By Charles Burke, WSU NARA
PULLMAN, Wash. – The newest findings about using material left in forest slash piles to produce alternative biofuels for jet aircraft and other co-products will be presented in a series of five free wood-to-biofuel webinars in October.
Participants may register and learn more at https://nararenewables.org/features/webinar-series.
The webinars – timed to coincide with National Bioenergy Day (http://bioenergyday.com/) on Oct. 21 – are offered by the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA). They are:
Oct. 13: Estimating forest residue for biomass production. Kevin Boston, Oregon State University, 1 p.m. (all times are Pacific Daylight Time)
Oct. 14: Decision support for forest harvest residue collection. John Sessions, Oregon State University, 2 p.m.
Oct. 19: Characterization of forest residuals for bio-jet fuel production. Gevan Marrs, NARA, 9 a.m.
Oct. 21: ‘Woods-to-Wake’ life cycle assessment of residual woody biomass based jet fuel. Indroneil Ganguly, University of Washington, 11:30 a.m.
Oct. 30: Long-term soil productivity and sustainability of forest harvest residue harvesting. Jeff Hatten, Oregon State University, and Scott Holub, Weyerhaeuser NR Co., 10 a.m.
“The webinars come during the final year of the NARA project and provide the most recent findings relating to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of using post harvest forest residuals in the Pacific Northwest to partially substitute for fossil fuels,” said Vikram Yadama, NARA outreach team leader and webinar organizer.
Led by Washington State University and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, NARA is helping develop a sustainable industry in the Pacific Northwest that uses wood residuals to make biojet fuel and valuable co-products. The alliance includes public universities, government agencies, private industry and interested stakeholders.
It was recently announced that Alaska Airlines will use NARA produced cellulosic-based biojet fuel, made from Northwest forest residuals, for a demonstration flight in spring 2016. Seehttps://news.wsu.edu/2015/06/03/alaska-airlines-plans-biofuel-test-flight-in-wsu-partnership/#.Vg2MR02FOfB.
Contacts:
Vikram Yadama, NARA outreach, 509-335-6261, vyadama@wsu.edu
Charles Burke, WSU NARA, 509-335-3018, cburke@wsu.edu