Industrial-scale woody biomass utilization technologies

Interest in wood-based bioenergy is greatly increasing as people look for renewable and alternative forms of energy.  This is especially true in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where nearly 80% of land is in forest. This workshop, held on 10 March 2009, brought together foresters, natural resource professionals, loggers, forest industry members, conservation districts, government organizations, and others to explore the future of woody biomass utilization in the region and what that might mean for local forests, economies, and communities.

Funding for this project was provided by the National Association of Conservation Districts

The workshop agenda and copies of all presentations are available at: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/niacs/tools/bioenergyworkshop/

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm approved an energy package on October 6 that includes a requirement for 10% of the state's electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2015.

A newly minted 1.5 megawatt cogeneration plant capable of producing electricity for up to 1,500 homes was fired up Friday at the Rough & Ready Lumber Co. sawmill. In addition to producing electricity, the $6 million plant will create up to a dozen jobs, including two new jobs at the mill and seven to 10 jobs in the woods, said Jennifer Krauss Phillippi who, along with her husband Link Phillippi, manage the family-owned sawmill.

There will be at least two automotive manufacturers that will run E85 during the 2008 season: Corvette Racing and Aston Martin Racing.

The plant providing the fuel-Western Biomass Energy, LLC-is located one mile south of Upton, Wyo. It began operations in March 2007, and was the first demonstration-commercial hybrid plant to operate in the US. The plant is the result of six years of development efforts between KL, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the Wyoming Business Council and the Wyoming Department of Forestry.

Fri Jan 25, 2008.  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is set to embark on a five-year plan this year to harness a new form of energy using unused wood biomass to produce auto fuels and other industrial products currently made from imported petrol.

Japan, where two-thirds of the country is covered by forests, can supply a part of alternative fuels made from wood-origin ethanol as well as raw materials for plastic and carbon fibers.

The Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday it was to set aside a total of 1.2 billion yen ($11.2 million) in the next fiscal year's budget to support a few private projects to develop an alternative processing system to that of the petrochemical industry, pending parliament approval.

January 29, 2008.  WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today announced that DOE will invest up to $114 million, over four years, (Fiscal Years 2007-2010) for four small-scale biorefinery projects to be located in Commerce City, Colorado; St. Joseph, Missouri; Boardman, Oregon; and Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.  Building on President Bush's goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012, these ten-percent of commercial-scale biorefineries will use a wide variety of feedstocks and test novel conversion technologies to provide data necessary to bring online full-size, commercial-scale biorefineries.  On average, commercial-scale biorefineries input 700 tons of feedstock per day, with an output of approximately 20-30 million gallons a year (MMGY); these small-scale facilities will input approximately 70 tons of feedstock per day, with an estimated 2.5 MMGY.