Biomass Feedstocks

Wood:

Woodchips
Woodchips are a solid fuel made from woody biomass. They are made in the process of woodchipping with a woodchipper. They are used primarily as a heating fuel in a few commercial institutions, such as schools, and in some industrial plants for generating electric power from renewable energy. The use of woodchips in automated heating systems, is based on a relatively new technology.
In a number of cases, coal power plants have been converted to run on woodchips. This is fairly straightforward to do, since they both use an identical steam turbine heat engine, and the cost of woodchip fuel is comparable to coal.
Solid biomass is an attractive fuel for addressing the concerns of the energy crisis and climate change, since the fuel is affordable, widely available, clean burning, and is carbon neutral and sustainable as long as the crops are allowed to regrow.
Woodchip biomass does not have the waste disposal issues of coal and nuclear power, since wood ash can be used directly as a mineral-rich plant fertilizer.

Wood Pellets
Wood pellets are a type of wood fuel, generally made from compacted sawdust. They are usually produced as a byproduct of sawmilling and other wood transformation activities. The pellets are extremely dense and can be produced with a low humidity content (below 10%) that allows them to be burned with a very high combustion efficiency. Further, their regular geometry and small size allow automatic feeding with very fine calibration. They can be fed to a burner by auger feeding or by pneumatic conveying.
Their high density also permits compact storage and rational transport over long distance. They can be conveniently blown from a tanker to a storage bunker or silo on a customer's premises. As the price of heating with fossil fuels increases, more capacity for pellet heating has been installed. A large number of models of pellet stoves, central heating furnaces and other heating appliances have been developed and marketed since about 1999. With the surge in the price of fossil fuels in 2005, the demand has increased all over Europe and a sizable industry is emerging. The reason being is that customers on oil or LPG could be saving from 35-50% on their heating bill in the United Kingdom.

Switchgrass
Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a warm season grass and is one of the dominant species of the central North American tallgrass prairie. It can be found in remnant prairies, along roadsides, pastures and as an ornamental plant in gardens. Other common names for it include tall panic grass, Wobsqua grass, lowland switchgrass, blackbent, tall prairiegrass, wild redtop and thatchgrass. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush touted switchgrass as an efficient and environmentally friendly biofuel that could reduce the USA's dependence on petroleum.
Switchgrass is a hardy, deep rooted, perennial rhizomatous grass which begins growth in late spring. It can grow up to 1.8-2.2 m high but is typically shorter than Big Bluestem grass or Indiangrass. The leaves are 30-90 cm long, with a prominent midrib. Switchgrass uses C4 carbon fixation, giving it an advantage in conditions of drought and high temperature.[1] Its flowers have a well-developed panicle, often up to 60 cm long and bear a good crop of fruits. The fruits are 3-6 mm long and up to 1.5 mm wide, and are developed from a single-flowered spikelet. Both glumes are present and well developed. When ripe, the seeds sometimes take on a pink or dull-purple tinge, and turn golden brown with the foliage of the plant in the fall. Switchgrass is a self-seeding crop, which means farmers do not have to plant and re-seed after annual harvesting. Once established, a switchgrass stand can survive for ten years or longer. Also, unlike corn, switchgrass can grow on marginal lands and requires little or no fertilizer to thrive.