Bioenergy, Not Just About Pellets Anymore
Prince George, B.C.- By this time next week, hundreds of delegates will have reached the halfway mark of the International Bioenergy Conference in Prince George.
The conference theme is “Pathways to Bio-prosperity” says conference spokesperson Cam McAlpine.
Bioenergy is no longer just about developing wood pellets from wood waste says McAlpine, “Today, we’re really trying to branch out into the various pathways or streams of biomass, primarily with wood as the feedstock, but we’re looking at all the different uses for that, so it could be using biomass for energy, or it could be using biomass for fuels. There’s the bio-refinery concept, where one facility can take biomass and turn it into a number of different end uses, everything from energy to pharmaceuticals and fuels, and gas.”
That’s a far cry from the Bioenergy 101 education session that was held at the first conference in 2004.
But has the industry grown in B.C? Yes and no. There was rapid growth in the wood pellet industry, but that has slowed. The pellet sector is still strong, the rest of the bioenergy sector is “fairly slow” says McAlpine, who believes investors are waiting to see what the Province will do to support other energy streams once the LNG developments are on line.
McAlpine says although bioenergy may not be getting the kind of attention it got four or five years ago when the Province developed a bioenergy strategy, he is confident there will be a plan for a diverse energy mix and bioenergy will be part of that.
Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency in the US called for a 30% reduction in carbon emissions from coal plants. That ruling will bode well for the development and growth of the bioenergy sector says McAlpine.
The conference in Prince George (11-13th at the Civic Centre) is truly international with delegates from Sweden, the UK, New Zealand and the U.S.
Comments
Already as a result of Obama’s plan it makes coal mining operations in BC’s North less viable.
Companies like Walter Energy bought up the Western Canadian assets a few years back, ran the mines a few years when demand was up, and now that demand is down… mothball Western Canadian operations (700 local jobs) as a higher cost operation, and meet customer demand from US based mines.
Total reserves available haven’t changed, so they can advertise as a stable supplier with the ability to ramp up on short notice. Good job security for American miners. The Canadian mines and its workers become the temporary local workers to meet the elasticity of an American mining group.
With the Environmental Protection Agency 30% reduction plan… demand may never return and it will be Canadian operations that make up the short fall. If this looks to be long term the American corporations will simply shed the Canadian subsidiaries through bankruptcy and consolidate on the American side of the boarder where it costs less to operate and ship product.
One single coal operator like Walter Energy has more employees than all of the bio-energy in BC combined. Granted Walter energy is mining metallurgical coal not used for power generation, but rather for making steel. How much does it cost to make the same amount of steel with a 30% reduction in carbon used… and is it even possible?
The bio-energy future is tied to being carbon neutral to the biosphere. Wood charcoal has the same BTU value per weight as coal… wood pellets are like a factor of ten or more less than coal. So as far as shipping is concerned if bio fuel can be transformed to charcoal it can compete with coal for shipping costs and easy carbon exchange.
One wonders if carbon trading could not fund bio-fuels operations. Could a 30% reduction target be meet by supplementing shipments of coal with other bio-fuels like charcoal elsewhere if need be?
Charcoal is a diverse fuel that is the most widely used fuel source globally. Many a tropical forest are stripped bare for local charcoal production, mostly used for cooking fuel.
It seems to me there should be a way to have carbon credits for saving tropical forests from deforestation… utilizing dead pine forests in Canada before they rot and release their carbon anyways… and meet the pollution industries carbon reduction targets if only through off sets like carbon neutral charcoal production.
BTW The oceans have risen over 2-feet per century for the last 18,000 years since the end of the last ice age. Nothing we do now will likely stop this pace until all the glaciers are gone. I think the argument is more about pollution, mercury contamination, ocean acidification, and environmental protection of the biosphere’s biodiversity.
Its a complicated issue, but still yet, solutions seem to move at glacial speeds. What ever happened to the billion dollar Harper government promise for the pine beetle action committees that no one hears from anymore?
What ever happened to the approx. $200 Million per year collected by the Federal Government on lumber exports to the USA?? This amounted to approx. $1 Billion between 2006 and 2012.
This money was returned to BC by the Federal Government and then disappeared into general revenue, never to be mentioned again.
Perhaps this is the missing billion???
The pellet industry will have to compete with the natural gas industry, and with the surplus of natural gas, my guess is that the pellet industry will soon become a sunset industry. For every action there is a reaction.
Another potential product from charcoal production is filtration products for water and air.Using pine beetle charcoal to filter and clean water is something that should be looked at.
http://alternabiocarbon.com/news/2/41/Alterna-Energy-Project-to-Receive-up-to-1-2-M-in-funding-from-SDTC
I think it would be interesting to hear reports at such conferences not only of successes, but also anatomies of what appear to be failures.
The Alterna Energy project was looking like a good idea. Their website’s latest news report is dated March 6, 2009, over 5 years ago.
I doubt there is enough uncommitted fibre to make a bio energy industry viable. I think the future of carbonization is in waste stream reduction.
Plastic to oil. organic waste to charcoal pellets.
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