Reply #4: more links...

[jpak]

http://www.mainefdc.org/Press_Room/

Report: Forest Waste Could Provide 50% of Maine’s Energy Needs

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/02/report_forest_w.html

The Fractionation Development Center (FDC), a Maine non-profit group, has released a plan detailing how the state could turn its vast quantities of forest waste into a range of biofuels and chemicals, providing up to 50% of the state’s annual energy needs.

The FDC released the study in cooperation with the Maine River Valley Growth Council. The study, conducted over the past 18 months, was funded by the US Department of Energy and the Maine Technology Institute as the result of Maine Forest Bio-products legislation introduced by Maine Senators Collins and Snowe, and Congressman Michaud.

The report assesses the potential for three primary forest-waste biomass conversion technologies:

* Pyrolysis, the chemical decomposition of organic material by heat in the absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis products include bio-carbon (char) and bio-oil.

* Gasification for the production of syngas for further catalytic processing into fuels or for direct use in power generation.

* Fractionation, the separation of biomass into three main components—cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin—with minimized cross contamination of the major fractions and minimized degradation products.

The report sees fractionation as a longer-term (10–15 years) technology, and focuses for the short (0–5 years) and medium (5–10 years) terms on pyrolysis and gasification, respectively.

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Lots of down-loadable presentations from the recent Maine Biomass and Biofuels Conference...

http://www.maineswcds.org/biomass.htm