Professor says underutilized ag lands could be used to grow biomass for power plant

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

Wolverine Clean Energy Venture planting program is moving forward, as results are coming in during the second year of the project. Supervised by Robert Froese, PhD, RDF, the study is aimed at supplying biomass for the proposed power plant in Rogers Township by Wolverine Energy.

Wolverine proposes to use up to 20 percent biomass, defined as a renewable energy source, to produce electric energy in the Rogers Township plant. Biomass refers to living and recently dead biological material, such as dead trees and clippings, wood chips, switchgrass and other organic materials.

FROESE, A PROFESSOR from the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences, and his team from Northern Michigan University, presented their update last week at a meeting at Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-op offices in Onaway.

?The first bit of work we did for Wolverine was to look at biomass broadly from the sources you might get from energy plantations but also what you might get from native forests. Wolverine asked us to estimate how much biomass might be available within a 75-mile radius,? Froese told the group.

He said that there is great opportunity to produce biomass crops on under-utilized agricultural land. He said about 700,000 acres of land within the 75-mile radius of the proposed power plant in Rogers Township fall into this category.

?That is far more land than you would actually be able to grow crops on in the region, but it gives you an idea of the magnitude of the opportunity in the wild extreme, if you could even tap a small number of these acres,? Froese said. ?You could produce a substantial amount of biomass for use in all kinds of green energy opportunities.? THE RESULTS OF the survey led to a series of test plantings, supervised by Froese. Mixing biomass crops and proper spacing can enhance the overall picture, Froese said. He stressed there is a great opportunity in the area.

The goals of the test plantings in Presque Isle and Cheboygan Counties are for demonstration and discovery purposes. ?In demonstration, what we are trying to do is to illustrate the opportunity, to make a case for what can be done and how it can be done well,? Froese said. ?We can educate people through direct observation.?

The science-based side seeks answers on how to plant the biomass crops in the most efficient way. Experiments were done on three local sites beginning last year to find, among other things, which species would grow the fastest and at what spacing the trees grow best. Four species are being tested in the test plots including the quaking aspen, European larch, silver maple and a hybrid cloned poplar. Survival rate was very high in hardwoods, Froese said, and growth was variable. The hybrid poplars met expectations and the silver maple exceeded expectations. ?Silver maples had been explored as an energy crop in Iowa, but not so much in this region. I think there are some real advantages to silver maple, outside of the fact that they produce great big roots,? Froese said.

Froese and his team planted trees last May and measured 2,000 of them in September. ?ONE OF THE things we have added to the experiments this year is carbon storage. One of the things we are looking for in this energy crop p

lantation is not just growing something that we can use to generate green electricity, but if we can take these retired fields?and leave some carbon behind in the ground. So we are offsetting some of the carbon which comes from coal and leaving it in the ground,? Froese said.

Green energy plantations can do that better than naturally occurring vegetation, he said. Froese?s team dug holes, taking core samples, and measured each sample of powdered soils in an elemental analyzer. ?I think that Wolverine is right on the forefront in sponsoring this work and we will get some very good results,? Froese said.

Plans for this year include planting switchgrass on three sites in the area. ?Switchgrass shows a lot of promise and a lot of productivity,? Froese said. WOLVERINE IS awaiting word from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on the status of its air quality permit, which it submitted to the DEQ last September. Public comment on the draft permit expired in January, after a series of public hearings in Rogers City and Lansing.

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