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June 5, 2000

Trees and Trash to Paint, Plastics and Power
Energy Department Sponsors Growing Fields of Research in Biobased Energy, Product Development

U. S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today announced that over $10 million will be available to help develop technology to produce industrial chemicals and a host of everyday consumer goods such as plastics, paints and adhesives from biomass sources like crops, trees and agricultural and forest wastes. An additional $675,000 is being made available to research and develop &biomass co-firing8 -- combining renewable biomass sources such as wood and wood residues with fossil fuels such as coal to produce electricity.

President Clinton issued an Executive Order in August 1999 to triple the U.S. use of biobased products and bioenergy by the year 2010. Biomass today provides about 3 percent of U. S. primary energy. Crops, trees and agricultural and forestry residues are developing into a growing source of reliable, renewable energy as well as environmentally friendly sources of consumer products that will diminish reliance on petroleum feedstocks.

Biomass is a growing field which is creating new economic opportunities for rural America, enhancing U. S. energy security and helping to meet environmental challenges such as global warming,8 said Energy Secretary Richardson. Crop residues and wood byproducts are going to be one of this century's major answers to the demand for renewable energy resources and materials for consumer products.

Highlighting the increasing global importance of biomass power and fuels, the international scientific community from 72 countries is gathered this week in Seville, Spain for the first World Biomass Conference and Exhibition on Biomass for Energy and Industry. Assistant Secretary of Energy Dan Reicher addressed the delegation in a keynote address: Bioenergy can help usher in a new era of economic growth in both developing and developed nations, without the environmental consequences of traditional fuels. And that, I believe, is a formula for peace, prosperity and sustainability for generations to come.

The Department of Energy,s (DOE) $675,000 in grants for research on co-firing will be used for small scale research and feasibility studies in the heating plants of five colleges and universities. Co-firing is substituting renewable biomass such as wood and wood residues for a percentage of fossil fuel such as coal to produce energy in utility or industrial boilers. The co-firing grants are being awarded to:

The University of North Dakota: $80,000 to evaluate the co-firing of biomass fuels with low rank coal at the university,s physical plant.

Penn State University: $145,896 to analyze installing a state-of-the-art circulating fluidized bed boiler and ceramic emission control device and develop a test program to evaluate cofiring multiple biofuels and coal based feedstocks.

The University of Pittsburgh: $149,984 to investigate wood and coal co-firing which will maintain current steam output while at the same time reducing air emissions.

Iowa State University: $150,000 to examine the feasibility of adapting a commercially successful emissions reduction technology to herbaceous biomass when fired with coal.

Texas A&M University: $149,965 to investigate cattle feedlot and chicken litter biomass co-firing with coal to find optimum operating parameters and maximum combustion efficiency with least emissions.

The $10 million solicitation will award funds over three years for collaborative partnerships to pursue research, development and demonstration projects on technologies that benefit the emerging plant-based renewable bioproducts industry. The goal of DOE-supported renewable bioproducts research and development is to increase the technical and economic feasibility of using crops, trees and agricultural and forestry residues to make industrial chemicals and a host of everyday consumer goods such as plastics, paints and adhesives.

DOE will help fund three to six research projects that address the processing or use of bioproducts as identified in the industry,s Technology Roadmap for Plant/Crop-based Renewable Resources 2020, in the amount of $400,000 to $750,000 annually for up to three years. At least 50 percent of the projects, funding must come from non-government sources. The solicitation is available at www.id.doe.gov/doeid/PSD/proc-div.html