NEWBio Commercial Collaborators: Building a Sustainable Energy Future in the Northeast United States

May 02, 2017

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(Extension.org) The Northeast region of the United States (from the Ohio River to the New England coast) has the natural, social, and technological resources needed to help create a sustainable, rural renaissance by using biomass to create biofuels, biopower, and advanced bioproducts. The Northeast Woody/Warm-Season Biomass Consortium (NEWBio) believes that the path to this vision is through collaboration with commercial innovators along various points of the bioeconomy supply chain. NEWBio’s commercial collaborators, biomass-based business ventures, are laying the groundwork for new, sustainable, and lasting markets that will create jobs, supply energy, and protect the environment in the region.

Feedstock Grower and Supplier Collaborators

Ernst Conservation Seeds

Pellets going to bagger. Photo: Calvin Ernst.

Meadville, PA. Growing switchgrass as a component of its native seed mixes. Much of the harvest from Ernst's several thousand switchgrass acres is now pelletized at the company's processing facility. The pelletized grass has reached a number of markets, but is primarily used as a bio-based absorbent material that handles drill cuttings during oil and gas drilling operations.

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Aloterra

Aloterra processing facility.

The Woodlands, TX. Aloterra manufactures sustainable products at lower cost and at the same or better performance using non-food crops grown on idle and marginal land. Aloterra achieves this by developing vertically integrated biomass projects utilizing farmer relationships, extensive miscanthus rhizome supplies and expertise in miscanthus agronomy, logistics, manufacturing, and commodity markets.

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Celtic Energy Farm

Willow harvest at Celtic Energy Farm. Image: SUNY-ESF

Maspeth, NY. Celtic Energy Farm is currently cultivating 1,100 acres of willow to complement other sources of renewable biomass being used by ReEnergy Holdings in northern NYto generate renewable power and heat. As supply increases, Celtic Energy Farm believes that innovative willow-to-fuel technologies will continue to develop. Their willow farm is situated where no other sustainable food crops are grown, so its existence does not impact the food chain.

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Double A Willow

Double A Willow planting nursery. Photo: SUNY-ESF.

Fredonia, NY. Driven by concerns about global warming, rural development, and energy security, Double A Vineyards, through its subsidiary Double A Willow, has taken the lead in the large-scale commercialization of shrub willow and other commercial uses.

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These cuttings will be used primarily to provide fuel supplies for wood and co-firing power plants, and for combined heat and power projects, but are also used for bioremediation projects, living snow fences, streambank stabilization, riparian buffers, living screens, and other landscape projects. As technology improves, willow may be used as a source fuel for large-scale biofuel projects. doubleawillow.com

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CNH America

CNH's 130 FB coppice header harvesting shrub willow. Photo: D.Angel, SUNY-ESF.

CNH America is the parent company of New Holland. Since 1895, New Holland has been committed to providing solutions that improve farming efficiency and productivity by using accessible technology. In 2006 the Clean Energy Leader® strategy was launched for the active promotion of renewable fuels, emissions reduction systems and sustainable agricultural technology. Since 2008, CNH has collaborated with SUNY-ESF, Greenwood Resources, and others to design, test, and improve a short-rotation woody crops cutting header (130-FB) for use in shrub willow, hybrid poplar and similar woody plant coppice systems for bioenergy production.

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Terra Green Energy

McKean County, PA. Terra Green Energy LLC, has built a torrefaction demonstration facility to show how the process can work for commercial production of a biomass product that could successfully co-fire coal-fired power plants.

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Greene Team Pellet Fuel Company, LLC

Greene Team Pellet Fuel was founded with the goal of producing clean, renewable energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Its production facility is located in Green County, PA, at the site of the old Robena Mine. The Robena Mine was built in the years of WWII, and was the largest, most modern coal mine of its time. In the wave of the renewable energy era, Green Team has converted Robena from fossil fuel mining to renewable biofuel production by using sawdust from regional lumber production and other biomass materials as feedstocks to produce wood pellets for renewable heat. greeneteampellets.com

ReEnergy Holding LLC

The ReEnergy Black River facility. Photo: ReEnergy.

Latham, NY. ReEnergy is an integrated waste fuel/biomass renewable energy company that operates six energy generation facilities and three recycling facilities in the Northeast. ReEnergy’s recycling facilities collect, process, and recycle items, including biomass, for use as fuel. In some instances this fuel is used to generate power. The biomass material they use can come from many sources, but typically includes forest residues, mill residues, green wood , and wood recovered from urban uses or construction and demolition material.

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Renmatix

The first step in the Plantrose process, extraction of hemicellulose, takes place in Renmatix’s new Feedstock Processing Facility in Rome, New York. Photo: Renmatix.

King of Prussia, PA. Renmatix has introduced game-changing technology that enables the wide-scale transition from fossil-fuel-based products to bio-based chemicals and fuels. Renmatix’s proprietary Plantrose™ Process pioneers the use of supercritical hydrolysis to break down non-food biomass quickly, using no significant consumables. The resulting Plantro™ sugars serve as the affordable intermediaries that our industry-leading partners require to develop tomorrow’s clean alternatives to today’s conventional fossil-fuel-based products. Renmatix provides a path from cellulose to sugar.

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Delta

Plane Delta Air Lines is partnering with the Carbon War Room, a nonprofit organization founded by Sir Richard Branson, in an effort to accelerate low-carbon jet fuel production worldwide.

The organizations, which have kept a low profile on the specifics of the partnership, agreed that “the development of a secure, sustainable, renewable fuels supply will strengthen the airline industry’s access to high-quality jet fuel, reduce price volatility and the industry’s overall carbon footprint and meet the needs of increasingly climate-conscious customers. Additionally, access to a competitively-priced renewable jet fuel will be advantageous in meeting future regulatory requirements to reduce emissions from the burning of petroleum-based jet fuel." (Delta Signs with Carbon War Room to Advance Renewable Jet Fuel, Biofuels Digest, 2014.) www.delta.com READ MORE