DOE Selects Biomass Feedstock Logistics Projects to Receive up to $21 Million in Funding

by Kristen Johnson, DOE Biomass Program

and Jaime Redick, BCS, Incorporated

A thriving domestic biofuels industry will require not only biomass growers and processing facilities, but also the infrastructure to connect the two. On August 31, 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of the Biomass Program (OBP) announced five industry- and university-led projects that will receive up to $21 million in funding to address this critical link. These feedstock logistics projects will help develop a supply system that can transport large quantities of feedstocks from growers to biorefineries for conversion to fuels, power, and bioproducts.

This is the first competitive solicitation that the OBP Feedstock Platform has been able to run in several years. It is the first time OBP has formally partnered with industrial equipment manufacturers with the purpose of developing feedstock-handling systems that will allow high-tonnage biomass feedstocks to be delivered to the biorefinery on a cost-competitive basis.

The projects will address challenges associated with all aspects of feedstock logistics infrastructure—harvesting, collection, preprocessing, transport, and storage. For example, AGCO Corporation in Duluth, Georgia, will work on a comprehensive system that will supply feedstocks to several biorefineries located in Iowa, Kansas, and Texas. “This project will definitively demonstrate on an industrial scale the methods and costs of feedstock procurement, storage, transport, and preprocessing to complete DOE’s understanding of the production of low-cost and perpetually renewable Bio-energy and Bio-fuels for the American public,” explains Bob Matousek, manager of Crop Harvesting R&D Engineering for AGCO. AGCO will seek to demonstrate the viability of the densified, large square bale as a least-cost, near-term means for supplying high-tonnage biomass feedstocks to cellulosic biofuel processors.

Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, will work with leading producers of forest biomass for energy in Alabama to design and demonstrate a high-productivity system to harvest, process, and transport woody biomass from southern pine plantations. Specific project objectives include improving tree-length harvesting machines for energy plantations; configuring a high-productivity, lowest-cost harvesting and transportation system for biomass; and demonstrating (at full industrial scale) the performance of their harvesting, storage, preprocessing, and transportation system.

FDC Enterprises of Columbus, Ohio, will primarily target Abengoa Bioenergy’s cellulosic biorefinery, which is currently under development in Hugoton, Kansas. Its project plan is to complete the design, fabrication, and demonstration of three new types of innovative harvest- and biomass-handling machines, including a single-pass mowing and baling operation, a bale-picking truck, and a self-loading trailer.

Genera Energy, LLC of Knoxville, Tennessee, will supply low-moisture switchgrass with an efficient bulk-format system that maximizes automated conveyance and handling. The project aims to achieve an overall process where switchgrass is dry-chopped into bulk format on the farm, hauled to a nearby satellite location, stored in a protective facility, bulk-compacted into trailers, and efficiently hauled 50 miles for unloading at the handling unit of the biorefinery.

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry of Syracuse, New York, plans to build on existing collaborative efforts among project partners. They intend to develop, test, and deploy a single-pass cut-and-chip harvester combined with a handling, transportation, and storage system effective in a range of different short-rotation wood crop (SRWC) production systems throughout North America. The system aims to reduce the costs associated with harvesting and transportation, provide consistent quality material to meet end-user specifications, improve environmental attributes, and accelerate the deployment of SRWC.

These projects will benefit farmers and agricultural equipment companies interested in cost-effectively and efficiently harvesting and supplying biomass feedstocks for a commercial biobased industry. The end-users of those biomass resources will also benefit from greater fuel, power, or product yields. The regionally diverse selections and consortium approach (each project includes a major equipment manufacturer, and may also include universities, local biomass producers, and national laboratories) should ensure that positive economic impacts are felt throughout the local economies in locations in which projects were selected.

“I am optimistic that this research will reinvigorate agricultural economies by creating jobs in the emerging Bioenergy industry, and contribute to keeping America's energy future secure," explains Richard Hess, manager of biomass program technology at Idaho National Laboratory. Not only will these projects touch various communities, but they will also help overcome logistical hurdles that will pave the way for more farmers and equipment manufacturing companies to take part in a growing industry. They represent an important step forward in achieving a thriving domestic biofuels industry that will both create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

An AGCO swather harvests sorghum, an energy crop that can be converted into biofuel (photo courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory).

For more information, contact Sam Tagore, OBP Lead for Feedstock Logistics, (202) 586-9210, or sam.tagore@ee.doe.gov.