Fuel from the Forest Floor
Scientists look at viability of a sustainable woody biomass industry
By Becky Beyers
It seems like a no-brainer: using biomass from forests as a sustainable source of fuel.
But is it really that simple? While harvesting branches, small trees and shrubs and other kinds of forest products for energy production holds promise, researchers at CFANS are taking a closer look.
Dennis Becker, assistant professor in the Department of Forest Resources, is the lead investigator on a two-year project to assess the physical, environmental, social and economic factors involved in developing a sustainable forest biomass industry. Ultimately, the findings will be used to make policy recommendations that will help the forest biomass industry grow in a thoughtful, sustainable way.
“Everybody keeps looking at forest biomass as the holy grail,” Becker says, and indeed many factors point toward forest lands as a source of sustainable, low-carbon fuel with the added benefits of providing economic opportunities in rural areas and meeting new clean-air standards. But even though Minnesota companies have been making energy from woody biomass for more than 20 years and last year used nearly 2 million tons of woody biomass, the industry has never reached its full potential.
A broader range of factors
Biomass can come from
the leftovers of a timber
harvest.
The team will look at the biggest roadblock to any type of biomass harvesting—transportation costs—and try to find a balance between what landowners will accept for their biomass and the high costs of removing the wood and transporting it. “Even if we accomplish all the other parameters, it doesn’t mean that biomass is economically available,” Becker says. “The profit margins we’re talking about here are quite small.”