Corn stover availability for biomass conversion: situation analysis

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Cellulose

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-009-9323-z· OSTI ID:1015058

Hess, J Richard ^[1]; Kenney, Kevin L ^[1]; Wright, Christopher ^[1]; Perlack, Robert D ^[2]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
2. ORNL

As biorefining conversion technologies become commercial, feedstock availability, supply system logistics, and biomass material attributes are emerging as major barriers to the availability of corn stover for biorefining. While systems do exist to supply corn stover as feedstock to biorefining facilities, stover material attributes affecting physical deconstruction, such as densification and post-harvest material stability, challenge the cost-effectiveness of present-day feedstock logistics systems. In addition, the material characteristics of corn stover create barriers with any supply system design in terms of equipment capacity/efficiency, dry matter loss, and capital use efficiency. However, analysis of a conventional large square bale corn stover feedstock supply system concludes that (1) where other agronomic factors are not limiting, corn stover can be accessed and supplied to a biorefinery using existing bale-based technologies, (2) technologies and new supply system designs are necessary to overcome biomass bulk density and moisture material property challenges, and (3) major opportunities to improve conventional bale biomass feedstock supply systems include improvements in equipment efficiency and capacity and reducing biomass losses in harvesting, collection, and storage. Finally, the backbone of an effective stover supply system design is the optimization of intended and minimization of unintended material property changes as the corn stover passes through the individual supply system processes from the field to the biorefinery conversion processes.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1015058
• Journal Information: Cellulose, Vol. 16, Issue 4; ISSN 0969--0239
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AGRICULTURAL WASTES
AVAILABILITY
BIOMASS
BULK DENSITY
CAPACITY
CAPITAL
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
HARVESTING
MAIZE
MINIMIZATION
MOISTURE
OPTIMIZATION
STABILITY
STORAGE
Feedstock logistics
corn stover
harvesting
collection
storage
processing
transportation