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This week I'm in a two-day biomass conference in Wyoming. The presentations are mostly related to cellulosic biomass. Cellulose is the part of the plant that is usually considered waste (corn stover, cobs, the fiber that gets between your teeth). It also includes other woody biomass (wood chips, construction and demolition waste, MSW, etc.)
The parts of plants that are currently converted to ethanol are the starch and sugars. These are also the parts that are edible by humans. Studies estimate that the maximum quantity of US transportation fuel that can be replaced by sugar-based ethanol to be about 5-10%, based on land requirements.
In 2006, US ethanol production was about 5 billion gallons.
Because of high corn prices, farmers are planting more corn for ethanol production. Since there is a limited amount of farm land, this reduces production of other crops, making all food more expensive - including meat.
There are many projects currently under way to produce ethanol from cellulosic sources, including corn waste, straw and switch grass, C&D waste, yard and vegetable waste, and other wood residues.
Other products are also being investigated, including DME - which is an isomer of ethanol that can be used in a special diesel engine (Chemrec and Volvo), and standard diesel from FTL (CHOREN and Daimler Chrysler).
It's thought that cellulosic biomass can be used to replace up to 20% of our current transportation fuels.
Tomorrow's presentations include "Wood Biomass to Ethanol" and "Production of Syngas from Wood Biomass."
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