The Ibss Partnership: Progress Toward the Southeast's Advanced Biofuels Industry.

USDA projections are that the southeastern United States will produce almost half of the 21 billion gallons of annual supply of advanced biofuels required by the RFS2 in 2022.  Numerous roadmaps and strategic plans have highlighted the supply chain and technology challenges that must be overcome to reach the 2022 mandate, with questions about biomass availability.  The Southeastern Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems (IBSS) is working to reduce the risks surrounding a sustainable, reliable, and predictable supply of lignocellulosic feedstock needed to meet this goal, thereby minimizing a fundamental concern of this new industry as it prepares to deploy in the region.  The IBSS Partnership is working closely with its thermochemical conversion partner (Rentech, Commerce City, CO) to evaluate performance of regional biomass sources in their 20-ton/day biomass gasification unit.  To date, that effort has effectively established a baseline for pine and select hardwood energy crops, and has provided direction for the continuing work to define feedstock/process interactions.  This work also provided a valuable opportunity for IBSS’s Project SEED students to gain practical experience in feedstock logistics and conversion while contributing to the project goals.

Extensive data on the chemical and physical characteristics of the region’s pine biomass, as well as new energy crops (woody crops and switchgrass) have been generated.  The presentation will provide additional insight into the variability of the biomass resource, and highlight progress toward other important goals of The IBSS Partnership that impact production of infrastructure-compatible biofuels.