As biomass energy increasingly serves as a common-sense alternative to fossil fuels, it is paramount to have the best possible information regarding fuel supply. With a long and successful track record of community biomass energy projects throughout the country, BERC’s experienced and skilled staff offers a wide range of services relating to biomass fuel supply availability, reliability, and sustainability. All of BERC’s assessments can be either regional and site specific.

Regional Supply Assessments. BERC has a unique approach to conducting both preliminary and detailed regional biomass resource assessments that quantify existing and potential volumes of biomass fuels from farms and forests.

Employing proprietary supply calculation tools that utilize GIS software, BERC’s biomass resource specialists analyze the amount of net available low-grade growth (NALG) wood in a given region’s forests factoring numerous variables. These tools examine the spatial patterns of how the biomass resource is distributed at the county level. BERC also uses available state, county, and federal databases to analyze the amount of cropland, including marginal acreage appropriate for cultivating bio-energy crops.

Once the amount of sustained-yield resource is understood, further supply/demand modeling explores the resource impacts of various potential scenarios where demand increases over a given period of time into the future. This provides for an in-depth examination of how the regional biomass resource supply will change in response to expanded market demand, for example, if a large biomass power plant were to be built in given location.

The regional biomass resource assessment is extremely valuable as a planning tool for state and regional agencies looking to expand biomass energy. Prior to beginning programs to expand biomass energy in a region, it is essential to know how much resource is there, where it is, and how increased demand will impact the sustained yield amounts available over time.

“Push-Pin” Assessments. BERC conducts resource assessments, both preliminary and detailed, specific to proposed or existing facilities.

A preliminary push-pin assessment identifies a fuel procurement area large enough to meet the facility’s demand and quantifies the potential fuel sources, considering existing and proposed competition for the biomass resource. The assessment includes potential fuel sources from agricultural, sawmill, and logging residues, and urban and community clean wood waste (pallets, tree trimmings, etc.)

A detailed push-pin assessment includes all the preliminary assessment components including estimates of forested and agricultural land area, forest inventory and growth, and current levels of timber harvesting and crop cultivation.

Economic Analysis and Supply Curve Projection. The economics of biomass fuel supply is extremely important and procurement costs vary widely depending on the fuel type and source. By combining the resource quantity information and economic analysis, supply curves are developed to illustrate the approximate amount and pricing of different fuel sources. Additional survey work can be conducted to assess potential supplier interest and willingness to supply and further identify opportunities and hurdles.

Fuel Procurement. BERC helps clients move beyond fuel supply assessment to fuel procurement by identifying specific biomass fuel suppliers; assessing their capacity and reliability to supply fuels; pre-qualifying suppliers; developing bid documents and managing a fuel supply RFP process; and developing, negotiating, and securing final supply contracts.

Development of Fuel Specifications. Biomass energy systems’ performance and overall success are linked to fuel quality. There is no one-size-fits-all biomass fuel specification for biomass systems so matching the right fuel source and quality to the right system and application is extremely important. Fuel quality varies widely depending on the type, source, material handling, and storage and each project will be different, each system owner/operator will have different expectations, and each region will have different fuel type availability or potential. Factors that should be closely examined and considered early in the planning process are the biomass system’s technology and capability of handling various biomass fuels, the existing regional forest products industry, and the regional forest management objectives. BERC can assist by developing appropriate fuel specifications properly matching the size and type of energy system with the biomass fuels available.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control Program Development. Over time, owners and operators of many biomass energy projects require periodic quality assurances that the fuel they are buying and using meets the equipment specifications in place. BERC assists by testing and evaluating biomass feedstocks and developing simple and cost-effective methods for site owners and operators themselves to verify that the quality of fuel received meets their needs.

Biomass Fuel Supply Business Development BERC works to cultivate strong, reliable biomass fuel supply infrastructure and can help evaluate new and creative methods of harvesting, processing, storing and transporting biomass fuels to various energy markets.Several examples of emerging new approaches to the transportation, storage, and timely delivery of biomass fuel are:

• The creation of fuel processing and aggregation yards, where loggers can bring low-quality logs and forest cull material, to be stored and processed for biomass energy and heating use during times of seasonal demand
• The use of roll-off containers, especially in the Western states. Containers can be used to collect and store biomass fuel at logging sites, and then be stored—at sites close to either the forest resource or the locations for use—until the supply is needed.
• Specialized chipping. Particular biomass systems—among them school heating systems and gasifiers—have fairly particular fuel requirements, such as chip size, shape, and moisture content. Specialized chippers and dryers can meet these needs, and can be paired with new fuel processing and aggregation yards, where custom-processed chips can be both produced and stored until needed for use.
• New aggregation yards also create a setting for the sorting of incoming logs by type of source and harvesting operation. This facilitates the marketing of biomass fuel from "green" forestry and processing systems, which can be documented so that users are sure the biomass fuel they receive has been sustainably produced and harvested.
• Pellet mills are popping up all over the country. BERC conducts assessments of the feasibility of pellet mills throughout the US.

Click here for a listing of woodchip suppliers for Vermont.