A major component of the U.S. national energy plan is developing diversified sources for liquid transportation fuels, including the development of a robust and sustainable supply of lignocellulosic biomass for a billion-ton U.S. bioenergy industry by 2030. However, developing efficient and innovative technologies and strategies to meet the national target while balancing the cost and quality of biomass in a logistics system has been an ongoing challenge.
The research team will tackle this challenge by using an innovative and integrated approach. The study will determine woody biomass quality in the Southeast and identify the relationship with conversion performance. Additionally, the cost and energy use for woody biomass feedstock size reduction through both conventional and advanced technologies will be obtained at an industrial scale, and the cost and quality of the feedstock will be incorporated to address the challenges of balancing cost and quality in feedstock logistics for scaling up biofuel production.
The study includes the evaluation of alternative preprocessing technologies in feedstock logistics systems for hardwood logging residues and an energy crop — hybrid poplar — to supply biofuel production in the Southeastern region.
The research team will model the requirements for a profitable bioenergy sector in the Southeast and provide spatial techno-economic analyses for the costs, quality and relative efficiencies at key points in the hardwood feedstock logistics system for an industrial biofuel system in the region. The study also includes the impact of an established bioenergy sector on the regional economy and the estimated lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.
“Findings from this project will be significant because identifying the technologies and methods to supply reliable and consistent quality of feedstock in a feasible logistics system would expedite the development of the biofuel industry in the region and the nation,” said UTIA associate professor and lead researcher T. Edward Yu.
The UTIA multidisciplinary research team includes agricultural economists, forest scientists, chemists, and biosystems engineers, with collaboration from a bioenergy company, Proton Power, Inc., and a biomass research and development company, Forest Concepts, LLC.
Grant funding is provided by USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, the nation’s leading competitive grants program for agricultural sciences.
