Biomass Crops Fueling Tomorrow’s Energy Needs

Lemons to lemonade, trash to treasure, something from nothing: The premise of intentional biomass crop farming transcends the clichés and speaks very clearly to the sensibilities of bottom-line economics, environmental benefits, and America’s energy future.

Much more than an intriguing notion and certainly well past supposition, biomass production is an idea whose time has come. Spurred onward by developments within the agriculture industry and governmental incentives, many farmers are learning to leverage the once lowly native grasses and other such castoffs to maximize their productivity and profitability.

Sorghum feedstock biofuel

Farmers may be more willing to grow the drought-tolerant sorghum as a biofuel “feedstock.” As an annual, it fits easily into a normal crop rotation without tying up valuable cropland. Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Steve Byrns

So, what are these biomass crops? Essentially, they are the grasses, the woody plants, the nonfood-bearing vegetation often found on less desirable sections of a farm. Marginal soil, as it’s often called, may be prone to flooding or erosion, or simply lack sufficient nutrients to support the corn, wheat, soybeans, and other food crops envisioned on the classic American farm. Unproductive for grains and other traditional food crops, marginal soil often ends up populated by what may be dismissed as weeds. Unsightly as they may be, some of these plants yield a clean and renewable energy source when mass processed into advanced liquid fuels or solid fuel pellets.

Agriculture.com quotes Newell Kitchen, a soil scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and adjunct associate professor at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, as saying: “It really goes back to yield mapping. Farmers began installing yield monitors on combines in the 1990s and with that was a much greater awareness and appreciation of productivity differences within fields.”

Today, many farmers not only welcome biomass crops, they’re taking a proactive approach toward integrating them into their farms. Leading the list of common biofuel “feedstocks” is switchgrass, a hardy perennial plant that grows in a variety of climates and soils throughout most of the nation. Others include the drought-tolerant sorghum and sweet sorghum. The latter’s natural sugar production allows direct conversion into advanced biofuels like ethanol. Fast-growing trees such as cottonwoods and willows are also popular biomass options, as they produce large volumes of cellulosic matter in short periods of time.

Why It Works

The benefits of biomass crops are many, and they start with the very environment in which such crops grow. Improving air quality, filtering and cleaning water, anchoring soil to prevent erosion, and providing habitat for native wildlife, these plants bring a plethora of benefits to the table. There’s also a long-term benefit, as biocrops such as switchgrass and miscanthus can actually improve marginal soils. As perennials, these plants develop roots during the fall and store carbon below ground.

“Carbon being stored below ground has an amazing effect on soil,” Kitchen stated in a University of Missouri press release. “Some of the carbon will slough off, providing food for soil microbes. When you have a very active microbial pool in the soil, you get a lot of turnover of nutrients. It’s a healthier soil.”

Moreover, Kitchen noted that the carbon stored in the roots of biomass crops also provides structure in the soil. This fosters better root development and allows water to infiltrate the soil profile, where its retention actually promotes soil rejuvenation.

As Kitchen pointed out, biomass crops present much more than environmental and ecological benefits – they can also prove profitable. In solid or liquid form, their end use creates energy to power many other industries, so the value cannot be understated.

“If the markets come into play as we anticipate they will, these soils could be consistent in what they can produce in terms of biomass,” Kitchen said. “That could provide a flow of income for farmers that would diversify their enterprise and make these marginal soils more productive. That’s what I think these crops will demonstrate over time.”

Bringing It Together

As with every business decision, devoting a portion of the farm’s growing space, labor, and resources to biomass crops must deliver a cost-effective reality. Constantly challenging this premise are the logistics of feedstock processing. Since large-scale processing requires unique equipment, facilities, and biofuel delivery systems, the question of what to do with that grass and wood looms ever present. For some farmers, transporting large volumes of raw plant products can consume more energy than the effort can produce.

That’s where biomass conversion facilities (BCFs) come in. Similar in purpose to a petroleum refinery, a BCF processes feedstocks and converts them into biofuels. One such example is Show Me Energy Cooperative (SMEC) – a biomass aggregation and processing facility in Centerview, Mo. What’s interesting here is that SMEC is a producer-owned entity, meaning its member farmers own the facility, which provides a centralized collection point that simplifies the logistics issues for farmers.

Through its internal processes, SMEC can process biomass products down to whatever mill length and blend a biofuel customer requests. The processed material is shipped in finely ground form or dense pellets of 1-inch-thick by 1-inch-long. The pellets offer an economical transportation option for customers who will use the pellets for cattle feed, liquid fuels research, heating, and electrical generation.

Founded in 2008, SMEC started out by creating these compacted biomass fuel pellets from straw, corn stover, and various agricultural wastes. Today, the co-op encourages its members to plant various biomass crops and stresses that doing so not only contributes to a national clean-energy objective, but maximizes their farms’ productivity with additional revenue. Ultimately, SMEC founder Steve Flick knows that such decisions are driven by economic prudence.

“It boils down to net income per acre,” Flick told Midwest Energy News. “If he’s making money, he’s going to keep doing it. That’s real life.”

Incentives to Grow

In an effort to promote biomass farming, the federal government offers incentives to farmers who commit to producing various feedstocks. For example, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to complete various renewable energy projects, including those relating to biomass. The REAP program offers loan guarantees and grants that help eligible applicants install renewable energy systems (solar panels or anaerobic digesters), make energy-efficiency improvements (installing irrigation pumps or replacing ventilation systems), and conduct energy audits and feasibility studies.￿

REAP

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (at podium) announces the selection of 31 individuals and rural business owners in North Carolina through the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) at Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, June 25, 2012. The Metrolina Greenhouses operation drastically cut its energy bills by replacing a natural gas heating system with a wood boiler, funded in part with USDA REAP. Metrolina produced 187 billion BTUs from the biomass boilers between Oct. 1, 2011, and May 30, 2012. USDA photo

The REAP program was a product of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which converted the federal Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program into the program used to assist today’s farmers. Approximately 88 percent of total REAP funding goes to competitive grants and loan guarantees for energy-efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. These incentives may be used to purchase renewable energy systems (including systems that may be used to produce and sell electricity) and to make energy-efficiency improvements. About 2 percent of total funding is available for feasibility studies.

Also essential to the establishment and growth of biomass operations is the federal Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), which provides incentives to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to establish, cultivate, and harvest biomass for heat, power, bio-based products, and biofuels. Created in the 2008 Farm Bill and administered by the Farm Service Agency, BCAP addresses the challenge of starting commercial scale bioenergy activities – something of a chicken-or-egg conundrum for the agriculture industry.

Essentially, for commercial-scale biomass facilities to have sufficient feedstocks, a large-scale energy crop must exist. On the other hand, a farmer’s confidence in profitable crop production depends on viable consumers to purchase the crop.

Crop producers selected for BCAP funding will be eligible for reimbursements of up to 75 percent of the cost of establishing a bioenergy perennial crop. Producers can receive up to five years of annual payments for grassy (nonwoody) crops (annual or perennial), and up to 15 years of annual payments for woody crops (annual or perennial). Biomass producers can also receive assistance for the collection, harvest, storage, and transportation of crops to BCFs for two years in the form of a matching payment for up to $45 per ton of the delivery cost. For optimal efficiency, crop producers and bioenergy facilities can team together to submit proposals to USDA for selection as a BCAP project area.

BCAP is a primary component of the domestic agriculture, energy, and environmental strategy to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil, improve domestic energy security, reduce carbon pollution, and spur rural economic development and job creation. The federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), which requires 21 billion gallons of non-cornstarch biofuels in the national fuel supply by 2022, requires new types of biomass feedstocks. That’s why BCAP is a vital link between where we are and where we need to be. Many bioenergy crops need several years to become established, while many bioenergy facilities need several years to reach commercial scale. BCAP bridges the gap by reducing the financial risk for landowners who decide to grow the unconventional biomass crops for what is still a relatively new market.

Moving Forward

Demonstrating the nation’s commitment to promoting biomass farming as a clean energy source, June 2012 saw Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announce $9.6 million for the creation of two new BCAP project areas in New York and North Carolina, and the expansion of an already-established BCAP project area in Arkansas.￿

One of the new project areas (sponsored by Chemtex International Inc.) comprises 11 counties in eastern North Carolina, where it will grow more than 4,000 acres of Freedom® Giant Miscanthus and switchgrass. The crop production will support Chemtex’s Project Alpha, a cellulosic biorefinery with an expected annual production of 20 million gallons of bioethanol and downstream sustainable chemicals, as well as on-site biogas for power generation.

The second new BCAP project area involves nine counties in upstate New York, where generating more than 100 megawatts of electricity from 3,500 acres of fast-growing shrub willow advances the state’s goal of sourcing 24 percent of electric and power generation from renewables by 2013. Project area sponsor ReEnergy Holdings LLC has three committed facilities that will purchase these biomass crops from area growers. This project complements USDA’s Wood-to-Energy Initiative, which seeks to build a forest restoration economy by integrating energy feedstock within the larger forest products sector to sustain rural jobs and prosperity.

Expansion of BCAP Project Area 2 within three counties of northeast Arkansas will bring enrollment up to nearly 8,000 acres of Giant Miscanthus. These crops support the expected production of fuel pellets for export and in-farm heating and bio-based packaging.

“Increasing the production of renewable, home-grown fuels is vital to reducing our country’s reliance on foreign oil, while creating good-paying jobs and diversifying the agriculture economy,” Vilsack said in a USDA press release. “These projects are the foundation for an even stronger energy future in rural America. Because most energy crops are perennial and take time to mature before harvest, BCAP is designed so that sufficient quantities of feedstock will be available to meet future demand. Most important: These crops can grow where other crops cannot, providing farmers with new opportunities to diversify into more markets.”