Report Says Chesapeake Watershed Set to Lead Cellulosic Biofuels Race

Anne Harnish
Staff

A new report by the Chesapeake Bay Commission (CBC) released Thursday at the Cellulosic Biofuels Summit in Harrisburg, Pa., describes how the Chesapeake watershed region is uniquely situated to become a leader in producing cellulosic biofuels in the race to find new energy sources. The CBC shared a summary of the report with the media during a teleconference Aug. 29.

“Next-generation” cellulosic biofuel is defined in the report as non-grain-based ethanol “made from cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, sugar or starch (except for corn starch) or from waste material such as crop residue, animal waste, food waste, or yard waste; biomass-based diesel; biogas including landfill gas and sewage waste treatment gas; [and] biobutanol.” 

Local sources of cellulosic biofuel could include switchgrass, miscanthus, corn stover, straw, algae, alfalfa, woodchips, and fast-growing woods such as poplar and willow.

According to Ann Swanson, CBC executive director, a significant amount of research and funding in the U.S. has gone toward developing grain-based, “first-generation” ethanol from crops like corn and barley. However, the Chesapeake Bay Commission recognized several years ago that developing a grain-based ethanol infrastructure in the mid-Atlantic region could cause significant harm to water quality in the Chesapeake watershed stretching throughout the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. In light of those facts, the Chesapeake Cellulosic Biofuels Program was initiated.

The reports’ mappings of ethanol-producing plants and corn production for ethanol show that the vast majority are located in the midwestern and western states. Because corn-based ethanol plants and infrastructure are not yet in place in the Chesapeake watershed, Swanson believes that the region has a unique opportunity to go straight into the next-generation cellulosic biofuels production.

The bottom line, according to a CBC 2007 presentation, is that "handled right, biofuels can be a source of substantial permanent new income for farmers and foresters, can help reduce greenhouse gases, and can reduce nutrient pollution to the Bay. Handled wrong, biofuels can bring economic uncertainty, do little for greenhouse gases, increase the cost of animal feed, and exacerbate nutrient pollution."

In conjunction with the CBC program, the Biofuels Advisory Panel, composed of 22 individuals from the public, private and academic world, including representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Energy, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Virginia Farm Bureau, the Maryland Energy Administration, the State University of New York, the Institute of Energy and the Environment, Scott Paper Company, Ernst Conservation Seeds and others, developed the report.

Several major components for the plan would need to be put in place, says the panel. Growing the biofuel crops, developing the cellulosic biofuel infrastructure, marketing the biofuel products, and developing state and local policies and incentive each play a role in a non-grain-based biofuel system.

For example, ensuring adequate nursery production of seeds and saplings would be necessary, along with encouraging local franchises to increase local sale of biofuels. Farmers could begin producing cellulosic biomass for small-scale, first-generation operations, for instance, by growing winter biofuel crops, Swanson suggested. The report encourages “the use of biomass for combustion and gasification at the local or farm level...This sustainable practice, valuable in its own right for meeting energy goals, also helps build the market and infrastructure for next-generation biofuels.”

For biofuel crop production, the report emphasizes growing on “abandoned lands (such as previously mined or farmed areas) as well as on reclaimed mined areas and underutilized or lower value lands.” This could include abandoned farmland, dredge spoil sites, acid mine drainage land and highly erodible lands, states the report. Swanson added “highway median strips” to this list of underutilized land with biomass production potential.

The report contains detailed recommendations for actions to be taken at the state and local level. For example, “a regional biofuels analytical framework is needed to estimate how the industry will evolve, with regular updates that address regional (source) capacities, competing uses, potential limitations such as water supply, economic diversity, infrastructure needs, and the potential benefits to the economy and state revenues.”

Taking into consideration the ongoing demands of U.S. energy consumption, the long-term effects of having a biofuel infrastructure in the mid-Atlantic region are not fully understood. Concerns documented in the report show that cellulosic biofuels are not necessarily problem-free. For example, Swanson warns that careful planning and establishing limits and BMPs are essential for avoiding problems such as planting non-native invasive crops or potential damage to valuable forestlands. Priorities highlighted in the report include establishing harvest limits and using “soil carbon models to allow producers to compute how much crop residue can be collected without degrading soil quality.” According to Swanson, Penn State researchers are studying these criteria.

According to Penn State’s Tom Richard, making profitable use of a biorefinery’s byproducts may be the key to a successful cellulosic biofuel policy.

“Next-generation biorefineries will generate their own suite of co-products, by-products and residues, Richard said, “Cellulosic fermentation, for example, will produce carbon dioxide and lignin as the primary co-products. That lignin might be burned or gasified to produce heat, power and possibly liquid fuels. Even the residual ash contains minerals such as calcium, phosphorous and potassium, and has value as a fertilizer or admixture for concrete. Microbial biomass, another residue, could be burned, marketed as livestock feed or perhaps used as a fertilizer.”