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lthough the future of the global and U.S. renewable energy industry is hazy, one thing is clear—biomass power will play a significant role. What exactly that role will be, however, is unknown and depends on several factors. Presenters and attendees at the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s Biomass ’09: Power, Fuels, and Chemicals Workshop discussed the current state of the biomass power industry, as well as future challenges and possibilities. More than 300 people from 25 states and three Canadian provinces attended the two-day event, which was held July 14-15 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D. During four main sessions, 30 different speakers focused on trends and opportunities in power utilization, biofuels, feedstocks and the use of biomass to generate heat and power. The EERC is a research, development, demonstration and commercialization organization on the University of North Dakota campus. The center has nine primary areas of focus including renewable energy, waste utilization and management, and site remediation and environmental control technologies.
In his opening address, EERC Director Gerald Groenewold said there is much confusion in the world right now regarding energy. “Some people think there are silver bullets that will solve all of the energy issues and that is not true,” he said. “There is a major portfolio of energy technologies that are going to address the needs of this world. Biomass is part of that. I don’t know how big it’s going to be; a lot of that is dependent upon political decisions and regulatory decisions, cap and trade, and carbon management. Frankly there’s a lot of frustration out there right now because we don’t have a good sense of where the road map is.” The EERC is conducting several research projects on renewables, according to Groenewold, including the production of biomass-based jet fuel under a $4.7 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “We’ve got a major Gerald Groenewold breakthrough here and are director, moving toward using algae,” EERC continued on page 45
9|2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 43