The daylong symposium is set for March 1 at the Hamilton fairgrounds.
“We're pretty much wrapping up the last few speakers for the event,” said Big Sky Coalition executive director Sonny LaSalle.
Those kinds of efforts would create a great deal of biomass material from the small trees, branches and bark that can't be used in a traditional sawmill operation.
In the past, most of that material has gone up in smoke in the burning of slash piles.
“If we do begin the large landscape forest restoration efforts that we believe need to happen, there is going to be huge amounts of this biomass,” Lasalle said. “On average here on the Bitterroot forest, there will be about 18 tons per acre.”
The symposium will explore some of the possibilities for dealing with that material.
“We want to offer some options that include things that are possible now and some that are being developed that could make both good economic and environmental use of that material,” Lasalle said.
The symposium will explore the potential of turning wood wastes into ethanol and methanol, as well as burning it to create steam to generate electricity or heat buildings.
The technology to turn wood into biofuel is still in its infancy.
Denver's Rocky Mountain News reported last week that two Canadian companies announced they would build Colorado's first cellulosic ethanol plant to convert beetle-killed trees and other wood residues into motor fuel.
The $88 million project was financed in part with a
$30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The plant was scheduled to be completed by 2012.
In 2007, U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell proposed to replace 15 percent of the nation's gasoline with ethanol made from wood.
Some conservation groups called that goal unrealistic.
Tom DeLuca, a senior forest ecologist for the Wilderness Society and a former forestry professor at the University of Montana, said that while cellulosic ethanol holds an important place in the nation's energy future, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered before its development can move forward.
In a September 2007 op-ed piece, DeLuca said the technology wasn't yet commercially available, that bulking biomass is difficult to transport and the environmental impacts needed to be more carefully analyzed.
“Production of cellulosic ethanol from forest biomass has significant potential, but our expectations must be realistic,” DeLuca wrote. “Fuel reduction treatments will at most supply 60 million tons of biomass annually for both biofuel and for electricity generation.”
“Assuming all logistics are overcome and half of the biomass goes to ethanol production, then we could expect forest thinning to provide about 2.5 billion gallons of ethanol. This level of production, combined with improved fuel economy and increased conservation, has the potential to make a significant contribution to our nation's energy independence without placing an unreasonable strain on our forest resources.”
Lasalle said it's still early to start making assumptions on how the material will be used. The symposium is a chance to explore some of the different options for energy production, he said.
A University of Washington professor will give a report on gasification techniques that produce methanol. Others will talk about using that material to generate electricity. And representatives from local school districts will discuss their success in the Fuels for Schools program.
“The Darby Schools saved $90,000 last year and are looking at saving close to $100,000 in fuel bills this year through the Fuels for Schools program,” Lasalle said. “And they're only utilizing a small amount of the material that's out there.”
Lasalle is also hoping a representative of the “25 by '25” national organization that's working to create the infrastructure needed to generate 25 percent of the country's energy needs through renewable sources
by 2025 will offer a presentation.
With Ravalli County's air quality in the winter already on the Environmental Protection Agency's radar screen, maybe the best use for some of the woody biomass might be to create a cleaner burning wood pellet, Lasalle said.
“We just don't know what the mix will be, but the symposium will give people the opportunity to begin to learn about the possibilities,” he said.
Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at pbackus@missoulian.com.
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