Feedstock Logistics
Feedstock logistics encompasses all of the unit operations necessary to move biomass feedstocks from the land to the biorefinery and to ensure that the delivered feedstock meets the specifications of the biorefinery conversion process.
Biomass Program work in the area of Feedstock Logistics is conducted in partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory and a variety of industrial partners, and focuses on four main areas of R&D: Harvest and Collection, Preprocessing, Storage and Queuing, and Handling and Transportation.
Harvest and Collection
The overall objective of the Platform's Harvest and Collection R&D is to develop cost effective and sustainable harvest technologies and practices through the development of advanced harvesting equipment – and through the development of predictive models capable of identifying the impacts of agronomic and agribusiness practices on feedstock sustainability. As such, this effort focuses on advanced engineering systems, sustainable practices, and the relationship between the two. The specific objectives of Harvest and Collection efforts are to identify the requirements and specifications needed to engineer advanced harvesting systems; identify the factors that impact sustainability; develop tools to predict the potential consequences associated with conflicting biomass demands that affect food and fuel availability in the U.S; and identify actions to reduce potential impacts.
New technologies are being developed to cost-effectively separate grains, straw stems and leaves in one pass in the field, while preparing the biomass in a form that can be easily stored and transported to a biorefinery.
Preprocessing
The main objective of the Platform's Preprocessing R&D is to reduce the cost of preprocessing within the feedstock supply system by increasing the efficiency and capacity of preprocessing equipment. With this said, specific research objectives have been identified that target the necessary performance parameters that lead to efficiency and capacity improvements. The specific objectives of Preprocessing include efforts to determine how well existing equipment processes various biomass feedstocks; to identify a separation system that can be coupled to a preprocessing operation to create value-added feedstock; and to understand the relationship between grinder efficiency and the flow of large volumes of milled plant material into quality feedstock. Furthermore, Preprocessing efforts are to apply the mechanical properties of preprocessed feedstocks to the design, performance, and cost of the preprocessing operation; to identify strategies to increase preprocessed feedstock bulk densities using compaction methods; and to identify the drying capacity of grinding operations with respect to applied feedstock assembly system technologies and cost.
Scientists and engineers are researching ways of grinding bales or piles of biomass stover, with the intent of reducing the cost of preparing biomass into a form that is readily available and usable by biorefineries.
Storage and Queuing
The overall objectives of the Platform's Storage and Queuing R&D are two-fold. First, the composition of wet stored biomass will be investigated. Because valuable components of the feedstock, such as soluble sugars, are largely lost in wet harvested biomass during transportation and storage – and because of the tremendous value of these components – recovering their value is paramount for wet harvested biomass to become an economically viable feedstock. Second, the likely advantages in treating biomass with xylanase at key entry points in feedstock supply chains will also be investigated. The specific objectives of Storage and Queuing efforts are to test advanced wet storage scenarios focusing on the dynamics of soluble sugars in biomass; determine soluble sugar conversion efficiencies; measure impacts on residual solid biomass; estimate impacts on the feedstock supply infrastructure; and test the effects of using xylanase throughout the feedstock supply chain.
Three examples of storing biomass feedstock are shown in this photo—
(from left to right), a pile, a stack, and in loales. The color markings observed on the biomass serve the purpose of documenting the depth of moisture penetration in various storage conditions and physical configurations.
Handling and Transportation
As evidenced by the focused efforts in the Harvest and Collection, Preprocessing, and Storage elements of the Platform R&D, a bulk feedstock supply handling system is both necessary and inevitable. Rather than baling the residues, harvest and collection equipment is needed to collect, handle and transport the bulk biomass to a processing or storage location. Next, preprocessing equipment is needed to grind the bulk biomass for size reduction, and fractionate the biomass into discrete product streams of bulk biomass that are sent to storage. Finally, the bulk biomass is transported to the biorefinery, where short-term storage (referred to as queuing) is used prior to moving into the conversion process. The specific objectives of Handling and Transportation efforts are to determine how biomass physical properties, feedstock type, and environmental conditions influence the deformation and flow of plant material; investigate compaction methods to improve biomass bulk densities that lead to improved full-scale equipment within the feedstock assembly system; identify opportunities to decrease the net cost of this operation; quantify biomass losses with current transport and handling methods; and to assess large scale systems in other industrial operations to determine if there are better alternate methods of handling and transporting biomass feedstocks.
Preprocessed biomass is being loaded into a trailer that will either deliver the biomass feedstock to a biorefinery, or to a temporary storage location, where it will be staged ready for use as needed in a refinery.