Is biomass the fuel of the future?

You could call it the alternate alternative fuel.

Not wind.

Not ethanol.

Biomass.

Burning wood and other plant material to generate heat and electricity is the latest green energy method to sweep into Indiana. It's often cleaner than coal. Some say it's greener than windmills. And this energy supply really does grow on trees.

Though some people oppose the construction of huge biomass plants, claiming they have a distinctly brown downside, excitement about biomass is high in Indiana and elsewhere.

"I think in Indiana, specifically, there is a tremendous potential for biomass," said Maureen McCann, the head of Purdue University's Energy Frontier Research Center. "There are ways of implementing bio-energy crops in the Indiana economy that could be a real boost to farmers."

Right now, only a few small businesses and facilities in the state are using biomass for their own purposes. But plans are under way to build biomass plants that will generate electricity for the public power grid.

A recent report projects that biomass will grow to a $1.5 billion global industry by 2012. That is because of investment from private equity firms and Fortune 500 companies, according to the forest products market research firm RISI, and because of several legislative initiatives.

Indiana, in particular, has a lot to gain.

The state has a ready supply of materials for biomass plants. Corn stover -- the leaves and stalks left over after every harvest -- is one example. So is the waste from the state's $17 billion hardwood lumber industry.

Also, unlike ethanol, biomass doesn't require corn to be diverted from use in livestock feed or for industrial uses, such as making starch. Biomass power plants use everything from wood chips to "energy crops" such as switchgrass.

"We are poised perhaps better than some states to be able to take that waste and make it an opportunity," said Eric Burch, director for policy and outreach for the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

Every region will have a principal energy crop that works better for it. But no farms yet are committed to raising crops specifically for biomass, said Nick Carpita, a professor in Purdue's Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Purdue is collaborating with the University of Illinois, which is doing research to assess what type of foreign crop can thrive in Indiana.

 

Opponents cite toxins

Opponents, however, say that burning biomass can spew toxins and carbon dioxide into the air, and just harvesting the ingredients can put undue strain on the environment. Several Indiana communities have protested biomass plant plans, arguing that they aren't as green as they're supposed to be.

Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, said his group is keeping an eye on the projects and is concerned about the effects on water and air.

Biomass, on its face, seems like a good alternative energy resource, Kharbanda said. It's often literally green, turns what might be waste into a valuable commodity and, generally speaking, is renewable.

But a problem is that the process of obtaining some types of biomass can be damaging and unsustainable, such as getting wood from virgin forest or from cropland along a river bank.

Ned Ford, chairman of the Energy Technical Advisory Committee for the Sierra Club, said when companies choose to turn existing energy-generating plants, such as coal plants, into biomass plants, they often forget to make sure they have enough biomass available. "They wind up sucking the market dry for whatever they're going to burn," he said.

The demand for, say, wood chips can skyrocket when a plant opens, and a shortage could follow.

"It's an almost ubiquitous problem," Ford said. "They don't look at the fuel resources available. Often, if they can't find the right fuel, they'll burn the wrong fuel. They'll burn coal if they can't find clean renewable wood stock."

Another problem with burning biomass, opponents say, is that it can put an array of toxins into the air or water without proper environmental controls. That is often the main complaint of neighborhood groups that crop up whenever a company announces plans to build a biomass plant.

"In our necessary quest to diversify our energy, Hoosiers have to simultaneously make sure we're continuing to make gains in air and water quality, particularly given the poor condition of both in major parts of our state," Kharbanda said.

Biomass used in Indiana

Indiana has several biomass facilities, and more are in the works.

Indiana Veneers Corp., an Indianapolis manufacturer of wood paneling, furniture and interiors, turned to a biomass boiler years ago to save money. With a boiler that burns log waste to make steam, the company saves $15,000 to $20,000 per month, said Werner Lorenz, president of Indiana Veneers.

The Indiana Department of Correction is planning to use biomass at four prisons.

At the suggestion of Johnson Controls, an Indianapolis-based energy-efficiency company, the prisons will receive biomass boilers that will be fueled by scrap wood bought in Indiana.

The process is somewhat of a throwback: Shredded wood stored in a silo is fed by conveyer belts through fire, which heats water into steam that in turn provides heat for the prison kitchen, laundry and showers.

The state prison in Putnamville, about 25 miles west of Indianapolis, converted a boiler to burn biomass instead of natural gas in May. A second biomass-burning boiler went online in October at the Pendleton Correctional Facility. A large boiler at the Westville Correctional Facility and another at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City are under way.

On a larger scale, two companies have applied for air permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to build biomass power plants to generate electricity.

Liberty Green Renewables Indiana of Georgetown wants to build wood-burning biomass power plants in the Southern Indiana towns of Milltown and Scottsburg, where forest industries create an abundance of wood byproducts.

Liberty also is considering a third plant but has not revealed the location; the company wants to build six other biomass plants in five other states.

IDEM estimated Liberty Green's Scottsburg facility would emit 245 tons of nitrogen oxide and 226 tons of carbon monoxide annually, and more than 11 tons of chemicals classified as hazardous air pollutants. All the emission estimates are below the minimum amounts to be considered a major source of air pollution under federal and state guidelines. Still, concerns about environmental impacts led several local residents to form a group to question the proposal, the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., reported this month.

BioEnergy Development Co. of Fishers signed a letter of intent with an area utility company to develop and build a biomass plant in Brazil, in Clay County. The proposed $42 million plant will be on a coal strip-mine site and is expected to employ 20 to 25 people when it opens in 2010. Company President Robert Swain said the plant would use a supply of sawdust, wood chips, bark and other sawmill residue within 100 miles to create electricity for homes and businesses.

Other states getting on board

Indiana isn't alone in the movement: Duke Energy Indiana, which made the state's first real plunge into wind energy in 2006, isn't involved in biomass. But its parent company is co-owner of Adage, a joint venture with a French firm that will use wood waste to produce electricity. Duke's first such operation will be in Florida, said spokesman Lew Middleton. Duke also has tried alternating coal and biomass during pilot tests in its home state of North Carolina.

Kentucky recently named a 21-person panel to look at biomass as an industry. And a Bakersfield, Calif., company recently signed a 15-year contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to sell biomass energy produced by burning local tree trimmings and other waste wood. PG&E said the project will produce 327,624 megawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power 47,000 average homes, the Californian newspaper reported.

But don't start thinking it's all about new technology.

"These boilers, when it comes right down to it, this is what they did when they had the horse and buggy," said Dan Granahan, an account executive with Johnson Controls. "It's ironic -- it's almost like a new technology, but it's not."

In this case, the fuel of the future appears to be a thing of the past.