Farm Bill to help US biomass industry

One of the main topics of the upcoming 2014 International Biomass Conference and Expo which will take place March 24-26 in Orlando, Florida will no doubt be the passage of the Farm Bill, which is expected to provide a significant boost to US biomass industry.

This long-awaited bill means that the US government will do its share to ensure rapid development of the domestic biomass industry as an important part of the nation's desire to have more energy from renewable energy sources in years to come.

Several major US biomass companies had nothing but the words of praise for this bill which should give close to $900 million in dedicated funding to programs such as Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels, Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) and the Community Wood Energy Program (CWEP).

US biomass industry is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors that doesn't just provide bigger share of renewables in nation's energy mix, it also provides economic benefits in terms of new jobs, particularly in rural areas.

Unlike some other renewable energy sources biomass fuel is very efficient and reliable though there are still some controversies such as whether biomass is carbon neutral or not. In any case, it is lot cleaner fuel than coal and oil.

The International Biomass Conference will not only discuss the Farm Bill's impact on the biomass industry, but also the current state of biomass industry, and the future development. Biomass is certainly one of the most important renewable energy sources, trailing only hydropower as the second most important renewable energy source in the country.

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Germany wants more sustainable biomass

Sustainable biomass production is a way to go in years to come, and Germany is one of the countries making push for more sustainable biomass production. It has been reported that German chemical companies alone use around three million tons of raw plants in their production processes each year.

The demand for plant matter continues to grow almost each year, and the production process, if not done in a sustainable matter, can lead to negative consequences for environment. Palm oil plantations, are often the negative examples, as people cut rainforests to make more room for biomass production which not only destroys ancient forests but also leads to massive biodiversity loss.

In October 2013, the list of German industrial companies settled on a new list of criteria for sustainable biomass production which include not only land use but also planting and harvesting methods for biomass crop. Each of these criteria needs to be met in order for biomass production to be considered sustainable.

There are 25 different ecological criteria such as ban on rainforest destruction and protection for biodiversity valuable savannah areas. These criteria also oblige the protection of soil integrity by for instance avoiding  the nitrate leaching.

The criteria is set but these standards are yet to be put under practice.  The plan for German companies is that lubricants and plastics produced in Germany will be tested and certified under the agreed biomass sustainability criteria starting from this year.

These are of course voluntary standards as there is still no law that would oblige German companies to obey these criteria. Obeying all these criteria should likely lead to increase in prices of many products as it has been calculated that a ton of sustainably-produced palm oil costs some $40 to 50 more than non-certified palm oil.

The further goal is to develop new technologies that would enable both cost-effective and sustainable biomass production

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New biomass power plant in Wisconsin

It took more than two years of construction for $268 million biomass power plant in north-central Wisconsin to start producing power. The sawmills and forests of northern Wisconsin will provide fuel for this plant which will provide electricity for We Energies and steam for Domtar's paper mill.

This biomass power plant will not only provide the state with more renewable energy thus helping her achieve its renewable energy goal but should also help diversify its energy portfolio with more focus on renewables. The state's renewable energy mandate requires the utility to generate 8.2% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015.

As compared to solar and wind energy projects in the state, there is also an advantage in the fact that this plant can produce renewable energy on demand because biomass isn't intermittent energy source like solar and wind.

In over two years that were needed to construct this plant, 450 workers were employed. Though this project is significantly more expensive than the construction of wind farm of similar capacity the Public Service Commission still announced that the higher costs were justified because of the ability to generate power on demand thus being more reliable than wind farm.

It has been said that this biomass power plant will burn 500,000 tons of biomass a year with supply coming from many sawmills, paper mills and loggers. The total costs connected with this project are said to be $268 million, but a federal grant that is expected to be awarded in 2014 should reduce this number by about $80 million.

The plant is expected generate enough power to supply 32,000 homes.

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UK plans to reduce biomass greenhouse gas emissions

Biomass still represents controversial clean energy option, because burning biomass creates harmful greenhouse gas emissions just like this is the case with fossil fuels like coal. There were even some reports claiming that burning biomass could do more harm to environment than burning coal.

In light of this controversy, British government wants to reduce emissions from biomass power plants. The statement from UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change says that biomass power plants will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 72% below the average output of fossil fuel-fired plants by 2020 and 75% by 2025.

These new targets will apply to generators with a capacity of 1 megawatt or higher, and those who will not comply to these targets will lose government support. The UK government thinks that this will be a very important step towards the sustainable biomass production.

As already said above there are still some major controversies about biomass as environmentally friendly energy option.  While burning wood emits carbon dioxide, it is generally considered to result in lower emissions than those coming from fossil fuel fired power plants as new trees are planted to replace those used for biomass production.

This latest UK action is said to be prompted by the last year report that came from Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Royal Society, and in which biomass was characterized as dirties than coal mostly because of transportation, which also contributes in increase of greenhouse gas emissions associated with biomass.

Biomass is very important renewable energy source in United Kingdom, representing approximately one third of total UK renewable energy power.

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EU wants efficient and environmentally friendly biomass production

EU wants biomass production to become more environmentally friendly and more efficient if biomass wants to play more important role in EU renewable energy mix.

The latest study by the European Environment Agency (EEA) has concluded that biomass production needs to become not only more efficient but it also needs to avoid negative environmental effects as much as possible.

The current biomass production methods offer great room for improvement in efficiency because generating electricity by burning pure biomass is only 30% to 35% efficient. For comparison purposes, burning the same material for heating purposes is 85-90% efficient.

EU believes that both European forests as well as productive land are limited resources that deserve more rational approach, especially in terms of efficiency. What this means is that existing biomass resources need to be used efficiently before imposing additional demands on land for increased energy production.

Also, the current energy crop mix is not good for environment and there is said to be a need for broader mix of crops to reduce negative environmental impacts and offer sustainable production.

According to this latest study "high-yielding systems with efficient conversion can deliver more than 20 times more energy compared with low-yielding inefficient systems using the same land area."

One of the proposals  by EEA is to focus on growing perennial crops because they are not harvested annually and can thus enhance ecosystems as well as provide various useful services such as flood prevention and water filtration.

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EU will need more biomass in years to come

The demand for biomass will likely significantly grow in EU within the next decade. At the Biomass Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur; Malaysia, the Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union, Luc Vandebon, acknowledged the big role that biomass plays in achieving EU renewable energy targets.

Among other things he stated that biomass' share in EU renewable energy mix was almost two thirds or 65.4 % of all renewable energy consumed in 2010, and that biomass will play vital role if EU is to achieve its climate targets by 2020.

The domestic EU biomass sources which are sourced predominantly from the forestry sector, followed by agriculture, fisheries and waste will likely not be enough to supply the growing demand meaning that EU will need more biomass from abroad.

Vandebon predicts that approximately  8 percent of biomass will be imported, mainly in the form of pellets and wood chips, by 2020.

Biomass industry is already a significant player on EU energy market and the growing demand for biomass will no doubt help further develop EU bioenergy market.

EU will in years to come focus more on sustainable biomass production and is currently considering to develop the existing EU sustainability framework to include solid biomass and biogas.

Sustainability is the key to future biomass production and consumption and all companies involved must be aware of that.  This is what EU expects from its current and future trade partners.

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Are biomass power plants environmentally friendly?

The topic of whether biomass power plants are environmentally friendly or not is still connected with many controversies and a variety of different opinions. The proponents of biomass power plants claim that they help environment by reducing wood waste and also help in preventing wildifire. They also claim that biomass power plants reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to fossil fuel fired power plants.

The opponents of biomass power plants say that these plants are anything but environmentally friendly. They claim that biomass power plants contribute to growth in greenhouse gas emissions and are anything but carbon neutral like biomass industry claim they are. They even claim that generating electricity by burning different wood materials and agricultural waste is dirtier than generating power with natural gas.

According to California Air Resources Board biomass power plants are not considered greenhouse gas emitters because the officials took the stand that if forest materials weren’t burned at biomass power plants they would rot or burn in the woods anyway, which would result in the creation of the same amount of greenhouse gases. What this basically means is that The Air Resources Board has accepted the opinion that biomass power plant is a carbon neutral technology.

This opinion could be of course heavily debated, especially when taking into account the decades it takes for materials to naturally break down versus the hours or minutes it takes to burn a tree in a biomass plant boiler.

Some recent studies have also claimed that biomass power plants are among the largest carbon monoxide emitters and that they can thus seriously deteriorate the air quality in the area.

In any case, what this topic really needs is one large, comprehensive study that would take into account all these factors objectively and reach scientifically acclaimed conclusion. Biomass has tremendous future potential but only as an environmentally friendly energy option. Anything else, would in reality result in replacing fossil fuels with another equally dirty option.

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Kentucky opens door for more biomass

The good news for US biomass industry comes from Kentucky where Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear signed legislation into law that would make biomass power a lot more attractive option for electricity suppliers within the state.

Biomass refers to organic material — which includes the likes of corn, grass, wood but also waste and manure — that can be either burned or converted to fuel (biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel).

The bill, SB 46, that was signed into law on March 5 allows the Public Utilities Commission to let utilities recover costs not recovered in the existing rates of the utility for the purchase of electric power from a biomass power facility that has received a certificate from the Kentucky State Board on Electric Generation and Transmission Siting. The further specification of this bill say that no recovery will be allowed unless the full costs of the purchase agreement over the full term of the agreement have been found by the commission to be fair, just and reasonable.

The opponents of this bill say that it will drive up electricity rates and could also hurt domestic coal industry but the truth is that it is still too early to make these kind of predictions. Whether the creation of a large-scale biomass industry is a real threat to coal industry in coal thus still remains to be seen.

What this bill really means is that Kentucky wants biomass sector to help achieve its goals for more green energy jobs and improved energy independence. The choice for more biomass is really logical for the state because Kentucky has vast amount of land, including reclaimed mined land, that could be used to produce biomass.

Of course, the state also needs to make sure to develop a large-scale biomass industry without doing damage to food production, meaning that it should primarily focus on non-food biomass resources.

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Biomass power production - Short-term outlook

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has recently released its short term energy outlook, where among other things it also reports the numbers for biomass power production from the year 2012 and makes predictions for 2013 and 2014. Here are the most interesting predictions:

In 2012 wood biomass accounted for 103,000 MWh per day of electrical generation. This number should grow to an average of 106,000 MWh per day, and to around 110,000 MWh per day in 2014.

In 2012 waste biomass accounted for 54,000 MWh of electrical generation per day. This number should increase to 56,000 MWh per day in 2013, and maintain this level throughout the 2014.

In 2012 electric power sector consumed around 177 trillion Btu of wood biomass power and 252 trillion Btu of waste biomass power. This number should increase to 198 trillion Btu and 260 trillion Btu in 2013, and 220 trillion Btu and 261 trillion Btu in 2014.

In 2012 the industrial sector consumed 1.3 quadrillion Btu of woody biomass in 2012, along with 172 trillion Btu of waste biomass. This number should slightly increase to 1.227 quadrillion Btu and 171 trillion Btu in 2013, and then slightly grow in 2014 to 1.24 quadrillion Btu and 173 trillion Btu.

To conclude, short-term speaking biomass power sector will have to accept the slight increase in production as renewable energy production will likely involve lot more solar and wind than biomass.

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Worldwide biomass production- Future outlook

Fossil fuels are still the primary sources of energy consumption in most countries of the world and this will likely remain the global energy picture for foreseeable future, even despite the strong surge within many of renewable energy industries.

 Biomass is certainly very interesting but also a very controversial alternative energy option. There is an ongoing discussion among proponents and opponents of biomass on several different question such as whether biomass is environmentally acceptable or not and whether fast growing biomass production would harm global food production or not. Nonetheless, despite these controversies, the use of biomass is constantly growing and will likely continue to do so in years to come.

According to recent Pike Research study called "Biopower Markets and Technologies" global biomass power capacity will reach minimum 86 GW globally by 2021 from 58 GW in 2011, which represents a staggering growth of almost 50 percent. This growth in biomass capacity will be accompanied by large investments; it is estimated that the total investment in the biomass sector between 2008 and 2021 will reach large sum of $104 billion.

This report also stated that with the more aggressive investment global biomass power capacity could grow to 115 GW by 2021. The estimates about the future growth in biomass sector are primarily based on the growing trade in biomass pellets which clearly indicates further growth in the next decade in the business as usual scenario.

Biomass is renewable energy source with excellent potential. According to the latest study that was conducted by UK scientists biomass could account for one fifth of global energy without doing damage to food production by making the best use of agricultural residues, energy crops and waste materials.

Of course, global biomass production still needs to be significantly improved from the sustainability perspective.

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Is biomass the best renewable energy option for New Jersey?

The state of New Jersey is already one of the nation's renewable energy leaders with main focus being currently set on solar power as the state's solar energy market is booming and is currently the largest commercial solar energy market in the country.

Another interesting renewable energy option for New Jersey is biomass. The New Jersey's Master Energy Plan said that there is a big potential for state to harness more biomass energy in years to come. In fact, according to this report the state of New Jersey produces approximately 8.2 million dry tons of biomass annually, 65 percent of which could be used for energy production. This amount of biomass is enough to generate approximately 1,300 MW of power, which represents around 9 percent of current state's electricity demand.

Biomass comes from the variety of sources with agricultural and forest residues, together with municipal and industrial waste being the primary options for increased biomass production within the state. In total, this report listed more than 40 available biomass resources.

Biomass has some clear advantages over solar energy, with most obvious being costs and reliability. This means that going for more biomass in state's renewable energy portfolio is certainly an idea worthy to consider, especially because state's renewable energy standard wants 22.5 percent of New Jersey's electricity to come from renewable energy sources.

Given current somewhat aggressive renewable energy policy it wouldn’t come as a surprise if New Jersey were to focus on producing more energy from biomass. The technology is already there and with more incentives biomass industry could soon play extremely important role, giving the Garden State yet another renewable energy option where it can become one of nation's clean energy leaders (together with solar).

Of course, only sustainable biomass production is acceptable option. Failure to achieve sustainability would not lead to expected emission cuts, in fact it could further stir fuel vs. food debate, and even lead to deforestation.

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Biomass in United Kingdom – Current outlook

Biomass is lately receiving plenty of talk, and UK is no exception. Biomass energy sector is rapidly growing all over the globe as the world looks for cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. There are two main reasons behind the rapid growth of UK biomass industry – the rising energy demand and the government's desire to reduce country's dependence on fossil fuels.

Small-scale biomass production has grown over the years and is now becoming large-scale biomass industry because of the rapidly growing demand for biomass fuel. The higher demand for biomass has already resulted in increased import of wood. The dependence on imported goods is not good not just because of the high costs of imported material but also because of large transport costs. This is the main reason why UK biomass industry has already started developing plans that include focusing on smaller biomass facilities that would be primarily oriented on raw materials provided from the local area.

One of the latest feasibility studies has showed that in order for biomass facility to be economically viable the raw material needed for biomass production mustn't be transported by more than 50 miles.

As already said above, the import of raw biomass material continues to grow rapidly. Estimates say that timber imports are expected to rise to about 50 million tonnes by 2015, which is around 150% increase compared to current UK numbers. Having this in mind, it's no wonder that UK biomass industry plans to rely more on domestic timber to decrease total production costs.

Wood is the main source of biomass in United Kingdom.

The growing import isn't having positive environmental impact either. According to a 2010 Environment Agency study the rapidly growing import of biomass has negative environmental impact because the carbon emissions associated with shipping of timber could more than halve the potential carbon dioxide savings from biomass power plants.

Focusing on domestic wood material for biomass production must be done carefully, with the sustainable management of UK's forests, or otherwise this could lead to major environmental damage. The sustainable management of UK forests means focusing to smaller biomass plants that would operate with local supply of woods, and would therefore be forced to apply sustainable management of forests.

There have already been interesting proposals about creating a network of smaller biomass plants that would each operate in their local area, relying on their own wood material. Building enough of these small scale biomass facilities could ensure sustainable development of biomass energy sector in UK.

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What is biomass? Things to know about biomass

Biomass is renewable energy source.

Biomass includes different biological material from living, or recently living organisms such as wood, waste and alcohol fuels.

One of the main advantages of biomass is the diversity of biomass sources which means that biomass could be produced in all corners of the world.

Thermal conversion of biomass, chemical conversion of biomass, and biochemical conversion of biomass are the three main types of conversion used to transform biomass into useful energy.

Biomass conversion technologies still need to improve their costs and efficiency in order to challenge fossil fuels such as coal.

Biomass doesn't belong to energy sources free of carbon emissions. Some say that biomass is carbon neutral energy source but this theory is still open to debate (according to this theory biomass sinks carbon out of the atmosphere in the process of plant growth, and returns it back as it is burned). One of the most controversial studies came from the scientists at Massachusetts University who claim that biomass power plants that use wood as a fuel are even worse for the climate than coal plants.

Biomass currently accounts for approximately 4% of the energy used in the United States.

Wood is the most common source of biomass used in United States.

Unsustainable biomass production could lead to big deforestation in many parts of the world leading to even bigger climate change impact because trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

Biomass plants can also cause air pollution.

Increased biomass production can improve our energy security and energy independence by decreasing the need for foreign oil import. It can also lead to a creation of many new jobs.

Increased biomass production could increase food prices and lead to global food shortage because of the competition with food crops for land.

Sustainable biomass production would require strict regulation of what materials are harvested, where to plant them, and how are they burned.

The worldwide biomass capacity continues to grow and was 58 GW in 2011.

U.S. has total biomass power capacity of approximately 11,000 MW.

Florida is the home of U.S. largest biomass power plant, the New Hope Power Partnership power plant.

It would be perfect if waste would become top source of biomass in years to come. This would result in less waste and more useful energy. Hopefully, global biomass industry will try to develop itself in this direction.

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