Regional Biomass Energy Feedstock Partnership
Laura Neal
BCS, Incorporated

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture, in partnership with the Sun Grant Initiative universities and the members of the National Biomass State and Regional Partnership, have established the Regional Biomass Energy Feedstock Partnership. The Partnership consists of five separate regions: Southeast, North Central, South Central, Western, and Northeast. The over-arching goal of the Partnership is to develop biomass feedstock resources on a regional basis in order to realize each region’s potential contribution to the 1.3 billion ton annual biomass feedstock goal, as identified in the joint study by Departments of Energy and Agriculture Billion Ton Study.

The Need for a Regional Partnership Approach
In the 2006 State of the Union address, the President acknowledged the nation’s “addiction to oil”, and announced the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) to address the way we power our homes, businesses, and automobiles. As part of the effort to change the way we power our automobiles, the President called for increased research and development to make cellulosic ethanol, or ethanol produced from non-grain feedstocks, cost competitive by the year 2012. In response to this charge, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Office of the Biomass Program created the Biofuels Initiative (BFI). In addition to adopting the President’s 2012 cost goal, the BFI also includes a volumetric goal to displace 30 percent of current gasoline consumption with biofuels by 2030.

One important component of successfully achieving the BFI 2030 volumetric goal is to ensure that cost competitive biomass feedstocks are widely available in sufficient quantity and at an acceptable market cost. Feedstock costs represent the single largest cost element in producing a gallon of ethanol. DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) jointly released the Billion Ton study in April of 2005 that determined the United States has the potential to sustainably generate at least 1.3 billion dry tons of biomass feedstock annually. These potential resources are available primarily as agricultural and forest-derived feedstock. The 1.3 billion dry tons of feedstock identified in the study is enough to produce the amount of biofuels needed to displace 30 percent of our current gasoline consumption. The study did not determine where or at what cost these resources can be collected.

Regionally, a number of factors impact feedstock availability and cost, such as soil quality, rainfall, climate, land-use patterns, and competing end-uses in established markets. Due to this regional variability, it has been determined that a regional approach would best assess the availability of biomass resources and any barriers associated with their collection. This approach would also be the most effective many stakeholders are involved, from the feedstock producer to the end-user. As part of the fiscal year 2007 Budget request, the Biomass Program proposed establishing Regional Biomass Energy Feedstock Partnerships in order to develop, evaluate, and deploy reliable biomass-based resources in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner.

The overall purpose of the Regional Biomass Energy Feedstock Partnerships is to determine the amount of biomass feedstock currently available in each region, working toward the sustainable deployment of the full national biomass resource. This includes identifying and eliminating the barriers to developing the resources, as well as developing the full feedstock supply chain needed for ethanol production. Each region will independently identify its own technical and economic barriers, and set specific goals based on those barriers. The end result will include biorefineries that process a variety of biomass feedstocks into fuels, power, and products in a way that maximizes the biomass and economic resources of each region.

Implementing the Regional Biomass
Energy Feedstock Partnership
The Regional Partnership will quantify a supply cost basis of the major biomass feedstock in each region; identify research gaps for developing energy crops and feedstock infrastructure development issues; and provide a forum at the regional level, bringing together growers and potential industrial feedstock users. The Partnership will coalesce members from a variety of organizations and backgrounds, including feedstock producers (i.e. farmers, foresters, and related organizations), biomass conversion experts, land grant university and other academic researchers, industry representatives, state policy groups, and Federal government biomass experts.

In 2006, the Regional Partnership held its first of two “kick-off” workshops: one in the Southeast region, and the other in the North Central region. The Southeast workshop was held in Knoxville, Tennessee and hosted by the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Technical working groups in the Southeast region included: Sustainable Agriculture Residues, Sustainable Forestry Resources, Sustainable Herbaceous Perennial Crop Development, Sustainable Woody Crop Development, Sustainable Feedstock Resource Economics and Engineering Analysis, Communication and Information Coordination, and Policy Development and Analysis. Participants met for two days and identified the potential biomass feedstock resources in the region, as well as the barriers to utilizing those resources for biofuels production, and the efforts currently under way to reduce those barriers.

The North Central workshop was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and hosted by South Dakota State University. This regional group added two technical working groups to those developed at the Southeast workshop to address the needs of the region: Sustainable Starch and Oil Seed Crop Commodities, and Environmental Interactions. Participants met for two days and determined the potential amount of biofuels that could be produced from resources in the region, as well as the specific types of biomass feedstock available. The efforts undertaken at the North Central workshop have led to a Federal effort to categorize the resources identified in the Billion Ton study on a regional and local basis.

Southeast and North Central workshop participants are currently reviewing and compiling the information obtained and generated during the first two workshops into useful reports on the availability of biomass resources and barriers to utilizing them in both regions. These reports will be used to identify the next steps in mobilizing the Partnership to begin to overcome the barriers identified. Meanwhile, those in the South Central, Western, and Northeastern regions are mobilizing to hold their first regional feedstock partnership workshops in 2007.
About the Organizers
The Regional Biomass Energy Feedstock Partnership is designed to truly function as a partnership. To ensure this, a number of organizations have come together to plan, host, and implement the work of each region’s partnership.

At the Federal level, the DOE Office of the Biomass Program, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, has partnered with several USDA agencies. This Federal team will be involved in each region’s efforts.
Each regional workshop will be organized and hosted by that region’s Sun Grant Center:

Southeast Region: University of Tennessee – Knoxville
North Central Region: South Dakota State University
Northeastern Region: Cornell University
South Central Region: Oklahoma State University
Western Region: Oregon State University

Finally, each region will also have one or more regional governors group involved in planning efforts:
Southeast Region: Southern States Energy Board
North Central Region: Council of Great Lakes Governors
Western and North Central Regions: Western Governors’ Association
Northeastern Region: Coalition of North Eastern Governors
Western Region: Pacific Regional Biomass Energy Partnership

The work of these organizations, as well as various other partners within each region, will help to achieve the establishment of a successful biofuels industry by partnering at the regional level. Through this partnership, the full potential of the resources identified in the Billion Ton study can be used effectively to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.