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The Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee (Committee) has released its Roadmap for Bioenergy and Biobased Products in the United States. The Roadmap outlines the technology R&D pathways needed to achieve the goals outlined in the Committee's Vision for Bioenergy and Biobased Products in the United States , which was released in October 2002. The Vision established challenging goals to allow environmentally sound biobased fuels, power, and products to make important contributions to U.S. energy security, rural economic development, and environmental quality.

In developing its Roadmap, the Committee recognizes the opportunity for a biobased revolution to fundamentally change the way the United States produces and consumes energy and industrial products. The Roadmap outlines a mix of technology R&D in combination with market and policy measures for developing and demonstrating critical integrated biobased products and bioenergy systems.

The Committee, consisting of 26 individuals from industry, academia, non-profit organizations, and the agricultural and forestry sectors, who are experts in their respective fields, developed the Vision and the Roadmap through a series of public meetings held during 2002. While providing guidance to public-private researchers, both documents were also requested by the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy in June 2002 as a tool to assist in biomass-related research planning and program evaluation. The Committee hopes that the Vision and Roadmap will serve as a resource for industry and the federal agencies in planning and evaluating their biomass research and development portfolios.

The Roadmap outlines recommended strategies for research and development as well as public policy measures to achieve Vision goals. The R&D recommendations fall into three categories: Feedstock Production, Processing and Conversion, and Product Uses and Distribution. Examples include:

Feedstock Production

• Improve chemical and biological processes for improved feedstocks.
• Optimize agronomic practices, including addressing land use availability and soil sustainability issues.
• Optimize logistics for collecting, storing, and combining multiple feedstocks with diverse applications.

Processing and Conversion

• Develop cost-effective, environmentally sound thermochemical conversion technologies to convert biomass feedstocks into useful electric power, heat, and potential fuels and products.
• Develop economically viable and environmentally sound bioconversion processes/technologies for commercial application of a range of biobased fuels and products.
• Advance the development of biorefineries and advance efforts to identify existing facilities that can be converted into or enhanced as biorefineries.

Product Uses and Distribution

• Advance the understanding of biomass applications to expand existing markets, create new markets, and improve product distribution.
• Identify and develop high value products from biomass feedstocks.
• Identify and develop distribution systems and locate processing and conversion facilities in proximity to biomass resources in order to maximize rural development and minimize negative environmental impacts.

The Committee also believes that public policy is the single most important strategy to moving toward a carbohydrate economy. Some of the public policy measures that the Committee recommends include:

• Life cycle assessments to provide a balanced and meaningful comparison between biobased processes and competing processes.
• Consistent long-term federal policies that ensure the availability of loans and investment funding, encourage venture capital investment, and provide sound footing for the development of new technologies.
• Education and outreach to demonstrate novel biomass technologies and to improve the public perception of biomass.

The Committee believes that U.S. industry and federal agencies can follow the recommended strategies of the Roadmap in order to achieve the Vision's goals without promoting unsustainable agricultural, forestry, or waste management practices.

The Committee will use the Vision and the Roadmap as baseline resources for their work in 2003. During 2003, The Committee will focus on reviewing the biomass R&D portfolios of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy as well as the other agencies of the Biomass R&D Board and evaluate this information against the goals and recommendations of the Vision and the Roadmap as well as the goals of the Biomass R&D Act. The Committee will then develop a set of recommendations to both the federal agencies and to Congress regarding future Federal biomass research and development investments and specific policies to commercialize biomass technologies and feedstocks.

South Dakota has the potential to generate 23.3 billion kWh of electricity using renewable biomass fuels, enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 2,328,000 average homes, or six times the current residential demand for electricity.⁴ The state also ranks fifth in the country in ethanol production, with a production capacity of approximately 170 million gallons of ethanol per year.⁵ There are six E-85 refueling stations located in the state.⁶ Currently, VeraSun Energy is constructing an ethanol plant near Aurora. The plant will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year to become "one of the largest dry mill ethanol plants in the United States" and will significantly increase ethanol production capacity in the state.⁷

In the fall of 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Broin and Associates, Inc., based in Sioux Falls, $5.4 million for a dry mill biorefinery pilot project entitled, "A Second Generation Dry Mill Biorefinery." Broin will contribute $5.9 million to the project.⁸ The project-wherein "Broin will separate bran, germ, and endosperm from corn kernels prior to making ethanol from the remaining starch" and determine what high-value products can be made from the separated fractions⁹ -will be based in Scotland, South Dakota, where Broin's biorefinery is located. According to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, if it is successful, the project will result in a "dry mill biorefinery process" with the potential of "enhancing the economics of existing ethanol dry mills" as well as making "competitive bioproducts such as plastics, paints, and adhesives that are today made from petroleum. This can result in more markets for agricultural products, more profits for farmers, and enhanced energy security for America."¹⁰

South Dakota State University announced in November 2002 that it received a $1 million grant from DOE "to study the viability of growing native grasses for liquid fuels production in the northern plains." For this project, SDSU is partnered with the Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development, the Minneapolis-based group that coordinated the grant. The university plans to use the grant for "developing switchgrass varieties for the region; evaluating management practices for growing native grasses for biomass; evaluating the effects of biomass harvesting on soils and carbon storage; and evaluating the effects of biomass harvesting on bird populations." Both the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and the Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development received separate funding under the same grant to perform similar research.¹¹

One incentive available to South Dakotan commercial and residential biomass users is a property tax exemption. The exemption concerns "renewable energy systems on residential and commercial property" and "applies to the entire assessed value of residential systems and 50 percent of the installed cost of commercial systems." The exemption does not apply to systems that "produce energy for resale."¹²

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