The Future of Bioenergy Is in This Book-less Library

by Cory Hatch (Renewable Energy World) The Bioenergy Feedstock Library contains no books. What it does contain is information about biomass — organic material such as corn stover, switchgrass, wood chips and wheat straw. Nearly 50,000 biomass database entries and more than 35,000 physical samples reside in a repository located at the Department of Energy’s Biomass Feedstock National User Facility.

The library got its start in 2009, when Idaho National Laboratory lab technician Marnie Cortez got a strange assignment: Go to an eastern Idaho field and organize hundreds of boxes of biomass.

The samples came from efforts to develop new technologies that turn raw biomass into processed material — called feedstock — that is easily stored, transported and converted into renewable energy.

Over the next few years, the samples and database became known as the Bioenergy Feedstock Library, and Cortez got a new title: librarian.

Now, the library is taking another leap forward. Upgrades are turning it into a global research and development tool.

Researchers often investigate samples at each step in the process to learn more about their chemical and physical properties. The library offers searchable access to data from these intermediate samples and the ultimate end product.

The resulting information can help industry pinpoint the cause of problems. For example, one bioenergy company recently complained that its mills had a significantly shorter operational lifetime than anticipated. A quick search of the library’s database revealed that the company’s feedstock contained high amounts of silica, also known as quartz, which was wearing down parts of the mill. Without the library, such a diagnosis may have taken months and cost thousands of dollars. READ MORE