IUFRO Division 5 meeting Taipei, Taiwan Nov. 2007

IUFRO Division 5 meeting Taipei, Taiwan Nov. 2007

Biomass utilization and bioenergy production in the western United States

David NichollsRobert MonserudDennis Dykstra

USDA Forest ServicePacific NW Research Station

“A Synthesis of Biomass Utilization for Bioenergy Production in the Western United States”

David NichollsRobert MonserudDennis Dykstra

2007 IUFRO Division 5 Conference Taipei, Taiwan


Feedstock resource vision goals for U.S. energy use

National energy useEnergy source 2001 2010 2020 2030

-------------Percentage of total------------

Biopower 4 5Biobased transportation fuels 0.5 4 10 20Biobased products 5 12 18 25

Source: Perlack et al. 2005.


Renewable electric standards and target dates

State Electrical energy from renewables

Target date

Percentage of total Year Western region:

Arizona 1.1 2007 California 20 2017 Colorado 10 2015 Haw aii 20 2020 Nevada 15 2013 New Mexico 10 2011 Texas 2.7 2009

Source: U.S. Department of Energy 2005

Woody Biomass Resources- Western U.S.

►estimates depend on land ownership, size distribution of biomass, definition of biomass, and states included

► in 15 western states, > 28 million acres of forest could benefit from hazardous fuel removals, yielding

~345 million oven-dry tons of biomass. Rummer et al. (2003)





Tools for Evaluating Biomass Resources

► Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data

In western forests, 29 million acres have been identified, based on FIA data, as “high priority hot-spots” that could yield up to 576 million oven-dry tons of biomass if thinned.

Vissage and Miles (2003)



Economic Considerations for Biomass Removals

►Four thinning treatment scenarios evaluated

►Uneven-aged treatments on gentle slopes provided the only scenario with a positive net revenue (averaging $686 per acre)

Skog et al. (2006)

On Forest Service lands…….

► Thinning costs typically range $150-$550 per acre

► Translates to about $70 per oven-dry ton of recovered biomass

LeVan-Green and Livingston (2001)



Stand-alone wood energy plants…. ■ average ~20 megawatts (MW), range to about 75 MW

(Bain and Overend, 2002).

■ relatively inefficient; electricity costs 8 to 12 ¢ per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Wind energy….3-4 ¢ per kWhSolar thermal….<10 ¢ per kWh





Williams Lake Power Plant, British Columbia, Canada

► design capacity of 60 MW

► 550,000 green tons of mill residues per year

► 5 sawmills within 5 kilometers of the wood energy plant

► sawmills supply fuel at no cost

► power plant paid about $2 million at each sawmill for fuel-preparation equipment

Large-scale bioenergy in western Canada



Number of active sawmills in selected western states (1957 to 2000)

0

50

100

150

200

250

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

num

ber o

f saw

mill

s

CaliforniaIdahoWyoming



Sawmill residue utilization

► California ……. 98.1 % utilized

► Idaho…………..99.8 % utilized

Source: Morgan et al. 2004



Sawmill residue utilization

► Montana timber processing industries: > 1.5 million OD tons in 2004

► 2.2 million OD tons consumed by residue-utilizing firms

► excess residues (0.7 million OD tons) by out-of-state sources or by Montana facilities processing timber into fuel

Keegan and Morgan (2005)



Sawmill efficiency and lumber recovery

► western sawmills have become larger and more efficient (regional timber harvests have fallen)

► lumber recovery (Scribner) in Idaho increased by 39% between 1979 and 2001 (Morgan et al. 2004b)

► in 2004, average lumber recovery greater in the U.S. west than any of the other 7 regions (Spelter and Alderman 2005)

Small scale thermal- “Fuels for Schools”(status 2006)

State In operation Under constructionMontana ---- 4 ----------------------- 8 Idaho ---- 1 ----------------------- 1Nevada ---- 1 ----------------------- 1North Dakota -- 0 ----------------------- 1



Small scale thermal- “Fuels for Schools”Darby, MT schools

► thinning ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests in western Montana could generate about 10 green tons of wood residue per acre (20- to 30-year treatment cycles)

► Darby, Montana school system* burns 700 green tons of biomass / year* requires about 2,000 acres of forest to sustain it


► New Advances in Wood Energy 2007 IUFRO Division 5 Conference Taipei, Taiwan


BIOMAX System-electrical energy► currently used successfully with units ranging from 5 kW to 15kW (50 kW to 100 kW units

are under development)

Zerbe (2006)



BIOMAX System-electrical energy

A theoretical 1,000 kW Biomax system could operate profitably:

► southern Oregon location

► tax credits available

► merchantable logs removed with biomass during forest thinnings sold at $175 per 1,000 board feet to offset harvesting costs

Bilek et al. (2005)



BIOMAX System-small scale electrical energy

Efficiency ► Fixed bed downdraft gasifier ► Waste heat dries wood chips to about 25% MC

Economics ► Estimated payback period of 3.1 years for a system operating 16 hours per day, 300 days per year (assuming $0.12 per kWh electricity)

USDA Forest Service (2004)



Wood energy harvesters / bundlers

► compact and bundle wood into bales (approx. 0.5 tons each)

► used successfully in Europe

► production of 20 to 30 bales per hour

► noted for low soil compaction

► expensive (about $450,000 each)



Slope – biomass harvests

► restoration thinnings for ponderosa pine forests evaluated

► on slopes < 35 percent, net revenues of $950 per acre were possible when a roundwood-pulpwood market was present

► on steeper slopes requiring cable-yarding, subsidies of $300 - $600 per acre needed

Fiedler et al. (1999)



Bioenergy plant locations

► Fried et al. (2003) examined 6,200 FIA plots over a 28 million acre area in Oregon and California

► four 50 MW biomass electrical plants could be strategically placed

► fuel treatments yield 75, 79, or 94 million green tons depending on scenario used (Fried et al. 2005)

► > 50 % of the forested acres in study area inaccessible for fuel treatments (Fried and Christensen 2004)



Biomass utilization barriers (“Billion Ton Initiative”)

(Perlack et al. 2005)

► poor accessibility, including steep slopes and environmentally sensitive areas

► marketing larger-diameter trees for higher value products, separately from biomass products

► transportation costs (typically $0.20 to $0.60 per dry ton-mile)

► environmental impacts from fuel treatment operations

► high harvesting costs



Hazard fuel removals- sustainable fuel supplies

► > 5.5 million acres of U.S. federal lands have been treated in western states (National Fire Plan 2006)

► includes prescribed fire and mechanical treatments within wildland-urban interface zones and other areas (2003 – 2006)

► for successful bioenergy development, biomass removals will need to occur over longer time frames (often > 20 years) to recover capital costs

(189 stewardship contracts in western states)



Trends and opportunities

► harvesting higher-value timber along with biomass to create favorable economics

► innovative uses of small-diameter trees to offset harvesting costs ■ rustic furniture■ posts and poles■ wood shavings (LeVan-Green, Livingston 2001).

► emerging technologies to improve harvesting economics ■ wood-plastic composites (Yadama and Shook 2005) ■ TimTek scrimber process (Sheriff 1998, Jarck and Sanderson 2000)

► more efficient logging practices will likely generate less biomass residue per volume of harvested wood product (Haynes 2003)

Documents

IUFRO Division 5 meeting Taipei, Taiwan Nov. 2007