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Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Partner on Biofuel Research

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13 February 2013 – Flathead Beacon

The small town of Pablo near the base of the Mission Mountains has long been considered a harbinger of land stewardship. As the governmental seat of the Flathead Indian Reservation, the tribal community has harnessed its vast natural resources for a long-standing timber industry while preserving its sacred landscape through environmental policy, including the first-ever tribal wilderness designation along the western front of its iconic mountain range in 1982.

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Timber to jet fuel bio-mass project explained

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1 February 2013 – The Western News

Lincoln County commissioners on Wednesday heard from college engineering students who are participating in a bio-mass study project that could make jet fuel from timber and its byproducts.

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A Summer of Science

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November 2012 – Washington State Magazine

If the world of cutting-edge research has a glamorous side, it was lost on Laurel Graves this summer as she found herself digging trenches for soil probes on the Cook Agronomy Farm north of Pullman. In the high summer heat, Graves dug for two hours. Palouse soil covered her arms.

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More energy (and other stuff) from wood

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November 2012 – Washington State Magazine

Few materials have been as kind to civilization as wood.

It made possible some of our most revolutionary technologies: the spear, fire, the wheel, the house, the ship. Hunting, cooking, shelter, transportation, all got big assists because wood was abundant, changeable, sturdy, and packed with energy.

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Flying green: Aviation biofuel may soon be reality

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22 October 2012 – Forest Business Network

In a significant push toward researching practical adoption of biofuel in previously untapped markets, three University of Idaho professors are partnering with the University of Washington and Washington State University in two parallel, five-year $40 million grants to develop jet fuel based on isobutanol.

NARA: Residual Woody Biomass Coversion to Biojet Fuel and other Valuable Co-products

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10 October 2012 – Northwest Woodlands Magazine – PDF

In 2010, Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (SAFN), a Pacific Northwest stakeholders group, was formed to explore the development of a safe, sustainable, and economically viable aviation biofuels industry in the Pacific Northwest. Forest residuals were one of four promising feedstocks identified for this purpose.

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Is Biomass a Future Market for Montana?

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10 October 2012 – Northwest Woodlands Magazine – PDF

Montana is a little different than the rest of the United States when it comes to forests and forestry. Although we are often included as part of the Northwest, only a quarter of our forests are part of the Columbia River basin and we lack a shipping port to the west coast. For us, the Rocky Mountains sometimes impose the same barrier that Lewis and Clark encountered 200 years ago, …more

Biomass—Fueling Aviation

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15 September 2012 – MediaPlanet – PDF

The U.S. Airforce uses 2.5 billion gallons of aviation fuel a year, a startling number when you consider the amount of greenhouse gases released as a result. So it’s no surprise that researchers at Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance are look at ways to incorporate biomass as a fuel. Forwardthinkers like Ralph Cavalieri – Project Director for NARA and Associate Vice President for Alternative Energy and Professor of Biological Systems Engineering at Washington …more