http://www.nasa.

gov/content/goddard/seeing-photosynthesis-from-space-nasa-
scientists-use-satellites-to-measure-plant-health/#.U9bq2eNdV8F
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4086

When you have a moment please visit the NASA website at the shown link. This is a
very cool visualization of photosynthesis from space – one of the best we have ever
created to date. It really gets you thinking about biomass carbon with a global
perspective.

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Pictures of centurion and hyperion. Centurion is the tallest Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus)
tree in the world, making it the tallest angiosperm (flowering plant) in world. The tree
is located in southern Tasmania, Australia and is 99.6 meters tall. Hyperion is the
name of a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in Northern California that was
measured at 115.61 meters, which makes it the world's tallest known living tree and
tallest gymnosperm. Biomass is very cool.

This means that a lot of things are considered biomass, humans included. Bioenergy
is predominately focused on conversions associated with plants and not animals, but
there are important animal sources of biomass. The important thing about plant
biomass is that all plants have similar chemistry, so a chemistry that works with one
type of plant biomass can at least be considered for another type of plant biomass,
etc. It also means that when you look out the window, everything green you see has
similar chemistry and this includes wood items we all see/use daily.

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Make me a map - http://www.nrel.gov/gis/tools.html

Here is the map of agricultural productivity again. The real question is, can the areas
with high productivity use that strength.

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To support of the demand of the areas that are utilizing the most energy. Pictures of
the earth at night are a very good way to get a feeling for where most of our energy
consumption is occurring. It is very interesting that the areas of energy consumption
overlap so well with the areas of intense agricultural productivity.

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For the purpose of this class, biomass will be divided up into five main types (name
everything).

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I would like you to consider categorizing the five main sources of biomass into two
categories. The first is rural distributed sources like forests and fields. These sources
of biomass are generally found in country settings and they are often enormous, but
spread out, requiring harvesting and consolidation.

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The second category is urban consolidated sources like landfill waste and wastewater
sludge. Aquatic biomass is included because algae have considerably potential for
becoming this kind of a biomass source. These sources of biomass are generally
found in more urban and suburban settings and they have already been consolidated
by us to keep our cities and towns clean.

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The tough thing about forest biomass is that there are a lot of forests and it is
tempting to believe that should mean its easy to use for bioenergy. The problem is
that there has been a strong market for wood for hundreds of years, so the wood that
can be economically removed from the forest is removed and it is used for materials.
Almost zero wood is wasted during wood processing, so while there appears to be a
lot around, it is not really available or cheap in significant quantities.

Gasoline goes for about 65 cents/lb and most lumber is sold for about 40 cents/lb.
So, if wood could be easily turned into gasoline, then maybe it would be more
economic to turn wood into gasoline than to turn it into lumber. Unfortunately, it is
not easy to turn biomass into gasoline and its very easy to turn into materials, so it is
likely that a lot of forest biomass will continue to be used for primarily lumber, unless
it is a tree farm.

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Logging residues are a very common source of forest biomass. They are what is left
over after the tree has been cut and loaded onto a truck. Logging slash is the
branches, roots and unwanted stem sections of the tree, along with some brush
depending on the area. Slash is very cheap and can be stored in piles outside without
degrading, but it is also very wet, full of rocks & dirt, and spread out in lots of little
piles all over the forest. Conventional practice tells us that the forest products
companies would be using it right now for fuel if it was economic to recover this
source of biomass for fuel. The fact that they aren’t suggests a challenge in leveraging
this resource.

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The production of lumber from logs generates a lot of sawdust, shavings and chips.
Much of the media suggests that mill waste is actually waste that could be used for
biofuels, but unfortunately this is not true. The wood processing facility of today has
almost no waste. Many mill residues are sold for use in wood composites and for
landscaping/habitat restoration. What isn’t sold at a good margin for other products
is utilized by the mill for energy to produce the steam needed for drying. Mill residues
are a great source of biomass for bioenergy when they can be found cheaply and with
good availability, but this is not common.

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Growing trees on tree farms and harvesting trees from natural forests is expensive
and generally whole trees do not make a great deal of sense economically for
biofuels. However, some tree farms grow trees so fast that harvesting them for
bioenergy does make sense. This source of biomass may face stiff competition for the
trees from biomaterials companies in the future, but at the moment there are some
interesting developments. If you can find a cheap, large, consistent supply of logs
there is a lot you can do with them from a bioenergy perspective.

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So where is the forest biomass? Primarily in the PNW and the South. Minnesota,
Michigan, NH and Maine are also big forestry states.

http://www.nrel.gov/gis/biomass.html

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Pretty much any biomass that can be grown in a field is considered agricultural. This
is its own category of biomass because it often quite mechanically and chemically
different than forest biomass and it is produced from manmade ecosystems using
water and arable land. Biomass (trees, grass, etc.) is made primarily of carbon,
hydrogen and nitrogen. It gets the carbon from the CO2 in the air, it gets the
hydrogen from water, and it gets most of the nitrogen from fertilizer. That means to
make it grow fast, it must have a large supply of water and fertilizer, otherwise it
doesn’t have the raw ingredients to grow as fast as we want.

This is where food vs. fuel really stops making sense. Since energy crops generally
require intensive practices they obviously compete with food crops. However, the
food vs. fuel argument has always been political and silly because we raise plenty of
non-food crops like cotton, flax, tobacco, lavender and peppermint. There is no such
thing as fuel vs. food because we are not running out of food and we have massive
amounts of arable land. Water is a contentious issue, but the price of food will
change with or without energy crops. The chicken, beef and pork lobbies are largely
behind the vast majority of food vs. fuel debates.

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High yield grasses and energy crops are often the same thing with the exception of a
few trees. These sources of biomass are the fastest growing source we have available.
Grown in a warm place, with lots of water and some fertilizer, they will out produce
the jungles of SA in biomass production. They also have much less lignin than trees,
so they are much more digestible. This is why cows can east grass, but not wood.

While they grow incredibly fast, they are tough to store, seasonal and have some
challenges around conversion. It is very likely that energy crops like this will play a big
role in the future of bioenergy.

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The small trees that are considered energy crops are poplar, willow and eucalyptus.
They have the same strengths as forest biomass, but less of the weaknesses. They are
a cleaner, cheaper source of wood and because they are higher density they have
better transportation economics than grasses. They also have the potential to be
used for other markets if the bioenergy markets are not strong for some reason.

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Ag residues are a very exciting potential source of biomass because they aren’t really
used for any high dollar products right now. There are a lot of them and they have
many of the same challenges as the grasses/crops they are produced from, but they
are also cheaper and have already been consolidated. Ag residue conversion shows
promise of being one of the best sources of biomass for bioenergy conversions.

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It wouldn’t be fair to not include grains in the discussion. Grains do not get anywhere
near the yield/acre that grasses get, but as a source of sugars/oils, they require very
little processing compared to grasses, so there is a tradeoff. Despite the constant
discussions about yield, there are other considerations. It is important to think about
the objective in deciding what the appropriate biomass is.

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So where is the Ag biomass? Primarily in the Midwest. Everyone has some, but the
Midwest really has a lot

http://www.nrel.gov/gis/biomass.html

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http://www.sdnews.com/view/full_story/298437/article-Kelp-harvester-leaving

Kelp harvesting is big business and ships like this used to roam the CA coast collecting
it for processing. When you have a moment please visit the news website at the
shown link to read more about.

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