USDA Awards $49M for Biomass Energy Projects in 14 States
July 13, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The funds are billed as helping to create markets for small-diameter and low-value trees removed during forest restoration activities, according to the USDA.
The wood will be used to fire boilers for heating systems in schools and other facilities, to provide heat for a cement plant, as fuel for biomass power systems and combined heat and power systems (also known as cogeneration systems) and as firewood and pellets for wood stoves.
It will also be co-fired with coal in a coal power plant in Colorado, while Oregon will evaluate the value of in-woods, portable pyrolysis units that would convert biomass into a biobased oil.
Biomass pyrolysis involves heating wood to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, causing the organic compounds in the wood to break down.
These funds may also help communities and entrepreneurs turn residues from forest restoration activities into marketable energy products, according to the USDA.
The USDA also awarded $8 million for biomass projects not related to energy production.
In May, the USDA planned to award $224 million in Recovery Act funds to 110 projects that would make improvements to ecosystems and reduce hazardous fuels, such as underbrush and small trees in dense forests.
The energy production projects included two in Arizona, five in Oregon, one project that spans both Oregon and Washington and one each in California, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Experts said those projects aim to direct at least some of their wood toward power generation, combined heat and power generation, heating for schools, industrial heat production, firewood sales and the production of wood pellets for stoves.
The Colorado project will co-fire the wood with coal in a coal-fired power plant. Additional projects may direct biomass to energy projects but may not explicitly declare that in their project summary, according to the USDA.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).