Untapped potential: Bioenergy can be harnessed in PNW

By Cindy Snyder, Ag Weekly correspondent
Tuesday, February 6, 2007 3:08 PM CST

Daryl Moser, right, Idaho Business Programs Director, USDA, moderates a panel on farmers and communities owning renewable energy projects together at the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference in Boise on Monday. Also pictured are Lisa Daniels, left, executive director of Windustry in Minnesota, and Paul Woodin, executive director of the Community Renewable Energy Association in Oregon.

BOISE, Idaho - Mention alternative or renewable energy and most people think of ethanol plants in the Midwest. But the Pacific Northwest offers potential advantages that leaders in renewable energy are beginning to recognize.

One of those differences is diversity. Compared to the Midwest where corn and soybeans are the primary renewable energy feedstocks, the Pacific Northwest is bioenergy rich, said David Sjoding, head of Washington State University's energy program.

How rich? A biomass inventory done in Washington state showed 45 viable feedstocks and 60.9 million tons of underutilized crops. WSU is recognized as having the largest extension-based energy program in the United States with a staff of about 60.

Coming up with an accurate head count of the total amount of feedstocks - crops, crop residue, timber that can be converted to energy - is difficult.

"If you undercount, your vision is smaller," Sjoding told participants at the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference in Boise on January 29. "It's hard to get this right."

But one thing is clear, the nation will be looking to the Pacific Northwest for future clean-energy needs. Producing the 7 to 8 billion gallons of ethanol used today requires 35 to 45 million tons of biomass. But if ethanol production increases so that ethanol replaces 30 percent of the nation's gasoline consumption by 2030, 1.3 million tons of biomass will be required annually to produce those 100 billion gallons. of ethanol. In comparison, the U.S. corn crop today yields 200 to 300 million tons of biomass annually.

That's why many experts believe cellulosic ethanol - where lignin from straw to timber slash is converted to ethanol - is the fuel of the future rather than the grain-based ethanol of today. And if that's true, then the work done at the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls may give the PNW an edge in future ethanol production.

"The federal support needed to launch the technology, the feedstock supply and the infrastructure, this is what puts the PNW on the map," said Richard Hess, who has worked with cellulosic ethanol production at INL.

He pointed to a study done by the University of Idaho that showed approximately 1 million tons of biomass is produced within 100 miles of Idaho Falls. That's about the amount of biomass needed to supply one of the so-called pioneer cellulosic ethanol plants.

Looking at a map of Idaho, the Magic Valley provides another supply of adequate biomass for a plant, but any plant located there would have to compete with the dairy industry.

While the dairy industry is a potential competitor for cellulosic ethanol, dairies also give Idaho a competitive edge, Hess said. Because dairies today move 400,000 to 500,000 tons of forage annually into the Magic Valley, Idaho already has the experience and infrastructure to move the biomass tonnage needed for a cellulosic ethanol plant.

Next to transporting biomass to a renewable-energy plant, storage is key - and the PNW has an advantage there as well.

Comparatively dry conditions in the region allow producers to harvest biomass dry and then store it without incurring large losses or building expensive storage sheds.

Another advantage is that growers here are accustomed to meeting quality specifications for contracted crops. Hess said he cringes when he hears people talking about utilizing ag waste in ethanol plants. He fully expects plants will dock feedstocks for not meeting sugar content or other specifications.

Given today's technology, Hess and his team at INL assume a cellulosic ethanol plant can spend $35 per ton of biomass to produce ethanol and keep production costs at $1.07 per gal. That works out to about a $10 per ton payment to the grower. At first, the plants will be buying straw and logging residue - commodities that aren't paying the bills on a farm. Once production increases and farmers begin growing "energy" crops that must cover production costs, he expects payments to growers will rise.

"Everything depends on feedstocks," Hess said. "We have to be careful not to undersell the advantages the Pacific Northwest has. We have a dry climate, we have straw, we have the infrastructure, we have a lot of know-how here."

But what's missing is an actual cellulosic ethanol plant.

Iogen has proposed building a cellulosic ethanol plant near Shelley, Idaho. The company had hoped to break ground on what is billed as the world's first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, but delays in securing the needed federal loan guarantees to fund the more than $200 million project may push construction into 2008.

"If I leave you with one message today it is don't be discouraged," Hess said. "Yes, we don't have corn fields like they do in the Midwest but we have other advantages, particularly when it comes to looking at pioneer facilities."

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