Lewis Thomas Bioenergy From Forests: The Power Potential Of Woody Biomass

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PNWTUDE PAREUnited States Department of AgricultureRTMENT OF AGRI C U LForest ServicePacific NorthwestResearch StationI nsi d eDollars and Cents. 3Woody Biomass and Coal. 3Finding the Niches. 4FINDINGSissue one hundred seventy four / june 2015“Science affects the way we think together.”Lewis ThomasDave NichollsBioenergy From Forests:The Power Potential of Woody BiomassI NS U M M A R YThe elevated intensity of wildfire seasons in the American West combined withpolitical, environmental, and economicissues surrounding the use of coal andoil are spurring a growing interest in theuse of woody biomass as a fuel for heating and electrical generation.David Nicholls, a forest products technologist at the Alaska Wood UtilizationResearch and Development Center inSitka, along with his colleagues, haveresearched the feasibility of using woodybiomass from many angles: the potentialsupply of wood; the economics of gathering, transporting, and processing it; theuse of biomass in electrical generationaround the world; and small-scale nicheprojects in rural communities—especially in Alaska.With the right logistical and economic conditions, woody biomass is a viable option for local heating andenergy production. Above, a conveyer belt carries woodchips into the boiler for the Tok School District,Alaska.“Electricity is really just organizedlightning.”—George Carlin, ComedianFrom the first campfire millennia ago,humans have used wood for energy.Early wood gatherers collected firewood that was close at hand.Proximity of the wood source to the fire isstill important when it comes to producingwood-based energy.Dave Nicholls, a forest products technologistwith the Pacific Northwest Research Station,is based at the Alaska Wood UtilizationResearch and Development Center in Sitka,Alaska. Nicholls and his colleague have beenexploring what it takes to make wood-basedenergy a viable option.Nicholls notes that the past 25 years have seensignificant bioenergy developments in western states starting with large-scale electricalgeneration and, more recently, small-scalethermal energy systems. But the barriers tolarge-scale expansion of the use of wood fuelU.S. forests have a vast supply of woodydebris and small-diameter trees thatcould be used as fuel in a number ofapplications, big and small. Harvesting itcould provide fuel for heat and electricity,and would reduce the amount of flammable material in the forests—lessening thepotential of wildfire. The trick is makingit economically feasible to do so.Currently, the cost of recovering biomassfrom the forests and making it availablefor use is more expensive than the resulting fuel. Terrain, accessibility, traveldistances, and processing costs are allfactors. But, technological improvementsand consumer demand could tip the balance in wood’s favor, making it a viablecompetitor with other renewable energysources.

are significant, and the price of nonbiomassrenewable energy (including solar, wind, andgeothermal) are generally lower than the costof biomass energy systems.“However, in the big picture, biomass is agolden opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses and our global carbon emissions,” saysNicholls.This interest in wood-based energy is drivenby several factors.Fire seasons are getting longer and moreextreme. This change is driven by drought,insect outbreaks that have left millions ofacres of dead or dying trees across the West,and past management practices such as fireexclusion which has resulted in the accumulation of forest fuels. The opportunist sees thebiomass potential in these trees too small tobe used for traditional wood products: woodybiomass that could be used to generate energy.KEY FINDINGS Across the western United States, the value of woody biomass products will rarely payfor the costs of harvesting, collecting, and transporting woody biomass to markets.Niche opportunities exist, however. Cofiring coal and biomass to produce electrical energy is a viable option for U.S. power producers. Opportunities exist for smaller facilities to be converted entirely fromcoal to wood or other biomass fuels. Over the past decade, Alaska has seen significant growth in the use of wood for energyas well as the number of facilities heating with wood. More than 20 schools, forest products producers, or government agencies are using wood heating systems in Alaska. The use of wood energy has enabled rural communities to become more self-sufficientwhile reducing energy costs. Cost of alternative fuels such as heating oil was a primary factor in influencing the switch to wood energy. Bioenergy is more commonly used in Europe than in the United States. Much could belearned by examining the policies and technology that have facilitated its use.Rhonda MazzaIn the early 2000s, two national effortsemerged that have driven interest in usingwoody biomass from federal forests to produce electricity. The first was the NationalFire Plan, initiated in 2000. Goals of the planinclude helping at-risk communities preparefor wildfire seasons and managing the landscape to be resilient to fire. An essential partof that is reducing the amount of forest fuel—often characterized by high densities of smalltrees that have little or no value for solid woodproducts—in the immediate vicinity of thosecommunities.Purpose of PNW Science FindingsTo provide scientific information to people whomake and influence decisions about managingland.PNW Science Findings is published monthly by:Pacific Northwest Research StationUSDA Forest ServiceP.O. Box 3890Portland, Oregon 97208Factors that influence the feasibility of biomass wood energy include price of delivered biomass, dieselfuel cost, and transportation distances. Above, a recently thinned stand.Send new subscriptions and change of addressinformation to:pnw pnwpubs@fs.fed.usRhonda Mazza, editor; rmazza@fs.fed.usCheryl Jennings, layout; cjennings@fs.fed.usScience Findings is online at: o receive this publication electronically,change your delivery preference ption.shmtlUnited StatesDepartmentof AgricultureForestServiceThree years later, the Healthy ForestRestoration Act of 2003 was passed, whichaimed to improve the health of forests standsovercrowded with small trees and thus moresusceptible to insects, disease, and wildfire.From 2001 through 2008, more than 29 million acres of federal land were treated toreduce the amount of fuels. Also in 2003, theU.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, andthe Interior announced an initiative to encourage the use of woody biomass from forest andrangeland restoration and hazardous fuelstreatment projects.The “Billion Ton” study, a joint study by theForest Service and Department of Energywas launched in 2005. The study’s purposewas to see if the United States could sustainably replace 30 percent or more of itsdomestic petroleum consumption with biofuels—including wood and other agriculturalproducts. It estimated that forest lands couldproduce 368 million oven-dry tons per year.Other national efforts such as the NationalCohesive Strategy and the USDA’s BiomassCrop Assistance Program authorized by the2014 Farm Bill continue to bolster the biomassmovement. The Biomass Crop AssistanceProgram, for example, helps eligible farmers,ranchers, and foresters offset the cost of delivering agricultural or forest residues to qualified energy facilities.2

DOLLA RS A N D CENTSCalifornia in the 1980s pioneered thedevelopment of stand-alone biomasselectrical plants. They were relatively large by bioenergy standards, Nichollsexplains, with generation capacities up toabout 50 megawatts, and used a variety offuels, including wood and agricultural residues. At full capacity, they could supply about2 percent of California’s peak electrical needs.But in the 1990s, the California Public UtilitiesCommission restructured the state’s electricindustry. This reduced subsidies for biomass.As a result, some bioenergy facilities closedafter just a few years of operation, resulting ina modest loss reduction of generating capacity.More importantly, it undermined the nascentinfrastructure that harvested, processed, andtransported biomass fuel.“This points to the need for a long-term policyapproach for developing bioenergy projects sothat facilities are able to weather short-termvariations in fuel prices and other economicuncertainties,” Nicholls says.To be successful, bioenergy projects need areliable and long-lasting supply of fuel,effective transportation networks, fuel handling equipment, and combustion or gasification equipment to convert wood energy to ausable form. Power plants are often expectedto operate at least 20 years, so the companiesthat build them want assurance that they’llhave a steady source of fuel for that period.But even though forests produce a seeminglyunlimited supply of woody fuel, the cost ofgetting it to power plants can be huge. Infact, Nicholls says, “Rarely will the valueof biomass products pay for the costs ofharvesting, collecting, and transporting tomarkets in the western states.”The economic feasibility of thinning smalldiameter trees and other woody fuel fromthe forest is very site-specific. Generally, thesteeper the slope, the more expensive treatment becomes. Total costs can vary from 35to more than 1,000 per acre depending onterrain, number of trees to be treated and thesize of stems to be removed, among otherfactors. Nicholls says the average cost to thinsmall-diameter and underutilized woodymaterial is typically about 70 per oven-dryton—or roughly twice the price historicallypaid by energy and chip markets for woodwaste.The wood products industry has been asource of chips and sawdust that can be usedfor bioenergy. But mills have become moreefficient as the availability of regional timberhas declined, and fewer mills are accountingfor a larger portion of the mill residue supply.Nicholls notes that in many western statessawmill residues are already almost fully utilized in kiln-drying lumber, manufacturingwood pellets and other uses, leaving little tocontribute to a developing bioenergy industry.More than 28 million accessible acres of forestin the West could benefit from hazardous fuelremovals, a process that could yield 345 million oven-dry tons of material, Nicholls and hiscolleagues report in their synthesis of biomassutilization for bioenergy production in the western United States. Where communities are atrisk, incentives are already in place for quicklyharvesting and removing woody biomass. Thechallenge for natural resource managers is tofind markets and products that recover at least aportion of the costs of treatment.WOODY BIOM ASS A N D COA Lcarbon dioxide emissions from coal-burningfacilities,” Nicholls says.Dave NichollsCoal is still a significant energy source in theUnited States. We use more than a billion tonsper year, and about 93 percent of that is usedby the electric power industry, according tothe U.S. Energy Information Administration.Nicholls and a colleague recently evaluatedthe status, trends, and barriers to cofiring.“Cofiring with woody biomass could significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels in energyproduction in the United States, and cutgreenhouse gas emissions,” explains Nicholls.“Cofiring with biomass and coal is a simplemixing process. It is proven, off-the-shelf,inexpensive technology that would requirelittle change in existing infrastructure,” hesays. “It has been estimated that if all coalplants in the state of Colorado cofired at evenWood and coal travel together along the conveyor belt at Aurora Power,during a cofire test burn in Fairbanks, Alaska.Dave NichollsWood can be used as the sole sourceof fuel to produce electricity orheat, but it can also be mixed withcoal. Cofiring, as it’s called, burns biomass(woody, agricultural, or urban waste) withcoal to produce electricity using existing coalfired boilers. As a supplement to coal, biomassmay lower fuel costs and reduce emissions ofsulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. “It is perhaps the best short-term means for reducingWith the high cost of heating oil and an abundance of nearby wood, manyAlaska communities are developing wood-based energy sources. Above, aroadside wood pile near Tok, Alaska, that will be chipped and used to heatthe local school.3

a rate of 1 percent, it would add 53 megawattsof wood energy capacity. That’s about the sizeof a large wood energy installation.”biomass and ratio of the mixture are variablesthat determine the threshold between levels ofcapital investment needed to cofire.Nicholls’ report documents the different cofiring trials that coal facilities have conductedaround the country. The size and type ofIn March 2015, Nicholls, collaboratorDaisy Huang and other colleagues from theUniversity of Alaska-Fairbanks conductedcofiring test burns at a utility in downtownFairbanks. This trial, the first of its kind inmore than 30 years, demonstrated the feasibility of burning coal and wood at levels of up to15 percent. It also opened the door for futuretests using low-grade wood wastes.FI N DI NG TH E N ICH ESIn many rural areas across the western UnitedStates and Alaska, it’s becoming more commonplace for schools to use woody biomass togenerate heat. The pilot Schools for Fuels program, initiated in 2003 in Montana, workedin partnership among the participating schooldistricts, the community, and local nongovernment organizations. The program’s goal wasto demonstrate that chipped wood or woodpellets were the most economical and efficientform of heating energy for those areas.“Although school heating systems use relatively small amounts of biomass, typically onthe order of a thousand green tons or less peryear, they have strong potential applicationsin western states because they are often motivated by hazardous fuel removals adjacent toat-risk communities,” Nicholls says.Lessons learned from the Fuels for Schoolsprogram are being applied to several schoolsystems in Alaska. In Tok, for example, hazardous fuels have been removed to reduceDave NichollsDave NichollsWoody biomass is used economicallyas a source of heat and electricalpower in other parts of the world.Several countries in Europe–notably Finland,Sweden, Austria, and The Netherlands—usebiomass for electrical generation, includingcofiring with coal, at a higher proportionthan the United States. Government taxes onenergy and carbon dioxide emissions havemade biomass in those countries competitivewith fossil fuels.The wood chip boiler at Delta Junction School, Alaska.Dan BihnThe wood storage facility in Tok, Alaska.community fire risk. In a process called cogeneration, biomass is beingused to generate both electricity as well as heat, which is used for schoolbuildings and a greenhouse on campus.In Alaska, several new wood energy installations have come online in thepast few years, providing heat to school buildings and community centers. In 2010, the state’s first large-scale pellet boiler was installed by theSealaska Corporation at its corporate headquarters in Juneau. That sameyear, the Tok School installed a chip-fired boiler that displaces approximately 65,000 gallons of fuel oil annually. Other wood-fired boilers havebeen installed in Coffman Cove, Craig, Dot Lake, Gulkana, Kasilof, andTanana.Hydronic heating from the wood-energy system heats the soil to the desiredtemperature. Students from the Tok School District, Alaska, work in thegreenhouse, which is yielding fresh local produce.In rural Alaska where heating fuel is sometimes delivered by air or bylong-distance water transport, there’s a desire for a less costly option.Through Alaska Energy Authority, more than 20 wood heating systemsare now operational and reducing heating costs in Alaska communities.The state’s Renewable Energy Fund grants program has funded 34 biomass projects, and others are in development. Biomass projects can leadto economic development. “In rural Alaska, every job counts, whetherit’s splitting wood or stoking the boiler,” says Nicholls.4

The Community Biomass Handbook Volume1: Thermal Wood Energy developed by theForest Service, the University of Minnesota,and Bihn Systems LLC was created to helpusers identify the niches where wood-basedenergy makes sense. The handbook, publishedelectronically as an iBook and available as a.pdf, includes a financial calculator that withjust a few inputs, allows users to estimate thecapital investment and operations costs, biomass requirements, and return on investment.It helps users quickly determine the technicaland financial feasibility of potential biomassenergy projects.Eini Lowell, the Forest Service lead on theproject explains, “We got the idea for thehandbook because we noticed communitieswere spending so much money on feasibilitystudies, and that if proposed projects didn’tpan out, they didn’t have enough money leftto explore other options.” It was designed tobe used by local and regional economic development agencies, local businesses, schooldistricts, city planners, and state and federalforest management agencies.Volume 1 of the handbook, released in 2014,was designed primarily for the lower 48states. Volume 2 is expected to be releasedL A N D M A NAG E M E N T I M PL ICAT ION S Wood-to-energy programs have numerous benefits. They reduce the use of fossil fuelsduring production of electricity, thermal energy, and liquid fuels; and help diversifythe economies of many rural communities. When logistically feasible, they can reducethe costs of forest restoration and fuel reduction activities. Biomass may be used to produce energy at various scales, from electrical power generation at stand-alone facilities to heating governmental, educational, or other institutional buildings. State and federal governments have a large role to play as catalysts in stimulating newtechnologies and new uses of biomass material.in summer 2015. It is designed to increase itsrange of usability, particularly in Alaska, andillustrates examples of biomass heating inAlaskan communities. “The financial application has been updated so that it will now workbetter for Alaska” says Lowell. “It includes acord wood boiler option, which the first version didn’t, allows you to input higher fuelcosts, reflective of actual costs in Alaska, andincludes geographic location to capture heating degree day data. This was done to providebetter estimates for sizing a potential boiler.”Wood-based energy isn’t a panacea, but inniche locations, it can lead to numerous benefits, including lower energy costs, reducedgreenhouse gas emissions, and improvedgreater forest health in areas surrounding thecommunity.“An old thing becomes new ifyou detach it from what usuallysurrounds it.”—Robert Bresson,French film directorFOR FU RT H ER R EA DI NGBecker, D.; Lowell, E.; Bihn, D.; Anderson,R.; Taff, S. 2014. Community biomasshandbook. Volume I: thermal wood energy.Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-899. Portland,OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture,Forest Service, Pacific Northwest ResearchStation. 93 p. s, D.L.; Monserud, R.A.; Dykstra, D.P.2008. A synthesis of biomass utilizationfor bioenergy production in the WesternUnited States. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-753. Portland, OR: U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, Forest Service, PacificNorthwest Research Station. 48 p. s, D.L. 2009. Wood energy inAlaska—case study evaluations ofselected facilities. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-793. Portland, OR: U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, Forest Service, PacificNorthwest Research Station. 33 p. s, D.L.; Monserud, R.; Dykstra, D.2009. International bioenergy synthesis—lessons learned and opportunities for thewestern United States. Forest Ecology andManagement. 257(8): 1647–1655. s, D.L.; Brackley, A.M.; Barber, V.2010. Wood energy for residential heatingin Alaska: current conditions, attitudes,and expected use. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-826. Portland, OR: U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, Forest Service, PacificNorthwest Research Station. 30 p. s D.L.; Zerbe J. 2012. Biomass andcoal cofiring for fossil fuel reduction andother benefits status of North Americanfacilities in 2010. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-867. Portland, OR: U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, Forest Service, PacificNorthwest Research Station. 22 p. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/41436.W R I T E R’ S PRO F I L EJohn Kirkland has been writing about science, higher education, and business for more than 20 years. He lives in Portland, Oregon.5

FINDINGPRSRT STDUS POSTAGEPAIDPORTLAND ORPERMIT N0 G-40SU.S. Department of AgriculturePacific Northwest Research Station1220 SW Third AvenueP.O. Box 3890Portland, OR 97208-3890Official BusinessPenalty for Private Use, 300sci e ntist profil eDAVID NICHOLLS, aresearch forest products technologist with the USDA ForestService Pacific NorthwestResearch Station, is based atthe Alaska Wood UtilizationResearch and DevelopmentCenter in Sitka, Alaska. He conducts researchon a variety of wood products topics of importance to Alaska, including wood residue utilization, residential heating with wood energy,community energy management, woodproduct carbon balances, and wood productsmarketing. Nicholl’s received a Ph.D. in woodscience and technology from Penn StateUniversity, an M.S. in forest products from theUniversity of Minnesota, and a B.S. in forestmanagement from Oregon State University.COLLABOR ATORSNicholls can be reached at:Alaska Wood Utilization Research andDevelopment Center204 Siginaka WaySitka, AK 99835-7316Phone: (907) 747-4312E-mail: dlnicholls@fs.fed.usValerie Barber and Daisy Huang, Universityof Alaska, Fairbanks, AKAndy Mason, USDA Forest Service, State andPrivate Forestry, AKJohn Zerbe, USDA Forest Service, ForestProducts Laboratory, WIAllen Brackley, Eini Lowell, Dennis Dykstra(retired), and Robert Monserud (retired),USDA Forest Service Pacific NorthwestResearch StationThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex,marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from anypublic assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, largeprint, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

With the right logistical and economic conditions, woody biomass is a viable option for local heating and energy production. Above, a conveyer belt carries woodchips into the boiler for the Tok School District, Alaska. Bioenergy From Forests: The Power Potential of Woody Biomass Dave Nicholls "Electricity is really just organized lightning."

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