Thousand Oaks, California, USA
January 13, 2010
Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. has posted a footprint calculator on its website to help electric power producers determine the acres needed to support various-sized biomass-to-power projects. One of the largest renewable resources, biomass can be co-fired with coal at existing generating stations or used by large industrial facilities for onsite heat and power.
Ceres business development manager Saritha Peruri notes that power producers are considering biomass, a carbon-neutral feedstock, to meet renewable electricity standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but are often unsure of how many acres would be required for a closed-loop procurement system.
Biopower projects were limited historically by the availability of nearby biomass sources, typically wood or wood wastes, as well as the inconsistent composition of these materials. In contrast, new energy grasses with higher yields than wood on a per-acre, per-year dry basis would have a much smaller footprint and provide a more reliable supply of biomass feedstock.
“What's striking is the impact of higher yields on reducing the sourcing area and, therefore, transportation distance,” said Peruri. “Energy grasses make it possible to operate on a significantly larger scale with more viable economics.”
The online tool from Ceres allows users to adjust biomass yield per acre and land usage rates, as well as biomass-fired capacity and heat rate, a measure of efficiency. The calculator can be accessed at http://www.ceres.net/biopower.
Ceres, Inc. is a leading developer of high-yielding energy crops that can be planted as raw materials for advanced biofuels and biopower. Its development efforts include switchgrass, high-biomass sorghum, sweet sorghum, miscanthus and energycane. The plant breeding and biotechnology company markets its switchgrass seed and sorghum seed under its Blade Energy Crops brand. Ceres holds one of the world’s largest proprietary collections of fully sequenced plant genes.
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