Burning Biomass

As the next installment in our continuing series on emerging renewable energy technologies, we examine new biomass projects in Oregon.

Here at the Citizens’ Utility Board we’re keeping an eye on emerging renewable energy technologies. In 2007, CUB supported the legislative effort to pass SB 838, a renewable portfolio standard that requires Oregon’s largest utilities to purchase at least 25% of their power from renewable sources by 2025. In addition to well-known technologies like solar, wind, and hydropower, Oregon’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) allows for the use of energy from the ocean, the earth, and biomass to be used to meet the standard. In May, we wrote about Oregon’s wave power potential,and last week we covered geothermal energy development (part 1 and part 2). While we discussed torrefied biomass power as a part of our recent coverage of What’s Next For Boardman?, today we’re going to spend some time examining three biomass projects funded by grants from the Recovery Act.

Oregon state law ORS 469A allows the following types of biomass energy projects to be counted towards RPS goals: spent pulping liquor, woody debris from harvesting or thinning conducted to improve ecological heath, dedicated energy crops, hardwood timber grown on certain lands, agricultural residues, organic human or animal waste, and landfill gas or biogas (if produced from organic matter, wastewater, anaerobic digesters, or municipal solid waste). Oregon’s RPS explicitly excludes any biomass that burns municipal solid waste and wood treated with chemical preservatives.

In July 2010, Governor Kulongoski announced the award of $3 million in federal stimulus funds to biomass projects in Oregon. The exciting thing about these three projects is their development timeline: as a condition of receiving funds, these projects must produce energy by February 2012.

Lakeview Cogeneration

Lakeview Cogeneration LLC, a project in Lake County just 20 miles from the California border, was awarded $1.7 million. Financed by Iberdrola, the 26.8 MW project will produce enough power for 18,000 homes and provide heat to the Collins Fremont Sawmill to aid its lumber drying operation.

The project will be fueled by low-grade wood residuals. This low-grade wood residual will come from materials collected during forest thinning, scraps from the sawmill, and otherwise unusable residuals from nearby timber and forest management operations. The fuel will be burned in a boiler, which will create steam to turn a generator. The project also includes an air-cooled condenser, which will use 80% less water than other condenser technologies. The project is expected to produce 18 family-wage jobs at the site, and more in the surrounding community.

Wallowa County Wood Products

Integrated Biomass Energy, located at the Wallowa County Wood Products Campus, received a smaller award of $275,000. This cogeneration project will also use forest debris to create both heat and power for facilities located at the Wallowa County Wood Products Campus, including Smallwood Solutions and Biomass Resources.

Farm Power Tillamook

Farm Power Tillamook, the second project in Oregon’s renowned dairy country to use an anaerobic digester to create biogas-fueled electricity, was awarded $1 million in federal stimulus funds. The $4 million, one megawatt project will be owned by Washington-based Farm Power Northwest and located on Silvermist Farm.

The project will be fueled by methane gas produced from the manure of up to 2,000 cows. Manure will be collected from Martin Dairy and other nearby farms and transported to Silvermist Farm through underground pipes. Silvermist Farm will also supply manure, but no one is worried about this operation curbing the market on Tillamook County’s manure –the entire project can process only 1% of Tillamook County’s manure output.

The digester will receive liquefied waste and put it through an anaerobic process, which works best in wet, low-oxygen environments. To speed the process, the liquid waste is often heated to 100º F and injected with additional gases. Project developers estimate that digesting liquid waste into methane gas will take approximately three weeks. The methane gas is then piped into a generator where it is burned to create power that will be sold to the Tillamook People’s Utility District (TPUD) and to generate heat to keep the digester warm. The remaining waste is then converted into a nitrogen-rich fertilizer.

Several permits needed for the operation of the project are secured, but a few remain outstanding. Tillamook County approved the project, and the Port of Tillamook Bay (which coincidentally operates the other digester in the county) will likely allow the project’s pipes on its property. The Power Purchase Agreement with TPUD is still under negotiation and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality must approve the project’s air quality permit. Farm Power Oregon hopes to have the project running by March 2012.

Disposing of manure from dairy farms can be a risky endeavor. Some operations store the liquid waste in open lagoons, giving rise to concerns about odor, groundwater contamination, and methane gas emissions. It is important to address this waste, because methane is approximately 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and major contributor to global warming.

Critiques and Concerns
We covered the common critique that energy crops will displace food crops and therefore increase the cost of food in our post on Boardman; this concern does not appear to apply to the three projects discussed above.

The greenhouse gas emissions of biomass facilities are a serious concern compared to the other fuels used for power production. This year Massachusetts created more stringent standards for biomass generators seeking renewable energy credits. The rules require biomass plants to provide a lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions analysis and demonstrate emissions reductions of at least 50 percent over 20 years. This includes reductions accrued from the capture of carbon dioxide during the growth of the fuelwood, as well as emissions from fuel combustion for electricity generation. Additionally, the plants must operate at 60% or greater efficiency to receive a full renewable energy credit. Massachusetts’s requirement is a tall order, considering that even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is unsure how to quantify emissions from biomass facilities. In January 2011, EPA delayed making a decision on how to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from biomass facilities while seeking “further independent scientific analysis of this complex issue.”

CUB is pleased to see the enthusiasm of project developers in Oregon’s biomass field, and we’ll continue to closely follow and scrutinize those proposed projects that plan to provide power to Oregon’s investor owned utilities.

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