Harvesting Energy- Options and Challenges from the Bark Beetle Epidemic
Marcia Patton-Mallory, PhDBioenergy and Climate Change Specialist
US Forest Service/Western Forestry Leadership Coalition
Presentation at:
Colorado Forest Restoration Institute Workshop
Economic Sustainability and Ecological Compatibility: Where is the room to move?
Walden, CO
October 21, 20101
Major Topics:
• Forest biomass as a feedstock for bioenergy
• Opportunities and challenges for energy
feedstocks from forests impacted by bark
beetle
• The local situation in CO and WY
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3
Uses
Fuels:
− Ethanol
− Other Liquid Fuels
− Hydrogen
Electricity and Heat
Biobased Products
– Composites
– Specialty Products
– New Products
– Chemicals
– Traditional Products
Forestry: The Opportunity and Potential
Conversion
- Manufacturing
- Co-firing
- Combustion
- Gasification
- Hydrolysis
- Digestion
- Pyrolysis
- Extraction
- Separation
Feedstock
- Forest Residues
- Hazardous Fuel
Forest Treatments
- Short Rotation
Woody Crops
- Wood Waste
- Conventional
- Mill Waste &
Residues
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Forest Management and
Biomass
• Large volumes of biomass
• Fire risks
• Declining forest health
• Declining infrastructure
• Industry decline
• Offshore investments and
imports
• Worker (capacity) shortage
• Reduced investments
• Markets and barriers
• Cyclic booms and busts
• No markets
• Higher costs
• Very distributed resource
Dynamics of Bark Beetle Eruption
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Raffa et al 2008. Bioscience
Carbon Cycle and Forestry
OFRI and The Foresty Association
Bark Beetle- Guiding Principles• Meet resource management and public safety
objectives
• Potential to use existing infrastructure for quicker response (energy and forest products)
• Sustainability
– Economic (short time frame- 10 years)
– Environmental (short term and longer term)
– Social (meet renewable energy goals, innovation and learning)
• Partnerships 7
Zones of Agreement
• Priority on public safety and critical infrastructure protection
– Trees falling on roads, trails, in recreation areas, in transmission corridors, and in wildland urban interface
• Watershed protection and fire break harvesting on the broader landscape was not an area of broad agreement
• Removing trees to facilitate regeneration was not an area of broad agreement
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Biomass Supply
Table 9. Total available volume over a 10 year period– Hazard Tree Only (Level 2 Road is High Clearance Road)
National Forests Hazard Abatement
National
Forest
Timber
Program
State and Private10 Year Total
General
Forest
Estimation
With
Level 2
Roads
Without
Level 2
Roads
Lodgepole
PineState Private
General
Forest
Estimation
With
Level 2
Roads
Without
Level 2
Roads
Million
Cubic
Feet
328 561 425 58 16 65 467 700 564
Million
OD Tons3.9 6.7 5.1 0.7 0.2 0.8 5.6 8.4 6.8
Less than 10 percent of the dead lodgepole
pine in the epidemic area (four National
Forests in northern CO and southern WY)
Cost Factors per OD ton for Forest Biomass Delivery
$11.00
$38.00
$10.30
$15.70
$26.70
$40.70
$0
$5
$10
$15
$20
$25
$30
$35
$40
$45
Biomass Logging along Roads
Biomass Logging in WUI
Chipping Hauling 50 miles Hauling 100 miles Hauling 150 miles
Cost Factors per OD ton for Forest Biomass Delivery
Existing Facilities
Colorado
Wyoming
Existing larger wood processing facilities, chips/sort yards and wood heating
Gray area identifies
all insect infestation.
Forests inside the
oval are impacted by
bark beetle.
Opportunities and Challenges
Opportunity
• Harvesting along roads, recreation sites, transmission and wildland-urban interface
• New pellet mills in the area of the beetle kill, but current sawmills are a long hauling distance
• Fuel switching at existing facilities - eg. bridge technologies at power plants
Challenge
• Priority material is most degraded and has lowest options for higher value products
• Existing forest products infrastructure has major commodity market challenges
• Short duration pulse of material limits new large capital investments
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Incentives
State
• Strong RPS in Colorado
• CO law requires utilities to switch fuels to meet emission reduction goals 2017-2022
• No RPS in WY
• CO Carbon Fund
• State Facilities- no specific goals or incentives
Federal
• Dedicated biomass power vs co-firing and Production Tax Credits
• Transportation of feedstocks (Biomass Crop Assistance Program) final rules not released
• Federal Grants and Loan Guarantees (rural areas)
• Renewable Biomass Definition- excludes federal land
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Broader Interests
• Meeting renewable energy goals for government, community and businesses
– Federal campus and facility (including military)
– College Campus President’s Carbon Neutrality goals
• Smaller scale fuels conversion that goes beyond the bark beetle epidemic:
– Campus heating
– combined heat and power
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Opportunity Zone: Co-firing with Coal
• Given the length of time much of the material has already been dead, the rate at which treatments can be implemented, and the lack of sufficient primary processing infrastructure (sawmills or veneer mills) it is unlikely that much if any of this material can be sold for sawlogs.
• Co-firing of coal fired power plants or industrial/institutional combined heat and power systems hold the potential to dispose of large amounts this material but the costs could be high.
• The potentially available material could provide raw material to co-fire 5 coal power plants the size of the one at Hayden, Colorado for 11 to 17 years.
• Depending on the haul distance and the source of the raw material the subsidy required to co-fire one of these plants could range from $1.8 million to $7.2 million per year.
Potential Heat and Power Opportunities
Colorado
WyomingGray area identifies
all insect infestation.
Forests inside the
oval are impacted by
bark beetle.
10000 11000 16000
40000
67200
100000
120000
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
400,000
Heat/Cool campus-Chadron
Co-firing with coal-108 MW
Prison-Carson City-
CHP
Heat/cool campus- U
of ID
District Heating-Prince of Whales
Co-firing with coal-456 MW Hayden
Sawmill-CHP
Biomass Power- 45
MWe
Wo
od
Ch
ips
GT
/Ye
ar
Larger Scale Biomass Heat/CHP/Co-firing/Power
550000
Opportunity Zone: Campus Heating
• Major colleges and universities in Colorado and Wyoming have signed onto American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) which states:– “Within two years of signing this document, develop an institutional action
plan for becoming climate neutral”
• Military campuses and federal campuses that have district heating that may be viable opportunities. The Denver Federal Center, Fort Carson Army Base and Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), and Warren Air Force Base (Cheyenne) are closest to the bark beetle area.
• State Prison campuses such as those at Rawlins, Canyon City and Buena Vista may be viable options where they already have district heating.
• The comprehensive state boiler studies should help identify these opportunities.
• Converting to renewable energy sources at federal facilities also helps agencies achieve the goals of the President’s Executive Order 13423, Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.
Opportunity Zone: value-added beyond commodities
• Experts in business development and wood utilization, working in the beetle killed area, could develop a comprehensive market analysis for value added products that can use blue stained wood and wood pellets (beyond pellet fuel)
• The area of value-added products and diversification of products streams has the highest potential to maintain existing sawmill and pellet manufacturing capacity.
• Business enterprises that also use other residues (such as recycled plastic) and that are located near rail transportation should be considered.
• Explore options for locating a demonstration portable sawmill (such as Hew Saw or Chip N’ Saw) at Saratoga or within the bark beetle area.
Opportunity Zone:Forest Biomass Energy Technology Demonstration Center
• The USDA and Department of Energy have a wide variety of programs that support scaling up and demonstrating new technologies, especially in the area of biofuels.
• The large volume of biomass from the beetle killed trees will only be available for the next 10 years, so large permanent commercial-scaled facilities are not feasible unless they would use a wide variety of biomass from urban wood waste streams.
• Options to build demonstration scale technology that could benefit from operating full time for 3-6 years could use a significant amount of the forest biomass, and gain useful insights about reliability, cost and operations.
• This concept has been implemented in Tennessee for switchgrass, and the concept could be replicated in Colorado at a community that would like to sponsor a site that is near the bark beetle epidemic area.
• The C2B2 Biofuels cooperative effort among the Universities and NREL could possibly provide a partnership to help move this forward. It could take 3-5 years to make this idea a reality, and it would not use large amount of biomass.
Railroad Access to Facilities
Existing and potential new users showing railroad access
Gray area identifies
all insect infestation.
Forests inside the
oval are impacted by
bark beetle.
Colorado
Wyoming
Harvest Chip Transport Sort
Commodity Product
Value Added Product
Bioenergy
Transparency of
planned treatments
(Interactive CROP)
Use all Contracting
options including
Stewardship or
Service for different
sized businesses
Loan/Grant
Programs to help
businesses upgrade
equipment
Logger training and
certification at
Community Colleges
Include chip processing/landings needs in treatment layout
Loan/Grant
Programs to help
businesses upgrade
equipment
Chip processing and
handling training in
logger training
(clean chips for
energy)
Transportation
subsidy
Loan/grant Programs
to upgrade hauling
equipment
Focused analysis of
log transport/ chip vs
chip and transport
(technical assistance
workshop)
Options/needs for
sort yards/storage
and handling
Sort Yard- training and business options workshop
Develop businesses that use blue-stained lumber to produce value-added product near the mill- egtrusses, sheds, millwork, pallets, etc.
Develop local network of facilities that
use pellets delivered in bulk to by-pass
commodity bag market.
Alternative value-added products using
pellets made locally- eg erosion
waddles, landscape mats, pet bedding
Matching incentives with projects
Maintain a viable sawlog supply using
bark beetle material that is within the
first two years of mortality
Recommendations to Support Biomass
Utilization Along the Value Chain
[email protected](970) 295-5947
Western Forestry Leadership Coalition
We work as a Coalition to address critical resources issues across ownerships and jurisdictions. We assist family forest owners, rural and state fire
organizations, and community forestry groups; improving forest health, encouraging land conservation, and stimulating community economic
recovery.
http://www.wflccenter.org/
US Forest Service Web sites:
Biomass www.fs.fed.us/woodybiomass/
Climate Change www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/
Interagency Woody Biomass information: www.forestsandrangelands.gov/woody_biomass
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