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Building Demand Boosting Utilization: Wood Bioenergy Hatton-Brown Publishers
The news that Strategic Biofuels in Louisiana is working with the Forest Service and other groups on biomass standards is big. Developing a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) system to make it easier to incorporate forestry feedstock into biomass and green energy initiatives and projects by ensuring raw materials meet sustainability standards is going to make utilization of woody biomass more attractive—and that’s good for the wood bioenergy industry.
Having such a system is yet another tool to aid in the increased utilization of wood as a sustainable energy source. Strategic Biofuels is taking the lead in developing an auditable system to track feedstock qualification, source-origin and chain of custody data to support its Louisiana Green Fuels project that will use woody biomass to produce renewable diesel and naphtha.
While the Louisiana facility is expected to break new ground with a negative carbon footprint and also incorporate well-based carbon sequestration technology, the use of woody biomass as a biofuel feedstock is an encouraging sign.
The EPA is required under the Clean Air Act to set RFS volume requirements each year. There are four renewable fuel standards—conventional renewable fuel, advanced biofuel, cellulosic biofuel, and biomass-based diesel.
Traditionally, biofuel has been the province of big agriculture: “Conventional renewable fuel” is mostly corn ethanol; “advanced biofuel” uses mostly non-food crop ag residues and industrial waste as feedstock; “cellulosic biofuel” uses mostly corn stover and similar products; and “biomass-based diesel” has seen soybean oil as its biggest feedstock.
Julie Tucker, National Wood Innovations Program Manager of Bioenergy, Biofuels, and Bioproducts, U.S. Forest Service, notes that “Historically, forest residuals have been a disposal challenge. The Renewable Fuel Standard helps change that by giving the renewable energy sector a financial incentive to convert these unwanted forest residuals to high-value biofuels and renewable electricity.”
Tucker adds that EPA must ensure that forest residuals receiving credit under the RFS are qualifying feedstock: “We also want them to be sustainably sourced. This initiative with Strategic Biofuels is an exciting opportunity to do that.”
With large amounts of forest residue volumes available in timber-rich regions of the U.S., it’s important to see timber-based biomass standards set and met. This is especially true in areas where forest health issues and projects create large amounts of biomass available for utilization.
While the development group is being led by the Forest Service and Strategic Biofuels and the full team is still being assembled, members will include representatives from the National Assn. of State Foresters and the American Loggers Council as well as groups representing industrial and non-industrial landowners, tribal interests and others.
It’s critical to have a wide range of stakeholders involved, including wood bioenergy interests, to help develop such a system that has national implications for increased biomass utilization—and help ensure the wood bioenergy industry’s concerns are heard as biomass standards and tracking systems are established.
SOURCE: WOOD BIOENERGY MAGAZINE HATTON-BROWN PUBLISHERS
Biomass: Netherlands to Double Wood Pellet Imports in 2020
The Netherlands doubled its wood pellet imports to a record 1.22 million metric tons in 2019, according to a report recently filed with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Global Agricultural Information Network. Imports are expected to double again this year based on the co-firing plans of Dutch power companies. The report explains that the Netherlands imported more than 1 million metric tons of wood pellets in 2012. U.S. was the top supplier of pellets to the Dutch power companies at that time, accounting for 600,000 metric tons of imports.
Dutch imports of wood pellets stagnated from 2013 to 2017 due to the termination of government support for the use of woody biomass for energy generation. Subsidies resumed, however, in 2018 and 2019. As a result of those subsidies, the Dutch power sector imported 1.22 metric tons of wood pellets at a value of $232 million last year. Few of those pellets were imported from North America. Dutch power companies primarily sourced wood pellets from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia in 2018 and 2019.
Sustainability requirements are a primary factor limiting U.S. wood pellet exports to the Netherlands. The report explains that pellets must be certified at the forest level. In the U.S., biomass for pellet production is generally sourced from small forest owners who do not have a program certification.
According to the report, the Dutch government has developed a verification protocol as an alternative to certification to facilitate pellet imports. Importers, however, are often reluctant to utilize the system due to a fear that product might be determined to be non-compliant after delivery.
The Netherlands consumed an estimated 1.197 million metric tons of wood pellets in 2019, up from 614,000 metric tons in 2018. Consumption is expected to increase to 2.25 million metric tons this year. The country imported 1.223 million metric tons of wood pellets in 2019, with 130,000 metric tons of that volume coming from the U.S. Imports are expected to reach 2.5 million metric tons this year, with the U.S. supplying up to 500,000 metric tons of that volume.
A full copy of the report can be downloaded from the USDA FAS GAIN website.
USIPA: Wood Biomass Given All Clear by Europe’s Highest Court
By U.S. Industrial Pellet Association | May 13, 2020
The U.S. Industrial Pellet Association on May 11 welcomed an order from the European Court of Justice dismissing a case against wood biomass. The court ruled the applicants, a group of six individuals and NGOs, lacked standing to challenge the EU’s inclusion of wood biomass in the bloc’s Renewable Energy Directive.
“We welcome the court’s ruling, which removes unnecessary uncertainty over the future of renewable energy in Europe,” said Seth Ginther, USIPA executive director. “Although this was a procedural ruling this was the right overall result, as the arguments put forward in the case had no value. The European institutions carried out an open consultation to gather scientific and environmental advice and considered these during the legislative process. The result was a revised Renewable Energy Directive that set out rigorous standards for the inclusion of sustainable biomass in the European energy mix.” Including the UN IPCC’s latest Special Report on Climate Change and Land, the body of academic research, studies and papers documenting the climate and forest benefits of wood biomass continues to grow.
Wood biomass, derived from the forest products industry, is the EU’s largest single source of renewable energy, and is a key technology for achieving the bloc’s climate goals set out in the Green Deal. It enables European power generators to repurpose existing coal-based infrastructure with a renewable alternative that reduces the carbon intensity of electricity generation by up to 85 percent on a life-cycle basis.
Last year the U.S. exported nearly 6 million metric tons of biomass to the EU, primarily from its Southeastern states. This region has been the center of America’s forest products industry since the early 20th century, and is one of the largest and most sustainably-managed wood baskets in the world.
According to the USDA, wood volume in this region has increased by 21 percent since 2000, and southeastern landowners are currently growing 43 percent more wood than they remove every year. Independent analysis shows this trend is also consistent within the local sourcing areas surrounding multiple biomass production plants.
As noted by forest economists, forest stocks have been increasing in the US Southeast because markets for wood products, like biomass, provide financial incentives for private landowners to keep investing in the continual cycle of thinning, harvesting and replanting trees.