Challenges, Opportunities Abound for Biomass

Penn State Forum Includes Tour of Switchgrass Trials

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Call it biomass, cellulose or whatever you want, Pennsylvania has plenty of potential sources for it. But turning it into a usable fuel that can power a car or heat a home still poses challenges, from growing the stuff to opening actual markets for it.

Dozens of people showed up to the Central Pennsylvania Biomass Energy Production Workshop here Tuesday for a chance to share their ideas on the emerging biomass market in the state.

The forum was sponsored by Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council, Penn State and Biomass Connections. The goal of the program, according to Andy Bater of Biomass Connections, is to share ideas and to open dialogue on the potential of biomass for fuel.

“We want to stimulate the market for biomass in central Pennsylvania because there isn’t a lot going on right now,” Bater said.

But the potential is there.

Gary Gilmore, a representative of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), said potential sources of biomass in the state are plentiful, from woodchips to switchgrass. The problem is getting those sources to a point where they can be used easily as a fuel source.

And there is another issue. Most sources produce far less energy than the equivalent fossil fuel such as coal, natural gas or oil.

To put it into context, the state consumes roughly five billion gallons of gasoline a year, according to Gilmore.

If six million tons of wood were used to produce cellulosic ethanol, he said it would only replace six percent of the state’s gasoline demand.

In fact, according to his calculations, almost 20 million acres of biomass would have to be grown to meet the state’s gasoline demand.

“We need to start devoting more land for biofuels,” he said.

And naturally, farmers would be in the mix.

Dan Arnett of Ernst Conservation Seeds of Meadville, Pa., said there are many promising crops farmers could grow alongside their regular crop rotations.

Arnett’s company has been growing and developing switchgrass seeds for 30-years and in that time, they have found that the best results have come from growing crops on marginal lands, with minimal inputs.

Warm season grasses, he said, can be planted as early as April 1 through June 15, roughly the same time farmers usually put in their corn and soybeans.

Planting these crops on marginal lands, he said, decreases competition with conventional row crops. Switchgrass is also a perennial.

But the biggest hurdle he sees for farmers is “perceived failure,” mainly because the crop usually takes a few years to establish itself and weeds are the biggest issues.

Later on during a tour of some of Penn State’s switchgrass trials, the challenges in one second year plot were easily seen. Weeds literally choked out an entire crop.

“The biggest single challenge is going to be weed control. Your second biggest challenge is going to be seed contact,” Arnett said. “But what you’ll see as time goes on is you’ll get cleaner crops.”

Arnett agreed with Gilmore, with the sentiment that growing switchgrass alone would not be enough to meet the state’s energy demands.

A pound of switchgrass, he said, produces roughly 7,500 British Thermal Units (Btu), depending on the variety. Compare that to the Btu’produced by a pound of coal, 12,000 to 15,000 Btu and you can see that there is a big gap.

“What we’re going to need is a portfolio of answers,” he said.

The future of biomass and cellulosic ethanol may lie in smaller scale projects scattered throughout the state.

Rick Stehouwer, a Penn State extension associate, talked about promising results from several trials converting abandoned minelands into switchgrass.

Dan Ciolkosz, who is also a Penn State extension associate, talked about “co-firing” at power plants as a possible market for biomass.

The concept involves burning multiple types of fuel in a combustion unit — biomass with coal — as an example.

Roughly 1.5 billion tons of coal are used in the state each year. To do co-firing of at least five percent, Ciolkosz said about 80 million tons of biomass would have to produced.

A single 5,000 megawatt powerplant at five percent co-firing, he said, would require 50,000 acres of high yielding biomass.

James Davis of Biomass Converters said the company has plans of opening a 15-million gallon ethanol facility in Clearfield County, to use crops from a 50-mile radius, by 2011.

The plant, he said, will cost between $120 and $130 million to build.

Ryan Koch, who works for the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service in the Poconos, talked about the Pennsylvania Fuels for Schools Program, which promotes the use of biomass at schools and institutions throughout the state.

The goal of the program, he said, is to replicate small scale energy projects that use anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of biomass a year at schools throughout the state.

Several school districts and other institutions are already participating.

The forum also included a tour of Penn State’s switchgrass trials as well as a demonstration of an engine powered by woodchips and charcoal and a mobile unit designed to convert round switchgrass bales into chips for heating.

Contact Chris Torres at ctorres.eph@lnpnews.com or (717) 721-4427