Grand Rapids, MN: Folks from northern Minnesota joined CERTs for an inspiring event about how the biomass industry will play a key role in Minnesota’s energy future and its future economic development. The event took place at the Minnesota Historical Society Forest History Center in Grand Rapids on Monday, August 15th, 2011.
We kicked off our meeting at the Minnesota Historical Society Forest History Center, a wonderful place to visit or hike and a great place to get grounded in the role that forestry has played in this part of our State.
Information from the meeting is best understood by looking at three key things:
- Jeff Borling, APEX Director of Itasca Business Development, had a very detailed presentation in which he described the thrust behind the Itasca Eco Industrial Park project, its potential to provide value added opportunities for biomass utilization—from biofuels to bioproducts—and jobs.
- Tim Welle, Program Manager for the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, shared a presentation in which he described why Minnesota is well positioned to be a key bioindustry leader because of its deep supply chain of innovative companies and its rich biomass resources.
- Itasca Eco-Industrial Park’s website is still a work in progress, but it describes the locations we visited, what they are looking for in potential tenants, and has photos of the very space we stood in during our tour! Visit the website.
Beyond reviewing these three resources, there were a few other key take aways and points that merit an additional mention:
- Much of the biomass discussion that folks hear about either focused on replacing transportation fuels (i.e., biofuels or ‘drop-in’ fuels) or focuses on wood to heat – like pellets. Bioproducts, such as plastics, chemicals, adhesives, cosmetics and even carbon fiber, offer another substantial market for these resources and an opportunity to provide value-added products.
- The industry trend is increasingly looking toward biorefineries and ways to maximize the value of an incoming resources to get lots of products, and ideally a diverse array of products. Ideally these array of products would be derived from attracting a variety of synergistic businesses that can co-locate and benefit from transforming each other’s ‘waste’ into a valuable resource (see slide on this in Jeff’s presentation).
- Itasca Eco-Industrial Park is one of several biomass-related developments in the Region. With coordination assistance from APEX, each of these projects is looking to fill its own niche in this field so as to avoid competition.
- It is estimated that Minnesota can sustainably support a harvest of 5.5 million cords of wood. By working together, all of the projects moving forward can ensure that even if all projects move forward, this sustainable harvest level will not be exceeded.
- That 5.5 million cord number came from the Generic Environmental Impact Statement study done between 1990 and 1994 that posed three potential harvest levels and examined the potential social, environmental and economic impacts of those levels of harvests. It arrived at a 5.5 million cord level as an estimate. See the report here.
- Interested in how much we currently harvest? The Minnesota DNR publishes the “Minnesota’s Forest Resources” report annually. The most recent report was published in May 2011 and indicated that the 2010 harvest rate was 2.9 million cords.
- Finally, if you’re interested in more resources and information about sustainable harvest rates, visit the Minnesota Forest Resources Council website where they have a variety of reports and documents.
- Tim mentioned that the BioBusiness Alliance will publish The Roadmap for BioIndustrial Development in the 4th Quarter of 2011. This will lay out an implementation plan to strategically move Minnesota bioindustry forward. Watch their website for more (plus, it has lots of interesting news and resources).
