Strictly speaking, the term "biomass" means the entirety of living biological organisms in a given area. But in the area of energy production when we talk about "biomass" we're usually talking about available biomass - anything from crop residues to waste byproducts to crops grown specifically for use as fuel or to feed an energy system.
Like most places on earth, Washington ’s most abundant biomass resources are complex lignocellulosic materials: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The issue is how to turn these resources into energy.
Here's an excerpt from a WSU/PNNL release:
"Due to our climate and growing conditions, Washington ’s most abundant sources of biomass are woody and complex in nature (timber waste, wheat straw, municipal solid wastes). This type of biomass is referred to as cellulosic biomass because the energy and fuel potential lies in the plant structure itself (the cellulose), rather than the seeds. More typical biofuel feedstocks, such as corn and soybeans, are not produced in quantity in Washington and must be imported (or irrigated if grown regionally), so the associated economics are even more challenging for our state.
While Washington faces some challenges in producing energy crops, it has a variety of other biomass resources. To provide perspective, converting our region’s entire grain acreage to energy crops (at current yields) would supply only about 10 percent of the region’s transportation fuel needs – an indication that the Northwest’s agricultural base alone is not sufficient to support a large, sustainable biofuels industry based on the production of energy crops. However, data suggest that Washington has “waste” biomass (otherwise requiring disposal) sufficient to provide 20-30 percent of our state’s transportation fuel, if the required infrastructure and technology can be developed to collect and convert it economically.
Leading examples of potential biomass resources in Washington:
...a synergy exists among state agencies, the state’s research universities and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Wise investment in research targeted at our state and progressive policy development to enhance the deployment of the various elements of the bioeconomy will assure that the vision becomes a reality."
Comments