BIOMASS
ENERGY
A New World for Wood
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Janet
Cushman examines species of fast-growing switchgrass that, like
the hybrid poplar, is a potential energy source.
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Thanks to a Department of Energy program managed by ORNL for 20 years, industry has a more efficient source of pulp fiber and wood for making paper, construction materials, and furniture. The original purpose of DOE's Bioenergy Feedstock Development Program was to develop sustainable farm-grown crops that could be converted to fuel. However, as a result of ORNL's collaborations with U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Agricultural Research stations, many universities, and several forest products companies, fast-growing trees and grasses were selected and developed that could be used for wood products, as well as energy. Poplar trees and switchgrass emerged as model crops.
The DOE program participants developed
a technology of growing genetically superior hardwood trees that can be harvested
every 6 to 12 years.
The U.S. forest products industry has adopted this technology, especially
in the Pacific Northwest and South, and, more recently, in the North Central
region. Nationwide, approximately 120,000 acres are being used to grow short-rotation
woody crops consisting mostly of poplars or poplar hybrids. The estimated
value of the annual harvest for pulp fiber is about $50 million.—Lynn
Wright
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