Gregory Zimmerman

THERMAL20 NEWS21 COLUMN

Legal Issues for Biomass Thermal Offtake ContractsBy Todd Taylor

BIOGAS 22 NEWS 23 COLUMN

Data and Tools to Better Evaluate Biogas PotentialBy Amanda Bilek

24 DEPARTMENTGrass to GasAs deployment of anaerobic digesters accelerates, researchers explore ways dedicated energy crops can maximize biogas production.By Katie Fletcher

ADVANCED BIOFUELS & CHEMICALS 28 NEWS 29 COLUMN

Low Oil Price Won’t Put the Brakes on Biomass FutureBy Matt Carr

30 FEATUREDangerously Smart Farm BoysImplement OEMs discuss how they are working to ensure that when demand for dedicated energy crops reaches growers, they stand ready with the necessary equipment. By Tim Portz

04 EDITOR’S NOTETaking RootBy Tim Portz

05 INDUSTRY EVENTS06 BUSINESS BRIEFS 34 MARKETPLACE

10

HAWKEYE HOPES: The CHP plant at the University of Iowa has been cofi ring oat hulls since 2003, and energy crops may soon be added to the mix.PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

30

Page 4: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

4 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

Taking Root

There are 328,672 acres of farmland in Johnson County, Iowa, and just 28 of those acres are now being actively managed for energy crop production. Compared to the 136,000 acres planted to corn, these 28 acres hardly seem worth a mention. Still, Katie Fletcher’s page-10 feature, “Pioneering Pe-rennials in Iowa Soil,” clearly establishes that two of the state’s public universities are working diligently to determine a pathway to these crop’s economic viability. In a county

with historical corn yields around 170 bushels per acre, it is fair to wonder why any farmer would deviate from a traditional corn/soybean rotation.

Fletcher talked to Steve Schomberg, the fi rst grower successfully recruit-ed by the University of Iowa to grow miscanthus as the university looks to cofi re intentionally grown biomass in its campus power station. “I’m always looking to diversify our portfolio of crops,” he said. “I think it has a great future, and as a landowner and farmer you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket.”

While introducing miscanthus to his operation has diversifi ed Schom-berg’s farm, the end markets available for the biomass tonnage he will harvest from the stand are anything but diversifi ed. For now, the university is the only likely buyer, and because of this must lease Schomberg’s acres and hire him to plant and care for the crop as it gets established. For dedicated energy crops to really gain momentum, more uses for the resultant biomass must continue to be identifi ed and perfected.

Reassuringly, research continues in nearly every sector of the biomass in-dustry to make use of the yield advantages offered by dedicated energy crops. Fletcher’s page-24, “Grass to Gas,” article outlines the University of Guelph’s work on codigesting energy crops with manure in anaerobic digesters, and a page-18 contribution from Lake Superior State University’s Greg Zimmerman outlines the research being done on the notion of pelletizing reed canary grass. In Zimmerman’s case, reed canary grass is decidedly an unintentionally grown crop, and converting it into a source of thermal energy may serve as a means of funding its control.

Finally, as I discovered writing my page-30 feature, “Dangerously Smart Farm Boys,” implement and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) aren’t waiting for markets to develop. Quite simply, they can’t. Instead, both OEMs I interviewed reported robust and active R&D efforts in energy crop cultiva-tion and harvest equipment so that when dozens of acres become tens of thousands, they’ll be ready.

TIM PORTZVICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE [email protected]

¦EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITORIALPRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Tim Portz [email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR Anna Simet [email protected]

NEWS EDITOR Erin Voegele [email protected]

STAFF WRITER Katie Fletcher kfl [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann [email protected]

ARTART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund [email protected]

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Burslie [email protected]

PUBLISHING & SALESCHAIRMAN Mike Bryan [email protected]

CEO Joe Bryan [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Matthew Spoor [email protected]

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR John Nelson [email protected]

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Howard Brockhouse [email protected]

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Chip Shereck [email protected]

ACCOUNT MANAGER Jeff Hogan [email protected]

CIRCULATION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry [email protected]

TRAFFIC & MARKETING COORDINATOR Marla DeFoe [email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSChris Sharron, Western Oregon Wood ProductsAmanda Bilek, Great Plains InstituteStacy Cook, Koda EnergyBen Anderson, University of IowaJustin Price, Evergreen EngineeringAdam Sherman, Biomass Energy Resource Center

ADVERTISER INDEX¦34 2015 Heating the Midwest36 2015 International Biomass Conference & Expo22 Agra Industries20 AMANDUS KAHL GmbH & Co. KG13 Andritz Feed & Biofuel A/S 2 Astec, Inc.35 BBI Project Development5 Biogas Producer Map16 Continental Biomass Industries8 DI PIÙ 32 KEITH Manufacturing Company15 Pellet Producer Map 33 Vecoplan LLC 28 Verdante BioEnergy Services

Biomass Magazine: (USPS No. 5336) February 2015, Vol. 9, Issue 2. Biomass Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Offi ce: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biomass Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58203.

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Subscriptions Biomass Magazine is free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for anyone outside the United States. To subscribe, visit www.BiomassMagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to Biomass Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 701-746-8385 or [email protected]. Advertising Biomass Magazine provides a specifi c topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To fi nd out more about Biomass Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 701-746-8385 or [email protected]. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Biomass Magazine Letters to the Managing Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to [email protected]. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

Page 5: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5

INDUSTRY EVENTS¦

Le Salon Bois Energie 2015MARCH 19-22, 2015Parc Expo | Nantes, FranceDedicated to the entire wood energy chain, this event is the international meeting point for the French mar-ket. With 20 countries registered, features will include exhibitors from across Europe, indoor operational stoves and fi replaces, outdoor wood fuel machinery demonstrations, conferences, innovation awards, a study tour and conference program for professionals and weekend conferences for the public. Innovations are introduced into the market at the Salon Bois Ener-gie that provide key insights into future trends for wood energy, and the most signifi cant product and service breakthroughs are recognized and rewarded at the event.+33 (0)3-84-86-89-30 | www.boisenergie.com

International Biomass Conference & ExpoAPRIL 20-22, 2015Minneapolis Convention Center | Minneapolis, MNOrganized by BBI International and produced by Bio-mass Magazine, this event brings current and future producers of bioenergy and biobased products to-gether with waste generators, energy crop growers, municipal leaders, utility executives, technology pro-viders, equipment manufacturers, project develop-ers, investors and policy makers. It’s a true one-stop shop—the world’s premier educational and networking junction for all biomass industries.866-746-8385 | www.biomassconference.com

International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & ExpoJUNE 1-4, 2015Minneapolis Convention Center | Minneapolis, MNThe FEW provides the global ethanol industry with cutting-edge content and unparalleled networking op-portunities in a dynamic business-to-business environ-ment. The FEW is the largest, longest running ethanol conference in the world—and the only event powered by Ethanol Producer Magazine.866-746-8385 | www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

National Advanced Biofuels Conference & ExpoOCTOBER 26-28, 2015Hilton Omaha | Omaha, NebraskaProduced by BBI International, this national event will feature the world of advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals—technology scale-up, project fi nance, policy, national markets and more—with a core focus on the industrial, petroleum and agribusiness alliances defi ning the national advanced biofuels industry. With a vertically integrated program and audience, the Na-tional Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo is tailored for industry professionals engaged in producing, de-veloping and deploying advanced biofuels, biobased platform chemicals, polymers and other renewable molecules that have the potential to meet or exceed the performance of petroleum-derived products.866-746-8385 | www.advancedbiofuelsconference.com

REACH NEW CUSTOMERSMAKE MORE SALES

STAY TOP OF MINDPLACE YOUR NAME ON THE WALL!

2015 U.S. BIOGAS PRODUCER MAP ADVERTISEMENTSAdvertise now on Ethanol Producer Magazine’s 2015 U.S. Biogas Producer Map. It is the easiest and most cost-effective way to get your name, product and/or service in front of ethanol producers, as well as other industry professionals for 12 months at a time. This map is extremely popular because it identifies and plots the location and production status of all U.S. biogas production from onfarmfacilities, waste water treatment plants and community digesters producing grid-connected bioenergy. Listings include Facility Name; City; State and Capacity.

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FREE LISTINGReceive 6 months of FREE advertising on Biomass Magazine’s homepage

2015

Page 6: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPSBusiness BriefsValmet adds executive

Bertel Karlstedt has been appointed president of the pulp and energy business line at Valmet Corp. He most recently served as president and CEO of Nord-kalk Corp. and previ-ously held positions at Valmet and Metso.

The AVA Group adds industry expert

The AVA Group, a Switzerland-based biotechnology company that offers solutions for the sustainable use of sewage and other bio-mass, has welcomed Stefan Krawielitzki to its team as an organic chemistry expert. Krawielitzki led Synthon for four years and previously served as head of research and development and deputy head of analytics at the Ehrenstorfer-Schäfers’ laboratory. He also recently served as manager of business development at Aurigon Life Science GmbH, where he was responsible for advising clients in the phar-maceutical and chemical industries.

Gainesville Renewable Energy Center achieves FSC certification

The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, a 102.5-MW power facility located in Gainesville, Florida, has received certifi cation from the Forest Stewardship Council, affi rm-ing that GREC’s purchase procedures for its waste wood fuels conform to the FSC chain of custody standard. The certifi cation assess-ment was conducted by SCS Global Services.

Brookfield Renewable to acquire bioenergy capacity in Brazil

Brookfi eld Renewable Energy Partners LP has announced an agreement to acquire a 488-MW multi-technology renewable portfolio in Brazil from Energisa S.A. that

includes 175 MW of biomass capacity. The acquisition will be funded through available capital from Brookfi eld Renewable and its in-stitutional partners. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the fi rst quarter of this year.

Siemens awarded reaccreditation from IACET

The International Association for Con-tinuing Education and Training has awarded reaccreditation status to Siemens. IACET authorized providers are the only organiza-tions approved to offer IACET continuing education units. The accreditation period extends for fi ve years, and includes all pro-grams offered or created during that time.

Amyris appoints chief financial officer

Amyris Inc. has appointed Raffi Asadorian as the company’s chief fi nancial offi cer. Prior to joining Amyris, Asadorian served as chief fi nancial offi cer at Unilabs, a private equity-owned medical diagnostics company based in Switzerland. He previ-ously held a senior executive fi nance role at Barr Pharmaceuticals and was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in its transactions services group. Paulo Diniz, who previously served as interim chief fi nancial offi cer of Amyris, will transi-tion to a new role as chairman of Amyris Brasil.

Rentech names new leadership

Rentech Inc. has announced that D. Hunt Ramsbottom has resigned as CEO and president of Rentech and CEO of the gener-al partner of Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP to pursue other opportunities. Ramsbottom has also resigned as a member of the board of directors for both companies. Keith For-man, a member of Rentech Nitrogen’s board

since October 2011, has been appointed as CEO and president of Rentech and CEO of the general partner of Rentech Nitrogen. He has also joined the board of Rentech. Forman has a background in master limited partnerships. He previously served as chief fi nancial offi cer of Crestwood Midstream Partners LP. He also served as senior vice president for El Paso Corp., and chief fi nan-cial offi cer of GulfTerra Energy Partners LP. Forman currently serves on the board of Capital Product Partners LP.

Enel adds biomass capacity to existing geothermal plant

Enel Green Power has started construc-tion at the Cornia 2 geothermal power plant in Castelnuovo Val di Cecina, Italy. The facil-ity will use biomass to heat geothermal steam in order to increase the energy effi ciency and electricity output of the geothermal cycle. The existing geothermal plant will be supple-mented by a small plant powered with locally sourced virgin forest biomass. According to the company, 5 MW of capacity from bio-mass will be added to a geothermal plant that currently has an installed capacity of 13 MW. The geothermal plant’s annual power output will be boosted by approximately 37 GWh.

ASU professor recognized Several of Arizo-

na State University’s faculty members were recently appointed university profes-sors, including Roy Curtiss, a professor in the School of Life Sciences and the di-rector of the Centers for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and Microbial Genetic Engineering in the Bio-design Institute. His research uses microbial genetic manipulation to address problems of global concern. Some of his recent research emphasizes the design and construction of cyanobacterial strains to maximize produc-tion of biofuels and biofuel precursors.

Karlstedt

Krawielitzki

Diniz

Curtiss

Page 7: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7

Drax appoints executive Drax Group plc has announced the

appointment of Philip Cox as a nonexecutive director and chairman designate, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Charles Berry as chairman following his previously announced retire-ment, scheduled for April. Cox previously served as CEO of International Power, where he led the growth and development of a sub-stantial global power generation business.

Fecon launches new website Fecon Inc. has launched a new website.

New Features include a customizable bull hog rotor module that allows the user to build and display three different rotor options and nine different tooling options, then choose the combination that fi ts their application best. The new “compare” section shows specifi ca-tions of the different tracked carriers and attachment products, side by side, helping the user fi nd the exact model they are looking for. In addition, product lines have been broken down into more user friendly categories to help the customer quickly fi nd the product information they need.

Alaska CHP project to feature cofiring capability

The University of Alaska-Fairbanks has selected Stanley Consultants to design a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The facility will use two circulating fl uidized-bed boilers to provide up to 280,000 pounds per hour of steam to heat both the Fairbanks campus and produce up to 22 MW of elec-tric power using a steam turbine. It will be located adjacent to the existing coal-fi red Ben Atkinson Heat and Power Plant and work in conjunction with it. The facility will be fueled by coal and have the ability to utilize up to 15 percent biomass. The effi cient new boilers will result in a marked decrease in regulated emissions including a signifi cant drop in particulates.

Cardia Bioplastics announces new patents

Cardia Bioplastics Ltd. has secured pat-ent protection for its Cardia Compostable, Biohybrid and PPC-starch resin and fi nished products from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China patent and trademark offi ces.

Seven new patents were granted during 2014 for Cardia’s bioplastics resin formula-tions and production processes. These new patents expand Cardia Bioplastics growing intellectual property portfolio of 11 patent families, with 19 patents so far granted in U.S., Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. The patents protect the composition formulation and manufacturing process invented by Cardia’s research and development team.

Viridis subsidiary renews agreement with Ekman

Viridis Energy Inc. has announced its subsidiary, Scotia Atlantic Biomass Co., has renewed its distribution agreement with Ek-man & Co AB. for an additional three-year period. Ekman has served as Scotia Atlantic’s worldwide agent, to arrange short-term and multiyear offtake agreements for its indus-trial wood pellet production, with European power generators that cofi re with wood pellets or have fully converted to biomass. The renewal agreement provides for volume discounts on commissions and fees and expanded volumes in Nova Scotia.

Global Bioenergies produces biochemicals via fermentation

Global Bioenergies has announced it succeeded in producing biosourced propyl-ene by direct fermentation. According to the company, it created a proprietary prototype strain able to convert glucose into propylene at laboratory scale. The company also recently announced it succeeded in producing bio-sourced butadiene via direct fermentation.

Schutte-Buffalo Hammermill under new ownership

Martin Berardi has acquired Schutte-Buffalo Hammermill. Berardi, the incoming CEO, is a recent retiree from Moog Inc., where he served in a variety of roles over 34 years. Ownership of the company has transferred from Thomas Warne and James Guarino, who purchased the company in 2004 following a merger with Buffalo Ham-mermill Corp.

Ceres adds board member Ceres Inc. has announced that Afl alo

Guimaraes joined its board of directors. He succeeds Raymond Debbane, who retired from the board. Afl alo Guimaraes is a managing director of The Invus Group LLC, an affi liate of Artal Luxembourg S.A. Prior to joining Invus in 1998, he was a manager at Marakon Associates. He also previously worked in the U.S. Federal Reserve.

GTI joins ABO The Algae Biomass Organization has

announced the Gas Technology Institute has joined the organization as a new corporate member. Based in Des Plaines, Illinois, GTI is a leading research, development and train-ing organization that has been addressing the nation’s energy and environmental challenges by developing technology-based solutions for consumers, industry, and government for more than 70 years. The company has a long record of supporting the development and deployment of biomass conversion technol-ogies for biofuels and other applications.

NuState announces carbon credit capture application

NuState Energy Holdings Inc. has developed a carbon credit capture application to enhance its portfolio of the Global Asset Tracking solution GPSTrax. This new product will validate, compile, certify and present for trade the carbon credits available from the clean energy projects the company has identi-fi ed. These include projects in biomass, hydro-power, solar and wind all across the globe.

BUSINESS BRIEFS¦

SHARE YOUR INDUSTRY NEWS: To be included in the Business Briefs, send information (including photos and logos, if available) to Business Briefs, Biomass Magazine, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You may also email information to [email protected]. Please include your name and telephone number in all correspondence.

Page 8: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

8 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

PowerNews

In late December, the USDA pub-lished a fi nal rule for the Rural Energy for America Program. The program, which was established by the 2008 Farm Bill and reauthorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, provides fi nancial assistance to agri-cultural producers and rural small busi-nesses to purchase, install and construct renewable energy systems. The program also supports energy effi ciency improve-ments and energy audits.

The fi nal rule modifi es REAP based on comments received on the interim rule, which was published in April 2011,

and the proposed rule, published two years later in April 2013.

Within the rule, the USDA’s Rural Businesses Cooperative Service estimates 1,393 total REAP awards will be made during a typical fi scal year, with more than a third of those awards supporting renewable energy systems (RES). Most of the RES awards are expected to be as-sociated with solar, followed by wind and biomass projects. Bioenergy and anaero-bic digestion projects are among those eligible for the program.

USDA publishes final REAP rule

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released new economic census statistics on renewable energy, reporting that revenues for electric power generation industries that use renewable energy resources increased 49 percent in recent years, from $6.6 billion in 2007 to $9.8 billion in 2012. Biomass is one of four newly delineated industries addressed by the Census Bureau in 2012.

The 2007 Economic Census in-cluded wind, geothermal, biomass, and solar electric power under the broad “other electric power generation” indus-

try, under NAICS code 221119. By the 2012 Economic Census, those industries had been broken out separately, with the “other electric power generation” indus-try limited to only tidal electric power generation and other electric power gen-eration facilities not elsewhere classifi ed.

Under the new categorization sys-tem, biomass is now listed under NAICS code 221117. The Census Bureau reports biomass power generation achieved $934.6 million in revenues according to the 2012 Economic Census.

Census Bureau releases biomass power data

1,647TOTAL EMPLOYMENT

$567,000REVENUE / EMPLOYEE

$77,551PAYROLL / EMPLOYEE

15.7EMPLOYEES / ESTABLISHMENT

$128 MANNUAL PAYROLL

$3REVENUE / CAPITA

$8.9 MREVENUE / ESTABLISHMENT

$935 MREVENUE

$2.99 MPOPULATION / ESTABLISHMENT

7.3REVENUE / $1 OF PAYROLL

Biomass power statistics from 2012 Economic CensusSOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

105NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS

www.di-piu.com [email protected]

www.sunomi-llc.com [email protected]

Proven Reliability

Highest Energy Density

Low Power Consumption

Low Maintenance

Lowest cost

firelogs and pucks

Page 9: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 9

Is Washington capable of change?Historically (and understandably), the oil and gas

lobby has been, well, all about oil and gas. However, there are some signs that this could be changing in favor of an “all of the above” policy that recognizes the role that renewable energy sources play.

The signs of change were on full display last week at American Petroleum Institute’s State of American Energy summit. At a well-attended lunch, the oil-and-gas association launched its annual report on the role of oil and gas in American energy. Only this time, the report devoted about 40 percent of its 50 pages (according to the news outlet Associations Now) to analysis of renewable energy sources and their future in American energy policy. At the invita-tion of API, Biomass Power Association contrib-uted its own chapter to the report, along with other renewable energy trade associations.

“Rather than focus solely on the oil and natural gas industry, API this year is pleased to partner with organizations representing various energy sectors to highlight the contributions of each toward America’s current and future economic well-being, and collec-tively stress the importance of adopting a lasting ‘all of the above’ energy strategy,” API’s President and CEO, Jack Gerard, wrote in the introduction to the State of American Energy 2015 report.

This was an interesting development for the biomass sector. Not only is it signifi cant that biomass is recognized as one of the foremost, essential energy sources in a report like API’s—a nod that may not have occurred as recently as a couple of years ago. But the report also shows that we stack up well when compared to other energy sources, both renewable and fossil.

Interestingly, rather than simply competing with traditional energy sources, biomass can also benefi t, particularly when the result is more affordable trans-portation fuels.

Probably more than any other renewable form of energy, biomass benefi ts favorably from lower priced transportation fuels. The reason is that, un-like other renewables, biomass generators pay for fuel, and a signifi cant component of that expense is transporting the fuel from forests and farms to an energy facility. In fact, recent studies have shown that for every $1.00 a gallon increase in diesel, the average cost of wood increases $4.20 a ton.

By bringing cheaper natural gas into the market, the shale gas revolution introduced the prospect of converting diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG)—an attractive idea given that CNG, on a gasoline gallon equivalent, is $1.61. But to everyone’s surprise, advances in natural gas exploration not only yield domestic, affordable natural gas, but signifi cant-ly cheaper petroleum, at least for now. The dramatic drop in diesel has had an immediate and positive effect on the economics of biomass fuel deliveries.

As an industry, we can’t claim to be an entirely domestic, homegrown energy source if our fuel suppliers are forced to rely on foreign oil producers. Thankfully, diesel and natural gas used for transport-ing our fuels are now as homegrown as the electricity we produce. The success of the domestic oil and gas industry becomes our success. And that’s a good thing.

Author: Bob CleavesPresident and CEO, Biomass Power Association

[email protected]

Biomass, Oil and GasBY BOB CLEAVES

POWER¦

Page 10: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

10 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

PIONEERING PERENNIALS IN IOWA SOILThe University of Iowa is searching for the right biomass feedstock to cofire with coal at its power plant, and miscanthus is one option a few early adopters are testing. BY KATIE FLETCHER

Crops take time to establish. Not only do proper planting and har-vesting practices need instituting, but an end market must exist.

Southeast-Asia originated Miscanthus × gi-ganteus serves as one among a variety of energy crops studied in Iowa. Over the past few years, two miscanthus test plots have been planted in Iowa; 12 acres in the spring of 2013 in Muscatine County, and another 16 acres near Iowa City the fol-lowing spring. Now with planting protocol explored at both sites, the initial harvest of the 2013 test plot is just around the cor-ner. The harvested miscanthus will be one of several options cofi red with coal in two solid-fuel boilers at the university, in an ef-fort to reach its 40 percent renewable en-ergy commitment by 2020. The university has provided the end market for the fi rst two growers to participate in its biomass fuel project. Although preliminary efforts have revealed substantial data on miscan-thus, more research and test runs must be done before outreach to a few early adopt-ers turns into a mass-marketing effort.

Early AdoptersGrowing miscanthus is not a pioneer-

ing operation everywhere. Europe has been planting the crop since the 1980s, primar-ily for combustion in power plants. In the continental U.S. South, farmers grow the perennial for a poultry-bedding end market. A few other states have grown miscanthus, but, overall, miscanthus is in its early stages in the U.S., and only a few early adopters have begun looking into incorporating it, and other perennials and grasslands, into farming operations.

“I’m always looking to diversify our portfolio of crops,” says Steve Schomberg, the fi rst grower participating in the biomass fuel project in 2013. “I think it has a great future, as a landowner and farmer you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket.”

This is perhaps why over coffee with a friend Schomberg’s ears perked up when he heard about UI’s project. Another Iowa grower followed in 2014. “The concept of growing fuel is pretty interesting,” says Dan Black, owner of the 2014 pilot plot.

These two growers knocked on the uni-versity’s door, and are now helping spread

¦POWER

the word to others interested in leasing sec-tions of land for the project’s purpose. “We want to have 2,500 acres in production to support our 2020 goal,” says Ferman Mil-ster, principal engineer of renewables at UI. “We’re going to be ramping up 200 acres this coming year, and then much more than that in the years to come.”

As a predominantly liberal arts and sci-

Page 11: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 11

POWER¦

ESTABLISHING ENERGY CROPS: Miscanthus × giganteus for the University of Iowa’s biomass project was planted with rhizomes last year using Repreve Renewables ACCU Yield System. This process results in high up-front establishment costs, but comparatively reduced costs over the lifetime of the stand.PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

ences school, UI turned to the agricultural expertise of Iowa State University for sup-port. This is when Emily Heaton, assistant professor and extension biomass specialist at ISU, got involved. “It’s a fantastic part-nership,” Heaton says. “Their university is taking the risk on transitioning their power plant, and Iowa State is taking the risk on understanding the agronomic implications

of the crops they choose, trying to do all the testing for them at a research scale to understand what they should start imple-menting.”

Both universities work together with outreach and extension to Iowa growers. “We’ve been working since 2012 to answer questions they (UI) have, and the questions of their farmers, as well as getting the word

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12 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

¦POWER

GENUINE INTEREST: As an employee at MidWestOne Bank in Iowa City, Dan Black no longer farms full-time, but his interest was piqued to plant after attending Iowa State Extension meetings on miscanthus. Now he invites co-workers, growers and others to attend fi eld days at his test plot. PHOTO: JERI NEAL, LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

PIONEER PLANTER: Steve Schomberg’s plot was planted in the spring of 2013, and this picture features fall 2014 miscanthus growth. The plot will be harvested in late winter or early spring this year. PHOTO: JIM JACOBUS

GENERATING INTEREST: Public fi eld days have been held on Dan Black’s farm. Repreve Renewables and the University of Iowa hosted a planting day event, and Iowa Learning Farmers hosted a fi eld day after the miscanthus was planted. Heaton shares her knowledge with attendees at a September event.PHOTO: JERI NEAL, LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

out to farmers and getting more of the crop adopted in the Iowa City area,” Heaton says.

Growers and the universities are opti-mistic they will easily obtain more land for miscanthus. “There has been quite a bit of interest bottom line; everybody is very curi-ous,” Black says.

“I’ve had quite a bit of interest—just roadside interest—the local guys talking to me about it,” Schomberg says.

Lessons Learned All involved with the project work

closely with one another through each step, but UI is bearing a majority of the risk. UI leases the land from both Schomberg and Black, and then turns around and hires them to manage the plot while it pays for the planting cost, fi eld preparation, time and labor. “There is not a lot of risk for me on my side of this deal because they’ve taken on so much of the risk, and so much of the responsibility of getting the crop in,” Black says.

UI issued a request for proposals for the planting both years. In 2013, New Ener-gy Farms was chosen, and in 2014 Repreve Renewables was selected. Miscanthus does not produce a harvestable yield during the fi rst year of growth. Usually the fi rst har-vest occurs in late winter or early spring af-ter the second growing season. Schomberg’s

test plot was planted during adverse circum-stances, but is scheduled to be harvested during that time frame based on snow cover and climate. “It was really a combi-nation of the late planting, which stressed the rhizomes, and then the drought, which stressed them, and then the extremely long winter we had, which provided further stress,” Milster says. “Out of the planted acres, three acres did survive and look very good.”

Heaton expects the acreage to yield 8 to 10 tons per acre on average once the mis-canthus is fully matured, which takes about three years.

Heaton compares miscanthus to chil-dren; they are expensive to have, and the fi rst few years of upbringing are critical. “We generally talk about miscanthus as be-ing a very low-input crop, and that’s true especially when you look at it over a 20- to 30- year lifespan of the crop, but you don’t want to mess around in those fi rst few years,” Heaton says. “It’s an expensive crop to plant, just like kids are expensive to have, so we do recommend diligent management in the fi rst two years. Like children, if you do a poor job in its juvenile phase, it will never recover.”

Although miscanthus can fl ourish on marginal land, the soil needs proper prepa-ration. Both primary and secondary tillage is needed to loosen the dirt enough to dig

Page 13: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 13

POWER¦

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END MARKET: The University of Iowa’s main power plant currently cofi res oat hulls with coal in two boilers generating 170,000 pounds an hour at 750 degrees Fahrenheit, 500-pound force per square inch gauge. Miscanthus and other ready-to-burn biomass are being explored as cofi ring options.PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

trenches for the rhizomes. “One of the se-crets to a successful establishment, to effec-tive planting, is fi eld prep,” Milster says. “In both cases, we really had to put extra effort in to prepare the soil.”

Rhizome planting is based on potato planting. Black says the planter used by Repreve, in essence, has the bones of a po-tato planter, but is highly modifi ed to plant the rhizomes.

When Miscanthus Makes SenseMiscanthus must be carefully planted,

but after it is established little upkeep is required. Heaton and others at ISU are working with farmers to understand when utilizing the benefi ts of miscanthus, prairie and other grasslands could make sense to a grower, not only environmentally, but also economically. “Our vision at Iowa State and the University of Iowa is to have a suite of perennials integrated into the crop land-scape,” Heaton says. “The reason I would include miscanthus in a diversifi ed crop portfolio in the Midwest is really pretty straightforward: its yield.”

Heaton and others at ISU are trying to identify at a subfi eld scale where a grower should integrate perennials, like miscanthus, to improve profi tability of corn in Iowa. “I would like to see 15 percent of land in Iowa fi elds transitioned to perennials, and I’d like

to see those perennials be a diverse portfo-lio,” Heaton says. “It wouldn’t take much miscanthus to make a meaningful difference to our energy needs in the state.”

Heaton says landscape management is analogous to healthcare, in a sense. Imag-ine if you could identify all the smokers in a population. Heaton asks, “Would you want to insure them at the same rate, with the same premiums that you are insuring a healthier portion of the population?”

Heaton, as many others posed that question, says probably not. “What we’re considering here is that we fi nally have data that allows us to ask the same question for parts of land,” Heaton says. “We don’t want to invest the same resources, either insur-ance resources from a taxpayer or actual farm input from a farmer, on areas of land that are not going to respond, not going to be profi table, not going to produce grain, etc.”

Miscanthus × giganteus, the sterile type of miscanthus UI and ISU are using, is an attractive option for a few reasons. It is un-able to produce seed, so this helps to avoid unintended movement of the crop from planted areas. Further, the perennial can help manage poorly drained fi elds and un-derperforming areas. Miscanthus also helps mitigate soil and other nutrients from wa-ter. “Planting dedicated energy crops is the

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14 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

PERENNIAL POWER: Emily Heaton, Iowa State University biomass extension specialist, says miscanthus is the highest yielding perennial crop option per unit input in the upper Midwest. Sugar cane rises to the top of high-yielding crops, although since it doesn’t grow in the Midwest, its relative miscanthus can be planted for its high yields.PHOTO: JERI NEAL, LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

COFIRING: Miscanthus is being tested in a densifi ed pellet form for cofi ring with coal in the University of Iowa’s boilers. In a miscanthus pellet trial burn, overall, it demonstrated higher heat input potential by densifying grasses. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

¦POWER

single, most-effective measure you can take to help with nutrient runoff,” Milster says.

This is why researchers believe miscan-thus makes sense in poorly drained soils, and might be a good option to plant in lower corn suitability rating (CSR) ground where a grow-er would typically lose money planting other commodities. Schomberg says medium-fer-tility soils around 40 to 70 CSR is the range being considered for miscanthus.

Black and Schomberg believe growers interested in implementing miscanthus need to both understand and think about what the right conditions are for planting miscanthus. These test plots and subsequent research are helping reach that understanding.

Establishing End Market“Anyone with the long-term investment

in their land knows, they need to take care of certain portions of it differently than other portions, it is a no-brainer for them,” Heaton says. “The challenge has always been the eco-nomics, and that challenge still exists.”

One problem is the lack of a crop insur-ance program for miscanthus. “Banks don’t understand miscanthus, so getting a loan for those early years is diffi cult,” Heaton says.

As an extension biomass specialist, Hea-ton believes in the future her work could in-

clude helping banks understand the return schedule for perennial crops. Right now the federal government’s Biomass Crop Assis-tance Program recognizes these crops take time to mature, but not everyone can get BCAP subsidies, according to Heaton.

Programs like BCAP can help with de-veloping markets. Milster believes miscanthus can be competitive on $5 a bushel corn, espe-cially on marginal land, for UI’s end market. UI’s main power plant currently cofi res oat hulls with coal in two boilers. The oat hulls come from a partnership with Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Other ready-to-burn biomass streams under consideration, along with miscanthus, are expired corn seeds, poplar wood chips, switchgrass and reed ca-nary grass. The university calculated prices for these options at the power plant. The prices are calculated to give an energy cost of $5 MMBtu, which is comparable to cur-rent coal costs. Miscanthus grass calculations showed that at 10 percent moisture content, it would have a heat value of 7,200 Btu per pound, yielding $72 per ton at $5 MMBtu and 113,000 tons equal to the 2020 goal.

UI brings the market, removing the market risk. Other markets also exist or are emerging such as poultry bedding and feed-stock for cellulosic ethanol production. “I

think the markets will come, and hopefully we can get out there and establish a protocol for growing it, and best management practic-es for growing it that will be replicated as the market expands,” Milster says.

Since the university’s miscanthus market is in its early beginnings, “we want to work very closely with a small number of farmers to make sure every story is a success story,” Heaton says.

Schomberg and Black hope that in the near future with results from their test plots they can help establish where the opportu-nities lie in diversifying predominantly corn and soybean Iowa cropland. “Miscanthus, any new crop like this, will take a while to es-tablish,” Schomberg says. “There will be early adopters, like we are, and then we’ll get expe-rience, become more effi cient, become more cost-effi cient. We will learn from mistakes we make so we can help people that follow in our footsteps into a better job.”

Author: Katie FletcherStaff Writer, Biomass Magazine

701-738-4920 kfl [email protected]

Page 15: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 15

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Page 16: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

16 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

PelletNews

The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Global Agricultural Information Network has published an annual report on the Canadian biofuels industry that highlights the current state of the Canadian wood pellet industry.

The report indicates Canada had 41 pellet plants in operation last year, with a combined nameplate capacity of 3.175 million metric tons. That capacity is unchanged from 2013. Capacity use, however, was expected to increase from

56.7 percent in 2013 to 68.7 percent last year. Canadian pellet producers exported an esti-mated 2 million metric tons of pellets in 2014, up from 1.64 million tons in 2013.

The GAIN report indicates the province of British Columbia currently accounts for ap-proximately 65 percent of Canadian production capacity, with Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia accounting for the remaining 35 percent of capacity.

Portugal-based Portucel S.A. has announced plans to build a 460,000-ton-per-year pellet plant in Greenwood County, South Carolina. Construction on the $110 million proj-ect is expected to begin in early 2015, with operations commencing in the third quarter of 2016.

According to the South Carolina Department of Commerce, the Coordi-nating Council for Economic Develop-ment has approved a $150,000 grant to assist with the costs of road, site and infrastructure improvements, as well as job development credits related to the project. The facility will be located in the Emerald Road Industrial Corridor.

Information released by Portucel indicates a 10-year fi xed price supply contract is currently in place for ap-proximately 70 percent of the proposed facility’s output.

Canadian pellet capacity holds steady

Portucel plans South Carolina pellet plant

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Page 17: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 17

PELLET¦

“I see the handwriting on the wall” (The Staples Singers, 1978.)

Incumbency proved popular among Maine voters in November. Our plain-spoken governor was returned to offi ce with signifi cantly more votes than when fi rst elected four years ago. At the same time, southern Maine’s member of Congress, a stalwart member of the Progressive Caucus, easily withstood the tide that swept a Republican into the previously Democrat-held open Congressional seat in northern Maine.

Gov. Paul LePage’s re-election campaign had placed considerable emphasis on reducing our state’s high energy costs, which he cites as a major barrier to bringing manufacturing jobs to our rural state. Our growing pellet industry will continue to count on the Governor’s sup-port for biomass heat produced from Maine’s forests.

The most resounding, and most expected, election victory was achieved by U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who received almost 70 percent of the vote in our decidedly “purple” state. With endorsements ranging from the trade unions at Bath Iron Works shipyard to that of fel-low Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats, Collins carried virtually every one of Maine’s nearly 500 municipalities.

First elected to the Senate in 1996, Collins has never missed a recorded roll call vote and is respected as a workhorse. This work has always included atten-tiveness to Maine’s important forest products industry. A strong supporter of the Clean Air Act authored by Maine’s Sen. Ed Muskie four decades ago, and one of the few members of her party endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters this past year, Collins has also at times intervened with EPA to seek revision of proposed air quality rules. One such instance has involved EPA’s rules for industrial boilers like those employed in Maine’s paper industry. Another has been her letter, co-authored with King last March, expressing concern about EPA’s proposed Source Performance standards for wood and pellet stoves. Note that all Jotul wood stoves sold in North America are now manufactured in Gorham, Maine.

Most important to our pellet boiler industry has been Collins’ successful dialogue with the U.S. Depart-ment of Housing and Urban Development to have wood pellet boilers classifi ed as “an acceptable primary heating source for the purpose of federal housing ad-

ministration (FHA) fi nancing.” This nationally important change in FHA rules was accomplished when Collins was the ranking minority member of the Senate Appro-priations Subcommittee overseeing HUD expenditures. She will now chair the Subcommittee.

Other support provided by Collins, whose family has for many decades managed a lumber business in northern Maine, has included her early co-sponsorship of King's BTU Act. The measure, if enacted, will make homeowner expenditures for biomass heating eligible for the same federal tax credits as solar and other renewable energy systems. Our industry’s Biomass Thermal Energy Council in Washington will be working to have this legis-lation reintroduced early in this session of Congress.

Addressing a gathering of heating industry mem-bers in Strong, Maine, home of Geneva Woods Fuels’ pellet manufacturing facility, Collins called upon the at-tendees to “unleash the power of the pellet”. Our Maine industry now looks forward to the increased “Power of Collins.”

Meanwhile, back at the Maine legislature, conven-tional wisdom is that the Republican takeover of the Maine senate will benefi t the business community, in-cluding our sector. It’s never that simple, of course. The current director of the governor’s energy offi ce, whose advocacy on behalf of reducing Mainers’ heating costs has advanced our industry, is rumored to be in line for appointment to our Public Utilities Commission, where bright minds have been known to disappear in regula-tory detail. A legislative proposal to streamline require-ments for installation of pellet heating systems could get bogged down with objections from fuel oil licensees.

More telling is a recent announcement by Tim Heutz, vice president of our Maine Pellet Fuels Asso-ciation. Heutz, manager of the well-established Heutz Oil Co. in Lewiston, Maine, and also of Heutz Pellet Systems, tells us that Heutz Oil is being sold. He’s now “all in”, in his words, with pellet heating. Handwriting on the wall, indeed.

Author: Bill BellExecutive Director, Maine Pellet Fuels Association

[email protected]

Handwriting on the WallBY BILL BELL

Page 18: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

18 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

¦PELLET

Invasive Plants as Pellet Feedstock

Harvesting cattails and other wetland plants may control their presence in the landscape and serve as a biomass source too.

For the past several years, my stu-dents and I have been experiment-ing with making fuel pellets from invasive species. The projects have

been funded by Michigan’s Biomass Energy Offi ce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and most recently the Great Lakes Resto-ration Initiative. We have also collaborated with Michigan State University and Bay Mills Community College. Most recently we have been working with Loyola University Chi-cago, DePaul University and the University of Michigan. Loyola is the lead on the cur-

rent project. While performing our research, we have learned that invasive species pres-ent unique opportunities and challenges as a feedstock for fuel pellets.

FeasibilityOur fi rst study was to examine the Btu

yield of unmanaged reed canary grass and whether it would be energy effi cient to har-vest and process it into pellets, and burn it in a multiuse stove. The math worked out. A 3-acre patch of reed canary grass could pro-

vide in pellets the Btu equivalent of 800 gal-lons of propane with 32 times more energy return than the energy required to harvest and pelletize it. Most rural properties in our area have some stands of reed canary grass.

We then purchased a hammer mill, a small pellet press and a multifuel pellet stove to put the idea into practice. Like many oth-ers, we were able to make reed canary grass pellets and we found that they burned well in the multifuel stove. Our trials then ex-tended to invasive phragmites. Because of its high proportion of stem, it ground up

PELLETIZING A PROBLEM: Gregory Zimmerman (far right), Professor of Biology at Lake Superior State University feeds a small pellet press as students look on.PHOTO: LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY

CONTRIBUTION

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________CONTRIBUTION: The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily refl ect the views of Biomass Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

Page 19: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 19

PELLET¦

nicely and pelletized quite well. In contrast, the high proportion of leaf material in the reed canary grass results in very fi ne mate-rial that interferes with mixing in the pellet-izing process. Phragmites is not as common in our immediate vicinity as reed canary grass but is, unfortunately, quite common in other areas of this region. Our most recent work involves harvesting and pelletizing invasive cattail (Typha x glauca), which is also quite common.

Compared to purpose-grown biomass, the primary objective of using invasive spe-cies is reducing the vigor of the plants. In the case of cattails, another objective is removing phosphorous from the wetland. For reduc-ing vigor of the plant, a harvest just before fl owering, when storage carbohydrates are at their lowest level in the year, would be ideal. For removal of nutrients, harvest prior to the time in which the plants translocate nutri-ents to the crowns in preparation of shoot dieback would be best. In contrast, for sus-tainable harvesting, just after shoot dieback is best. Late fall harvesting also provides dried material, which can be ground with no further need for drying and the energy and effort it requires. It is important to remem-ber that the goal of biomass from invasive species isn’t necessarily to be most effi cient. The biomass is a side-benefi t of the biomass removal. If some economic value could ac-crue from the biomass, that could help fund the removal of the invasives.

HarvestingIn addition to timing of the harvest, the

actual harvest procedure for invasive spe-cies represents some challenges compared to purpose-grown biomass. In our work in the former hayfi eld, we simply used a tractor-mounted, sickle-bar mower. In our phrag-mites sites, we used hand harvesting since the sites were small. We tied the phragmites in bundles with twine, then cut the base with a battery-operated hedge trimmer (more or less a hand-held, sickle-bar mower). The bundles were then convenient to carry to a trailer.

Our current project involves biomass removal from wetlands. Thus, one additional step was securing a permit from the Michi-

gan Department of Environmental Quality. The joint permit was quite straightforward and not at all a barrier, partly because we had data from a previous study by Loyola Univer-sity that removal of invasive species can help restore biodiversity to wetlands.

One of the potential issues with the per-mit was that we had to show that we would not disturb the wetland soil. We were to har-vest large acreages, thus we needed to use mechanical harvesting. Our project will be using a tracked vehicle for the harvest opera-tion and we will carefully maneuver on the site, so we anticipate no undue impact on the wetland soils.

Site access is also an issue. Native wet-lands often do not have easy road access like a farm fi eld would. In our case, the wetlands are near enough to roads, and the topogra-phy will allow our tracked vehicle to access the sites, but not all sites with invasive spe-cies do.

We will be harvesting the cattails in midseason, while they are green. The water content of the cattails will add challenges in terms of weight of the material and, perhaps, the need to dry them out to an optimal mois-ture level for pelletizing.

PelletizingWe have had good results in pelletizing

both reed canary grass and phragmites. We have only done one run of cattails and were able to make good pellets with green material (no water added) and without binder. But we have not fi red these pellets to check for their burn characteristics.

We have been working on scaling up the pellet production process from demo-scale (several pounds) to production level (several tons). We are still developing the processes for material handling, grinding and pelletiz-ing, and trying to establish a consistent mix-

ture of ground grass, water and binder. Am-bient temperature and humidity all seem to add variation to the production process and thus to the quality and economic value of the fi nished product.

Our brief experience with cattails reveals some additional challenges, one of which is that the cattail fi bers can clog the screen of the grinder. We know that water content and soil picked up in the harvest process will be issues. I’m sure we will fi nd other diffi culties as we go along.

Use of PelletsOther uses beyond pellet stove fuel may

bring economic benefi ts to invasive removal projects. Pellets from purpose, grown grasses may be marketable as feed, animal bedding or even compost. Pellets from invasives might not be marketable as feed, but bedding and compost could be alternative markets.

Our work so far confi rms that invasive plant removal can have an added benefi t of pellet production. Our current project is to restore biodiversity of the wetlands with a side benefi t of economic value from the bio-mass. We want to be clear that we are not suggesting that reed canary grass, the invasive genotype of phragmites, or the invasive cat-tails should be planted for biomass produc-tion. The currently available stands of these plants provide a ready supply that we hope will decrease over the coming years with suc-cessful control efforts. In the meantime, we have an opportunity to improve the econom-ics of control efforts and to provide a more carbon neutral fuel source or other valuable products, if we use some slightly different than we would with purpose-grown biomass.

Author: Gregory ZimmermanProfessor of Biology, Lake Superior State University

[email protected]

We have an opportunity to improve the economics of control efforts and to provide a more carbon neutral fuel source or other valuable products, if we use some slightly different than we would with purpose-grown biomass.

Page 20: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

20 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

ThermalNews

A Hurst biomass boiler district heating system with a backpressure steam turbine/generator is powering a district heating project in Sullivan County, New Hampshire. The project serves the county’s 166-bed nursing home and 168-bed prison complex as well as two smaller onsite buildings in Unity, New Hampshire.

The biomass com-bined-heat-and-power district energy system is almost entirely fueled by locally sourced, renewable wood chips, which are provided by Cousineau Forest Products. Producing inexpensive heat and electricity for the 215,000-plus square feet of conditioned space, the system has replaced 95 percent of fuel oil purchases and 10 percent electric purchases in the nursing home.

Sullivan County offi cials project that the annual fuel savings will pay for the con-struction bond within 15 years.

Hurst equipment powers New Hampshire district heating project

Pennsylvania schools winbiomass boiler system grant

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The West Branch Area School District in Clearfi eld County, Pennsylvania, was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy De-velopment Authority to support the installation of a $2.17 million biomass boiler system that will be fueled by wood chips.

Although specifi c technology and suppliers have not been selected yet for the project, prelimi-nary steps have been taken. “We have a handful of clean, screened, green woodchip suppliers and boiler manufacturers that we have contacted,” said Jason McMillen, business manager at West Branch Area School District. “The selection of these vendors will be completed through a bid process and consulta-tion with McClure Co.” Once operational, McMillen estimated the boiler will be capable of satisfying 75 percent of the school’s heating needs.

The McClure Co. is a mechanical contracting, engineering and service organization and will serve as the school’s energy services company. The company will oversee the installation of the boiler, as well as the new building construction that will house the boiler.

AN ECONOMICAL SOLUTION: The Hurst boiler district heating system has already saved Sullivan County approximately $100,000.

Page 21: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 21

THERMAL¦

Biomass thermal projects are becoming increasingly popular and it is important to make sure that they are done correctly. Project fi nanciers, be they equity partners or bankers, will require carefully thought-out contracts that will enable the project to get paid and address potential problems. One of the most important components of the contract is the offtake agreement. They establish how much the project will get paid, what factors could impact those payments and more.

Most offtake agreements are long-term contracts, often matching the length of any debt term, in order to ensure that there will be revenue available to pay the debt service and usually include renewals. They are binding upon sign-ing, but often include early termination provisions to allow either party to get out of the deal, such as allowing the seller (project owner) to terminate if they cannot arrange fi nanc-ing for the project.

Along those same lines, the agreements usually include conditions precedent, or events that have to take place before either party is obligated to perform. Common conditions include fi nal granting of permits, feedstock agreements, and fi nancing for the seller and any regulatory approvals for the buyer.

Milestones are an important part of any project devel-opment and are often part of an offtake agreement, mostly because the buyer may be relying on the project to come online at a certain time in order to meet their own require-ments. Often, there are penalties for missing milestones, though a seller should negotiate that penalties be waived if the project comes online by the commercial operation date.

The commercial operation date (COD) is the date when the plant is capable of delivering the thermal energy to the buyer. The COD is a critical piece of the agreement and the seller will face signifi cant penalties if the project is not operational by the COD. Determining the right criteria for the COD is important to all parties to the project.

Before the plant is in commercial operation, issues of the delivery of the thermal energy, such as when and where does the ownership of the thermal energy transfer from the seller to the buyer must be answered. Much of that depends on how the thermal energy is delivered to the buyer, such as colocation, district energy or steam pipelines, but sellers will generally want the transfer, and thus the sale, to occur once the thermal energy leaves its plant.

Pricing is one of the most important aspects of a thermal energy project and pricing will generally be based on equivalent thermal energy costs, plus any premium for “green” thermal energy. Pricing is either fi xed, with escala-tors, or based on market indexes. It is critical for the seller to have a complete understanding of their costs before agreeing to fi nal pricing. Financing parties will be sure to run the numbers. It may help to think of it as a fi nancial mass balance.

Curtailment is one of the issues the fi nanciers dislike, but is usually a part of an offtake. Curtailment means that in certain circumstances the buyer has the right to refuse delivery of the thermal energy. In these cases, sellers want the buyer to continue to pay the regular price and count the curtailed thermal energy towards their requirement. Buyers understandably want to minimize paying for thermal energy they are not using and the parties usually reach a compro-mise, which could include capping the payments, having the energy count towards the requirement or other options.

Tax credits and renewable energy credits, where and when available, can be signifi cant factors in the viability of a thermal energy project. Determining who gets the credits and how they can impact the bottom line pricing for the thermal energy is critical.

Performance guarantees are usually required by the buyer and normally amount to the seller guaranteeing that it will deliver a certain minimum amount of thermal energy to a buyer each year. Unexcused failures to deliver result in sig-nifi cant penalties or even rights to terminate. Sellers need to be sure that their construction and technology partners are able to build the plant to meet these guarantees. Financing partners will closely scrutinize performance guarantees and may require independent fi nancial support such as credit enhancements in the form of standby letters of credit. Connected to performance guarantees, the parties will try to limit their liability to damages from a breach while at the same time maximizing the liability of the other party.

Thermal energy offtake agreements are complex legal documents that also need to be drafted in the context of the entire project. Take care, plan early and consult experi-enced advisors before getting started.

Author: Todd TaylorClean Technology & Sustainability Chair, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

[email protected]

Legal Issues for Biomass Thermal Offtake ContractsBY TODD TAYLOR

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22 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

BiogasNews

The Bioenergy Association of California recently published a report detailing why the state needs a renewable gas standard (RGS), stressing that the biogas sector needs an effective regulatory frame-work and greater long-term certainty to reach the level of market penetration that will drive down costs and enable biogas to compete with the historically low cost of natural gas.

“We need something that is longer-term and is more compre-hensive, so that the industry itself doesn’t go through these boom and bust cycles, because it’s not that large an industry, it needs long-term certainty to really grow at the pace and reach the levels that it should,” said Julia Levin, executive director of BAC.

According to Levin, California could produce 10 percent of its to-tal gas consumption, amounting to 284 billion cubic feet of renewable gas per year just from organic waste converted to biogas. This has the potential to generate nearly 7,000 MW of power or 2.5 billion gallons of transportation fuels.

California association calls for RGS

Republic Services Inc. recently announced the startup of a new landfi ll gas-to-energy project in Indiana. The 6 MW project at County Line Landfi ll features four engines operating at one energy generation facility. According to Republic Services, the project is capable of gener-ating enough energy to power more than 3,200 homes.

Republic Services partnered with Aria Energy on the design, development and management of the facility. The two companies have now partnered on four projects with a combined capacity of nearly 40 MW, and are working two additional projects, which are expected to feature an additional 15 MW of capacity.

With the County Line Landfi ll project now complete, Republic Services has implemented 73 landfi ll gas-to-energy projects in the U.S. Combined, those projects provide enough electricity to heat or power approximately 400,000 households.

Republic Services opens Indiana landfill gas-to-energy project

Potential biogas-based fuel production in California(million gasoline gallon equivalents)SOURCE: BIOENERGY ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA

272Agricultural residue

170Manure

710Forestry and forest products residue

457Landfill gas

350MSW (67% of lignocellulosic fraction)

66Waste water treatment gas

106MSW (67% of food, leaves, grass fraction)

2,187Total fuel potential

56Fats, oils, greases

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FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 23

BIOGAS¦

Biogas projects come in all shapes and sizes and are implemented across a variety of industrial, munici-pal and agricultural applications. For a biogas project, there is no “one size fi ts all”. The variety of biogas feedstock sources and end-use applications sets it apart from other biomass project confi gurations. However, the variations among operational and potential biogas projects make it diffi cult to adequately access the re-source potential for this underutilized renewable en-ergy resource. Individual states are taking the lead to better evaluate and assess potential biogas projects.

In the past year, the state of Iowa has worked to assess their biogas resource. I recently participated in a webinar where the Iowa Biogas Assessment Model was profi led. The model is an online, GIS, interactive map where a user can click on different layers of data to study the biogas resource or conduct an initial screen of where a potential project could be sited based on feedstock and infrastructure availability within a cer-tain geography. IBAM was developed by EcoEngineers under contract with the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The tool is available at www.ecoengineers.us/ibam.

The IBAM tool provides a wide variety of biogas-based feedstock data. Users can assess the feedstock availability of animal manure, crop residue and poten-tial substrates or identify colocation opportunities with existing biodiesel, ethanol, food and paper manufac-turers. In addition to the feedstock data, there is also energy infrastructure data on the locations of natural gas pipelines, electric and gas service territories, and ex-isting power plant locations. Users can also identify the locations of operational biogas projects at agricultural, landfi ll or wastewater treatment facilities.

A complementary tool to the GIS map is a pre-liminary economic assessment spreadsheet. The down-loadable spreadsheet provides users the availability to

modify inputs and assumptions to conduct a prelimi-nary economic evaluation for a potential biogas project. Both the IBAM map and spreadsheet will require more robust analysis and engineering designs for any project moving forward, but these publically available tools can help users from the private and government sectors to conduct an initial project screen or quantify the poten-tial for biogas projects in Iowa.

The Iowa tools build on work previously done by the state of Wisconsin to develop a user-friendly bio-gas resource map and economic analysis for potential biogas projects. Having these tools available provides critical information to biogas proponents and project developers to assess resource potential, describe the location and nature of potential projects, and identify specifi c locations for future projects. In addition to Wisconsin, there are examples from other states and U.S. regions that have developed similar tools and eco-nomic assessments.

To further enable increased development of bio-gas projects, it is essential that we continue to use data and visual tools to better evaluate the biogas resource. These tools can provide critical information in the early formation of a potential project. They also help biogas proponents to categorize the resource potential in the context of other renewable energy options or waste management decisions. The diversity of biogas proj-ect confi gurations and feedstock sources is a real asset because every city, town, or rural area has some sort of potential for a biogas project, but without tools and data like those developed by Iowa, Wisconsin or other states, it would be more diffi cult to move projects from potential to operational.

Author: Amanda BilekGovernment Affairs Manager, Great Plains Institute

[email protected]

Data and Tools to Better Evaluate Biogas PotentialBY AMANDA BILEK

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24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

¦BIOGAS

DEPARTMENT

Grass to Gas Grassland and perennial biomass streams are being tapped for conversion as supplemental feedstock in anaerobic digesters.BY KATIE FLETCHER

Anaerobic digesters (AD) are usually fed manure or food waste, yet other options are being tested

and used in the biogas indus-try. On the expanding menu of feedstock possibilities are crops grown specifi cally for the pur-pose. Research conducted in On-tario, Canada, at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus explores the possibility of grow-ing perennial energy crops and native grasslands for biogas pro-duction. Energy crops are being considered in the biogas market for their environmental benefi ts,

high-yielding rates and reliability.The U of G-Ridgetown

teamed up with New Energy Farms and Seacliff Energy for a project exploring energy crop potential in biogas production. Right now, the focus is on the methane yield at lab level, but the hope is to eventually test pe-rennial feedstock crops in a 250-kW digester located at a cam-pus research facility. “The main takeaway of the things we’ve tested so far is that some of them provide really high yields in the fi eld, but they don’t con-vert very easily to biogas,” says

CODIGESTION POTENTIAL: The University of Guelph Ridgetown campus in Ontario has a 250-kW digester housed at the CARES, or Center for Agricultural Renewable Energy and Sustainability, research facility. The manure currently fed to the digester will eventually be mixed with various energy crops to test biogas at a farm-scale.PHOTO: KIM VANOVERLOOP

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FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 25

Brandon Gilroyed, assistant professor School of Environ-mental Sciences at the U of G-Ridgetown. “We need to, for our future research, place more emphasis on pretreatment and things like that to unlock more of that energy.”

Paul Carver, CEO of New Energy Farms, says, “We identifi ed a need for perennial biogas crops for a number of reasons.” NEF is involved in providing suitable cultivars of different energy crops, es-tablished through its CEEDS system and production testing.

The Crop, Expansion, Encap-sulation and Delivery System, creates a proxy for seed in veg-etative crops, such as miscan-thus, napier grass and arundo donax. The system was devel-oped to make planting energy grasses and other vegetative crops as simple as conventional arable crops. “In areas where biogas projects have expanded rapidly, such as Germany, there is now saturation of annual biogas crops on arable land,” Carver says.

Germany has been us-ing predominantly corn silage,

among other streams, for bio-gas production. The plants that NEF is exploring are suitable for nonfood-quality land, which subsequently allows new plant-ings to occur without affecting food production. Another con-tributing factor to energy crop implementation is that biogas byproduct disposal requires a land base. “Sites with perennial crops on them for 10 years or more create a good logistical system for this recirculation of nutrients,” Carver says.

The last factor resides in the fact that new biogas proj-

ects need secure sources of feedstocks. A proportion of perennial grasses can provide feedstock for 10 years, accord-ing to Carver. Crops like these usually take time to establish, however. “I think there will be some ways of dual crop-ping, or things like that, to help with those initial establishment years, but that is an issue for sure with the whole concept,” Gilroyed says.

Presently, most in the space see energy crops’ role in the production of biogas as supplemental; a side choice to

STARTING SMALL: Brandon Gilroyed, assistant professor at the University of Guelph-Ridgetown, says all perennial crop work so far at the university, has been done using a lab-scale digester.PHOTO: KURTIS BAUTE

BIOGAS¦

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26 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

¦BIOGAS

the main dish on the menu. NEF believes the menu should have a variety of sides suitable for biogas and different grow-ing conditions. “These would be crops like napier grass, arundo donax and mis-canthus, which support production from Canada down to Florida,” Carver says. “We have also found that some of the energy crops have a much wider harvest window, and so improving the logistics of the feedstock supply. With this range of crops it would be possible to get year-round supply.”

A sustainable feedstock supply is crucial for biogas producers. “A big part of the impetus for us looking into it is the biogas market right now; it’s really hard to fi nd high-quality feedstocks,” Gilroyed says. “There is so much competition, and if we want to see this sort of model work at the farm-scale, so smaller digesters, I

think that they’re going to have to have some options where they are able to inde-pendently create at least a portion of the diet they feed, because the volatility is too much to handle.”

Perennial energy crops and grasses have the added opportunity to generate cellulosic renewable information num-bers (RINs). The U.S. EPA announced in July a fi nal rule for the renewable fuel standard (RFS) program that expanded pathways for biogas-based fuel to help boost cellulosic and advanced fuel num-bers. Allowing biogas transportation fuel pathways to generate RFS cellulosic cred-its brings opportunity for further biogas project development. NEF’s collabora-tion with the U of G-Ridgetown and Seacliff is not upgrading the biogas to transportation fuel, but NEF recognizes the opportunity it presents. “We see a

very strong growth potential for this area as biogas can be used for heat, electric-ity and road fuels,” Carver says. “We feel there is a substantial commercial oppor-tunity to apply the high-yield perennial grasses to this market.”

One project under development in Missouri will create biogas-based fuel. Roeslein Alternative Energy LLC is de-veloping and constructing the project in collaboration with Murphy-Brown of Missouri LLC, the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfi eld Foods Inc. The goal of the $80 million project is to pro-duce 50 million diesel gallon equivalents by the end of the decade using biogas derived from hog manure, energy crops and cover crops harvested between grow-ing seasons. “This project can be a model to show how both economic and envi-ronmental benefi ts can be gained by us-

ONE POSSIBILITY: Arundo donax is one energy crop New Energy Farms is providing suitable cultivars for with its CEEDS artifi cial seed system. NEF is testing this crop and others for biogas potential with 20 acres of trials dedicated to the work in Canada and a series of trials with a European developer of biogas projects.PHOTO: NEW ENERGY FARMS

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FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 27

ing manure in a different way," says Rudi Roeslein, president of RAE and CEO of Roeslein & Associates.

The project will not only clean and compress biogas for transportation fuel, but will help with efforts to replant and restore native grassland and prairie on marginal land. Roeslein Northern Mis-souri Real Estate has been restoring land with grassy prairies on it’s 1,600-acre farm located within the project area. Already 400 acres of prairie has been planted that could be used for testing the potential feedstock.

The massive project is being imple-mented in phases. The installation of high-density polyethylene covers on an initial 19 lagoons at MBM’s Valley View and South Meadows farms in Northern Missouri is complete. The biogas that rises to the top of the lagoons will be

collected for further conditioning, while the leftover indigestible solid residue can be used as a natural fertilizer, and water can be safely used for irrigation. "There is value in the gas we capture as alterna-tive vehicle fuel,” Roeslein says. “There is even more value to the environment from reduced greenhouse gas emissions, eliminating rainfall effects on treatment systems and odor reduction."

Next on the project timeline is in-stalling biogas cleaning and conditioning equipment to produce renewable natural gas (RNG), and establishing a network of distribution centers to provide the RNG to vehicle fl eets. The project has the po-tential to create several hundred million cubic feet of RNG annually for regional distribution. RNG production is slated to begin this year. The third phase includes a demonstration of using aboveground AD

systems to process a combination of ma-nure and perennial feedstocks.

Now that biogas-based transporta-tion fuel projects can sell either advanced biofuel or cellulosic compliance cred-its, an increase in project development in the U.S. biogas industry may become apparent. Grassland and perennial crop establishment has a developing market opportunity with biogas, and potential to become an appealing, high-yielding and reliable side choice for producers.

Author: Katie FletcherStaff Writer, Biomass Magazinekfl [email protected]

701-738-4920

INNOVATIVE APPROACH: Roeslein Alternative Energy’s biogas project will involve a total of 88 covered hog lagoons, such as this one being installed at Murphy Brown’s South Meadows Farm in Missouri. Barn scraper technology will deliver raw nutrients of livestock manure to the covered lagoons.PHOTO: SHELDON RIPSON, ROESLEIN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

BIOGAS¦

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AdvancedBiofuelNews

Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) recently released its third-quarter clean en-ergy jobs report, reporting that 18,035 clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced in 23 states during the quarter. This includes 849 jobs in the advanced biofuel sector, which is the second-highest quarterly performance for the sector since E2 began tracking jobs in 2011.

According to E2, the top nine states for clean energy job announcements during the quarter were Nevada, New York, California,

Colorado, North Carolina, Michigan, Con-necticut, Louisiana and Texas. Illinois and Maryland tied for 10th.

The single largest biofuel announce-ment came from Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels, which is building a 10 MMgy biorefi nery in McCarran, Nevada. The project is expected to create 450 construction jobs and 50 full-time jobs by next year. Development of the plant is supported by U.S. Department of Defense grants intended to scale-up produc-tion of alternative sources of jet fuel.

E2 Q3 report shows strong growth for biofuel jobs

Ottawa-based Iogen Corp. announced its fi rst commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant is producing ethanol in Brazil. The fi rst 200,000 liters (53,000 gallons) has been distributed by Brazilian ethanol producer Raízen to its network of gas stations, said Ziyad Rahme, senior vice president and general manager of Iogen Energy.

According to Rahme, commission-ing began in October, with the startup and shakedown phase scheduled to last through the end of December. The facility was scheduled to shut down temporarily

once the sugarcane harvest season came to a close, and restart operations in the second quarter. “We will ramp up to full production at that time,” Rahme contin-ued. The company expects to be able to reach full nameplate capacity shortly after.

Iogen announced the groundbreak-ing in late November 2013, for the $100 million, 40 MMly cellulosic ethanol plant colocated with Raízen’s 80 MMly Costa Pinto sugarcane ethanol plant in Piraci-caba, São Paulo, Brazil. Raízen handled the engineering and procurement functions for the project.

Iogen starts up cellulosic biorefinery in Brazil

Q3 clean energy and clean transportation jobsSOURCE: ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS

849Jobs

6Job announcements

Renewable Energy

45Jobs

1Job announcements

4,602Jobs

13Job announcements

598Jobs

5Job announcements

9,892Jobs

7Job announcements

2,049Jobs

9Job announcements

Manufacturing Other

6,094Number of Jobs

25Number of Job Announcements

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ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦

The recent fall in oil prices has everybody talking about the prospects for advanced biofuels. Will commercialization be delayed? Will research and development continue? Can the industry survive $60 per barrel crude?

In the not too distant past, a precipitous drop in fossil fuels and energy prices could stall or even kill off years of progress in alternative energy R&D. Just ask someone familiar with the wind and solar industries in the '70s and '80s, or even the early algal fuels research programs in the late '80s and early '90s.

There's good reason to believe that the paths forward for biomass and biofuels will be different this time around. I doubt very much that technology advances will halt.

The commercialization strategies of today’s advanced biofuel ventures—particularly those that are developing new biomass feedstocks—are substantially different from earlier waves of alternative energy technologies. Perhaps most signifi -cantly, many are no longer solely dependent on revenue from fuels or energy sales to be sustainable as a business.

Instead, they are looking to attack multiple markets. Some examples include biomass-derived plastics, fertilizers, feeds, nutritional supplements, water treatment services, pharmaceu-ticals, specialty chemicals and more, in addition to fuels or fuel feedstocks that can replace petroleum or palm oil feedstocks. This fl exibility justifi es the technical and infrastructure invest-ments needed today to see companies through initial commer-cialization over the next two to three years.

In the algae biomass industry, Cellana is one of the com-panies that have led the multi-market approach to commercial-ization. The company's multiproduct business model is based on two fractionations of harvested algae biomass to produce three product streams: algal crude oil, Omega-3 nutritional oils and protein-rich algae meal for aquaculture or livestock feeds. All three fractions are used to provide economic sustainability to complement the inherent environmental sustainability of the highest-yielding “crop” on earth—algae.

Initially, Cellana expects revenues from fuel and feed to be a small percentage of overall product revenue, which will be driven by the high-value Omega-3s and, to a lesser extent, the feed product stream, both of which can be produced today with good fi nancial margins at relatively small commercial scales.

Profi table initial commercialization will introduce a phase of improved yields, technology advances and greater econo-mies of scale. In turn, lower unit-production costs will enable more sales into higher volume feed markets. As prices for animal feed rise with expected global demand, and production costs decline, the company can add capacity to address solely

the feed and fuel markets—a fi nal phase of commercializa-tion that does not rely on revenues from higher-value product streams like Omega-3s.

In the algae space, advanced biofuel pioneer Sapphire Energy is also diversifying its product portfolio, and Algenol Biofuels has added an algae crude stream to its advanced ethanol platform.

Other algae companies are following a similar strategy, and even the U.S. Department of Energy has recognized the advantages. The DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Offi ce fund-ing opportunity, titled Targeted Algal Biofuels and Products, announced by David Danielson, DOE assistant secretary, at the 2014 Algae Biomass Summit, specifi cally incents the devel-opment of coproducts, crop protection and carbon utilization technologies with algae. The end goal is not to create a new source of fi shmeal or animal feeds, however. Rather, it is to en-hance the state of the art and ultimately drive down the cost of algal fuels by enabling companies to produce multiple revenue streams from the same biomass feedstocks.

Much like corn, soybeans and other traditional biomass crops, which serve multiple end markets, the advantages of algae's market fl exibility will drive advances even during today's crude oil glut.

Companies that are currently focused on a single product also stand to benefi t from feedstock fl exibility. A company that can successfully scale algal oil production will have technical knowledge (and likely a whole lot of biomass) that will be valuable in other applications, making for a possible wave of strategic partnerships as more algae-derived products hit the market.

In either case, the effect will be a commercialization path-way that marches through a number of markets with econom-ics driven by many more factors than the price of oil alone.

The path is simple: Advance the technology and infra-structure through to initial commercialization, fi nd revenues in new and bigger markets, repeat.

Low oil prices might alter the pace or the direction of this cycle but they will not derail progress. In fact, a growing econ-omy, booming populations the world over, and more pressing security challenges mean governments and investors that keep the pace of R&D up will be rewarded in the near term by high revenues from feed, food and nutritional products, and will be doubly rewarded over the longer term when fossil energy again becomes expensive—which it most certainly will.

Author: Matt CarrExecutive Director, Algae Biomass Organization

www.algaebiomass.org877-531-5512

Low Oil Price Won't Put Brakes on Biomass FutureBY MATT CARR

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¦ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS

DANGEROUSLY Smart Farm BoysLong before farmers are ready to buy the implements required to grow and harvest energy crops, leading OEMs leverage robust research and development organizations to get them engineered.BY TIM PORTZ

F or energy crops, or even crop residues harvested for energy production, to ever establish themselves as widely grown agricultural commodities the

equipment necessary for their cultivation and harvest must be available at a cost that works economically for farmers. Fortunately for farmers and the prospective buyers of mis-canthus, arundo donax, energy sorghums, fast growing willows and other energy crops cur-rently under development this reality is a guid-ing principle for the original equipment manu-facturers (OEMs) who have served them for over a century.

AGCOMaynard Herron is one of AGCO’s

17,000 global employees and, as manager of product proving in the company’s Hesston, Kansas, location, well-versed in the iterative nature of AGCO’s product development ap-proach.

“I grew up as a farmer. I was always in-terested in the mechanical side of farming,” Herron says. “I have a bachelor’s degree in me-chanical engineering and I got a master’s degree in agricultural engineering, which tied it all to-gether well for me. I’m very interested in what people are doing to make a living with equip-ment on their farm.”

Herron and his team spend their time developing solutions for markets not yet fully commercialized, markets that the company ex-pects may generate real demand perhaps fi ve to eight years down the road including energy crops. “I don’t claim that we have a group of people who can look into the future and know where our products need to be at a certain

point in time,” Herron says. “But we have an innovative group of people who we’ve given a little bit of freedom.”

With well-developed market share in both the grain and hay segments, AGCO is actively working to adapt and modify existing products to capture future orders from farmers looking to bale corn stover or energy perennials with hay-like characteristics. With an eye on devel-oping a prototype that can be engineered to what Herron calls a “manufacturable state,” Herron’s team is using existing AGCO mod-ules as a starting point. “I would say 80 per-cent or more of the functional modules of the machine already exist,” Herron says. “It’s not unusual for us to take a machine and add two or three functional modules to it that are from another machine just to get started.”

Once a prototype is fabricated, Herron and his team observe and modify based on what they see. Herron notes that while AG-CO’s tradition of engineers working the fi eld with wrenches and hammers has changed, the practice was certainly used as AGCO eyed the coming biomass-to-energy market. “An army mechanic I had the opportunity to work with used to say, ‘We’ll weld it on here and if we don’t like it we’ll cut it off and weld it on some-where else,'" Herron remembers. He credits this mentor with changing his idea about the iterative work his team does every day. “He taught me to not see things as failures. Instead, he saw each idea that didn’t work as an elimina-tion of one of the total range of possible solu-tions,” Herron says. “And that was success.”

Also fundamental to Herron and his team’s approach is to continue pushing toward an answer to the root question of “why?” He

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ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦

TRY, TRY AGAIN: During a demonstration harvest of miscanthus in Illinois, AGCO engineers put this Razor Bar harvesting head through its paces. This model included the “biomass option,” which is the auger above the head. At the time this photograph was taken, the prototype was still well within its preproduction test phase.PHOTO: AGCO

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cites his early experiences working on corn stover baler concepts for the DuPont cellulosic ethanol facility in Nevada, Iowa. “When we started the program, the whole industry wanted to see higher-density bales,” says Herron. At the heart of the matter was that with lower-density bales, trucks were making trips from fi eld to plant well below their carrying capacity, introducing ineffi ciencies that had to be elimi-nated. “We improved the density of the bales to the point of coming out of the fi eld with large square bales that would fi ll a legal-size truck to the legal highway load limit in most cases.”

Once a particular design problem is overcome, another usually follows. Once Herron and his team solved the bale-density problem for the DuPont project, they moved on to throughput and bale size. “They never even stopped to take a breath,” he remembers. This ex-haustive and iterative process is beginning to bear fruit as nearly 40 AGCO balers were brought online to bale corn stover in the Nevada area this fall.

New HollandAnother instantly recognizable ag-machinery brand actively de-

veloping equipment solutions for the prospective energy crop market is New Holland Agriculture, part of the multinational ag and con-struction equipment giant CNH Industrial. The organization’s R&D efforts are housed in the company’s New Holland, Pennsylvania, loca-tion led in part by John Posselius, innovation and technology manager.

Posselius and his team are responsible for developing the next generation of both New Holland’s agricultural and construction equipment offerings. Like AGCO, New Holland works to keep Pos-selius and his team focused on markets they feel may come to fruition on a four- to eight-year horizon.

“The advanced technology group has some leeway, but there’s a good bit of involvement from senior management,” Posselius says. “Everything we work on gets approved by senior management. We’ve got what I call dangerously smart farm boys. Lots of our guys and gals have PhDs”

Posselius credits his team’s understanding of agricultural and ag-ricultural technology for the trust that company management has in their efforts, even if the immediate need isn’t readily apparent. To keep their pipeline of development work full, the company leverages its global presence to keep in tune with emergent trends in agriculture, whether they are bubble up in Europe, Asia or South America.

Another constituency that New Holland maintains close relation-ships with are the agronomy departments at universities around the world. They stay up to speed with the research trends they see and let those trends inform where they spend time and resources.

“In 2004 or so, we caught wind of some of the work that Dr. Tim Volk of the State University of New York, College of Environ-mental Science and Forestry, was doing with willows,” Posselius says. “It intrigued us.” Posselius and his team learned that early efforts to harvest willow were utilizing existing sugar cane and forage harvesters. With both of those products already in their portfolio, willow seemed to provide a new market opportunity that fi t nicely into what the com-pany was already doing.

“After getting in touch with Tim, we started bootlegging some things and tried several approaches with engineering equipment that

¦ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS

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FEBRUARY 2015 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 33

we already had on the fast growing willow,” Posselius says. “We had a pretty fair level of success.

The initial efforts were successful enough to win an approval from management to ex-pend more time and energy on developing so-lutions for a crop not yet widely grown. Still, when considering willow’s potential and the existing platform New Holland already had in sugarcane and forage harvesters together, the opportunity proved too good to pass up. “When we can take advantage of a current product with no or minimal modifi cation that opens up a new market for us, that’s a positive situation,” Posselius says.

This same logic applies to the New Hol-land’s continued interest in perennial energy grasses like miscanthus. The company sees its existing hay and forage platform as a common sense departure point from which to compete in this category should it become commer-cially viable for farmers to grow those crops.

In addition to the overcoming the tech-nical burden of harvesting willow, or miscan-thus, or corn stover, Posselius and his team must also consider the economics during the design phase. Speaking specifi cally about their work developing a coppice header capable of effectively harvesting willow, Posselius says, “We need to develop a header that comes in at a price point that we can afford to build, that our customers can buy and can produce chips at a price an end user can pay.”

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have to let go of their projects, either because a decision has been made to cease research efforts or a prototype is ready to move into full-scale production. Designing a machine that can effec-

tively bale corn stover with low ash content is a completely different endeavor than engineering it so that it can be manufactured and deliver a profi t not only to the company, but ultimately to the farmer that buys it.

Posselius and his team ultimately release their concepts to a product design group respon-sible for getting that product built and released to the waiting farm community. Is it diffi cult for Posselius to let go of a project he’s worked so hard on, sometimes for years? “It takes a par-ticular type of person to do the upfront work,” says Posselius. “For some engineers, it would drive them nuts to not take a project all the way to the fi nish line of having a saleable product. Some people like to prove concepts, some like to build product.” Fortunately for Posselius, he’s the former.

Author: Tim PortzExecutive Editor, Biomass Magazine

[email protected]

FIELD ADJUSTMENTS: A team of CNH Industrial Engineers make adjustments on a prototype in upstate New York while working with the State University of New York. PHOTO: JOHN POSSELIUS, CNH INDUSTRIAL

Page 34: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

34 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2015

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Page 35: February 2015 Biomass Magazine

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