Forest Sciences Commons^™

A Preliminary Assessment Of The State Of Harvest And Collection Technology For Forest Residues, Erin G. Wilkerson, D. Brad Blackwelder, Robert D. Perlack, David J. Muth, J. Richard Hess

David J. Muth

To meet the “Twenty in Ten Initiative” goals set in the 2007 State of the Union address, forest resources will be needed as feedstocks for lignocellulosic ethanol production. It has been estimated that 368 million dry tons can be produced annually in the U.S. from logging residues and fuel treatment thinnings. Currently, very little of this woody biomass is used for energy production due to the costs and difficulty in collecting and transporting this material. However, minimizing biomass costs (including harvest, handling, transport, storage, and processing costs) delivered to the refinery is necessary to develop a sustainable cellulosic ethanol industry. …