Up to 40 percent of Eastern Washington's residential energy could be provided by converting municipal and agricultural wastes into methane, according to a study sponsored by the Washington Department of Ecology and the Inland Northwest Technology Education Center (INTEC). The study was conducted by Shulin Chen, professor of biological systems engineering at Washington State University.Eastern Washington has an annual supply of 4.3 million tons of dry biomass that is not being used, according to the survey. Biomass is a combination of farm-field and processing residue from harvested crops, animal waste and municipal organic residuals. The report says that the untapped biomass can produce 3.1 million megawatt-hours of electrical energy, enough to supply approximately 15 to 40 percent of eastern Washington's current residential electrical consumption each year.
"Before we could seriously look at this as an industry, we need to evaluate the potential volume of fuel we had out there," said Lewis Rumpler, chief executive officer of INTEC. "After seeing these results, we feel we're a step closer to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, creating a new job market and solving some environmental problems. That's an exciting combination." Creating energy from biomass reduces greenhouse gas emissions, benefits water quality, and solves some solid waste disposal problems, the report states.
"Not only are we able to see from this survey which crops or animal wastes produce the most fuel, but we also are able to see which counties could contribute the most," said Ecology's Marck Fuchs. "This is important when we look at the economics of locating processing plants. Having the fuel close to the plants is important."
Of the 4.3 million tons of dry biomass in Eastern Washington, more than 50 percent of the total is located in Whitman, Grant, Franklin, Benton and Yakima counties. Using anaerobic digestion, biomass could produce methane to heat businesses and homes, or can be converted to electricity.
The next phase of the project is determining the economic viability of recovering, transporting and converting into electricity the latent bioenergy in farm fields and agricultural production facilities. Results of the next phase could be available in late 2004. Although the report also has further research implications, but that a demonstration project is an immediate priority."We can see great benefits for rural communities in the development of biomass energy projects," Chen said