Source: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
NEWBIO: NORTHEAST WOODY/WARM-SEASON BIOMASS CONSORTIUM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0229798
Grant No.
2012-68005-19703
Project No.
PENW-2012-00774
Proposal No.
2012-00774
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A6101
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2012
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2019
Grant Year
2016
Project Director
Richard, T. L.
Recipient Organization
PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
403 ALTHOUSE LAB
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Non Technical Summary
The Northeast has substantial demand for transportation fuels, an educated and capable rural workforce, and over 3 million acres of marginal, degraded and abandoned land that could become productive, profitable sources of biomass with improved management. Under-utilized agricultural land that can be used to grow short-rotation woody crops and perennial grasses can play important, complementary, co-evolving roles in creating a sustainable, reliable, and affordable feedstock supply for biofuels, bioenergy, and biomaterials production for the region. The NorthEast Woody/warm-season BIOmass (NEWBio) Consortium will design, implement, analyze, and evaluate robust, scalable, and sustainable value chains for biomass feedstocks from New England to the West Virginia. NEWBio is a unique collaborative network of public and private universities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies organized around a set of four large-scale demonstration sites, each forming the basis of a 500 to 1200 ton/day supply chain of lignocellulosic biomass suitable for advanced transportation fuels. Each demonstration is stakeholder driven, with commercial collaborators committed to feedstock production, logistics, preprocessing and conversion. These demonstration sites will provide a real-world focus for our team's research, extension, and educational efforts in three technical thrusts: human systems; plant production and genetics; harvest, preprocessing, and logistics; with four integrating themes: sustainability systems; safety and health; extension; education; and leadership. Through an intensive program of stakeholder engagement NEWBio will 1) provide the scientific and practical knowledge needed to overcome current barriers, 2) educate the entrepreneurs, employees, and citizens who will translate that knowledge into action, and 3) realize a sustainable bioenergy future.     
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
45%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1021620107010%
1020199107010%
2010670108010%
2011620108010%
2050670310010%
2051620310010%
4026220202010%
4021620202010%
7230670202010%
8036220308010%
Goals / Objectives
NEWBio aims to build robust, scalable and sustainable value chains for biomass energy in the Northeast. Objectives I. Understand the values, legacies, and motivations that drive perceptions and decisions about land management and business development for biomass energy systems II. Generate price-supply curves, facility siting and forward contracting tools to provide entrepreneur and investor confidence in biomass feedstock supply. III. Develop and deploy as industry standards sustainable production practices for perennial grasses and short rotation woody crops to improve yield 25% and reduce costs by 20%. IV. Commercialize the current pipeline of improved willow (Salix spp.) and switchgrass varieties and develop genomic tools to accelerate breeding for marginal land. V. Develop harvest, transport, storage and preprocessing systems that increase feedstock value as biomass moves through the supply chain toward advanced biofuel refineries. VI. Create a culture of safety in the biomass production, transport and preprocessing sectors that addresses machinery hazards and environmental risks to protect workers. VII. Transform standards of practice for biomass value chains to greatly improve carbon paybacks, net energy yields, soil and water quality, and other ecosystem services. VIII. Deploy safe, efficient and integrated supply chains in four demonstration regions, each providing 500 to 1000 tons/day of high-quality low-cost sustainable biomass. IX. Create learning communities of farmers, entrepreneurs, employees and investors informed about the best practices and emerging technologies in their bioenergy interest areas. X. Provide business support services to generate at least 100 supply contracts and support over 50 new supply chain businesses to harvest, transport and preprocess biomass from short rotation woody crops and warm-season grasses. XI. Increase public understanding of biomass alternatives, including the social, economic, and environmental impacts of sustainable bioenergy systems in the NE. XII. Create a culture of opportunity for commercial-scale advanced biofuels facilities in the NE. Outputs: ● Stakeholder engagement models ● Socioeconomic analysis & forecasts ● Accelerated breeding to develop stress-resistance & improve yields ● Biomass cropland resource assessments ● Models & Decision Support Systems for sustainable biomass production, harvesting, logistics, & preprocessing ● Preprocessing and conversion database ● Geospatial database & web portals for local and regional sustainability assessments & Decisions Support Systems ● Injury surveillance & hazard assessment tools; Safety & health mgmt. templates ● >90,000 acres of perennial crop production ● 100 supply agreement & pricing programs ● 50 new small businesses ● Corporate commitments for 2 commercial biorefineries in the NE ● Workshops for diverse stakeholders ● K-12 student and teacher activities ● 4 online biomass courses; ● Bioenergy Scholars internship program ● Journal articles, fact sheets & reports
Project Methods
NEWBio will focus on three biomass feedstocks: (1) willow, a short rotation woody crop, and warm-season grasses including (2) switchgrass and (3) miscanthus, which can all be grown on the NE's abundant marginal agricultural land and abandoned mine land. NEWBio focuses on several large demonstration projects, each with biomass production and supply chains operating at commercial-scales of thousands of acres, in a specific community with real industrial customers. Each demonstration area has unique agronomic conditions and socioeconomic contexts that provide contrast across the region, and allow analysis of multiple feedstock business models ranging from corporate-owned and -leased plantations to contract growing to commodity marketing. NEWBio will build regional educational and outreach programs using our network of extension educators, business and economic development organizations, secondary schools and regional universities to support landowner decision-making, business development, workforce training, citizen and policymaker engagement, and K-16 STEM support. Extension educators will be located at or near demonstration sites to provide comprehensive stakeholder outreach. They will coordinate project activities that occur in and around the site and facilitate landowner and business involvement in the biomass supply chain. With assistance from other extension educators and applied researchers on our campuses, they will organize workshops, field days, K-16 field trips, professional short courses and e-learning modules to encourage community engagement and ensure a sustainable flow of biomass to the plants. By investigating several distinct feedstock production and value chain strategies we can observe how bioenergy expansion differs across diverse NE localities depending on natural and human capital, legacies of interest and expertise, and shared future visions. Coupling stakeholder concerns and interests with our technical and process experts will facilitate cluster development for the bioenergy industry, encourage entrepreneurship, identify barriers, address critical needs, and build capacity. The NEWBio objectives will be achieved through three technical thrusts: (1) Human Systems, (2) Feedstock Improvement, and (3) Harvest, Preprocessing, and Logistics, each closely coupled through five integrative, transdisciplinary thrusts in (4) Sustainability Systems, (5) Safety and Health, (6) Extension and (7) Education, all coordinated by (8) an experienced, collaborative Leadership and Evaluation team Thorough formative and summative program evaluation will take place annually, with detailed reporting of effort impacts and efficiencies. The education team will use formative evaluation information to support communication, monitor progress toward goals and objectives, and make necessary improvements throughout the project. Each Extension program will undergo a rigorous evaluation, and will use input from the researchers and stakeholders to increase the impact of the extension program.

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:NEWBio outreach supports the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, case studies, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team that are reaching our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia provided regional hubs for programming and practitioner-focused research, providing support for establishing additional acreage in biomass crops. Activity there included enrollment in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), crop production services, face-to-face outreach, and productive stakeholder communities: • Producers, industry leaders, researchers, policy leaders, and other stakeholders built lasting relationships and gained experiential literacy at hundreds of events. • NEWBio demonstration regions are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: • Locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower • Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops • New businesses such as crop scouting and consultation services for communities of biomass growers Using an innovative scale-up strategy to address capital equipment needs, NEWBio made specialized willow planting and harvest equipment available to producers with the added benefit of expert support and operator experience. This program helped bridge the risk gap for implementing new willow acreage while increasing grower confidence and success in producing willow for biomass. • More than 600 acres of willow were harvested across dozens of sites, yielding more than 11,200 tons of delivered biomass for renewable electricity and heat. Many additional acres were planted but are not yet ready for harvest. • Equipment provided a focal point for experiential learning opportunities for the agricultural community both regionally and nationally, increasing awareness, technical knowledge, operational literacy, and logistic optimization strategies regarding the use of specialized equipment in biomass crop management systems. • The program's equipment now resides with commercial partners, ensuring that both the equipment and operator expertise remain available to the regional agricultural community. NEWBio' work in small business and economic development hinged on sustained, responsive interactions between industry, producers, and our researchers. Extension fostered these collaborations and established a clear path forward for industry growth, beginning where markets are viable with context and a trajectory toward higher-value and more energy-relevant markets. • NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. • Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. • NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development. A particularly strong collaboration in Year Seven was with The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities reached over 800 people during this reporting year. The AWSGP in partnership with NEWBio and Cooperative Extension developed a new absorbent market for switchgrass currently priced at $160/ton, supporting farmers and businesses developing perennial grass. Changes/Problems:During this reporting period the NEWBio team was devastated by the loss if our project manager Barb Kinne. She was the glue that held this team together, and her contributions are deeply missed. While the long term impacts of this loss are immeasurable, one immediate impact has been delayed reporting. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this last year of the project three undergraduate and two graduate students gained research experiences several students previously funded by the project were able to complete their degrees, while postdocs and early career faculty advanced in their career. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In this final year of the project NEWBio extension team member and partners continued to host workshops and field days as well as responded to individual information requests. Scientific publications were widely read and have had increasing impact in many disciplines. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Policy makers, industry investors, and other stakeholders now have regionally relevant prices, costs, and other economic and biophysical information for growing, harvesting and transporting energy crops. Site-specific and regional geospatial analyses evaluated economic and environmental tradeoffs for growing energy crops on land of different types and uses, and are informing attitudes and actions by individuals, businesses, governments and other organizations across the Northeast Landowners, farm managers and others are using NEWBio's open source, user-friendly business planning tools to help decide whether and where to grow energy crops An improved understanding of how landowner attitudes influence participation in bioenergy production has elevated discussion and dialogue across the farm, business, policy, education and research communities. More effective ways to use scientific information and address barriers to stakeholder engagement have been identified and incorporated in design of education and outreach materials Other USDA programs are adopting NEWBio's improved approach to stakeholder engagement: through dialogue and the mutual exchange of information, in contrast to traditional one-way flows of expert information. Bioenergy outreach programs more effectively foster dialogue when experts and prospective landowners exchange views and ideas as equals and use technical data to encourage rather than direct discussions. Materials and activities appropriate for reaching landowners with contrasting perspectives have been disseminated across the region. State and regional policymakers are using the improved understanding of the impact of economic incentives for bioenergy crops, to develop policies and programs to encourage deployment of these crops on economically marginal and environmental vulnerable sites New insights into local economic and social issues affecting future bioenergy development are being used by community and regional planners. Production costs and profitability for growing energy crops have been assessed for different types of marginal land, including droughty soils, streamside buffers, and abandoned minelands. Enhanced understanding of the factors behind landowners' willingness to grow energy crops and acceptable biomass prices is informing business and policy decisions. Price gaps exist between what a landowner will accept, the crop break-even point, and the price that biofuel producers are likely to offer. Ecosystem service payments and other novel financing strategies are being evaluated by industry leaders and government agencies. NEWBio discoveries and innovative management strategies for biomass feedsock production are now incorporated in breeding programs for next generation commercial varieties NEWBio designed and disseminated willow and switchgrass harvesting protocols that producers are now using to improve their operations. Biorefineries and other processors are using NEWBio innovations, demonstrations and evidence-based information to choose the best preprocessing methods for their purposes. NEWBio generated knowledge about ecosystem services and their value, especially for water quality, is being used by state and federal agencies, including the Chesapeake Bay Commission and Pennsylvania's departments of agriculture, environmental protection, and the environmental bonding authority (PENNVest), to develop policies and financial incentives that leverage the potential of a regional bioeconomy based on perennial biomass crops to achieve regional water quality goals. NEWBio developed a new field of information that is already providing real-world benefits for industry management, workers, and the public through workshops, printed materials, videos, and websites. It increased safety awareness and knowledge about industry hazards among workers and management by: developing a Biomass Safety Program with manuals, web pages, and videos for the industry and the public organizing pilot first-responder training and identifying injury exposure risks analyzing fire regulations for small biomass producers The NEWBio team responsively engaged with managers of more than 15,000 acres of switchgrass, miscanthus, and shrub willow. Acreage for all three crops increased in the region. NEWBio demonstration regions in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower. Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops. NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development, for example: The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities have reached over 1,000 people and secured $50,000 in grants supporting farmers and businesses.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Eaton, W.M., M. Burnham, C. C. Hinrichs and T. Selfa. 2017. Bioenergy experts and their imagined ⿿obligatory publics⿝ in the United States: Implications for public engagement and participation. Energy Research and Social Science 25: 65-75.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Burnham, M. Eaton, W.M, T. Selfa, C.C. Hinrichs and A. Feldpausch-Parker. 2017. The politics of imaginaries and bioenergy sub-niches in the emerging northeast U.S. bioenergy economy. Geoforum 82: 66-76.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ligaba-Osena, A., B. Hankoua, K. DiMarco, R. Pace, M. Crocker, J. McAtee, N> Nagachar, M. Tien and T.L. Richard. 2017. Reducing biomass recalicitrance by heterologous expression of a bacterial peroxidase in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana). Scientific Reports 7:17104, https://www.nature.com/srep/ ; doi:10.1038/s41598-017-16909-x
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Langholtz, M., Eaton, L., Davis, M., Shedden, M., Brandt, C., Volk, T., & Richard, T. L. (2019). Economic comparative advantage of willow biomass in the Northeast USA. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 13(1), 74-85.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Calicioglu, O., Shreve, M. J., Richard, T. L. (Author), & Brennan, R. A. (2018). Effect of pH and temperature on microbial community structure and carboxylic acid yield during the acidogenic digestion of duckweed. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 11(1), 275.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Eaton, W.M., M. Burnham, C. C. Hinrichs, T. Selfa and S. Yang. 2018. How do sociocultural factors shape rural landowner responses to the prospect of perennial bioenergy crops? Landscape and Urban Planning 175: 195-204.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ligaba-Osena, A., DiMarco, K., Richard, T. L., & Hankoua, B. (2018). The Maize Corngrass1 miRNA-Regulated Developmental Alterations Are Restored by a Bacterial ADP-Glucose Pyrophosphorylase in Transgenic Tobacco. International Journal of Genomics, 2018, Article ID 8581258. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijg/2018/8581258/. ISBN/ISSN #/Case #/DOI #: doi.org/10.1155/2018/8581258
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Essien, D., Marshall, M. N., Richard, T. L., & Ray, A. E. (2018). Wet corn stover storage: correlating fiber reactivity with storage acids over a wide moisture range. Frontiers in Energy Research, 6, 108. http://doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2018.00108
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Fabio, E.S., Leary, C.J. & Smart, L.B. Tolerance of novel inter-specific shrub willow hybrids to water stress. Trees 33, 1015⿿1026 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-019-01835-4
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Therasme, O.; Eisenbies, M.H.; Volk, T.A. Overhead protection increases fuel quality and natural drying of leaf-on woody biomass storage piles. Forests 2019, 10, 390.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Eisenbies, MH, Volk, TA, de Souza, DPL, Hallen, KW. Cut?and?chip harvester material capacity and fuel performance on commercial?scale willow fields for varying ground and crop conditions. GCB Bioenergy. 2020; 12: 380⿿ 395. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12679
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yang, S.; Volk, T.A.; Fortier, M.-O.P. Willow Biomass Crops Are a Carbon Negative or Low-Carbon Feedstock Depending on Prior Land Use and Transportation Distances to End Users. Energies 2020, 13, 4251.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Therasme, O., Volk, T.A., Eisenbies, M.H., San, H., and Usman N.. 2020. Hot water extracted and non-extracted willow biomass storage performance: fuel quality changes and dry matter losses Frontiers in Energy Research 7:165. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fenrg.2019.00165
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Field J.L., L.R. Lynd, T.L. Richard, E.A.H. Smithwick, H. Cai, M.S. Laser, D.S. LeBauer, S.P. Long, K. Paustian, Z. Qin, J.J. Sheehan, P. Smith, M.Q.L. Wang. 2020. Robust paths to net greenhouse gas mitigation and negative emissions via advanced biofuels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (36) 21968-21977. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920877117
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Eaton, W.M., C. Hinrichs and M. Burnham. 2021. Cultural counterpoints for making sense of changing agricultural and energy landscapes: A Pennsylvania case study. In Energy Impacts: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of North American Energy Development, edited by J. B. Jacquet, J. H. Haggerty, and G. L. Theodori. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press (Sociology Ecology Press Series).
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Bharadwaj, A. 2020. Microbial Adaptation and Cotreatment-Enhanced Biomass Solubilization in Lignocellulosic Anaerobic Digestion. Ph.D. Dissertation. Penn State University, State College, PA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Eaton, W.M., K. Running, M. Burnham, C.C. Hinrichs and T. Selfa. 2019. Symbolic meanings, landowner support, and dedicated bioenergy crops in the rural northeastern United States. Energy Research and Social Science 52: 247-257.


Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:NEWBio outreach supported the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, case studies, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team that have reached our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia provided regional hubs for programming and practitioner-focused research, providing support for establishing additional acreage in biomass crops. Activity there included enrollment in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), crop production services, face-to-face outreach, and productive stakeholder communities: • Producers, industry leaders, researchers, policy leaders, and other stakeholders built lasting relationships and gained experiential literacy at hundreds of events. • The NEWBio team responsively engaged with managers of more than 15,000 acres of switchgrass, miscanthus, and shrub willow. Acreage for all three crops increased in the region; a notable component of this increase was the more than 2,000 new acres of willow and miscanthus installed under BCAP. • NEWBio demonstration regions are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: • Locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower • Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops • New businesses such as crop scouting and consultation services for communities of biomass growers Using an innovative scale-up strategy to address capital equipment needs, NEWBio made specialized willow planting and harvest equipment available to producers with the added benefit of expert support and operator experience. This program helped bridge the risk gap for implementing new willow acreage while increasing grower confidence and success in producing willow for biomass. • More than 1600 acres of willow were harvested across dozens of sites, yielding more than 29,700 tons of delivered biomass for renewable electricity and heat. Many additional acres were planted and will be harvested in the future. • Equipment provided a focal point for experiential learning opportunities for the agricultural community both regionally and nationally, increasing awareness, technical knowledge, operational literacy, and logistic optimization strategies regarding the use of specialized equipment in biomass crop management systems. • The program's equipment now resides with commercial partners, ensuring that both the equipment and operator expertise remain available to the regional agricultural community. NEWBio' work in small business and economic development hinged on sustained, responsive interactions between industry, producers, and our researchers. Extension fostered these collaborations and established a clear path forward for industry growth, beginning where markets are viable with context and a trajectory toward higher-value and more energy-relevant markets. • NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. • Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. • NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development, for example: • The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities reached over 1800 producers, other interested farmers, and consumers. Working with this producer group and their clients, NEWBio helped develope a new absorbent market for switchgrass currently priced at $160/ton, supporting farmers and businesses developing perennial grass. • The Earth Stewards Land Conservancy, a business incubator program providing technical assistance and long-term services to repurpose Appalachian coal mine sites and foster community revitalization. Identification of safety and health hazards that are present in biomass production led to the production of NEWBio's "Assessing Biomass Processing Fire Hazards and Community Fire Response Capabilities. Research was completed on respiratory hazards unique to the biomass industry. NEWBio manuals, and our unique "LearnNow" videos are capturing these processes and are widely available through NEWBio's formal and informal education programs, and via NEWBio's website. NEWBio strengthened the education pipeline and building critical capacity at high school, undergraduate and graduate school levels through practicums and experiential learning opportunities. Our electronic newsletter on NEWBio activities and research findings coupled with articles and news related to biomass and bioenergy was distributed to over 500 contacts monthly, with updates on critical events, learning opportunities and funding announcements as needed. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Northeast Bioenergy Webinar series was widely advertised and available to the general public, but was also frequently attended by team members as the series provided an avenue to distribute research results and extension offerings. The series also provided a platform for team professional development in the critical area of distilling and disseminating science. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students were employed at each NEWBio institution to support activities in the laboratoryand in the field, working closely with a NEWBio Principal Investigator. Students often presented at workshops, field days, symposia and other venues, including high school agricultural science classes and state agricultural expositions. This participation is documented in the "Products" section of the report. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training. Extension material from the project was organized into a multi-fauceted bioenergy extension curriculum. This effort included adding materials, data and multimedia resources to existing Extension Switchgrass, Miscanthus, and Shrub Willow information. The curriculum development included a survey to assess the viability of providing a quarterly biomass report on biomass feedstock pricing. The results of this project will provide a white paper/blueprint for biorefinery growth in Pennsylvania. Penn State Extension continues as technical advisor to the Association of Warm Season Grass Producers. We have developed and disseminated three extension curricula, with drafts based on information developed and compiled during the NEWBio project. Each curriculum corresponds to a full day each on Switchgrass, Miscanthus, or Shrub Willow, collecting NEWBioExtension materials and knowledge into a coherent, readily adaptable format. The curriculum was completed in Summer 2018 and is now available from Penn State PIs Michael Jacobson and Daniel Ciolkosz, who worked with Azawinder Chahal and Matthew McVey, Penn State graduate assistants, to develop this curriculum material. University of Vermont Extension Educator Sue Hawkins completed final reporting and articles for eXtension which are available nationally for training and professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?• Policy makers, industry investors, and other stakeholders now have regionally relevant prices, costs, and other economic and biophysical information for growing, harvesting and transporting energy crops. • Site-specific and regional geospatial analyses evaluated economic and environmental tradeoffs for growing energy crops on land of different types and uses, and are informing attitudes and actions by individuals, businesses, governments and other organizations across the Northeast. • Landowners, farm managers and others are using NEWBio's open source, user-friendly business planning tools to help decide whether and where to grow energy crops. • An improved understanding of how landowner attitudes influence participation in bioenergy production has elevated discussion and dialogue across the farm, business, policy, education and research communities. • More effective ways to use scientific information and address barriers to stakeholder engagement have been identified and incorporated in design of education and outreach materials. • Other USDA programs are adopting NEWBio's improved approach to stakeholder engagement: through dialogue and the mutual exchange of information, in contrast to traditional one-way flows of expert information. Bioenergy outreach programs more effectively foster dialogue when experts and prospective landowners exchange views and ideas as equals and use technical data to encourage rather than direct discussions. • Materials and activities appropriate for reaching landowners with contrasting perspectives have been disseminated across the region. • State and regional policymakers are using the improved understanding of the impact of economic incentives for bioenergy crops, to develop policies and programs to encourage deployment of these crops on economically marginal and environmental vulnerable sites. • New insights into local economic and social issues affecting future bioenergy development are being used by community and regional planners. • Production costs and profitability for growing energy crops have been assessed for different types of marginal land, including droughty soils, streamside buffers, and abandoned minelands. • Enhanced understanding of the factors behind landowners' willingness to grow energy crops and acceptable biomass prices is informing business and policy decisions. Price gaps exist between what a landowner will accept, the crop break-even point, and the price that biofuel producers are likely to offer. Ecosystem service payments and other novel financing strategies are being evaluated by industry leaders and government agencies. • NEWBio discoveries and innovative management strategies for biomass feedsock production are now incorporated in breeding programs for next generation commercial varieties. • NEWBio designed and disseminated willow and switchgrass harvesting protocols that producers are now using to improve their operations. • Biorefineries and other processors are using NEWBio innovations, demonstrations and evidence-based information to choose the best preprocessing methods for their purposes. • NEWBio generated knowledge about ecosystem services and their value, especially for water quality, is being used by state and federal agencies, including the Chesapeake Bay Commission and Pennsylvania's departments of agriculture, environmental protection, and the environmental bonding authority (PENNVest), to develop policies and financial incentives that leverage the potential of a regional bioeconomy based on perennial biomass crops to achieve regional water quality goals. • NEWBio developed a new field of information that is already providing real-world benefits for industry management, workers, and the public through workshops, printed materials, videos, and websites. It increased safety awareness and knowledge about industry hazards among workers and management by: • developing a Biomass Safety Program with manuals, web pages, and videos for the industry and the public • organizing pilot first-responder training and identifying injury exposure risks • analyzing fire regulations for small biomass producers • The NEWBio team responsively engaged with managers of more than 15,000 acres of switchgrass, miscanthus, and shrub willow. Acreage for all three crops increased in the region. • NEWBio demonstration regions in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: • locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower. • Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops. • NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. • Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. • NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development, for example: • The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities havereached over 1,800 people and secured $50,000 in grants supporting farmers and businesses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the last five years a consortium of leading universities, national laboratories, private businesses, government, and nongovernmental organizations worked together in eight task areas to advance sustainable bioenergy in the Northeastern United States. Human Systems Driving the Bioeconomy Transition. The team uncovered many of the socio-cultural factors that influence land managers' responses to the local production of bioenergy crops and bioenergy industry development. They also identified prices and other economic factors influencinglandowner interest in growing energy crops on marginal lands. Policy makers, industry investors, and other stakeholders nowhave regionally relevant prices, costs, and other economic and biophysical information for growing, harvesting, and transporting energy crops. Landowners, farm managers, and others are using NEWBio's open source, user-friendly business planning tools to help decide whether and where to grow energy crops. Social acceptability has important implications for production of bioenergy crops and siting of biomass projects. NEWBio developed and piloted an improved approach to stakeholder engagement through dialogue and the mutual exchange of information. Feedstock Improvement for Perennial Energy Crops. The NEWBio Feedstock Improvement Team's work in developing varieties of switchgrass and shrub willow that producers can grow successfully and profitably strengthens the industry's foundation and improves its future prospects. The team developed varieties of shrub willow (species in the genus Salix) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) that perform better and can be grown on a wider range of marginal lands in the Northeast. Commercializing these varieties will provide bioenergy crops that have more reliable yields and growers with greater profitability. Genomic tools were developed to accelerate the breeding ofnew high yielding varieties; New varieties of willow and switchgrass produced through breeding and selection are likely to improve yields by 20 percent over existing commercial varieties. Harvesting, Preprocessing, and Logistics of Integrated Biomass Supply Chains. Harvesting, preprocessing, and storing biomass and then transporting it to biorefineries or other end users accounts for more than half the cost of the delivered product. The team developed strategies to reduce these costs up to 20 percent. Our public database can be used by producers and processors, along with government agencies and the general public, in their own operations to become more efficient and to reduce production costs along the bioenergy supply chain. The team monitored large-scale harvesting operations that provided some of the first large scale harvesting and logistics data for these crops in the U.S. This data is essential for optimizing these systems from both an economic and environmental impact point of view using life cycle analysis. System Performance and Sustainability Metrics: Drawing the Big Picture: Sustainability and the Biomass Industry. To understand the range of possible impacts and then optimize the economic and environmental performance andsustainability of biomass-to-biofuel systems, NEWBio team members applied a combination of measurements and simulations to develop benchmark scenarios, and integrated that information into sustainability impact analyses. The team looked at the environmental impacts of different production systems, and investigated how society might support beneficial environmental effects that are accounted for in the market price, through an assessment of payments for ecosystem services. Information about perennial energy crops' ability to store carbon is increasingly valuable to government agencies and land managers who are looking for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land. Likewise, reducing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is increasingly relevant because it is mostly emitted by the agricultural sector of the economy. Safety and Health in Biomass Feedstock Production and Processing Operations. Producing industrial scale biomass has a unique set of safety and health issues. Specific information is now available to thevbiomass industry because of NEWBio's work. As the industry grows and more farmers look to produce and process thesevmaterials, the need for safety and health planning and awareness also grows. NEWBio developed a new field of informationvthat is already providing real-world benefits for industry management, workers, and the public by developing a Biomass SafetyvProgram with manuals, web pages, and videos for the industry and the public, organizing pilot first-responder training and identifying injury exposure risks, and analyzing fire regulations for small biomass producers. Sharing Knowledge through Extension and Outreach. NEWBio Extension efforts advanced the development of various biomass supply chains in the Northeast by responsively linking stakeholders and practitioners with the work and proceedings of NEWBio's technical research teams and government incentive programs. The team established and maintained productive partnerships between a diverse set of stakeholders across three demonstration regions, which became focal points for cooperative research with industry as well as face-to-face programming and community engagement on topics related to business development, new markets, specialized equipment, production best practices, and newly identified biomass supply chain barriers. Products and resources informed by the needs, interests, and knowledge gaps identified by industry and other stakeholders were developed and archived. The flexible portfolio established through this process could both nimbly adapt to the evolving needs of the project and meld with existing resource archives, ensuring impact beyond the life of the NEWBio project. Educating the Next Generation of Bioenergy Leaders: Building an Education Pipeline for the Biomass Industry. To prepare future leaders, the team developed programs designed to provide education efficiently and cost-effectively to the region's stakeholders. These programs leveraged existing educational infrastructure throughout the NEWBio region to build a legacy of knowledge and experiences. Teacher workshops provided an in-depth introduction to bioenergy and sustainabilityconcepts and principles, and taught important STEM content to 64 K-12 teachers; Ninety teachers, primarily secondary teachers in public schools, received sample curricula for bioenergy lessons and activities, along with a packet of materials and samples to use with their students. Bioenergy Scholars, 37 college-level undergraduates, attended summer-long research education programs in bioenergy and bioenergy research. They each developed a research project with mentors at a NEWBio partner institution and received ongoing instruction in science communication. A total of 113 scholarships were provided for graduate-level coursework in bioenergy, delivered online via Penn State's World Campus. These working professionals lived in 56 geographic areas, including India, England, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, as well as the states of California, Michigan,Wisconsin, and the Northeast. Online courses provided advanced professional-development instruction in the areas of bioenergy systems, biomass feedstocks, biomass harvest and logistics, and bioenergy conversion processes. Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action, and Program Evaluation. Through interdisciplinary collaborations among universities and engagement with external stakeholders and institutions, NEWBio aligned the science and scientific products it produces with the needs of society. The team has been able to communicate and collaborate across a number of geographically dispersed institutions of higher education and research.

Publications

  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: DeVallance, D., X. Xie, T. Wang, J. Wang. 2020. Advancements in Thermochemical Modification of Wood for Bioenergy and Biomaterial Applications. pp 207-232. In: Practices and Perspectives in Sustainable Bioenergy: A Systems Thinking Approach. M. Mitra and A. Nagchaudhuri ed. Springer. ISBN 978-81-322-3965-9
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Wang, K., X. Xie, J. Jiang, J. Wang. 2016. Enhanced enzymatic saccharification of shrub willow using sulfolane pretreatment. Cellulose 23: 11531163.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Woodbury, P.B.,M. Langholtz, M. Jacobson, and A.R. Kemanian (2018). Improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay using payments for ecosystem services for perennial bioenergy feedstock production. Special Issue Biomass and Bioenergy 114:132-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.01.024
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Fabio, E.S., T.A. Volk, R.O. Miller, M.J. Serapiglia, H.G. Gauch, K.C.J. Van Rees, R.D. Hangs, B.Y. Amichev, Y.A. Kuzovkina, M. Labrecque, G.A. Johnson, R.G. Ewy, G.J. Kling et L.B. Smart. 2016. Genotype by environment interactions analysis of North American shrub willow yield trials confirms superior performance of triploid hybrids. GCB Bioenergy, 9: 445-459
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Saha, D., B. Rau, J.P. Kaye, F.R. Montes, P.R. Adler and A.R. Kemanian. Landscape control of nitrous oxide emissions during the transition from conservation reserve program to perennial grasses for bioenergy. GCB Bioenergy (2017)9, 783795, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12395
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bressler, A., P. Vidon, P. Hirsch, T.A. Volk. 2017. Valuation of ecosystem services of commercial shrub willow (Salix spp.) woody biomass crops. Environmental monitoring and assessment 189 (4), 137.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Tarves, P. C.; Serapiglia, M.; Mullen, C.A.; Boateng, A.A. ; Volk, T.A. Effects of Hot Water Extraction Pretreatment on Pyrolysis of Shrub Willow. Biomass and Bioenergy 2017 107:299-304
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bj�rnebo, L.; Spatari, S.; Gurian, P. L., A greenhouse gas abatement framework for investment in district heating. Applied Energy 2018, 211, 1095-1105
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Montes, F., Fabio, E.S., Smart, L.B., Richard, T., A��, R.M. and Kemanian, A. (2021), A semi?commercial case study of willow biomass production in the northeastern USA. Agron. J. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20603


Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:NEWBio outreach supports the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, case studies, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team that are reaching our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia provided regional hubs for programming and practitioner-focused research, providing support for establishing additional acreage in biomass crops. Activity there included enrollment in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), crop production services, face-to-face outreach, and productive stakeholder communities: • Producers, industry leaders, researchers, policy leaders, and other stakeholders built lasting relationships and gained experiential literacy at hundreds of events. • The NEWBio team responsively engaged with managers of more than 15,000 acres of switchgrass, miscanthus, and shrub willow. Acreage for all three crops increased in the region; a notable component of this increase was the more than 2,000 new acres of willow and miscanthus installed under BCAP. • NEWBio demonstration regions are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: • Locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower • Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops • New businesses such as crop scouting and consultation services for communities of biomass growers Using an innovative scale-up strategy to address capital equipment needs, NEWBio made specialized willow planting and harvest equipment available to producers with the added benefit of expert support and operator experience. This program helped bridge the risk gap for implementing new willow acreage while increasing grower confidence and success in producing willow for biomass. • More than 400 acres of willow were harvested across dozens of sites, yielding more than 7,500 tons of delivered biomass for renewable electricity and heat. Many additional acres were planted but are not yet ready for harvest. • Equipment provided a focal point for experiential learning opportunities for the agricultural community both regionally and nationally, increasing awareness, technical knowledge, operational literacy, and logistic optimization strategies regarding the use of specialized equipment in biomass crop management systems. • The program's equipment now resides with commercial partners, ensuring that both the equipment and operator expertise remain available to the regional agricultural community. NEWBio' work in small business and economic development hinged on sustained, responsive interactions between industry, producers, and our researchers. Extension fostered these collaborations and established a clear path forward for industry growth, beginning where markets are viable with context and a trajectory toward higher-value and more energy-relevant markets. • NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. • Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. • NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development, for example: • The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities reached over 1,000 people the past year, and developed a new absorbent market for switchgrass currently priced at $150/ton, supporting farmers and businesses developing perennial grass. • The Earth Stewards Land Conservancy, a business incubator program providing technical assistance and long-term services to repurpose Appalachian coal mine sites and foster community revitalization. Identification of safety and health hazards that are present in biomass production led to the production of NEWBio's "Assessing Biomass Processing Fire Hazards and Community Fire Response Capabilities. Research was completed on respiratory hazards unique to the biomass industry. NEWBio manuals, and our unique "LearnNow" videos are capturing these processes and are widely available through NEWBio's formal and informal education programs, and via NEWBio's website. NEWBio strengthened the education pipeline and building critical capacity at high school, undergraduate and graduate school levels through practicums and experiential learning opportunities. Our electronic newsletter on NEWBio activities and research findings coupled with articles and news related to biomass and bioenergy was distributed to over 500 contacts monthly, with updates on critical events, learning opportunities and funding announcements as needed. Changes/Problems:While the team made tremendous progress toward our objectives, NEWBio also faced stiff headwinds. Chief among these was the continuing low cost of petroleum, which was more than $100 per barrel when we initiated the project and through most of NEWBio's first year but then plummeted at the end of 2014 to less than $50 per barrel, at while there have been some modest increases during the last five years these have been temporary; at the end of 2018 the price is still about $50 per barrel. Coupled with low prices for other fossil fuels and inconsistent market and policy signals,investors were reluctant to make the substantial financial commitments cellulosic biorefineries require. With the guidance of our stakeholders, NEWBio adapted to this changing environment by exploring supply chains for a range of near-term and mid-term biomass markets, as well as evaluating non-market opportunities to integrate biomass crops in agricultural systems for soil health, biodiversity, and water quality benefits. The flexibility to adapt research, extension, and education programs to these changing circumstances generated a host of valuable outcomes with greatly increased relevance and impact. We are pursuing the most promising of these alternatives, perennial crops on riparian buffers, and assessing the landscape for low-profit riparian zones that are subject to frequent flooding. Such sites will provide both economic and environmental advantages to perennial crops. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Northeast Bioenergy Webinar series is available to the general public, but was also frequently attended by team members as the series is an avenue to distribute research results and extension offerings. The series also provided a platform for team professional development in the critical area of distilling and disseminating science. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students were employed at each NEWBio institution to support activities in the laboratory and in the field, working closely with a NEWBio Principal Investigator. Students often presented at workshops, field days, symposia and other venues, including high school agricultural science classes and state agricultural expositions. This participation is documented in the "Products" section of the report. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training. During 2018 we mounted a substantial effort to organize the material from the project into a multi-fauceted bioenergy extension curriculum. This effort includes adding materials, data and multimedia resources to existing Extension Switchgrass, Miscanthus, and Shrub Willow information. The curriculum development included a survey to assess the viability of providing a quarterly biomass report on biomass feedstock pricing. The results of this project will provide a white paper/blueprint for biorefinery growth in Pennsylvania. Penn State Extension will also continue as technical advisor to the Association of Switchgrass Growers Group by assisting with completion of a grower inventory and a survey of growers, funding for which was received through a SARE grant. We have focused on three extension curricula, with drafts based on information developed and compiled during the NEWBio project. Each curriculum corresponds to a full day each on Switchgrass, Miscanthus, or Shrub Willow, collecting NEWBio Extension materials and knowledge into a coherent, readily adaptable format. The curriculum was completed in Summer 2018 and is now available from the authors. Penn State PIs Michael Jacobson and Daniel Ciolkosz worked with Azawinder Chahal and Matthew McVey, Penn State graduate assistants, to develop this curriculum material. University of Vermont Extension Educator Sue Hawkins completed final reporting and articles for eXtension, and assisted the Market Analysis Factsheet for Biomass Growers: Example Analyses of the Wood Chips and Paperboard Manufacturing Industries (see Biomass Product Markets section above). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NEWBio actively engaged in local conference and field activities, and we were successful in utilizing online and social media to increase awareness and build capacity in the bioeconomy pipeline. The online presence is, ultimately, an adjunct to many other activities. In Year Six, we published 13 peer-reviewed articles (two are still in-press) and one masters and one doctoral dissertations. Team members presented at professional conferences across the US and internationally. A particularly important examples was the Mid-Atlantic Biomass Expo (MABEX), which NEWBio co-sponsored in cooperation with the Pennsylvania State Wood Energy Team and the Mid-Atlantic Biomass Council, a regional trade organization. Other major venues where the display of NEWBio materials and the opportunity for interaction included the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January 2018, and Ag Progress Days in Rock Springs, PA and Empire Farm Days, in Seneca Falls, NY, both occurring in August. Woody byproducts activities included a symposium in Morgantown WV tentatively on April 30/March 1, 2018 entitled Opportunities for Underutilized Wood in the Northeast. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The primary focus of our final no-cost extension year is to demonstrate the synergy between sub-field economics, and specifically the low profitability of annual crops because of flood and drought risk on riparian and steep slopes respectively, and the opportunities to develop multi-functional riparian buffers and perennial strip crops patterned on the landscape. We have installed two vegetative buffer demonstrations, one on an upland slope and the other adjacent to a spring, and have planted 3 mixtures of perennial grasses as well as an annual crop (maize) control. These plots will intensively monitored for impacts on soil and water quality as well as yield. These plots were designed in close cooperation with our NEWBio industrial partners Ernst Conservation Seeds and FDC Enterprises, as well as with other NEWBio stakeholders from NRCS and state agencies. We are actively exploring implementation funding opportunities with state and federal agencies including Pennsylvania's environmental bonding organization PennVEST. We are also continuing work with willow, with our second full-scale harvest planned this winter on the high visability 30 acre demonstration field along Interstate 99 in central Pennsylvania.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the last five years a consortium of leading universities, national laboratories, private businesses, government, and nongovernmental organizations worked together in eight task areas to advance sustainable bioenergy in the Northeastern United States. Human Systems Driving the Bioeconomy Transition The team uncovered many of the socio-cultural factors that influence land managers' responses to the local production of bioenergy crops and bioenergy industry development. They also identified prices and other economic factors influencing landowner interest in growing energy crops on marginal lands. Policy makers, industry investors, and other stakeholders now have regionally relevant prices, costs, and other economic and biophysical information for growing, harvesting, and transporting energy crops. Landowners, farm managers, and others are using NEWBio's open source, user-friendly business planning tools to help decide whether and where to grow energy crops. Social acceptability has important implications for production of bioenergy crops and siting of biomass projects. NEWBio developed and piloted an improved approach to stakeholder engagement through dialogue and the mutual exchange of information. Feedstock Improvement for Perennial Energy Crops The NEWBio Feedstock Improvement Team's work in developing varieties of switchgrass and shrub willow that producers can grow successfully and profitably strengthens the industry's foundation and improves its future prospects. The team developed varieties of shrub willow (species in the genus Salix) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) that perform better and can be grown on a wider range of marginal lands in the Northeast. Commercializing these varieties will provide bioenergy crops that have more reliable yields and growers with greater profitability. Genomic tools were developed to accelerate the breeding of new high yielding varieties; New varieties of willow and switchgrass produced through breeding and selection are likely to improve yields by 20 percent over existing commercial varieties. Harvesting, Preprocessing, and Logistics of Integrated Biomass Supply Chains Harvesting, preprocessing, and storing biomass and then transporting it to biorefineries or other end users accounts for more than half the cost of the delivered product. The team developed strategies to reduce these costs up to 20 percent. Our public database can be used by producers and processors, along with government agencies and the general public, in their own operations to become more efficient and to reduce production costs along the bioenergy supply chain. The team monitored large-scale harvesting operations that provided some of the first large scale harvesting and logistics data for these crops in the U.S. This data is essential for optimizing these systems from both an economic and environmental impact point of view using life cycle analysis. System Performance and Sustainability Metrics: Drawing the Big Picture: Sustainability and the Biomass Industry To understand the range of possible impacts and then optimize the economic and environmental performance and sustainability of biomass-to-biofuel systems, NEWBio team members applied a combination of measurements and simulations to develop benchmark scenarios, and integrated that information into sustainability impact analyses. The team looked at the environmental impacts of different production systems, and investigated how society might support beneficial environmental effects that are accounted for in the market price, through an assessment of payments for ecosystem services. Information about perennial energy crops' ability to store carbon is increasingly valuable to government agencies and land managers who are looking for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land. Likewise, reducing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is increasingly relevant because it is mostly emitted by the agricultural sector of the economy. Safety and Health in Biomass Feedstock Production and Processing Operations Producing industrial scale biomass has a unique set of safety and health issues. Specific information is now available to the biomass industry because of NEWBio's work. As the industry grows and more farmers look to produce and process these materials, the need for safety and health planning and awareness also grows. NEWBio developed a new field of information that is already providing real-world benefits for industry management, workers, and the public by developing a Biomass Safety Program with manuals, web pages, and videos for the industry and the public, organizing pilot first-responder training and identifying injury exposure risks, and analyzing fire regulations for small biomass producers. Sharing Knowledge through Extension and Outreach NEWBio Extension efforts advanced the development of various biomass supply chains in the Northeast by responsively linking stakeholders and practitioners with the work and proceedings of NEWBio's technical research teams and government incentive programs. The team established and maintained productive partnerships between a diverse set of stakeholders across three demonstration regions, which became focal points for cooperative research with industry as well as face-to-face programming and community engagement on topics related to business development, new markets, specialized equipment, production best practices, and newly identified biomass supply chain barriers. Products and resources informed by the needs, interests, and knowledge gaps identified by industry and other stakeholders were developed and archived. The flexible portfolio established through this process could both nimbly adapt to the evolving needs of the project and meld with existing resource archives, ensuring impact beyond the life of the NEWBio project. Educating the Next Generation of Bioenergy Leaders: Building an Education Pipeline for the Biomass Industry To prepare future leaders, the team developed programs designed to provide education efficiently and cost-effectively to the region's stakeholders. These programs leveraged existing educational infrastructure throughout the NEWBio region to build a legacy of knowledge and experiences. Teacher workshops provided an in-depth introduction to bioenergy and sustainability concepts and principles, and taught important STEM content to 64 K-12 teachers; Ninety teachers, primarily secondary teachers in public schools, received sample curricula for bioenergy lessons and activities, along with a packet of materials and samples to use with their students. Bioenergy Scholars, 37 college-level undergraduates, attended summer-long research education programs in bioenergy and bioenergy research. They each developed a research project with mentors at a NEWBio partner institution and received ongoing instruction in science communication. A total of 113 scholarships were provided for graduate-level coursework in bioenergy, delivered online via Penn State's World Campus. These working professionals lived in 56 geographic areas, including India, England, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, as well as the states of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Northeast. Online courses provided advanced professional-development instruction in the areas of bioenergy systems, biomass feedstocks, biomass harvest and logistics, and bioenergy conversion processes. Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action, and Program Evaluation Through interdisciplinary collaborations among universities and engagement with external stakeholders and institutions, NEWBio aligned the science and scientific products it produces with the needs of society. The team has been able to communicate and collaborate across a number of geographically dispersed institutions of higher education and research.

Publications

  • Type: Books Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Townsend, P.A., N. Haider, L. Boby, J. Heavey, T.A. Miller, T.A. Volk. In press. A roadmap for poplar and willow to provide environmental services and build the bioeconomy. Washington State University (Peer Reviewed). 34pp.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Langholtz, M., L. Eaton, M. Davis, M. Shedden, T. Volk, T. Richard. 2018. Economic comparative advantage of willow biomass in the Northeast USA. Biofpr DOI: 10.1002/bbb.1939
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yang, S, T.A. Volk, M-O Fortier. Submitted for review. Willow biomass crops are carbon sequestration systems or low-carbon fuel sources depending on prior land use. Global Change Biology Bioenergy
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Frank, J., Brown, T. Volk, T.A. Heavey, P., Malmsheimer, R. 2018. A stochastic techno-economic analysis of shrub willow production using EcoWillow 3.0S. Biofpr. DOI: 10.1002/bbb.1897
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Brown, T.R., H. Ha, R. Quinn, M.-O. Fortier, T. Volk, R. Malmsheimer. Integrated TEA/LCA of Lignocellulosic Feedstock Systems for Bioenergy Applications. MABEX 2018, Philadelphia, PA. September 12, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Frank, J., Brown, T., Volk, T., Malmsheimer, B., & Heavey, J. 2017. A Stochastic Techno-Economic Model for Quantifying the Economic Cost of Cellulosic Bioenergy Pathways in the Northeast U.S. Presentation at the Annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Conference. Minneapolis, MN, November 2nd.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Frank, J., Brown, T., Volk, T., Malmsheimer, B., & Heavey, J. 2017. A Stochastic Techno-Economic Model for Quantifying the Economic Cost of Cellulosic Bioenergy Pathways in the Northeast U.S. Poster presentation at the Annual Mid-Atlantic Biomass Conference and Expo (MABEX). Penn State, PA, September 13th.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Frank, J., Brown, T., Volk, T., Malmsheimer, B., & Heavey, J. 2017. A Stochastic Techno-Economic Model for Quantifying the Economic Cost of Cellulosic Bioenergy Pathways in the Northeast U.S. Poster presentation at Syracuse Center of Excellence. Syracuse, NY, October 13th. Note: Poster awarded first place for "best poster among graduate students" by a panel of judges.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Boby, L., P. Townsend, T. Miller, N. Haider, J. Heavey & T. Volk. 2017. A Roadmap for Poplar and Willow to Provide Environmental Services and Produce Renewable Fuels in the United States European Biomass Conference and Exhibition. June 12-15, Stockholm, Sweden.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kar, S., P. Billen, B. Katz, S. Yang, T.A. Volk, S. Spatari. 2017. Quantifying temporal effects of various GHG abatement strategies for conventional and district heating. North American Waste to Energy Conference, April 23-26, Minneapolis, MN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kar, S., P. Billen, B. Katz, S. Yang, T.A. Volk, S. Spatari. 2017. A comparative temporal analysis of GHG emissions from conventional and district heating using forest biomass, energy crops and natural gas I n New York and New England. Mid Atlantic Biomass Energy Conference. Sept 12  14, State College PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ciolkosz, D., V. Kalavacharla, T. Richard, S. Bonos, D. Devallance, D. Dietrich, S. Hritz, M. Johnson, T. Johnson, C. Rutzke, L. Smart, T. Volk and J. Wang. Bioenergy education to enable and empower the region. Mid Atlantic Biomass Energy Conference. Sept 12  14, State College PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wang, J., T. Richard, T. Volk, L. Smart, D. Hartley, D. Ciolkosz, S. Wurzbacher, S. Spatari, J. Liu, A. Kemanian and D. Mortensen. Techno-economic life cycle analysis of biomass for bioproducts- case studies. Mid Atlantic Biomass Energy Conference. Sept 12  14, State College PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wang, J., K. Boateng, T. Brown, D. Ciolkosz, K. DiMarco, M. Eisenbies, D. Hartley, J. Liu, T. Richard, S. Spatari, T. Volk. Harvesting, preprocessing and logistics of integrated biomass supply chains. Mid Atlantic Biomass Energy Conference. Sept 12  14, State College PA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Zhou, R., D. Macaya-Sanz, E. Rodgers-Melnick, C.H. Carlson, F.E. Gouker, L.M. Evans, J. Schmutz, J.W. Jenkins, J. Yan, G.A. Tuskan, L.B. Smart, S.P. DiFazio. 2018. Characterization of a large sex determination region in Salix purpurea L, (Salicaceae), Molecular Genetics and Genomics 293(6):1437-1452. doi:10.1007/s00438-018-1473-y.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wang, Yuxi, Jingxin Wang, Damon Hartley, and Jamie Schuler. Optimization of Multiple Biomass Feedstock Supply Chains in the Northeastern United States. 6th International Forest Engineering Conference. April 19, 2018 Rotorua, New Zealand.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Essien, D. and T.L. Richard. 2018. Wet ensiled storage enhances pretreatment and bioconversion of corn stover. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. In press.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Essien, D. M. Marshall, T.L. Richard, and A. Ray.. 2018. Corn stover reactivity to cellulolytic enzymes after wet storage. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. In press.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wolfe, M.L. and T.L. Richard. 2017. 21st century engineering for on-farm food-energy-water systems. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 18:69-76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2017.10.005
  • Type: Books Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Eigenbrode, S. D., T. Martin, L. Wright Morton, J. Colletti, P. Goodwin, R. Gustafson, D. Hawthorne, A. Johnson, J. T. Klein, L. Mercado, S. Pearl, T.L. Richard, and M. Wolcott. 2017. Leading large transdisciplinary projects addressing social-ecological systems: A primer for project directors. 69 pp. Available at: https://nifa.usda.gov/leading-transdisciplinary-projects
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Sciaudone, K.S., Richard, T.L. and D. Muth. 2017. The impact of bioenergy crops on water quality and profitability of small to midsize farms in Pennsylvania. Presented at MABEX Conference & Expo, September 12-14, State College, PA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fabio, E.S. and Smart, L.B. 2018. Effects of nitrogen fertilization in shrub willow short rotation coppice production - A quantitative review. GCB Bioenergy. 10:8 DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12507
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Smart, L.B., Fabio, E.S., Kemanian, A.R., Richards, B.K., Feinstein, J., Carlson, C.H. and Montes, F. "Optimizing nutrient uptake in shrub willow and switchgrass to provide multiple ecosystem services" 2018 Mid-Atlantic Bioenergy Conference & Expo, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Sept. 12-14, 2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fabio, E.S. and Smart, L.B "Genetic and Environmental Effects on Variability in First-rotation Shrub Willow Bark and Wood Elemental Composition", 2018 Woody Crops International Conference, Rhinelander, WI, USA, July 23-25, 2018.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Songsomboon, K. 2018. Breeding switchgrass for resistance to Bipolaris diseases (doctoral dissertation. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (ID: 10954). https://doi.org/10.7298/X4BZ6490
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Songsomboon K., Crawford R., Crawford J., Hansen J., Mattson N., Bergstrom G., and Viands D. 2018. Genome-Wide Associations with Resistance to Bipolaris Leaf Spot (Bipolaris oryzae (Breda de Haan) Shoemaker) in a Northern Switchgrass Population (Panicum virgatum L.). bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/424721
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Clifton-Brown J., Harfouche A., Casler M., Jones H. D., Macalpine W. J., Murphy-Bokern D., Smart L. B., Adler A., Ashman C., Awty-Carroll D., Bopper S., Botnari V., Chen Z., Cosentino S. L., Dalton S., Davey C., Dolstra O., Donnison I., Flavell R., Greef J., Hanley S., Hastings A., Hertzberg M., Hsu T., Huang L. S., Iurato A., Jensen E., Jin X., J�rgensen U., Kiesel A., Kim D., Liu J., McCalmont J., McMahon B., Mos M., Robson P., Sacks E., Sandu A., Scalici G., Schwarz K., Scordia D., Shafiei R., Shield I., Slavov G. T., Stanton B., Swaminathan K., Taylor G., Torres A. F., Trindade L. M., Tschaplinski T., Tuskan G. A., Yamada T., Yu C., Zalesny R., Zong J., and Lewandowski I. 2018. Breeding progress and preparedness for mass upscaling of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar. GCB Bioenergy DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12566.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Zhou, R., Macaya-Sanz, D., Rodgers-Melnick, E., Carlson, C.H., Gouker, F.E., Evens, L.M., Schmutz, J., Jenkins, J.W., Yan, J., Tuskan, G.A., Smart, L.B., and DiFazio, S.P. 2018. Characterization of a large sex determination region in Salix purpurea L. (Salicaceae). Mol. Gen. Genomics DOI: 10.1007/s00438-018-1473-y
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Fabio, E.S. and Smart, L.B. 2018. Differential growth response to fertilization treatments of ten elite shrub willow (Salix spp.) bioenergy cultivars. Trees. DOI: 10.1007/s00468-018-1695-y
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Volk, T.A., B. Berguson, C. Daly, M. Halbleib, R. Miller, T. Rials, L.P. Abrahamson, D. Buchman, M. Cunningham, M. Eisenbies, E.S. Fabio, K. Hallen, J. Heavey, G. Johnson, Y. Kuzovkina, B. Liu, B. McMahon, R. Rousseau, S. Shi, R. Shuren, L.B. Smart, G. Stanosz, B. Stanton, B. Stokes, and J. Wright. (2018) Poplar and shrub willow energy crops in the United States: Field trial results from the multiyear Regional Feedstock Partnership and yield potential maps based on the PRISM-ELM model. GCB Bioenergy. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12498.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Smart,L.B., Craig Carlson, Fred Gouker, Dustin Wilkerson, Chase Crowell, Chris Smart, Yongwook Choi, Agnes Chan, Chris Town, Ran Zhou, Steve DiFazio. Dissecting the genomic basis for triploid heterosis and disease resistance in willow hybrids, DOE Genomic Science Program Annual Meeting, Tysons Corners, VA, Feb. 27, 2018. Invited plenary talk.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Sciaudone, K. 2018. Impacts of vegetative buffers and winter crops on water quality and profitability of small to midsize farms in Pennsylvania. Masters Thesis, Penn State University.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Herbstritt, S. K. Sciaudone, V. Vazhnik, D. Muth, F. Montes, A.R. Kemanian, J; Duncan, and T.L. Richard. 2018. Planting native perennial grasses in multifunctional riparian buffers for water quality and farm profitability. Presented at Institute of Biological Engineering annual meeting, April 5  April 7, 2018, Norfolk, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Herbstritt, S., K. Sciaudone, V. Vazhnik, D. Muth, F. Montes, A.R. Kemanian, J. Duncan, and T.L. Richard. 2018. Planting native perennial grasses in multifunctional riparian buffers for water quality and farm profitability. Presented at Energy Days May 30  31, 2018, State College, PA.


Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:NEWBio outreach supports the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, case studies, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team that are reaching our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia provided regional hubs for programming and practitioner-focused research, providing support for establishing additional acreage in biomass crops. Activity there included enrollment in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), crop production services, face-to-face outreach, and productive stakeholder communities: Producers, industry leaders, researchers, policy leaders, and other stakeholders built lasting relationships and gained experiential literacy at hundreds of events. The NEWBio team responsively engaged with managers of more than 15,000 acres of switchgrass, miscanthus, and shrub willow. Acreage for all three crops increased in the region; a notable component of this increase was the more than 2,000 new acres of willow and miscanthus installed under BCAP. NEWBio demonstration regions are now recognized success stories for the industry, providing lasting models of: Locally integrated supply chains for bioproducts and biopower Reclamation of degraded land with perennial biomass crops New businesses such as crop scouting and consultation services for communities of biomass growers Using an innovative scale-up strategy to address capital equipment needs, NEWBio made specialized willow planting and harvest equipment available to producers with the added benefit of expert support and operator experience. This program helped bridge the risk gap for implementing new willow acreage while increasing grower confidence and success in producing willow for biomass. More than 400 acres of willow were harvested across dozens of sites, yielding more than 7,500 tons of delivered biomass for renewable electricity and heat. Many additional acres were planted but are not yet ready for harvest. Equipment provided a focal point for experiential learning opportunities for the agricultural community both regionally and nationally, increasing awareness, technical knowledge, operational literacy, and logistic optimization strategies regarding the use of specialized equipment in biomass crop management systems. The program's equipment now resides with commercial partners, ensuring that both the equipment and operator expertise remain available to the regional agricultural community. NEWBio' work in small business and economic development hinged on sustained, responsive interactions between industry, producers, and our researchers. Extension fostered these collaborations and established a clear path forward for industry growth, beginning where markets are viable with context and a trajectory toward higher-value and more energy-relevant markets. NEWBio provided a conceptual framework for a multi-tier biomass supply chain, risk assessments, and business models for the bioeconomy. Dozens of regional biomass businesses used NEWBio courses and programs to explore new ideas and markets, build partnerships and agreements, and improve operations. NEWBio engagement spurred new collaborative partnerships focused on biomass market expansion and economic development, for example: The Association of Warm-Season Grass Producers (AWSGP), a market-focused producer group whose activities have reached over 1,000 people and secured $50,000 in grants supporting farmers and businesses. The Earth Stewards Land Conservancy, a business incubator program providing technical assistance and long-term services to repurpose Appalachian coal mine sites and foster community revitalization. Identification of safety and health hazards that are present in biomass production led to the production of NEWBio's "Assessing Biomass Processing Fire Hazards and Community Fire Response Capabilities. Research continues on respiratory hazards unique to the biomass industry. NEWBio manuals, and our unique "LearnNow" videos are capturing these processes and are widely available through NEWBio's formal and informal education programs, and via NEWBio's website. NEWBio strengthened the education pipeline and building critical capacity at high school, undergraduate and graduate school levels through practicums and experiential learning opportunities: Secondary Educator Training (high school teachers attend a one-week workshop for training on bioenergy concepts who in turn teach the same to their students), Bioenergy Scholars (undergraduate students are assigned to one of the NEWBio partner institutions for an intensive 8-week research experience), and Graduate Distance Education (bioenergy curricula developed specifically for online delivery). Training materials and lessons were reconfigured and adapted into a first-of-its-kind youth extension program, designed for 4-H and other groups interested in teaching and learning about bioenergy in an applied and experiential environment. Lesson plans, instructions for instructors, and activity sheets were compiled into a comprehensive, coordinated curriculum. A 4-H project book and leader's guide were developed for middle and high school students. The project book, Fuel for Thought, covers the concepts at the core of the NEWBio project Our electronic newsletter on NEWBio activities and research findings coupled with articles and news related to biomass and bioenergy is distributed to over 500 contacts monthly, with updates on critical events, learning opportunities and funding announcements as needed. Changes/Problems:While the team made tremendous progress toward these objectives, NEWBio also faced stiff headwinds. Chief among these was the plummeting cost of petroleum, which was more than $100 per barrel when we initiated the project and through most of NEWBio's first year but then plummeted at the end of 2014 to less than $50 per barrel, where it remains at the end of the five year project in late 2017. Coupled with low prices for other fossil fuels and inconsistent market and policy signals, investors were reluctant to make the substantial financial commitments cellulosic biorefineries require. With the guidance of our stakeholders, NEWBio adapted to this changing environment by exploring supply chains for a range of near-term and mid-term biomass markets, as well as evaluating non-market opportunities to integrate biomass crops in agricultural systems for soil health, biodiversity, and water quality benefits. The flexibility to adapt research, extension, and education programs to these changing circumstances generated a host of valuable outcomes with greatly increased relevance and impact. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? NEWBio conducts an aggressive monthly team meeting and teleseminar schedule to support internal project team training and professional development. The monthly Northeast Bioenergy Webinar series is available to the general public, but is also frequently attended by team members as the series is an avenue to distribute research results and extension offerings. The series also provides a platform for team professional development in the critical area of distilling and disseminating science. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students are employed at each NEWBio institution to support activities in the laboratory and in the field, working closely with a NEWBio Principal Investigator. Students often present at workshops, field days, symposia and other venues, including high school agricultural science classes and state agricultural expositions. This participation is documented in the "Products" section of the report. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NEWBio actively engaged in local conference and field activities (see "Other Products" section, and we were successful in utilizing online and social media to increase awareness and build capacity in the bioeconomy pipeline. We held seven Northeast Bioenergy Webinars on such topics as "Handling Fire Risk in Biomass Operations", "Multifunctional Riparian Buffers: Synergies with Bioenergy Crops and Ecosystems Services" and others, for a total of nearly 400 views to date. Our Safety and Health thrust also produced the technical manual "Assessing Biomass Processing Fire Hazards and Community Response Capabilities", with subsequent conference and webinar presentations. The manual is available for free download on the Penn State Extension website. The online presence is, ultimately, an adjunct to many other activities. In Year Five, we published or submitted for publication 14 peer-reviewed articles (to date) and three doctoral dissertations. Team members presented at 40 professional conferences (US and internationally); and participated in 21 demonstrations, workshops, and field days. Nine fact sheets and research summaries were developed and distributed at regional workshops and online. Examples include the Advanced Wood Energy for Schools, Businesses, and Communities Workshops, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania State Wood Energy Team, where seven presentations were given on two different days at two different locations, on wood energy projects in Pennsylvania, biomass fuel types and specifications, and project development considerations. Major venues where the display of NEWBio materials and the opportunity for interaction included the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January 2017, and Ag Progress Days in Rock Springs, PA and Empire Farm Days, in Seneca Falls, NY, both occurring in August. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The Northeast Woody/Warm-Season Biomass Consortium ended most activities effective August 31, 2017. There are tasks that will be continuing into a sixth, no-cost extension year: Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and SUNY ESF will be revising operational assumptions for willow production, and will report on the sensitivity of potential supplies. This work is planned to be completed by the end of 2017. Switchgrass feedstock improvement research activities at Rutgers University will be completed through another harvest, with processing taking place and collection of data on a fungicide study and association mapping panel. This work will be completed by May 2018. West Virginia University willow and switchgrass harvesting and preprocessing activities will be required over the next several months, with data collection expected to be completed by May 2018. University of Vermont Extension will continue working on completing final reporting and articles for eXtension, and will assist with other planned marketing articles and activities. This work is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. Penn State and West Virginia will continue work on characterizing the strength characteristics of the wood-bark bond for short rotation willow, including measuring the impact of willow variety and moisture content. This work will be completed by May 2018. Other activities to be concluded by May 2018 at Penn State include: Safety and Health's assessment of respiratory hazards in biomass production and processing; Sustainability sample analysis, labor and processing of root samples to complete NEWBio's 15N experiement; Completion of a mini-study on "Past and Future Cropland Flooding Patterns in the Mahantango Creek", a project to develop an analytical method for fine mapping of flooding events in the Chesapeake Bay, and the integration of this mapping with sub-field economic analyses; Completion of a biomass industry segmentation analysis in terms of supply and demand uncertainty through an business model survey and development of a marketing fact sheet to provide a methodology for identifying markets for biomass products; Development of a "NEWBio Curriculum", adding materials, data and multimedia resources to existing Extension Switchgrass, Miscanthus, and Shrub Willow information. The curriculum development will include a survey to assess the viability of providing a quarterly biomass report on biomass feedstock pricing. The results of this project will provide a white paper/blueprint for biorefinery growth in Pennsylvania. NEWBio will also continue as technical advisor to the Association of Switchgrass Growers Group by assisting with completion of a grower inventory and a survey of growers, funding for which was received through a SARE grant.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the last five years a consortium of leading universities, national laboratories, private businesses, government, and non-governmental organizations worked together in eight task areas to advance sustainable bioenergy in the Northeastern United States. Human Systems Driving the Bioeconomy Transition The team uncovered many of the socio-cultural factors that influence land managers' responses to the local production of bioenergy crops and bioenergy industry development. They also identified prices and other economic factors influencing landowner interest in growing energy crops on marginal lands. Policy makers, industry investors, and other stakeholders now have regionally relevant prices, costs, and other economic and biophysical information for growing, harvesting, and transporting energy crops. Landowners, farm managers, and others are using NEWBio's open source, user-friendly business planning tools to help decide whether and where to grow energy crops. Social acceptability has important implications for production of bioenergy crops and siting of biomass projects. NEWBio developed and piloted an improved approach to stakeholder engagement through dialogue and the mutual exchange of information. Feedstock Improvement for Perennial Energy Crops The NEWBio Feedstock Improvement Team's work in developing varieties of switchgrass and shrub willow that producers can grow successfully and profitably strengthens the industry's foundation and improves its future prospects. The team developed varieties of shrub willow (species in the genus Salix) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) that perform better and can be grown on a wider range of marginal lands in the Northeast. Commercializing these varieties will provide bioenergy crops that have more reliable yields and growers with greater profitability. Genomic tools were developed to accelerate the breeding of new high yielding varieties; New varieties of willow and switchgrass produced through breeding and selection are likely to improve yields by 20 percent over existing commercial varieties. Harvesting, Preprocessing, and Logistics of Integrated Biomass Supply Chains Harvesting, preprocessing, and storing biomass and then transporting it to biorefineries or other end users accounts for more than half the cost of the delivered product. The team developed strategies to reduce these costs up to 20 percent. Our public database can be used by producers and processors, along with government agencies and the general public, in their own operations to become more efficient and to reduce production costs along the bioenergy supply chain. The team monitored large-scale harvesting operations that provided some of the first large scale harvesting and logistics data for these crops in the U.S. This data is essential for optimizing these systems from both an economic and environmental impact point of view using life cycle analysis. System Performance and Sustainability Metrics: Drawing the Big Picture: Sustainability and the Biomass Industry To understand the range of possible impacts and then optimize the economic and environmental performance and sustainability of biomass-to-biofuel systems, NEWBio team members applied a combination of measurements and simulations to develop benchmark scenarios, and integrated that information into sustainability impact analyses. The team looked at the environmental impacts of different production systems, and investigated how society might support beneficial environmental effects that are accounted for in the market price, through an assessment of payments for ecosystem services. Information about perennial energy crops' ability to store carbon is increasingly valuable to government agencies and land managers who are looking for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land. Likewise, reducing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is increasingly relevant because it is mostly emitted by the agricultural sector of the economy. Safety and Health in Biomass Feedstock Production and Processing Operations Producing industrial scale biomass has a unique set of safety and health issues. Specific information is now available to the biomass industry because of NEWBio's work. As the industry grows and more farmers look to produce and process these materials, the need for safety and health planning and awareness also grows. NEWBio developed a new field of information that is already providing real-world benefits for industry management, workers, and the public by developing a Biomass Safety Program with manuals, web pages, and videos for the industry and the public, organizing pilot first-responder training and identifying injury exposure risks, and analyzing fire regulations for small biomass producers. Sharing Knowledge through Extension and Outreach NEWBio Extension efforts advanced the development of various biomass supply chains in the Northeast by responsively linking stakeholders and practitioners with the work and proceedings of NEWBio's technical research teams and government incentive programs. The team established and maintained productive partnerships between a diverse set of stakeholders across three demonstration regions, which became focal points for cooperative research with industry as well as face-to-face programming and community engagement on topics related to business development, new markets, specialized equipment, production best practices, and newly identified biomass supply chain barriers. Products and resources informed by the needs, interests, and knowledge gaps identified by industry and other stakeholders were developed and archived. The flexible portfolio established through this process could both nimbly adapt to the evolving needs of the project and meld with existing resource archives, ensuring impact beyond the life of the NEWBio project. Educating the Next Generation of Bioenergy Leaders: Building an Education Pipeline for the Biomass Industry To prepare future leaders, the team developed programs designed to provide education efficiently and cost-effectively to the region's stakeholders. These programs leveraged existing educational infrastructure throughout the NEWBio region to build a legacy of knowledge and experiences. Teacher workshops provided an in-depth introduction to bioenergy and sustainability concepts and principles, and taught important STEM content to 64 K-12 teachers; Ninety teachers, primarily secondary teachers in public schools, received sample curricula for bioenergy lessons and activities, along with a packet of materials and samples to use with their students. Bioenergy Scholars, 37 college-level undergraduates, attended summer-long research education programs in bioenergy and bioenergy research. They each developed a research project with mentors at a NEWBio partner institution and received ongoing instruction in science communication. A total of 113 scholarships were provided for graduate-level coursework in bioenergy, delivered online via Penn State's World Campus. These working professionals lived in 56 geographic areas, including India, England, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, as well as the states of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Northeast. Online courses provided advanced professional-development instruction in the areas of bioenergy systems, biomass feedstocks, biomass harvest and logistics, and bioenergy conversion processes. Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action, and Program Evaluation Through interdisciplinary collaborations among universities and engagement with external stakeholders and institutions, NEWBio aligned the science and scientific products it produces with the needs of society. The team has been able to communicate and collaborate across a number of geographically dispersed institutions of higher education and research.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ryan E. Baxter & Kirby E. Calvert, 2017. Estimating Available Abandoned Cropland in the United States: Possibilities for Energy Crop Production. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Published online April 21, 2017. DOI:10.1080/24694452.2017.1298985
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bressler, A., P. Vidon, P. Hirsch, T.A. Volk. 2016. Valuation of ecosystem services of commercial shrub willow (Salix spp.) woody biomass crops. Submitted to Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. In review.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Fabio, E.S., A. R. Kemanian, F. Montes, R.O. Miller and L. B.Smart, L.B. 2017. A mixed model approach for evaluating yield improvements in interspecific hybrids of shrub willow, a dedicated bioenergy crop. Industrial Crops and Products 96, 57-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.11.019
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kloster, D. and T.A. Volk. 2016. Characterizing shrub willow for soil erosion modeling with RUSLE2 across a chronosequence of age classes. Submitted to Biomass and Bioenergy. In review.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Liu, W., J. Wang, T. Richard, D. Hartley, S. Spatari, and T. Volk. 2017. Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Biomass Utilization for Bioenergy Products in the Northeastern United States. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. Accepted March 2, 2017. DOI: 10.1002/bbb1770
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Nobert, H.A., D.W. McGill, S.T. Grushecky, J.G. Skousen, and J.L. Schuler. 2016. Salix spp. as a biomass crop: Investigating its potential on mined lands and the use of biochar as a soil amendment. Journal of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation. 5(2): 58-76.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Burnham, M., W. Eaton, T. Selfa, C. Hinrichs, A. Feldpausch-Parker. 2017. The politics of imaginaries and bioenergy sub-niches in the emerging Northeast U.S. bioenergy economy. G eoforum 8 2:66-7 6. June 20 17 D O I: 1 0 . 1 0 1 6 / j . g e of or u m . 2 0 1 7 . 0 3 . 0 2 2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Eisenbies, MH, TA. Volk, A. Patel. 2016. Changes in feedstock quality in willow chip piles created in winter from a commercial scale harvest. Biomass and Bioenergy. DOI:10.1016/j.biombioe.2016.02.004
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Saha, D., B. Rau, J.P. Kaye, F.R. Montes, P.R. Adler and A.R. Kemanian. Landscape control of nitrous oxide emissions during the transition from conservation reserve program to perennial grasses for bioenergy. Global Change Biology Bioenergy. March 8, 2017. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12395
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Xie, X., M. Serapiglia, A. Boateng, J. Wang. Upgrading hybrid willow feedstock through thermal pretreatment for bioproducts. Submitted to Bioresource Technology. In review.
  • Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yu, Z., J. Wang, S. Liu, J. Rentch, P. Sun, C. Lu. 2016. Global gross primary productivity and water use efficiency of forest and biomass management under drought stress. Environmental Research Letters. Accepted, in press
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gouker, F.E. 2017. Dissection of genotypic and phenotypic variation in shrub willow (Salix purpurea L.). Ph.D. dissertation. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. 207 pp
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Sleight, N. and T. Volk. 2016. Recently Bred Willow (Salix spp.) Biomass Crops Show Stable Yield Trends Over Three Rotations at Two Sites. Bioenergy Research. DOI 10.1007/s12155- 0 16-9 7 26-2
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ramcharan, Amanda. 2017. Multidisciplinary Applications of U.S. Soil Datasets: Machine Learning Models, Data Mining, and Land Use Analyses. The Pennsylvania State University.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ramcharan, A. and T. Richard. 2017. Carbon and nitrogen environmental trade-offs of winter rye cellulosic biomass in the Chesapeake Watershed. Agricultural Systems, Vol. 156, September 2017, pp 85-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.05.017
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bj�rnebo, L, Spatari, S., Gurian, P.L., Life cycle assessment and cost-effectiveness feasibility study of district heating in the Northeastern United States, Applied Energy, 2017 (in review
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Orange, R., D. Schaufler and D. Murphy. Assessing Biomass Processing Fire Hazards and Community Fire Response Capabilities. 2017. Penn State Extension Publication #EE0188
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Carlson, C.H., Choi, Y., Chan, A., Serapiglia, M.J., Town, C.D., and Smart, L.B. Dominance and sexual dimorphism pervade the Salix purpurea L. transcriptome. Genome Biol. Evol. evx174, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evx174
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Fabio, E.S., Volk, T.A., Miller, R.O., Serapiglia, M.J., Kemanian, A.R., Montes, F., Kuzovkina, J.A., Kling, G.J. and Smart, L.B. (2017) Contributions of environment and genotype to variation in shrub willow biomass composition. Indus. Crops Prod. 108:149-161. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2017.06.030.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Fabio, E. 2017. Environmental and Management Factors Influencing Shrub Willow Biomass Yield and Quality. Cornell University.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ligaba-Osena, A., Hankoua, B., DiMarco, K., Pace, R., Crocker, M., McAtee, J., Nagachar, N., Tien, M., Richard, T.L. 2017. Reducing biomass recalicitrance by heterologous expression of a bacterial peroxidase in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana). Submitted to Scientific Reports, https://www.nature.com/srep/
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Tarves, P. C.; Serapiglia, M.; Mullen, C.A.; Boateng, A.A. ; Volk, T.A. Hot Water Extraction Pretreatment Effect on Conventional and Microwave Induced Fast Pyrolysis Conversion of Shrub Willow. Bioresource Technology. In review.


Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience: NEWBio outreach continues to support the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, case studies, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team that are reaching our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work: • Our Humans Systems team administered a survey to assess perceptions and landowner management and business development as related to biomass energy systems. The survey was sent to approximately 3,000 landowners in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with 907 surveys returned. Survey data is currently being analyzed. • NEWBio feedstock improvement efforts are reaching fellow researchers and plant growers with important research findings on cultivars with improved performance on reclaimed minelands, work that has important implications for the million-plus acres of this land in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. • NEWBio's results on biomass storage studies contribute to the understanding of uncertainty in the bioenergy supply chain and are proving valuable to our conversion partners, especially in the pellitizing and combined heat and power arenas. Land use and sustainability indicator analyses are supporting vital ecosystems services activities with a goal to help farmers, landowners and government agencies not only protect vital watersheds, but continue the devekopment of local economies through the expansion of perennial biomass feedstocks as agricultural crops. Riparian buffers in general are receiving a great deal of attention as watershed water quality tools. NEWBio stakeholders are responsible for large-scale plantings in the Chesapeake watershed, for example, and a soon-to-be-published study on quantification of ecosystem services associated with bioenergy crops will detail that shrub willow is not only a strong carbon sink but has a promising role as a regulator of hydrology when used in floodplains and riparian buffers. • Identification of safety and health hazards that are present in biomass production led to the production of NEWBio's "Safety and Health Management Planning for Biomass Producers" manual, a best practices compendium targeting agricultural entrepreneurs, especially those new to farming and to biomass production. "LearnNow" videos produced by our safety team are capturing these processes and are widely available through NEWBio's formal and informal education programs, and via NEWBio's website. • NEWBio is strengthening the education pipeline and building critical capacity at high school, undergraduate and graduate school levels through practicums and experiential learning opportunities: Secondary Educator Training (high school teachers attend a one-week workshop for training on bioenergy concepts who in turn teach the same to their students), Bioenergy Scholars (undergraduate students are assigned to one of the NEWBio partner institutions for an intensive 8-week research experience), and Graduate Distance Education (bioenergy curricula developed specifically for online delivery). • EcoWillow 2.0, a comprehensive and up-to-date financial analysis tool for shrub willow biomass crops developed through SUNY ESF's Willow Biomass Program, was updated and, along with a new series of fact sheets to support use of the model, offers an interactive tool for growers interested in willow. EcoWillow has been downloaded by over 1000 users in 70 countries. • Our electronic newsletter on NEWBio activities and research findings coupled with articles and news related to biomass and bioenergy is distributed to over 500 contacts monthly, with updates on critical events, learning opportunities and funding announcements as needed. Changes/Problems:As we move into the final stages of this Sustainable Bioenergy Coordinated Agricultural Project, the demand for our transdisciplinary efforts is increasing rapidly among the full range of stakeholders. NEWBio has clearly demonstrated its ability to provide the scientific and practical knowledge needed to design a sustainable future: we are educating and engaging the entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put that knowledge to work; supporting the commercial entities that have already developed in the region; seeding new companies and engaging new agencies; and continuing to facilitate their interactions to create successful feedstock production to biofuel systems. That said, there is a 'valley of death' between small field production and the hundreds of thousands of acres that will need to be in place for a liquid biofuels refinery. How do we get these acres planted before a cellulosic biofuel conversion facility is available? We are doing so by supporting other sectors in the bioeconomy, specifically alternate markets, biomass heat/CHP/electricity, and pellet manufacturing, while continuing our work oriented to biofuels. While economic incentives are not strong for biofuels by themselves (there is weak political support [RFS2] and oil prices are not increasing as anticipated), there is strong interest in coupling ecosystem services with bioenergy applications to find win-win solutions to the sustainable energy - sustainable water conundrum. We are seeing good results from Chesapeake water quality modeling, especially in reductions in nutrient loading from perennials. Within this region the largest immediate market for perennial biomass may be water quality, requiring conversion of 95,000 acres within Pennsylvania and over 300,000 acres of vegetative buffers for the Chesapeake watershed as a whole. If appropriate policies are put in place, once these "working buffers" are established the biomass becomes a byproduct, and can be harvested as an inexpensive cellulosic feedstock residue much as corn stover is collected in the Midwest today. This opportunity has attracted the attention of our commercialization partners across the supply chain, and connected us to other initiatives in Maryland and Virginia that appear complementary to ours. In addition to the 100,000 to 200,000 acre supply chains needed to supply a Renmatix or a Delta, we are working with quite a few smaller commercial operations (hospitals and schools using biomass boilers) as opportunities to build acreage, and exploring scale-up opportunities for companies like Enchi. While NEWBio and our partners acknowledge the challenges of today's biofuels environment, together we are building the groundwork for a multi-dimensional bioeconomy to expand rural economic opportunities and improve environmental outcomes across the Northeast. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?NEWBio conducts an aggressive monthly team meeting and teleseminar schedule to support internal project team training and professional development. A mini-workshop on team collaboration and communication of scientific results was held for the team during the October 2015 all hands meeting, and will be followed up by a longer session at the 2016 Annual Meeting. The monthly Northeast Bioenergy Webinar series is available to the general public, but is also frequently attended by team members as the series is an avenue to distribute research results and extension offerings. The series also provides a platform for team professional development in the critical area of distilling and disseminating science. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students are employed at each NEWBio institution to support activities in the laboratory and in the field, working closely with a NEWBio Principal Investigator. Students often present at workshops, field days, symposia and other venues, including high school agricultural science classes and state agricultural expositions. This participation is documented in the "Products" section of the report. NEWBio's Human Systems thrust is using the Supply Chain Operations Reference framework developed by APICS Supply Chain Council to assess NEWBio demonstration sites' infrastructure and metrics. Team members attended training to further enhance our knowledge on applicable metrics. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training. To date, four online bioenergy courses have been developed (Bioenergy Feedstocks, Bioenergy Harvesting and Logistics, Conversion Technologies for Bioenergy Production, and Biomass Energy Systems. A total of 73 students have taken one or more of these courses, with 43 receiving full or partial NEWBio scholarships. Several of these students are members of the NEWBio project team. The Bioenergy Scholar program mentored 25 undergraduates over the course of three summer sessions. Eight new scholars are scheduled for training during the summer of 2016. They work closely with a NEWBio Principal Investigator on a specific project task over the course of eight weeks. Similarly, NEWBio offered training to 43 secondary educators during summer workshops offered at West Virginia University and Penn State. A third location will be offered in 2016 at the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center, in Horseheads, New York. 2016 enrollments: 12 at Penn State, 12 pre-registered at West Virginia, and 8 registrants anticipated in New York. The Education team reallocated some funding during Year Four to allow for follow-up activities by NEWBio workshop managers to engage with educator attendees who implement bioenergy projects during the school year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Interest in biomass production for bioenergy and the bioeconomy has proven to be too geographically dispersed to support on-site short course offerings. While NEWBio continues to actively engage in local conference and field activities, we have had success in utilizing online and social media to increase awareness and build capacity in the bioeconomy pipeline. For example, our Northeast Bioenergy Webinar series offered an "emergency" USDA Biomass Crop Assistance Program webinar to alert regional landowners and producers to the limited window for program enrollment and opportunities. This resulted in a NEWBio stakeholder identifying additional potential acreage for switchgrass plantings. NEWBio worked with commercial partners to produce two entries for our "Business of Biomass" pipeline: ReEnergy Holdings: Offering Markets for Biomass in the Northeast and Renmatix Turns Biomass into Sugars for Industrial Use. These case studies are made available, along with NEWBio research summaries, on the eXtension.org website. Recent research summaries include Maximimizing Planted Area and Biomass Production in Shrub Willow Bioenergy Fields and EcoWillow 2.0: An Updated Tool for Financial Analysis of WIllow Biomass. Our Safety and Health thrust also produced the technical manual Safety and Health Management Planning for Biomass Producers, with hard copies provided to approximately 20 known biomass producers in our region. The manual is available for free download on the Penn State Extension website. The online presence is, ultimately, an adjunct to many other activities. So far in Year Four, we published or submitted for publication 17 peer-reviewed articles; team members presented at 48 professional conference (US and internationally); and participated in 27 demonstrations, workshops, and field days. Examples of local and regional outreach include the South Jefferson High School (NY) Field Tour, with presentations and tours of commercial willow production and energy conversion in cooperation with SUNY ESF, Cornell Cooperative Extension, NEWBio stakeholder Celtic Energy Farm, and ReEnergy Holdings; and the Miscanthus Harvest and Processing Field Tour (OH), in cooperation with Ohio State, Penn State, and NEWBio stakeholder Aloterra, consisting of informal presentations, tours of facilities and fields, table displays, and facilitated discussions on miscanthus management and markets. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Team Plan-of-Work for Year 4 Funding Thrust 1 - Human Systems in the Northeast Regional Bioeconomy Task 1.1: Understanding Social and Economic Constraints and Task I.2: Addressing social impacts of demonstration sites Activities will include the selection of an econometrics model and validation of "willingness to accept" (WTA) prices with other reported energy WTA crop prices. Thrust 2 - Feedstock Improvement for Perennial Energy Crops Task 2.1: Breeding of non-invasive triploid hybrids of willow displaying hybrid vigor Activities will include executing recurrent selection and planting programs for tetraploid and diploid species, continued analysis of genotyping-by-sequencing markers for use in analyzing tetraploids. Task 2.2: Genetic basis for pest and disease resistance in willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the ongoing studies of willow germplasm for susceptibility to rust, potato leafhopper, beetles and rust; the evaluation of anthracnose, and evaluation of treatments for disease resistance. Task 2.3: Breeding and selection of cultivars adapted for Northeast conditions Activities will include measurements of willow growth at various yield trial locations, and the analysis of willow biomass composition. Task 2.4: Breeding and selection of willow and switchgrass yields on reclaimed mine lands. Activities will include a survival survey and measurement of first-year post-coppice growth for Pennsylvania and West Virginia mineland trials. Thrust 3 - Harvest, Preprocessing, and Logistics of Integrated Biomass Supply Chains Task 3.1: Significantly reduce the harvesting cost per ton of biomass feedstocks from willow and perennial grasses Activities will include finalizing willow and miscanthus harvest efficiency models using large-scale harvest production, fuel consumption and emissions, and economic data. Task 3.2: Quantify the role of preprocessing for densification and storage on transportation efficacy and downstream fuel conversion Activities will include finalizing torrefaction pre-processing results and expanding cross-lab analyses of feedstocks. Task 3.3: Assess the storage requirements and effects of long-term storage on the quality of willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the continued monitoring of ongoing long-term storage studies for switchgrass, miscanthus and willow. Task 3.4: Techno-economic analysis, cost engineering, and life cycle analysis of densification, storage preprocessing and biorefinery integration Activities will include finalizing TEA/LCA models for both woody and herbaceous biomass, with further refinement of cost engineering models and integration of TEA/LCA models and uncertainty analyses. Thrust 4 - Systems Performance and Sustainability Metrics Task 4.1: Site- and crop-specific knowledge gaps Activities will include the continued monitoring and accumulation of biomass measurements at various experimental sites. Task 4.2: Benchmark scenarios for crop management and simulations Activities will include soils analyses for the New York BCAP areas, and running scenarios in Cycles (this work has been competed for Ohio and Pennsylvania). Task 4.3: Regional feedstock supply and environmental assessment Activities will include the evaluation of land use change impact on biodiversity and wildlife at three locations where bioenergy crops are to be used (two BCAP areas and an existing site in Lancaster, PA). Task 4.4: Biomass to biofuel life cycle analysis and multi-criteria sustainability will coordinate their tasks with the Harvest, Preprocessing and Logistics team. Thrust 5 - Safety and Health in Biomass Feedstock Production and Processing Operations Task 5.1: Biomass safety program development Activities will include examining existing fire safety and associated fire code literature, and, injury and exposure reports. Task 5.2: Safety and health hazard inventory Activities will include the continuation of visits to biomass production sites in the Northeast U.S. to determine hazard and risk potential and effects on rural communities. Task 5.3: Develop comprehensive safety and health management resources Activities will include the continued promotion of "Safety and Health Management Planning for Biomass Producers." Thrust 6 - Extension Task 6.1: Integrated demonstration sites Activities will include extension activities in support of production research and research facilitation at demonstration sites in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia. New York activities will include BCAP crop monitoring. Task 6.2: Biomass equipment access program Activities will include publicizing information on the program and equipment availability, incorporating relevant safety information and coordinating equipment scheduling as data on harvest sites and acreage are received. Task 6.3: Small business and economic development Activities will include establishment and facilitation of a warm-season grass grower group and program development and delivery that incorporates business development strategies and resources. Task 6.4: Expand eXtension.org for willow and warm-season grasses Activities will include maintenance of the current index of all NEWBio publications and outreach materials. Task 6.5: Interactive and innovative learning-lessons tools Activities will include the identification of important, relevant issues and the ongoing development and delivery of diverse resource types that comprise the NEWBio suite of platforms. Thrust 7 - Education Task 7.1: Secondary Educator Training Activities will include applicant recruitment and receipt/review of candidate applications, the identification of program dates and locations for Summer 2017 workshops, and collaboration with site directors to plan local tours and identify local speakers. Task 7.2: Regional Bioenergy Scholars Program Activities will include obtaining feedback from Year 4 scholars and host institutions, recruitment of Year 5 scholars, maintenance of online resources for the program, application review and placement with host institutions. Task 7.3: Graduate Distance Education in Bioenergy Activities will include the marketing of the program, receipt and review of student applications and identification of scholarship recipients for spring 2017courses.. Thrust 8 - Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) and Program Evaluation Task 8.1: Executive and Thrust Conference Calls Activities will include monthly leadership team conference calls, and monthly joint leadership-management team conference calls, and at least monthly but in some cases (depending on the time of year) more frequent thrust team conference calls. Task 8.2: All Hands Teleseminars and Meetings Activities will include monthly teleseminars and a final annual meeting or symposium to provide project outcomes to the NEWBio project team, our advisory board, industry and agency partners and interested members of the public. Task 8.3: External Advisory Board Meetings and Strategic Planning Activities will include an annual stakeholder review of NEWBio tasks and performance facilitated by external evaluators, board involvement in evaluating the NEWBio seed grant program, and the establishment of an active feedback loop for strategic planning. Task 8.4: Task and Project Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of stakeholder engagement processes and assessment of NEWBio capacity to create stronger linkages between knowledge and action (K2A) via a survey of internal project team members and the Advisory Board. Task 8.5: Administrative Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of program administration via a team survey and interviews with key team members. Task 8.6: Final Evaluation and Program Report: The final evaluation report will provide an overview of the entire project and how outputs and outcomes aligned with goals and objectives as originally envisioned or as modified due to external influences and realities.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Major Goal Milestones All NEWBio thrusts are making satisfactory progress toward thrust and project objectives: Stakeholder engagement: The BCAP willow scale up effort in northern NY has truly been collaborative effort among NEWBio participating institutions (SUNY ESF), state and government agencies (NYSERDA, USDA Farm Service Agency staff and BCAP program administrators in New York and Washington, DC) and NEWBio commercial partners (Celtic Energy Farm, DoubleA Willow, and ReEnergy. This teamwork made a recently-approved [May 2016] BCAP willow expansion in New York possible. These stakeholders have the desire to engage and the willingness to invest funds, time and energy. USDA is very supportive of the willow effort in northern NY and appreciates the ongoing outreach and extension efforts to support growers and end users. Similarly, NEWBio commercial partner Aloterra will also receive BCAP funding for miscanthus expansion in 2016. Aloterra collaborated with Ohio State and Penn State on an initial public outreach event to show Aloterra processing facilities and farm operations. This tour reached new audiences in the area. Reviews of the event showed marked increases in knowledge about miscanthus and the regional potential for biomass crops. Socioeconomic analyses and forecasts: Data analyses are underway from landowner surveys, interviews and focus group discussions. Preliminary findings suggest opportunities for bioenergy development among landowners who see keeping land in agricultural production as a social good, whereas others indicate bioenergy crops compete with existing land uses, including cash crops and conservation initiatives. Accelerated breeding to develop stress-resistance and improve yields: Whole transcriptome sequencing has been applied to the study of resistance to potato leaf hopper in Salix, revealing candidate genes that help defend Salix purpurea from hopperburn damage. Evaluation of pest and disease resistance in switchgrass (anthracnose) is allowing us to gain a better understanding of the impact of disease on switchgrass yields. Injury surveillance and hazard assessment tools, including safety and health management templates: Final edits were completed in mid-2015 on NEWBio's Safety and Health Management Planning in Biomass Producers, a user's manual providing risk-reduction information and resources. The manual includes hazards checklists and audit tools for assessing machinery and biomass production operations. The manual is available online for free download. Douglas Schaufler, Penn State Research Associate and P.E., presented a NEWBio webinar on weaving the manual's recommendations into a production setting. The Safety and Health team also produced two "LearnNow" videos: Hazards of Biomass Production on Marginal Land, and Biomass Harvesting in Winter Conditions, videos that have had 23 views since May 13, 2016 and 53 views since January 1, 2016, respectively. The team focused their program delivery on the web when it became obvious that biomass producers were too geographically dispersed across the Northeast to meet the critical mass necessary for on-site workshops. Models and decision support systems for sustainable biomass production, harvesting, preprocessing and logistics: EcoWillow 2.0, a financial analysis tool developed by SUNY ESF, was updated in 2015. The tool allows users to model the costs and revenues of willow biomass production through every stage of the feedstock life cycle, from site preparation through planting, harvesting, and transport to an end user for renewable energy. It has been downloaded by over 1,000 users in 70 countries since its original release in 2008. The 2015 update included a new base case scenario and three new crop production scenarios developed and tested by SUNY ESF using the latest best practice targets and potential incentive programs (such as USDA's Biomass Crop Assistance Program). The NEWBio Leadership Team met in December 2015 to determine which of the several demonstration scenarios under study would be prioritized for continued data collection, model development and completion. Eight scenarios were identified: four real cases in operation (bioproducts production, grass pellet production, wood pellet production, and willow biopower), and four hypothetical cases (lignocellulosic sugars supercritical extraction, torrefied biomass cofiring, institutional-scale wood-fired boilers, and district-scale combined heat-and-power). Biomass cropland resource assessments: NEWBio contributed to the willow component of the Billion Ton Update for 2016 (BT2016), and is working with ORNL to include ecosystem service information in the BT2016 Sustainability volume. Over 10,000 acres of perennial crop production: At the end of NEWBio's Year 4, there are approximately 10,000 acres of dedicated biomass crops in production in the region, with 5,000 acres of miscanthus, over 4,000 acres of switchgrass, and approximately 1,000 acres of willow. A portion of fiscal year 2016 BCAP funds will be provided to two existing BCAP projects in New York and Ohio/Pennsylvania, both allied with NEWBio, to expand acreage planted to shrub willow and giant miscanthus. Additionally, the recent reboot of Pennsylvania's Chesapeake Bay restoration program calls for 95,000 acres of riparian buffer plantings by 2025. Perennial bioenergy crops (shrub willow and switchgrass) are specifically identified as playing a critical role this effort, and the NEWBio team is working with state agencies and private companies to develop appropriate incentives so this working buffer program can succeed. Corporate commitments for two commercial biorefineries in the NE: We continue to engage with Renmatix and Delta about a regional biorefinery, both of whom are interested in procuring large quantities of biomass in our region but are facing strong economic headwinds competing with the low costs of petroleum. Current TEA/LCA supply chain analysis is focused on supporting their business plans to deliver affordable and reliable biomass quantities. 10 supply agreement & pricing programs: NEWBio continues to engage Penn State MBA and law students in assessing contract issues for biomass feedstocks. 5 new small businesses: We are pleased to report that we are working with two new bioenergy start-ups, Enchi and Proterro. Enchi purchased the cellulosic biofuel portfolio from Mascoma when they were acquired and is partnering with NEWBio on both supply chain and conversion research. Proterro is another Boston-based start-up working on photosynthesis for carbon capture and utilization. NEWBio is also in discussion with several individuals considering forming companies to take advantage of the RFS RINs credits for biogas as transportation fuel. Educating students, citizens, landowners and policymakers: A key objective for NEWBio is to increase public understanding of the social, economic and environmental impacts of sustainable bioenergy is a key NEWBio objective. We have a very active outreach to the general public through our Extension activities, as described in the Products section. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training (see Opportunities for Training section).

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Eich, S., T.A. Volk, M.H. Eisenbies. 2015. Bark content of two shrub willow cultivars grown at two sites and relationships with centroid bark content and stem diameter. Bioenergy Research. DOI: 10.1007/s12155-015-9617-7
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Nan, N., D. DeVallance, X. Xie, J. Wang. 2015. The effect of bio-carbon addition on the electrical conductive, mechanical, and thermal properties of polyvinyl alcohol/biochar composites. Journal of Composite Materials. 0(0) 1-8. DOI: 10.1177/0021998315589770
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Serapiglia, M.J., Mullen, C.A., Boateng, A.A, Cortese, L.M., Bonos, S.A., Hoffman, L. 2015. Evaluation of the impact of compositional differences in switchgrass genotypes on pyrolysis product yield. Industrial Crops and Products 74:957-968. DOI:10.1016/j.indcrop.2015.06.024
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Richard, T.L., and H. El-Lakany. 2015. Agriculture and Forestry Integration. In: Bioenergy and Sustainability: Bridging the Gaps. G. M. Souza, R. L. Victoria, C.A. Joly and L.M. Verdade (eds.). Scientific Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE)  FAPESP  BIOEN  BIOTA+10  FAPESP Climage Change. Sao Paulo, Brazil, pp 462-481
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Volk, T. A., L. P. Abrahamson, T. Buchholz, J. Caputo and M. Eisenbies. 2014. Development and Deployment of Willow Biomass Crops. In: Cellulosic Energy Cropping Systems. (D. Karlen, ed.) John Wiley and Sons, pp 201-217
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Xu. J., Xie, X., Wang, J., Jiang, J. Fractionation of the liquefied lignocellulosic biomass for the production of platform chemicals. Proceedings of the 58th International Convention of Society of Wood Science and Technology, June 7-12, 2015. Jackson, WY. 24pp
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bjoernebo, L. & Spatari, S. Quantification and Analysis of the Potential of District Heating in the Northeastern USA. European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, June 2015. Vienna, Austria. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Dale, V.H., K.L. Kline, T.A. Volk, C.T. Smith, and I. Stupak. 2015. Incorporating Bioenergy into Sustainable Landscape Designs Informs Opportunities, Barriers, and Paths Forward. Bioenergy 2015 Conference, June 23-24, 2015. Washington, D.C. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Eisenbies, M., T.A. Volk, J. Posselius. Chip quality and the performance of a New Holland short-rotation woody crop harvesting system in willow biomass crops. Bioenergy 2015 Conference, June 23-24, 2015. Washington, D.C. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J., T.A. Volk and D. Conable. 2014. Shrub willow crops in northern New York: Commercial production and harvesting. North Country Clean Energy Conference. June 4-6, 2014. Lake Placid, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Kloster, D.P. and T.A. Volk. 2015. Characterizing Shrub Willow for Soil Erosion Modeling using RUSLE2 across a Chronosequence of Age Classes. Bioenergy 2015 Conference. June 23-24, 2015. Washington, D.C. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Kloster, D.P. and T.A. Volk. 2014. Using RUSLE2 to model soil erosion potential for shrub willow. Short Rotation Woody Crops Operations Working Group Meeting. July 19, 2014. Seattle, WA. (Not previously reported in Y2)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Kloster, D.P. and T.A. Volk. 2014. Characterizing shrub willow for soil erosion modeling using RUSLE2 across a chronosequence of age classes. International Poplar Symposium. July 20-23, 2014. Vancouver, BC, Canada. Poster. (Not previously reported in Y2)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Scagline, S., J. Skousen, T. Griggs. Switchgrass and miscanthus yields on reclaimed surface mines for bioenergy production. 2015 Joint Conference ASMR and AARI (32nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation, 9th Annual Meeting of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative), June 11, 2015. Lexington, KY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Shi, S., M. Eisenbies, E. Fabio, M. Moster and T.A. Volk. 2014. Yield of 30 shrub willow cultivars over two rotations in a yield trial at Middlebury, VT. International Poplar Council Meeting. July 21-23, 2014. Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Not previously reported in Y2)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Sleight, N.J., T.A. Volk, G.A. Johnson, M.H. Eisenbies, S. Shi, E.S. Fabio. 2015. Change in yield between first and second rotations in willow (Salix spp.) biomass crops are strongly related to first rotation yield. Bioenergy 2015 Conference, June 23-24. Washington, D.C. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Xie, X., Wang, J. Exploit the Nanostructure of Lignocellulosic Cell Wall for Advanced Porous Carbon Material. Gordon Research Conference on Nanoscale Science and Engineering for Agriculture and Food Systems, June 7-12, 2015. Waltham, MA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Xu. J., Xie, X., Wang, J., Jiang, J. Fractionation of the liquefied lignocellulosic biomass for the production of platform chemicals. The 58th International Convention of Society of Wood Science and Technology, June 7-12, 2015. Jackson, WY.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bjoernebo, L. 2015. Life cycle and economic evaluation of replacing conventional heating methods with biomass and natural gas-based district heating in the northeastern United States. Unpublished masters thesis, Link�ping University
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Lewis, R. 2014. Effect of storage conditions on the dry matter, composition, and respiration concentrations of willow chips. M.S. Thesis. Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Brown, C., T. Griggs, and J. Skousen. 2015. Switchgrass yield and quality on reclaimed surface mines in West Virginia: II. Composition and quality. Bioenergy Research. DOI 10.1007/sl2155-015-9657-3
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bush, C., T.A. Volk, M.H. Eisenbies. 2015. Planting rates and delays during the establishment of willow biomass crops. Biomass and Bioenergy. Vol. 83, December 2015. Pp 290-296. DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2015.10.008
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Scagline, S., and J. Skousen. 2015. Switchgrass growth at Black Castle and Coal Mac. In: Proceedings of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation, Lexington, KY. June 8-11, 2015.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Wang, K., X. Xie, J. Jiang, J. Wang. 2015. Enhanced enzymatic saccharification of shrub willow using sulfolane pretreatment. Cellulose. Under review
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Xiong, B. 2014. The development of carboxylic acid separation by nanofiltration membrane for carboxylate platform using lignocellulosic biomass. M.S. Thesis. Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Brown, C., T. Griggs, T. Keene, M. Marra, and J. Skousen. 2015. Switchgrass biofuel production on reclaimed surface mines: I. Soil quality and dry matter yield. Bioenergy Research. DOI 10.1007/s12155-015-9658-2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Woodbury, P.B.,M. Langholtz, M. Jacobson, and A.R. Kemanian (201X). Improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay using payments for ecosystem services for perennial bioenergy feedstock production. Special Issue Biomass and Bioenergy. (Manuscript submitted)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Crawford, R.V., Crawford, J.L., Hansen, J.L., Viands, D.R. Development of switchgrass gall midge susceptible and resistant Cave-in-Rock populations. Poster session presented at Switchgrass III: Prairie and Native Grass International Conference. Sep 30-Oct 2, 2015. Knoxville, TN
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hoffman, L., Lee, G., Weibel, E.N., Bonos, S.A. Impact of Anthracnose on Biomass Yield and Quality of Switchgrass. Switchgrass III: Prairie and Native Grass International Conference. Sep 30-Oct 2, 2015. Knoxville, TN. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, W., X. Xie, J. Wang. Economic and environmental analyses of coal biomass to liquids: A case study in West Virginia. 2015 Gasification System and Coal & Coal-Biomass to Liquids Workshop, US DOE NETL, Morgantown, WV, August 10-11, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Nguyen, L., K. Cafferty, E. Searcy, S. Spatari. Uncertainties in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Advanced Biomass Feedstock Logistics Supply Chains in Kansas. 2015 AEESP Research and Education Conference. June 13-17, 2015. New Haven, CT. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Songsomboon, K, Crawford, J.L., Cummings, J., Bergstrom, G.C., Viands, D.R. Heritability and genetic gain from selection for resistance to Bipolaris leaf spot in switchgrass. Switchgrass III: Prairie and Native Grass International Conference. Sep 30-Oct 2, 2015. Knoxville, TN. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Volk, T.A. 2015. Purpose-grown woody biomass. ASABE Annual International Meeting. New Orleans, LA. July 27-29, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Wang, J. 2015. Modeling and optimization of woody biomass supply chains for bioenergy and bioproducts. An international workshop on Forest Ecosystem Services for Biodiversity and Bioeconomy. Beijing, China. September 14-20, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: NEWBio 2015 Annual Meeting Poster Presentations Anyika, S. Identification of Domains-Rearranged Methyltransferases (DRM1) in Switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) Baxter, R. and K. Calvert. Spatial Analysis of Abandoned Cropland. Bharadwaj, A., T. Richard, M. Kumar. Production and Separation of Carboxylic Acids from Acidogenic Digestate of Lignocellulosic Biomass Bjoernebo, L. and S. Spatari. Quantification and Analysis of the Potential of District Heating in the Northeastern USA Braz Nascimento, T. Total Lignin and Moisture Content in Willow, Red Oak, White Pine and Miscanthus Biomass Brown, T. Techno-economic uncertainty and biomass utilization Crawford, R., P. Salon, J. Crawford, J. Hansen, L. Hoffman, S. Bonos, M. Hall and D. Viands. Fall 2014 Height, Vigor, Quality, and Yield Data from Cornell University NEWBio Switchgrass Nurseries. Davis, R., M. Crampton, and V. Kalavacharla. Identifying transcriptionally active regulatory DNase I hypersensitive sites in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) genotypes AP13 and VS16 Fabio, E., T.A. Volk, R.O. Miller, M.J. Serapiglia, H.G. Gauch, K. Van Rees, R.D. Hangs, B.Y. Amichev, J.A. Kuzovkina, M. Labrecque, G.A. Johnson, R.G. Ewy, G.J. Kling, and L.B. Smat. Genotype x environment interactions in first-rotation yields of improved shrub willow cultivars in North America Fisher, I. Comparison of Stress Genes in Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) Genotypes Under Drought Conditions. Fowler, L. Overview of U.S. Law & Policy Affecting Second Generation Biofuels Gouker, F.E., R. Zhou, L. Evans, E. Rodgers-Melnick, S. DiFazio, and L.B. Smart. Dissection of Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation in Shrub Willow (Salix purpurea) Hilton, R. The Impact of Material Properties of Switchgrass, Giant Miscanthus, and Shrub Willow on Sorption Performance for Oil Spill Cleanup Kallfelz, T., X. Xie, and J. Wang. Carbonized Woody Biomass for Capacitive Deionization Lee, G., L. Hoffman, E.N. Weibel and S.A. Bonos. Influence of Anthracnose on Biomass Quality in Switchgrass Liu, W., J. Wang, K. Cafferty and S. Spatari. A Life Cycle Assessment of Hybrid Willow Harvest and Logistics in the Northeastern U.S. Mock, T. Commercial Shrub Willow Crop Monitoring in New York State Richards, B., C.R. Stoof, C. Mason, S. Das, R.V. Crawford, J.L. Hansen, J. L. Crawford, H.S. Mayton, T.S. Steenhuis, M.T. Walter and D.R. Viands. Carbon Sequestration and Gaseous Emissions in Perennial Grass Bioenergy Cropping Systems in the NE US Rohr, L. Impacts of Soil Moisture on Bioenergy Crop Production Saha, D., B.M. Rau, F. Montes, P.R. Adler and A.R. Kemanian. Global Warming and Bioenergy: It's About Hot Spots and Hot Moments Scagline, S., J. Skousen and T. Griggs. Switchgrass and Miscanthus Yields on Reclaimed Surface Mines for Bioenergy Production Sleight, N.J., T.A. Volk, K. Fandrich and M.H. Eisenbies. Biomass Inventory of Willow Biomass Cultivars assessing Above- and Belowground Biomass Quantities, Distribution, and Carbon Storage Songsomboon, K., J. Crawford, J. Cummings, G. Bergstrom and D. Viands. Techniques for Screening Switchgrass for Resistance to Diseases Caused by Bipolaris oryzae Spatari, S., I. Mannoh, L. Bjornebo, A. A. Boateng, N. Macken, C.A. Mullen and M.C. Wheeler. Life Cycle Environmental and Energetic Tradeoffs of Pyrolysis Bio-oil Upgrading Wang, W. Cultivar-Soil-Microbiome Interactions Wang, Y. Economic feasibility of energy-crop-based bioenergy plants in the Northeastern U.S. White, C. The Effects of Aerobic Storage Conditions for Dedicated Energy Crops Woodbury, P. Improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed using payments for ecosystem services for perennial bioenergy feedstock production. Zhou, R., F. Gouker, C. Carlson, E. Rodgers-Melnick, E. Fabio, L. Smart and S. DiFazio. Sex Determination in Willow
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Fabio, E.S., Volk, T.A., Miller, R.O., Serapiglia, M.J., Gauch, H.G., Johnson, G.A, van Rees, K.C.J., Labrecque, M., Amichev, B.Y., Hangs, R.D., Kuzovkina, J.A., Ewy, R.G., Kling, G.J. and Smart, L.B. (2015) Genotype by environment interactions analysis of North American shrub willow yield trials confirms superior performance of triploid hybrids. Manuscript submitted for publication
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Gouker, F.E., Serapiglia, M.J., and Smart, L.B. (2015) Yield and Biomass Quality of Shrub Willow Hybrids in Differing Rotation Lengths and Row Designs. In Review
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hoffman, L., G. Lee, E. N. Weibel, and S. A. Bonos. Impact of Anthracnose Infection on Biomass Composition and Yield of Switchgrass Cultivars. Oral presentation given to the Bioenergy Systems Community at the 2015 ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meeting, November 16, 2015, Minneapolis, MN
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hoffman, L., E. N Weibel, J. L. Crawford, R.V. Crawford, J. L. Hansen, M. H. Hall, D. R. Viands and S.A. Bonos. 2015. Selection of switchgrass for reclaimed mineland.at the 2015 ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meeting, November 16, 2015, Minneapolis, MN
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Richard, T, T. Volk, L. Smart, J. Wang, B. Kinne. 2015. Northeastern Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consortium. USDA NIFA Project Directors Meeting. November 2-6, 2015. Denver, CO.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Burnham, M., W. Eaton, T. Selfa, C. Hinrichs, A. Feldspausch-Parker. 2016. Contested visions for bioenergy development: Sociotechnical imaginaries of bioenergy sub-niches in the Northeast, United States. Submitted to Geoforum
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Eisenbies, MH, TA. Volk, A. Patel. 2016. Changes in feedstock quality in willow chip piles created in winter from a commercial scale harvest. Biomass and Bioenergy. DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2016.02.00
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Saha, D., B. Rau, J.P. Kaye, F.R. Montes, P.R. Adler and A.R. Kemanian. Landscape control of nitrous oxide emissions during the transition from conservation reserve program to perennial grasses for bioenergy. Submitted to Global Change Biology Bioenergy
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Sleight, N. and T. Volk. 2016. Recently Bred Willow (Salix spp.) Biomass Crops Show Stable Yield Trends Over Three Rotations at Two Sites. Bioenergy Research. DOI 10.1007/s12155-016-9726-2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Sleight, N., T. Volk, G. Johnson, M. Eisenbies, S. Shi, E. Fabio, and P. Pooler. 2015. Change in yield between first and second rotations in willow (Salix spp.) biomass crops is strongly related to the level of first rotation yield. Bioenergy Research. DOI 10. 1007/ s12155-015-9684-0
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, W. and J. Wang. 2015. Life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis of energy crops utilization for biofuels in the northeastern United States. IN: Proceedings of the 2015 FORMEC Forest Engineering: Making a positive contribution. Linz, Austria. October 4-8, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Fabio, E.S., Volk, T.A., Miller, R.O., Serapiglia, M.J., Gauch, H.G., Johnson, G.A, van Rees, K.C.J., Labrecque, M., Amichev, B.Y., Hangs, R.D., Kuzovkina, J.A., Ewy, R.G., Kling, G.J. and Smart, L.B. Genotype x Environment Interactions in First-Rotation Yields of Improved Shrub Willow Cultivars in North America. Oral presentation given to the Bioenergy Systems Community at the 2015 ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meeting, November 16, 2015, Minneapolis, MN
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Xu, J., X. Xie, J. Wang, J. Jiang. 2016. Directional liquefaction coupling fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass for platform chemicals. Green Chemistry. DOI: 10.1039/c5gc03070f
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, W. and J. Wang. 2016. Integrated Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Biomass Utilization for Biofuels and Bioproducts. In: Proceedings of the 59th SWST International Convention. March 6-11, 2016. Curitiba, Brazil
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Falcon, A. 2016. Pretreating underutilized woody biomass for value-added biofuels and bioproducts. Ph.D. Dissertation. Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia. 116 pp.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Burnham, M., W. Eaton, T. Selfa, C. Hinrichs, A. Feldspausch-Parker. Bioenergy experts and their imagined publics: implications for sociotechnical practice and change. Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers. March 29-April 2, 2016
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Carlson, C.H., Gouker, F.E., Zhou, R., DiFazio, S.P., and Smart, L.B. High-resolution mapping of biomass-related traits in an intraspecific F2 shrub willow (Salix purpurea) family. Forest Tree Workshop, Annual Plant and Animal Genome XXIV Conference, January 10, 2016, San Diego, CA. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, W. and J. Wang. 2016. Integrated Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Biomass Utilization for Biofuels and Bioproducts. The 59th SWST International Convention  Forest Resources: Moving toward a sustainable future. March 6-11, 2016. Curitiba, Brazil
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Smart, L.B., Fred E. Gouker, Craig H. Carlson, Eric S. Fabio, Chase R. Crowell, Christine D. Smart, Ran Zhou, Felipe R. Montes, John E. Carlson, Armen R. Kemanian, and Stephen DiFazio Breeding and sustainability of shrub willow for marginal lands in the Northeast US International Plant and Animal Genome Conference (PAG-XXIV), Jan. 9, 2016, San Diego, CA. Invited oral presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gouker, F.E., Zhou, R., Evans, L., Bubner, B., Zander, M., DiFazio, S., and Smart, L.B. Genotypic-Phenotypic Variation and Marker-Based Heritability Estimates of a Shrub Willow (Salix purpurea) Association Population. Forest Tree Workshop, Annual Plant and Animal Genome XXIV Conference, January 10, 2016, San Diego, CA.


Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience: NEWBio outreach continues to support the development of a Northeastern U.S. biomass/bioenergy industry through integrated demonstration site activities, expansion of eXtension.org as a repository for fact sheets, research summaries, and other bioenergy programming, and the deployment of interactive learning-lesson tools. Rural communities dominate the Northeastern U.S. landscape, and the examples below illustrate a variety of efforts by the project team are reaching our audience of entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put this knowledge to work: • Our Humans Systems team is administering surveys, conducting interviews, and holding focus group sessions with farmers and landowners to better understand community perceptions about bioenergy and to ascertain willingness to engage in the bioeconomy; • NEWBio feedstock improvement efforts are reaching fellow researchers and plant growers with important research findings on cultivars with improved performance on reclaimed minelands, work that has important implications for the million-plus acres of this land in West Virginia and Pennsylvania; • NEWBio is publishing results on biomass storage studies completed in concert with our conversion partners; this work contributes to the understanding of uncertainty in the bioenergy supply chain that, together with optimization analyses, will influence the number and size of preprocessing depots and the locations of biorefineries. Land use and sustainability indicator analyses are supporting vital ecosystems services activities with a goal to help farmers, landowners and government agencies not only protect vital watersheds, but continue the development of local economies through the expansion of perennial biomass feedstocks as agricultural crops. • Identification of safety and health hazards that are present in biomass production but not present in traditional agricultural production is another critical knowledge gap with tremendous implications for biomass growers, educators, and supply chain entities. "LearnNow" videos produced by our safety team are capturing these processes and will be widely available through NEWBio's formal and informal education programs. • NEWBio is strengthening the education pipeline and building critical capacity at high school, undergraduate and graduate school levels through practicums and experiential learning opportunities: Secondary Educator Training (high school teachers attend a one-week workshop for training on bioenergy concepts who in turn teach the same to their students), Bioenergy Scholars (undergraduate students are assigned to one of the NEWBio partner institutions for an intensive 8-week research experience), and Graduate Distance Education (bioenergy curricula developed specifically for online delivery). • The recent release of EcoWillow 2.0, a comprehensive and up-to-date financial analysis tool for shrub willow biomass crops, along with a new series of fact sheets to support use of the model, offers an interactive tool for growers interested in willow. EcoWillow has been downloaded by over 1000 users in 70 countries. • Our electronic newsletter on NEWBio activities and research findings coupled with articles and news related to biomass and bioenergy is distributed to over 500 contacts monthly, with updates on critical events, learning opportunities and funding announcements as needed. Changes/Problems: It has been an interesting year for NEWBio. NEWBio has clearly demonstrated its ability to provide the scientific and practical knowledge needed to design a sustainable future: we are educating and engaging the entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put that knowledge to work; supporting the commercial entities that have already developed in the region; and continuing to facilitate their interactions to create successful feedstock production to biofuel systems. That said, there is a 'valley of death' between small field production and the hundreds of thousands of acres that will need to be in place for a liquid biofuels refinery. How do we get these acres planted before a cellulosic biofuel conversion facility is available? We are doing so by supporting other sectors in the bioeconomy, specifically alternate markets, biomass heat/CHP/electricity, and pellet manufacturing, while continuing our work oriented to biofuels. Examples include partner and NEWBio Advisory Board member Aloterra's announcement in April 2015 of its strategic alliance with World Centric, a compostable food serviceware firm, to develop compostable products made from Miscanthus which will scale-up production of their plantings. ReEnergy, one of NEWBio's early partners on willow conversion, is looking closely at the BCAP reauthorization to expand its demand. We have quite a few smaller commercial operations (hospitals and schools using biomass boilers) interested too. These are opportunities to build acreage. Terra Green Energy LLC is moving torrefied biomass into coal-fired power plants and Ernst Conservation Seeds is augmenting its environmental use of native grasses and switchgrass with pellets as industrial absorbents, supporting the oil and gas industry. Finally, while economic incentives are not strong for biofuels by themselves (there is weak political support [RFS2] and oil prices are not increasing as anticipated), coupling ecosystem services with the biofuels problem is a possibility. We are seeing good results with Chesapeake studies, especially in reductions in nutrient loading. While NEWBio and our partners acknowledge the challenges of today's biofuels environment, together we are building the groundwork for a multi-dimensional bioeconomy to expand rural economic opportunities and improve environmental outcomes across the Northeast. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? NEWBio objective: Create learning communities of farmers, entrepreneurs, employees and investors informed about the best practices and emerging technologies in their bioenergy interest areas. • NEWBio continues to conduct an aggressive monthly meeting and teleseminar schedule to support internal project team training and professional development, and dissemination of research results and extension offerings to a wider public audience. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students are employed at each NEWBio institituion to support NEWBio activities in the laboratory and in the field. Extensive NEWBio participation in professional conferences is documented in the "Products" section, with 59 presentations delivered. • NEWBio team members have delivered 79 presentations at workshops, field days, symposia and other venues including high school agricultural science classes, state government expos, other universities, and multiple National Bioenergy Day locations in the Northeast U.S. • NEWBio Extension and eXtension.org have developed numerous resources to inform, educate and assist the Northeast as the bioeconomy builds. These resources reside on NEWBio's website and the NEWBio webpage within the eXtension.org Learning Network website and include: - Fact Sheets on NEWBio feedstock crop profiles, economic analyses, business opportunities for bioenergy resources, and summaries of alternate markets for energy crops. - Research Summaries that describe and explain, in layman's terms, NEWBio research results and findings. Examples include "Triploid Hybrids of Shrub Willow Yield More Biomass Than Diploids and Tetraploid", "Safety and Health Risks of Producing Biomass on the Farm", and "Biomass Crop Production May Benefit from a Wide Spectrum of Marketing Opportunities". - Case Studies that demonstrate successes and innovation by corporate stakeholders involved in the business of biomass. Four such studies have been completed to date: "Double A WIllow Strengthens Biomass Supply Chain by Providing Willow Plantings to Biofuels Industry", "Terra Green Energy: Pioneers in Torrefaction for Commercial Co-Combustion", "Ernst Conservation Seeds Transforms Previously Unused Leftover Biomass into Energy Product", and "New Holland Agriculture Expands Offerings for Biomass Harvest and Handling". - NEWBio has delivered 17 webinars on bioenergy and bioeconomy topics. With over 3,000 total views, favored topics include "Pyrolysis of Biomass for Fuels and Chemicals", "Willow Biomass Harvest and Quality", and "Biochar: Low-Tech, Small-Scale Production Methods and Pathways to Larger-Scale Commercialization". - The NEWBio education thrust has effectively strengthened the education pipeline to support the biomass industry in the region in the following ways: by training undergraduate students in bioenergy from multiple institutions (eight students trained in Summer 2013; seven trained in Summer 2014, eight anticipated for Summer 2015), and providing graduate bioenergy education to working professionals (27 scholarships awarded thus far, with an additional five anticipated during the Summer 2015 session). Furthermore, the long-term education pipeline was enhanced through the training of 31 K-12 educators who are in turn teaching bioenergy concepts to their students. with another 20 anticipated during Summer 2015) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? NEWBio is in the third year of an anticipated five-year project and can identify project outcomes in several areas. Our team is in the process of identifying behavioral and institutional barriers to biomass stakeholder engagement and is modeling biological, social and economic variables that influence the availability of perennial biomass crops. Harvesting and preprocessing models are assisting stakeholders in research trials even as they undergo refinement. Project team members are analyzing key sustainability metrics, developing new crop varieties, and implementing education programs to link activities and results to diverse audiences. These activities are increasing awareness and building capacity in the bioeconomy pipeline. With weak demand for short course offerings this year, NEWBio's webinar offerings have filled that void. Total views for NEWBio webinar recordings number 3,427; our most-viewed webinars are Pyrolysis of Biomass for Fuels and Chemicals, presented by A. A. Kwesi Boateng of USDA ARS' Eastern Regional Research Center, Willow Biomass Harvest and Quality, presented by Timothy Volk and Mark Eisenbies of SUNY ESF, and Biochar: Low-Tech, Small-Scale Production Methods and Pathways to Larger-Scale Commercialization presented by Gary Gilmore of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Forestry and David Laird of Iowa State University. The popularity of these demonstrates the depth of expertise NEWBio is able to leverage, and the breadth of interest by the general public. Similarly, NEWBio work with our corporate partners is populating our "Business of Biomass" pipeline with research summaries and case studies - created and written for the general public - to better illustrate the success that is possible in this industry. Case studies were developed over the past year that illuminate different aspects of the bioeconomy and explain how these companies dealt with early hurdles to move their businesses forward. To date, the NEWBio team has published 18 peer-reviewed articles, one book, and two book chapters. Results and findings for some of these are discussed in the Accomplishments section. Our project team has engaged with six postdoctoral researchers, 29 graduate students, 16 undergraduate students, 23 bioenergy scholars and 13 technical staff members whose contributions advance thrust activities and NEWBio objectives. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Team Plan-of-Work Thrust 1 - Human Systems in the Northeast Regional Bioeconomy Task 1.1: Understanding Social and Economic Constraints Activities will include completion of the landowner survey and landowner interviews to determine social availability of marginal lands and the analysis of this survey data analysis. The economic component will continue to refine crop budget and yield assumptions. Task 1.2: Identify, monitor, and address the positive and negative social impacts of demonstration sites over the course of the project on community infrastructure needs. Activities will include development and administration of interview/survey questionnaires for collecting data from NEWBio team members. Templates will be developed for assessing biomass crop production and supply chain infrastructure. Thrust 2 - Feedstock Improvement for Perennial Energy Crops Task 2.1: Breeding of non-invasive triploid hybrids of willow displaying hybrid vigor Activities will include maintaining willow tetraploid crossing blocks and diploid/triploid progeny in the field, and the collection of biomass yield data and yield trial measurements. Task 2.2: Genetic basis for pest and disease resistance in willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the ongoing survey of willow germplasm for disease susceptibility and the evaluation of switchgrass mapping population survival and disease injury, and evaluation of treatments for disease resistance. Task 2.3: Breeding and selection of cultivars adapted for Northeast conditions Activities will include measurements of willow growth, and the analysis of willow biomass composition; the assessment of switchgrass winter survival and growth, disease and insect resistance; the preparation of seedlings for field planting and the maintenance of nursery plantings. Task 2.4: Breeding and selection of willow and switchgrass yields on reclaimed mine lands. Activities will include the measurement of willow stem diameters and the height of first-year post-coppice growth; the replanting of willow cultivars; and the collection of switchgrass yield. Bioinformatic analysis of new soil DNA sequences, including comparisons to first samplings, is planned to evaluate microbial populations on mineland sites in comparison with agricultural sites. Thrust 3 - Harvest, Preprocessing, and Logistics of Integrated Biomass Supply Chains Task 3.1: Significantly reduce the harvesting cost per ton of biomass feedstocks from willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the ongoing efficiency analysis and collection of data; analysis of harvest field data and in-field use costs analysis and modeling; and ongoing modeling based on revisions to data and research findings. Task 3.2: Quantify the role of preprocessing for densification and storage on transportation efficacy and downstream fuel conversion Activities will include the analysis of torrefaction test results and expand the cross-lab analysis of feedstock types and properties; ongoing analysis of energy and fuel yield measurements; and the continuation of densification and storage studies. Task 3.3: Assess the storage requirements and effects of long-term storage on the quality of willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the ongoing monitoring of long-term storage studies. Task 3.4: Techno-economic analysis, cost engineering, and life cycle analysis of densification, storage preprocessing and biorefinery integration Activities will include the generation of equipment performance parameters, biomass material format characteristics, and ranges for alternative supply scenarios. Thrust 4 - Systems Performance and Sustainability Metrics Task 4.1: Site- and crop-specific knowledge gaps Activities will include the continued monitoring and accumulation of biomass measurements at various experimental sites. Task 4.2: Benchmark scenarios Activities will include soils analyses for BCAP areas, and running scenarios in Cycles. Task 4.3: Regional feedstock supply and environmental assessment Activities will include the evaluation of land use change impact, inventories of pre- and post-planting conditions, and continued monitoring of plantings. Task 4.4: Biomass to biofuel life cycle analysis and multi-criteria sustainability Activities will include refining and updating the LCA model. Uncertainty analyses will also be conducted. Thrust 5 - Safety and Health in Biomass Feedstock Production and Processing Operations Task 5.1: Biomass safety program development Activities will include the investigation of fire and associated codes, injury and exposure reports, and the review of existing programs. Task 5.2: Safety and health hazard inventory Activities will include continuation of site visits to examine new machines and technologies. An assessment will be made of rural community abilities to respond to biomass processing plant emergencies. Task 5.3: Develop, conduct and evaluate a comprehensive safety and health management program Activities will include the ongoing development of a biomass safety and health management plan. Thrust 6 - Extension Task 6.1: Integrated demonstration sites Activities will include extension activities in support of production research and research facilitation at demonstration sites. Task 6.2: Biomass equipment access program Activities will include creating awareness of the program and equipment availability, and coordinating equipment scheduling. Task 6.3: Small business and economic development Activities will include development and planning for a short course on small biomass business development. Task 6.4: Expand eXtension.org for willow and warm-season grasses Activities will include maintenance of the current index of all NEWBio publications and outreach materials. Task 6.5: Interactive and innovative learning-lessons tools Activities will include the ongoing development and delivery of social media and other interactive outreach components. Thrust 7 - Education Task 7.1: Secondary Educator Training Activities will include 2016 applicant recruitment and receipt/review of candidate applications, the identification of program dates and sites, and collaboration with site directors. Task 7.2: Regional Bioenergy Scholars Program Activities will include recruitment of 2016 scholars, maintenance of online resources for the program, application review and placement with host institutions. Task 7.3: Graduate Distance Education in Bioenergy Activities will include the marketing of the program, receipt and review of student applications and identification of scholarship recipients for spring 2016 courses. Thrust 8 - Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) and Program Evaluation Task 8.1: Executive and Thrust Conference Calls Activities will include monthly leadership team conference calls, and monthly joint leadership-management team conference calls, and at least monthly thrust team conference calls. Task 8.2: All Hands Teleseminars and Meetings Activities will include monthly teleseminars and an annual meeting. Task 8.3: External Advisory Board Meetings and Strategic Planning Activities will include an annual stakeholder review of NEWBio tasks and performance. Task 8.4: Task and Project Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of stakeholder engagement processes and assessment of NEWBio capacity to create stronger linkages between knowledge and action (K2A). Task 8.5: Administrative Evaluation Activities will include evaluatio of program administration via a team survey and interviews with key team members. Task 8.6: Final Evaluation and Program Report No activities are planned during Year Four.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Since NEWBio's start in September 2012, there have been both positive and negative trends in the external environment. In the words of one Advisory Board member, the shale gas boom and drop in oil prices has 'crushed' interest in bioenergy. Preliminary analysis of landowner survey data tells us that there are significant numbers who know little to nothing about energy crops and are unlikely to plant energy crops. At the same time, there are successes in bioproducts that are providing profitable rewards for current commercial feedstock companies: Aloterra's supplying miscanthus for the compostable dinnerware market, and Ernst Conservation's switchgrass pellets as absorbents for chemical and wastewater spills are examples. We are seeing success in establishing willow and switchgrass on reclaimed mine lands, which represent an opportunity of over one million acres in the NEWBio region. Delta Airlines and Renmatix are progressing on commercialization pathways, and working with NEWBio researchers on assessing feedstock resource and supply chain possibilities. With the success of its initial willow feedstock program and reauthorization of BCAP, ReEnergy is planning to expand willow acreage in NY. NEWBio is working to couple bioenergy GHG benefits with quantified water quality benefits, partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Commission to leverage the massive investments in water quality improvements mandated for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Finally, in concert with our commercialization partners, NEWBio is closely monitoring several other recently announced EPA regulatory efforts could increase incentives for biofuels, including the 2016 RFS2 cellulosic biofuels target, truck mileage efficiency standards, and aviation greenhouse gas emission reductions. Briefly, we summarize project progress to date: Stakeholder engagement models: NEWBio has partnered with our corporate stakeholders to deliver workshops, field days, webinars, research summaries and case studies that promote the business of biomass. We worked with other stakeholders such as Pennsylvania's Fuel for Schools and Communities program, and assisted with a U.S. Forest Service grant to help develop sustainable wood energy in Pennsylvania. Extension staff facilitated a DOE film crew's shooting a bioenergy sustainability video at a willow remediation project area. We are connecting with these and others to do some synergistic work and diversity our platform, and to understand their engagement processes and incentives necessary to overcome economic and social barriers. Socioeconomic analyses and forecasts: A draft report is in review from a Year Two seed grant that studied the potential economic impact of renewable fuels and sustainable biomass feedstock for the Northeast. Results of the study were presented during a NEWBio All Hands meeting and in a NEWBio webinar, and showed impact summaries (direct, indirect and induced jobs and dollar output) for four Pennsylvania counties should biofuel plants be built in their locales. Accelerated breeding to develop stress-resistance & improve yields: U.S. Patent PP24,537 was issued in June 2014 for Preble, a willow plant cultivar developed in concert with corporate stakeholder Double A Willow. The Feedstock Improvement team published new, fundamental knowledge in the publication "Early selection of novel triploid hybrids of shrub willow with improved biomass yield relative to diploids." (Serapiglia, M.J., Gouker, F.E., Smart L.B. 2014. BMC Plant Biology 2014, 14: 74. DOI:10.1186/1471-2229-14-74.) Injury surveillance and hazard assessment tools, including safety and health management templates: NEWBio has completed its inventory of biomass production and harvesting procedures and is working with partners Ernst Conservation and Aloterra Energy on the draft safety and health management plan. Of particular interest now is the investigation and documentation of potential airborne hazards associated with switchgrass and misanthus production, storage and processing, as these crops have different biophysical characteristics than traditional agricultural crops. Models and decision support systems for sustainable biomass production, harvesting, preprocessing and logistics: Additional data collection continues to refine the base models for switchgrass, miscanthus and willow. Ecosystems services work points to switchgrass as a potent nutrient neutralizer for farms and regions with nutrient imbalances, which has broad implications for watersheds large and small. SUNY ESF team members partnered with CNH to develop a single cut and pass harvesting technology, applied knowledge that has appeared in a peer-reviewed publication: Eisenbies, M. H., Volk, T. A., Posselius, J., Foster, C., Shi, S., & Karapetyan, S. 2014. Evaluation of a Single-Pass, Cut and Chip Harvest System on Commercial-Scale, Short-Rotation Shrub Willow Biomass Crops.BioEnergy Research, 1-13, June 3, 2014. DOI: 10.1007/s12155-014-9482-0. Biomass cropland resource assessments: Geospatial analysis has identified regions of with high concentrations of abandoned land, overlaid with regions predicted to allow economic production of biomass at different biomass price-points. NEWBio evaluated perennial grass potential in the region for Mascoma and both willow and perennial grasses for Renmatix. Over 90,000 acres of perennial crop production: USDA published new rules and guidelines for the BCAP program in February 2015. ReEnergy, a major New York State power company with biomass power plants in Black River and Lyonsdale, has indicated a desire to expand the proportion of willow biomass in their fuel supply and will likely respond to the anticipated call for expanded or new project areas in 2015. Corporate commitments for two commercial biorefineries in the NE: Delta Airlines has purchased a conventional petroleum refinery in Trainor, PA (near Philadelphia) and is working to integrate bio-based feedstocks into that existing refinery. Renmatix received a series D investment from the French energy company Total, and purchased the former Mascoma Feedstock Processing Facility in Rome, NY, and this spring hired 12 employees to work on feedstock evaluation and process scale-up. 100 supply agreement & pricing programs: NEWBio continues to engage Penn State MBA and law students in assessing contract issues for biomass feedstocks. 50 new small businesses: Small business and economic development organizations will benefit from "Development of a Two-Year, Integrated Business Development Extension Model" a seed grant proposal by NEWBio Extension team members at Penn State, SUNY ESF, and West Virginia that will deliver focused, direct information related to biomass energy business development. Penn State's Small Business Development Center will assist with program development and business support. This work will take place in Years Four and Five. Educating students, citizens, landowners and policymakers: A key objective for NEWBio is to increase public understanding of the social, economic and environmental impacts of sustainable bioenergy is a key NEWBio objective. We have a very active outreach to the general public through our Extension activities, as outlined elsewhere. The Education Thrust connects with students by coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. 2014. Woody biomass utilization for bioenergy: Opportunities and challenges in biomass harvest and logistics in the northeastern US. IUFRO 2014 World Forestry Congress. October 5-12, 2014. Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J., R. Jackson, H. Ghadimi, W. Burnett, and K. Singh. 2014. Economic and environmental impacts of woody biomass utilization in the central Appalachian region. USDA NIFA Project Directors Meeting. October 29-31, 2014. Washington, DC.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, T. 2014. Energy consumption study on bulk densification of herbaceous biomass crops. M.S. Thesis. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (Dec. 2014)
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Fasick, G. 2015. A miscanthus conditioning and bale compression analysis. M.S. Thesis. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (May 2015)
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Hartley, D. 2014. Modeling and optimization of woody biomass harvest and logistics in the northeastern United States. Ph.D. Dissertation. Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia. 219 pp.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J.P. December 2014. Assisting bioenergy farmers using new technologies for crop monitoring. Poplar and Willow News: Newsletter of the International Poplar Commission 4: 6-8.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Saha, D., B.M. Rau, F. Montes, P.R. Adler and A.R. Kemanian, 2015. Global warming and bioenergy: Its about hot spots and hot moments. Penn State Graduate Student Exhibition. Poster awarded first prize in Physical Sciences and Mathematics category
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hoffman, L. and S.A. Bonos. Update on Rutgers Switchgrass Trials. Sustainable Energy Working Group Meeting. Rutgers University, March 16, 2015.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Smart, L.B. Genomics assisted breeding of triploid hybrids of shrub willow for bioenergy, Departmental seminar, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, March 16, 2015, Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. and T. A. Volk. 2014. Willow Crop Production Scenarios Using EcoWillow 2.0. Fact Sheet. Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. and T. A. Volk. 2014. EcoWillow 2.0Summary of Model Updates. Fact Sheet. Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. and T. A. Volk 2014. Commercial Willow Production for Biopower in Northern NY State. Fact Sheet. Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Boateng, A. K. and S. Harlow. Research Summary: Exploring on-farm pyrolysis processing of biofuels. Published on eXtension. .
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Eisenbies, M., T. A. Volk, and J. Posselius. Research Summary: Characteristics of willow biomass chips produced using a single-pass cut-and-chip harvester. Published on eXtension. http://www.extension.org/pages/71883>.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. 2014. Biomass and fuels conversion. New Energy and Industrial Technology Development. US Department of Energy NETL and WVU Research Office. October 16-17, 2014. Morgantown, WV. Invited presentation.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J., D. DeVallance, and X. Xie. Biomass utilization for biofuels and bioproducts. National AFV Day Odyssey. West Virginia University National Research Center for Coal and Energy, October 15, 2014. Morgantown, WV.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. and T. A. Volk. 2014. EcoWillow 2.0Economic Analysis of Shrub Willow Crops. Fact Sheet. Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Harlow, Ruamsook, and Thomchick. February 10, 2015. Biomass Crop Production Benefits from a Wide Spectrum of Marketing Opportunities. NEWBio Research Summary. Published on eXtension.org. http://www.extension.org/pages/72603
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Harlow, S and T. Causer. Terra Green Energy: Pioneers in Torrefaction for Commercial Co-Combustion. NEWBio Case Study. Published on eXtension.org. April 15, 2015 http://www.extension.org/pages/72903
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Harlow, S. and C. Ernst. Ernst Conservation Seeds Transforms Leftover Biomass into Energy Product. NEWBio Case Study. Published on eXtension.org. April 15, 2015. http://www.extension.org/pages/72925
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Schaufler, D., D. Murphy, and S. Harlow. Research Summary: Safety and Health Risks of Producing Biomass on the Farm. Published on eXtension. .
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Serapiglia, M.J., F.E. Gouker, J.F. Hart, F. Unda, S.D. Mansfield, A.J. Stipanovic, and L.B. Smart. 2014. Ploidy level affects important biomass traits of novel shrub willow (Salix) hybrids. BioEnerg. Res. DOI: 10.1007/s12155-014-9521-x.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Skousen, J., C. Brown, T. Griggs, and S. Byrd. 2014. Establishment and growth of switchgrass and other biomass crops on surface mines. J. Am. Soc. Mining and Reclamation 3(1): 136-156. http://www.asmr.us/Publications/Journal/Vol%203%20Issue%201/Skousen-WV-2.pdf
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Burchell, J., and D. Ciolkosz. Characteristics of Raw and Torrefied Red Maple. NEWBio Annual Meeting, July 31-August 1, 2014. Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Cangiano, M.L., F.R. Montes, K. Dennison, T.L. Richard and A.R. Kemanian. 2014. Comparative Carbon Dioxide Exchange and Water Use of Shrub Willow and Maize. Poster presented at NEWBio All-Hands Meeting, Aug. 31, Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: DiFazio, S.P., R. Zhou, H. Tang, E. Rodgers-Melnick, L. Evans, F. Gouker, C. Carlson, V. Krishnakumar, C. Town, and L. B. Smart. The power of comparative genomics in the Salicaceae: The case of sex determination. Aberystwyth University, September 18, 2014. Aberystwyth, UK. Invited oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gouker, F. E., R. Zhou, L. Evans, S.P. DiFazio, and L. B. Smart. Analysis of Phenotypic and Genetic Diversity of a Salix purpurea Association Mapping Population. International Poplar Symposium VI, July 21-23, 2014, Vancouver, BC. Poster presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. Commercial production and harvesting of shrub willow crops in New York State. 10th Biennial Short Rotation Woody Crop Operations Working Group, Woody Crops: Production Alternatives for Multiple Uses. July 18, 2014. Seattle, WA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: DiFazio, S.P., R. Zhou, H. Tang, E. Rodgers-Melnick, L. Evans, F. Gouker, C. Carlson, V. Krishnakumar, C. Town, and L. B. Smart. The power of comparative genomics in the Salicaceae: The case of sex determination. Rothamsted Research, September 26, 2014. Harpenden, UK. Invited oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Skousen, J. Growth of biofuel crops on mined lands. American Society of Mining and Reclamation Meeting, June 18, 2014. Oklahoma City, OK.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Eisenbies, M.H., T.A. Volk, J. Posselius, C. Foster , and S. Shi. 2014. Effect of willow cultivar attirbutes on chip quality and the performance of a New Holland short rotation woody crops harvesting system. International Poplar Symposium VI, July 21-13, 2014. Vancouver, BC.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Fabio, E. S., F.E. Gouker, A.R. Kemanian, F. Montes, J.E. Carlson, R.O. Miller, T.A. Volk, J.R. Herr, and L. B. Smart. Variation in first-year biomass growth and wood composition among 23 shrub willow genotypes across a range of environments. International Poplar Symposium VI, July 21-23, 2014, Vancouver, BC. Poster presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Fabio, E. S., S. Reiners, M.R. Ryan, and L. B. Smart. Sustainable shrub willow establishment using fall-seeded cover crops for weed and nutrient management. 10th Biennial Short Rotation Woody Crops Operations Working Group Meeting, July 17-19, 2014, Seattle, WA. Poster presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J. Shrub willow living snow fences show potential for snow trapping and reduced drift length shortly after planting. International Poplar Symposium VI. July 23, 2014. Vancouver, BC.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Mann, C., V. Averello, J. Vaiciunas, C. Kubik, L. Beirn, J. Crouch, J. Honig and S.A. Bonos. Identification of SSR markers to study the genetic diversity of Colletotrichum navitas, the causal organism of switchgrass anthracnose. NEWBio Annual Meeting, July 31, 2014. Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Ramcharan, A.M., A.R. Kemanian and T.L. Richards. Can Winter Rye be a Carbon-sink Energy Source and Improve On-field C & N Cycling? Poster presented at NEWBio All-Hands Meeting. Aug. 31, 2014. Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Richard, T. L., M. Jahn and D. Lazaks. Knowledge systems for sustainability: lessons learned from a global community of practice. Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America. August 13, 2014. Sacramento, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Shi, S., T.A. Volk, M. Eisenbies, L. Abrahamson, S. Karapetyan, A. Lewis, J. Posselius, R. Shuren, B. Stanton, B. Summers, J. Zerpa, C. Foster, M. McArdle. 2014. Crop harvesting using a recently developed single pass cut and chip harvest system. Short Rotation Woody Crops Operations Working Group, July 18, 2014. Seattle, WA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Simsek, E., and D. Ciolkosz. Effects of Torrefaction on Willow. NEWBio Annual Meeting, July 31 - August 01, 2014. Geneva, NY.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Smart, L.B., F. E. Gouker, C. H. Carlson, M. J. Serapiglia, C. D. Town, H. Tang, V. Krishnakumar, S. P. DiFazio, E. Rodgers-Melnick, R. Zhou, S. Shu, D. M. Goodstein, K. W. Barry, E. A. Lindquist, J. Schmutz, and G. A. Tuskan. Genomic approaches to improve yield and biofuels conversion efficiency of shrub willow. International Poplar Symposium VI, July 20-24, 2014. Vancouver, BC. Invited oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Smart, L.B., F. E. Gouker, M. J. Serapiglia, E. S. Fabio, C. H. Carlson, Breeding triploid hybrids of shrub willow with improved yield and biomass composition. Short-Rotation Woody Crops Operation Working Group Biannual Meeting, July 17-19, 2014. Seattle WA. Oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Volk, T.A., M. Esienbies,, L. Abrahamson, S. Karapetyan, M. McArdle, J. Posselius, S. Shi, R. Shuren, B. Stanton, B. Summers, J. Zerpa. Development of a single pass cut and chip harvest system for short rotation woody crops. Biomass 2014, Bioenergy Technology Office Annual Meeting, July 29-20, 2014. Washington, DC.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. (2014). Modeling and optimization of biomass harvest and logistics. The University of Georgia, August 15, 2014. Athens, Georgia.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. and D. Hartley. (2014). Biomass harvest and logistics in the northeastern United States. The 5th Forest Engineering Conference jointly with the 47th International Symposium on Forestry Mechanization, September 23-26, 2014. Gerardmer, France.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Eisenbies, M., T.A. Volk, J. Posselius, C. Foster, R. Shuren, B, Stanton, B. Summers, J. Zerpa. 2014. Status of the development of a New Holland SRWC harvest system. Poplar and Willow News, International Poplar Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Issue No. 3, pp 5-7, August 2014. http://www.fao.org/forestry/ipc/74028/en/
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Skousen, J. Post-mining land use development in West Virginia. Linking Innovation, Industry and Commercialization (LIINC) Annual Meeting. September 4, 2014. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. Poster presentation.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wurzbacher, S. 2014. Alternate Markets for Dedicated Grass Energy Crops. Penn State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Jacobson, M. 2014. Shrub Willow Enterprise Budget. Penn State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Volk, T.A. 2014. BCAP Helps Commercialize Shrub Willow for Bioenergy in Northern New York. eXtension. http://www.extension.org/pages/71099/bcap-helps-commercialize-shrub-willow-for-bioenergy-in-northern-new-york#.VEFsqslNclQ
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Smart, L. B. 2014. Triploid Hybrids of Shrub Willow Yield More Biomass Than Diploids and Tetraploids. eXtension Research Summary.http://www.extension.org/pages/71074/research-summary:-triploid-hybrids-of-shrub-willow-yield-more-biomass-than-diploids-and-tetraploids#.VW3xvFJWvj4
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Eisenbies, M. H., Volk, T. A., Posselius, J., Foster, C., Shi, S., & Karapetyan, S. 2014. Evaluation of a Single-Pass, Cut and Chip Harvest System on Commercial-Scale, Short-Rotation Shrub Willow Biomass Crops. BioEnergy Research, 1-13, June 3, 2014. DOI: 10.1007/s12155-014-9482-0
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gan, H.Y., Gan, H.M., Savka, M.A., Triassi, A.J., Wheatley, M.S., Smart, L.B., Fabio, E.S., and Hudson, A.O. 2014. Whole-Genome sequences of thirteen endophytic bacteria isolated from shrub willow (Salix) grown in Geneva, New York. Genome Announcements. 2(3):e00288-14. DOI: 10.1128/genomeA.00288-14
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: He, X., Zheng, J., Serapiglia, M.J., Smart, L.B., Shi, S., Wang, B. 2014. Development, characterization and cross-amplification of eight EST-derived microsatellites in Salix. Silvae Genetica. 63:3, 113-155, January 1, 2014.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Stanton, B.J., Smart, L.B., and Serapiglia, M.J. 2014. Domestication and Conservation of Populus and Salix Genetic Resources (Chap. 4.). In: Richardson, J. and Isebrands, J.G. (eds.) Poplars and Willows: Trees for Society and the Environment. CABI and Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy. pp 124-199. ISBN: 978 1 78064 108 9 (CABI) ISBN: 978 92 5 107185 4 (FAO)
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Thomchick, E. and K. Ruamsook. February 2014. Market Opportunity Identification for Lignocellulosic Biomass. White paper.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Crawford, R., A.G. Taylor, J.L. Hansen, J. Crawford, G.C. Bergstrom, and D.R. Viands. 2014. Lengthening the Switchgrass Planting Season with Varying Seed Rates, Seed Treatments, and Priming. Joint Conference NAAIC, Trifolium, & Grass Breeders, July 8-10, 2014, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Poster presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Feldpausch-Parker, A.M. 2014. Powering the Anthropocene: News Media's Take on the Future of Energy. Annual Association for Environmental Studies and Science Conference, June 11-14, 2014, New York, NY. Presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Jiang, W. 2014. Conceptual Discussion of Economically Marginal Lands for Planting Energy Crops. Symposium of the International Society of Forest Resource Economics, March 17-18, 2014, St. Louis, MO. Presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Richard, T. L., M. Jahn and D. Lazaks. Knowledge systems for sustainability: lessons learned froma global community of practice. Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America. August 13, 2014. Sacramento, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. 2014. Biomass to biofuels and bioproducts. International Center for Bamboo and Rattan, June 25, 2014, Beijing, China. Presentation.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Eisenbies, M.H., T.A. Volk, J. Posselius, S. Shi, and A. Patel. 2014. Quality and variability of commercial-scale short rotation willow biomass harvested using a single-pass cut-and-chip forage harvester. BioEnergy Research 14 Oct 2014, 1-14. DOI: 10.1007/s12155-014-9540-7
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Feldpausch-Parker, A. M., Burnham, M., Melnik, M., Callaghan, M. L., & Selfa, T. 2015. News Media Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage and Biomass: Perceptions and Possibilities. Energies, April 2015. 8(4), 3058-3074. DOI:10.3390/en8043058
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Heavey, J.P. and T.A. Volk. 2014. Living snow fences show potential for large storage capacity and reduced drift length shortly after planting. Agroforestry Systems 88(5): 803-814. DOI: 10.1007/s10457-014-9726-1
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nguyen, L., K.G. Cafferty, E.M. Searcy, S. Spatari. 2014. Uncertainties in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Advanced Biomass Feedstock Logistics Supply Chains in Kansas. Energies. November 2014. 7(11), 7125-7146; DOI:10.3390/en7117125
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Quaye, A.K., T.A. Volk, and J.J Schoenau. 2014. Seasonal Dynamics of N, P, and K in an Organic and Inorganic Fertilized Willow Biomass System. Applied and Environmental Soil Science. Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 471248, 12 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/471248
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Serapiglia, M.J., Mullen, C.A., Smart, L.B., and Boateng, A.A. 2015 Variability in pyrolysis product yield from novel shrub willow genotypes. Biomass Bioenergy. 72:74-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.11.015
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Shao X, K. DiMarco, T. Richard, and L. Lynd. 2015. Winter rye as a bioenergy feedstock: impact of crop maturity on composition. Biotechnology for Biofuels. February 27, 2015. 8:35. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-015-0225-z.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, K., X. Xie, Z. Si, J. Jiang, J. Wang. 2014. Microwave assisted hydrolysis of holocellulose using sulfonated char derived from lignin-rich residue, Advances in Materials Science and Engineering. DOI: 10.1155/2014/106137.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Xiong, B., T.L. Richard and M. Kumar. Separation by Nanofiltration Membranes for the Lignocellulosic Carboxylate Platform. Journal of Membrane Science. Vol. 489, 1 September 2015. 275-283. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2015.04.022
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: DeVallance, D., T. Wang, X. Xie, J. Wang. 2014. Advancements in Wood Pretreatment for Bioenergy and Biofuel Applications. In: Practices and Perspectives in Sustainable Bioenergy: A Systems Thinking Approach. (M. Mitra, ed.), Springer. Accepted.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Cangiano, M.L., A.R. Kemanian, F. Montes and T.L. Richard. 2014. Net ecosystem carbon exchange of maize and shrub willow for bioenergy. 138th ASA/CSSA/SSSA International Annual Meetings, Nov. 2-5, 2014. Long Beach, CA. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: DiFazio, S., Zhou, R., Evans, L., Tang, H., Krishnakumar, V., Town, C., Rodgers-Melnick, E., Gouker, F.E., Carlson, C.H., and Smart, L.B. Contrasting Mechanisms of Sex Determination in the Salicaceae Invited oral presentation, Plant and Animal Genome XXIII Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan. 11, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Jacobson. M. Growing energy crops on marginal lands. IUFRO 2014 World Forestry Congress, October 7, 2014. Salt Lake City, UT
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Ramcharan, A.M., A.R. Kemanian and T.L. Richard. 2014. Can winter rye be a carbon sink energy source? A biophysically-modeled case study. 138th ASA/CSSA/SSSA International Annual Meetings, Nov. 2-5, 2014. Long Beach, CA. Poster
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Richard, T, T. Volk, L. Smart, J. Wang, B. Kinne. 2014. Northeastern Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consortium. USDA NIFA Project Directors Meeting. October 29-31, 2014. Washington, DC.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Gouker, F.E., Zhou, R., Evans, L., Rodgers-Melnick, E., DiFazio, S., and Smart, L.B. Dissection of Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation in Shrub Willow (Salix purpurea), Invited oral presentation, Plant and Animal Genome XXIII Conference, San Diego, CA, Jan. 10, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Hoffman, L.M., L. Cortese, M. Salazar, and S. Bonos. 2014. Genotype x Environment Interaction of Lignocellulosic Characteristics of Switchgrass Grown on Marginal and Prime Soil. 138th ASA/CSSA/SSSA International Annual Meetings, Nov. 2-5, 2014. Long Beach, CA. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Smart, L.B. Genomics assisted breeding of triploid hybrids of shrub willow, Willow Research Symposium, Oct. 30, 2014, Swedish Agricultural University (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden, Invited oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Smart, L.B. Breeding of triploid hybrids of shrub willow, Presentation to plant breeders and willow crop management team, Lantm�nnen Lantbruk and SalixEnergi Europa, Oct. 29, 2014, Sval�v, Sweden. Invited oral presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wang, J. 2014. System modeling and simulation in forest operations and biomass management. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. October 9-10, 2014. Umea, Sweden. Invited presentation.


Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The NEWBio Consortium proposed to provide the scientific and practical knowledge needed to design a sustainable future, to educate and engage the entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put that knowledge to work, and to support the commercial entities that have already developed in the Northeast and continue to facilitate their interactions to create successful feedstock production to fuels systems. To that end, during this reporting period (July 1, 2013 through May 30, 2014), NEWBio reached the following audiences: Approximately 1,200 landowners, farmers, commercial entities, education professionals, and government officals gained new knowledge through their participation in NEWBio bioenergy short courses, webinars, short courses, field days and other events offered on basic and advanced bioenergy topics . Total hits for NEWBio webinar recordings and YouTube videos numbered recordings number 653. Field demonstrations were held on the Crawford County Farm demonstration site, sponsored by NEWBio corporate partners Ernst Conservationa and Aloterra, and attended by local energy and agricultural companies, for example. The Genesee Valley Chamber of Commerce was treated to a greenhouse and field tour at Cornell's SAES. The East Lycoming School District hosted a willow harvesting demonstration at its Hughesville, PA site. Corporate partner Double A Willow provided the harvesting machinery, made possible by the NEWBio Biomass Equipment Access program. The NEWBio team published five peer-reviewed journal articles and one book (Wood-Based Energy in the Northern Forests, Jacobson, M and D. Ciolkosz, eds, 2013). A total of 17 research presentations were given at regional and national conferences. Team members also presented at international conferences and workshops in Ukraine, Poland, Israel, South Africa and China. An additional 58 presentations were made at workshops, field days, symposia, teleseminars and webinars. (See "Other Products" for detailed listings.) NEWBio is effectively strengthening the education pipeline through our engagement with five postdoctoral researchers, 18 graduate students, 10 undergraduate students, eight undergraduate bioenergy scholars and 10 technical staff members whose contributions advance thrust activities and NEWBio objectives. Corporate partners Double A Willow and Celtic Energy Farm purchased biomass equipment that is made available to local landowners and farmers at reduced costs through support from NEWBio. Double A purchased an Egedal Energy Planter and a JFZ200 Hyro/C Willow Harvester. Celtic purchased a New Holland 130 FB Biomass Cutting. To date, the planter has been used by one end user to plant 125 acres. Changes/Problems: During the 20 months of NEWBio activity there have been both positive and negative trends in the external environment. In the context of increasing abundance of domestic shale oil and shale gas and uncertainty about regulatory incentives like the RFS2, companies are finding it difficult to justify major investments in biorefineries. Federal agencies continue to provide a range of positive incentives for sustainable bioenergy development, but legislative and economic drivers have in general been weakening. NEWBio has discussed these challenges openly with our stakeholder advisory board, our internal leadership team, and our sister sustainable bioenergy CAPs in other regions of the US. Within the northeast, biomass production is poised to increase dramatically, but establishment of new acres is limited by market demand. With limited incentives for liquid biofuels, we have incorporated a greater emphasis on biochemical and biomaterial markets, and are coordinating that effort with the cross-CAP extension team. There is a consensus among our stakeholders that growing biomass supply with alternative markets is a necessary step toward large scale biofuel production in the region, and that a diverse portfolio of markets will be stronger for both producers and consumers of biobased fuels, chemicals and materials. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? NEWBio objective: Create learning communities of farmers, entrepreneurs, employees and investors informed about the best practices and emerging technologies in their bioenergy interest areas. NEWBio conducts an aggressive monthly meeting and teleseminar schedule to support internal project team training and professional development, and dissemination of research results and extension offerings to a wider public audience. NEWBio graduate and undergraduate students are employed at each NEWBio institituion to support NEWBio activities in the laboratory and in the field. Extensive NEWBio participation in conferences and workshops is documented under "Other Products", with 47 professional conference and workshop presentations. To date, four online bioenergy courses have been developed (Bioenergy for Feedstocks, Bioenergy Harvest and Logistics, Conversion Technologies for Bioenergy Production, and Biomass Energy Systems. A total of 29 students have taken one or more of these courses, with 21 receiving NEWBio scholarships during Year Two (nine scholarships were awarded for summer 2014). The Bioenergy Scholar program mentored eight undergraduates during 2013, and another eight are signed on for 2014. Charles Busch, a 2013 Scholar hosted at SUNY ESF, collected time motion data on planting rates for willow biomass crops. He presented the initial results at the 2013 NewBio Symposium, continued to work with this data for an independent study in his senior year. Busch’s work developed to a point that SUNY ESF researchers plan to submit a paper to a peer-reviewed journal, with Busch as the lead author. As Tim Volk, Busch’s mentor at SUNY ESF stated, “It has been a really eye-opening process for [him] to go all the way from data collection through the process of wrestling with the data to the point of preparing a paper for publication….it is a good example of what can happen when we engage students in the Bioenergy Scholars program.” Similarly, NEWBio offered training to 20 secondary educators during the 2013 workshop sessions held in State College, PA and Morgantown, WV. Paul Heasley, a State College Area High School Ag Science Instructor, utilized the Bioenergy and Bioproducts Education workshop experiences and assistance he received to apply for, and receive, grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to implement a Biomass Education Center, and purchase a biomass pellet maker and hammer mill. Another participant, a high school chemistry teacher, contacted Corrine Rutkze, BBEP Director at Cornell University, to say she would no longer turn her students away from agriculture now that she knows how many different career paths are possible. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Approximately 1,200 people have attended bioenergy short courses, webinars, short courses, field days and other events offered on basic and advanced bioenergy topics. NEWBio webinar recordings have been viewed 635 times. The post-course evaluation survey for our Next Generation Biomass Conversion short course indicated that 71 percent of the respondents found the overall quality of the event good or excellent. Of these respondents, 85 percent planned to use the information they learned to better inform their business or farming plans. Similarly for the Pellets and Power short course, 89 percent of survey respondents rated the course content as good or excellent, with 67 percent indicating they were provided with the information they hoped to learn. In general, participants value the opportunity to see real-life applications and examples in addition to the research and theory; the “hard economics” assist in the evaluation of up-and-coming technologies and feasibility analyses. The NEWBio team has published five peer-reviewed journal articles and one book (Wood-Based Energy in the Northern Forests, Jacobson, M and D. Ciolkosz, eds, 2013). A total of 17 research presentations were given at regional and national conferences. Team members also presented at international conferences and workshops in Ukraine, Poland, Israel, South Africa and China. An additional 58 presentations were made at workshops, field days, symposia, teleseminars and webinars. Our project team is engaged with 5 postdoctoral researchers, 18 graduate students, 10 undergraduate students, eight bioenergy scholars and ten technical staff members whose contributions advance thrust activities and NEWBio objectives. Postdoc Michele Serapiglia (Cornell and now at USDA-ARS ERRC) presented an All Hands teleseminar on Genotype-by-Environment Effects on Biomass Composition and Doctoral Candidate Damon Hartley (West Virginia) presented a teleseminar on NEWBio Materials Flow for Data Sampling and Data Management. Technical personnel routinely assist with demonstrations and presentations during field days. For example, Ryan Crawford (Cornell) presented on Switchgrass Seeding Rate and Treatment Study at a Seed Growers Field Day in Ithaca, NY and and demonstration plots. And all eight undergraduate Bioenergy Scholars presented the results of their work during All Hands meetings and at the NEWBio Symposium in August 2013. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? NEWBio Plan-of-Work for Year 3 Funding Thrust 1 - Human Systems Task 1.1: Understanding Social and Economic Constraints Activities will include refining crop budgets and yield assumptions on an ongoing basis using Northeast U.S. data, and analysis of landowner motivations and behaviors. Task 1.2: Assess demonstration sites as they pursue scale up of biomass crop production and supply chain infrastructure Activities will include developing and applying metrics for assessing the application of a strategic procurement framework for NEWBio demonstration sites. Thrust 2 – Feedstock Improvement Task 2.1: Breeding of non-invasive triploid hybrids of willow displaying hybrid vigor Activities will include execution of parallel recurrent selection programs for tetraploid and diploid species, development of genotyping-by-sequencing markers for tetraploid species and development of new triploid progeny. Task 2.2: Genetic basis for pest and disease resistance in willow and perennial grasses Activities will include surveys of Salix germplasm for susceptibility to rust, potato leafhopper, beetles and the collection of Salix tissues for analysis of gene expression in response to insect feedings; surveys of switchgrass germplasm for resistance to pests and diseases and if present, evaluate, summarize and compare with Cornell data. Task 2.3: Breeding and selection of cultivars adapted for Northeast conditions Activities will include the analysis of willow growth data for 2012 and the measurement and initial analysis of 2013 yield trials; assessment of growth, disease and insect resistance for switchgrass research trials; maintenance of switchgrass nurseries, and the harvesting of switchgrass seed from crossing blocks. Task 2.4: Breeding and selection of willow and switchgrass yields on reclaimed mine lands. Activities will include surveying survival rates and measuring and analyzing growth data at willow demonstration sites and in switchgrass nurseries. Thrust 3 – Harvest, Pre-processing, and Logistics Task 3.1: Significantly reduce the harvesting cost per ton of biomass feedstocks from willow and perennial grasses Activities will include continued processing of time-motion data from large-scale harvests, analysis of fuel consumption, emissions, and other economic and environmental variables for willow and switchgrass harvesters. Miscanthus field harvesting tests will also be performed. Task 3.2: Quantify the role of preprocessing for densification and storage on transportation efficacy and downstream fuel conversion Activities will include final torrefaction tests and measurements of energy and fuel yield from torrefied biomass feedstock. Task 3.3: Assess the storage requirements and effects of long-term storage on the quality of willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the continuation of long-term storage studies for switchgrass, miscanthus and willow. Task 3.4: Techno-economic analysis, cost engineering, and life cycle analysis of densification, storage preprocessing and biorefinery integration Activities will include generating equipment performance parameters, biomass material format characteristics and ranges for each alternative supply scenario. Thrust 4 – Systems Performance and Sustainability Task 4.1: Site- and crop-specific knowledge gaps Activities will include the continued monitoring and accumulation of biomass measurements at various experimental websites and the establishment of additional experimental sites for willow and miscanthus. Task 4.2: Benchmark scenarios Activities will include continued simulations on NEWBio demonstration sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the introduction of point-based scenarios in New York, and the continued comparison with of biomass crop management with other annual crops. Task 4.3: Regional feedstock supply and environmental assessment Activities will include development of methods to incorporate air quality and landscape effects (invasive species, changes in land use) into regional scenarios. Task 4.4: Biomass to biofuel life cycle analysis and multi-criteria sustainability Activities will include defining protocols for Life Cycle Analysis for each point scenario from Task 4.2, and identifying missing or ambiguous data. Thrust 5 – Safety and Health Task 5.1: Biomass safety program development Activities will include the ongoing review and inventory of injury and exposure report and a safety needs survey of biomass producers. Task 5.2: Safety and health hazard inventory Activities will include expanding team site visits to non-Pennsylvania locations, and the examination of new machines and technologies used in biomass operations. Task 5.3: Develop, conduct and evaluate a comprehensive safety and health management program Activities will include drafting a biomass safety and health management plan. Thrust 6 – Extension Task 6.1: Integrated demonstration sites Activities will include routine data collection and maintenance at demonstration sites and organizing events for the region. Task 6.2: Biomass equipment access program Activities will include the scheduling and prioritization of use of harvesting and planting equipment available through NEWBio collaborators. Task 6.3: Small business and economic development Activities will include assessing existing business models and conducting a biomass market analysis. Task 6.4: Expand eXtension.org for willow and warm-season grasses Activities will include maintenance of NEWBio’s index of publications and outreach materials, development of web-based “Ask an Expert” and FAQ forums, and facilitate the development of NEWBio research summaries. Task 6.5: Interactive and innovative learning-lessons tools Activities will include developing fact sheets that target barriers to the business development of biomass.a Thrust 7 – Education Task 7.1: Secondary Educator Training Activities will include applicant recruitment and receipt/review of candidate applications, the identification of program dates and locations for Summer 2015 workshops. Task 7.2: Regional Bioenergy Scholars Program Activities will include obtaining feedback from Year 2 scholars and host institutions, recruitment of Year 3 scholars, maintenance of online resources for the program, application review and placement with host institutions. Task 7.3: Graduate Distance Education in Bioenergy Activities will include the marketing of the program, receipt and review of student applications and identification of scholarship recipients for spring 2015 courses. Thrust 8 – Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) and Program Evaluation Task 8.1: Executive and Thrust Conference Calls Activities will include monthly leadership team conference calls, and monthly joint leadership-management team conference calls, and at least monthly thrust team conference calls. Task 8.2: All Hands Teleseminars and Meetings Activities will include monthly teleseminars and an annual meeting that provide project updates to the NEWBio project team, our advisory board, industry and agency partners and interested members of the public. Task 8.3: External Advisory Board Meetings and Strategic Planning Activities will include an annual stakeholder review of NEWBio tasks and performance facilitated by external evaluators, and the establishment of an active feedback loop for strategic planning. Task 8.4: Task and Project Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of stakeholder engagement processes and assessment of NEWBio capacity to create stronger linkages between knowledge and action (K2A) via a survey of internal project team members and the Advisory Board. Task 8.5: Administrative Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of program administration via a team survey and interviews with key team members.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? NEWBio is 20 months into an anticipated five-year project and can identify project outcomes in several areas. Our team has identified and is addressing behavioral and institutional barriers to biomass stakeholder engagement and is modeling biological, social and economic variables that influence the availability of perennial biomass crops. Harvesting and preprocessing models are assisting stakeholders in research trials even as they undergo refinement. Project team members are analyzing key sustainability metrics, developing new crop varieties, and implementing education programs to link activities and results to diverse audiences. Objectives I, IX Stakeholder engagement models: NEWBio is making good progress with stakeholder collaboration through our short courses, webinars, field days and workshop offerings, with over 1,000 participants. During Year Two, an equipment access program was put in place to forward-position planter and harvester machinery for use by local landowners. Objectives I, II, IX Socioeconomic analyses & forecasts: NEWBio awarded a Year Two seed grant to a collaborative Penn State/Iowa State research team to study the Potential Economic Impact of Renewable Fuels and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock for the Northeast. The report will build on ongoing resource assessments of feedstock availability by county and other economic related research. Objectives III, IV Accelerated breeding to develop stress-resistance & improve yields: The Feedstock Improvement breeding programs are identifying genetic traits that will have ramifications for all bioenergy crops. Research on willow compositional traits was published recently (see Serapiglia, M., F. et al) and work on switchgrass resistance to several different fungal species, begun during the summer of 2013 by Shannon Hennessey (Bioenergy Scholar) will continue with Christopher Mann, a 2014 Bioenergy Scholar. Objective VI Injury surveillance and hazard assessment tools, including safety and health management templates: Identification of biomass operations, machinery and processes will result in a draft safety and health management plan in Year Three. Objectives II, III, V, VII Models and decision support systems for sustainable biomass production, harvesting, preprocessing and logistics: Base models are developed for willow, switchgrass and miscanthus, with work continuing at INL on the biomass logistics model, and at WVU on preprocessing. Objectives III, VII Biomass cropland resource assessments: This work is being done in partnership with ORNL, with a few assessments completed at a preliminary level with stakeholders. Objectives III, VII Geospatial database & web portals for local/regional sustainability assessments/decision support systems: NEWBio will be testing components of the Data Management Plan (DMP) during summer 2014, with a full rollout anticipated in the fall. NEWBio has demand from several stakeholders for the web portal for resource and price assessments. Objectives VII, IX Over 90,000 acres of perennial crop production: There are currently 10,000 acres of dedicated biomass crops in production in the region. The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) was approved in the 2014 Farm Bill, with mandatory funding levels that should support approximately 50,000 additional acres nationally during each of the next five years. NEWBio will encourage stakeholders to pursue applications for this funding, with corporate partners Aloterra and ReEnergy and Celtic Farm Energy as models of success from previous BCAP programs. Objective XII Corporate commitments for two commercial biorefineries in the NE: NEWBio is in discussions with several conversion partners. While most discussions remain confidential, they include both start-ups and major energy companies. In all cases siting decisions depend on financing and demonstrated ability to deliver feedstock at prices and quantities needed. Conversion partners appear to be ready to site facilities should economic and policy incentives align. Of particular relevance are the expanded BCAP program, RFS2 requirements and resulting RINs prices, which Delta Airlines indicates is a major driver for their interest in adapting their refinery for biomass feedstocks, as well as state and local policy drivers. Objective X 100 supply agreement & pricing programs: NEWBio has engaged Penn State MBA and law students in assessing contract issues for biomass feedstocks. The Penn State Agricultural Law Clinic is now available to assist parties needing to evaluate multi-year agreements for perennial crops. Objective X 50 new small businesses: NEWBio is developing a tracking system to measure progress toward this objective, and is cooperating with small business and economic development organizations as well as biomass trade organizations to market our programs to new and prospective entrepreneurs. Objectives I, IX, XI Educating students, citizens, landowners and policymakers: A key objective for NEWBio is to increase public understanding of the social, economic and environmental impacts of sustainable bioenergy is a key NEWBio objective. The Education Thrust is coordinating three high-impact delivery vehicles: graduate online biomass courses, undergraduate mentoring via the Bioenergy Scholars, and secondary educator training.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Kenaley, S.C., Smart, L.B., and Hudler, G.W. 2014. Genetic evidence for three discrete taxa of Melampsora (Pucciniales) affecting willows (Salix spp.) in New York State. Fungal Biology 118.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Schaufler, D., A. Yoder, D. Murphy, C Schwab, A. DeHart. 2014. Safety and Health Hazards in On-Farm Biomass Production and Processing. Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Serapiglia, M.J., Gouker, F.E., Smart L.B. 2014. Early selection of novel triploid hybrids of shrub willow with improved biomass yield relative to diploids. BMC Plant Biology 14: 74.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Yoder, A.M., C. V. Schwab, P. D. Gunderson, and D. J. Murphy. 2013. Safety and Health in Biomass Production, Transportation and Storage. Journal of Agromedicine.
  • Type: Books Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Jacobson, M. and D. Ciolkosz (Eds) 2013. Wood-Based Energy in the Northern Forests. Springer.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Grushecky, S., J. Wang, S. Owen, and L. Osborn. 2014. Biomass Resources, Uses, and Opportunities in West Virginia 2013. Final Technical Report to the West Virginia Division of Energy. Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. 128pp.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: NEWBio was added to the national eXtension website's Farm Energy Community of Practice pages. http://www.extension.org/ag_energy
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Dale, B.E., J.E. Anderson, R.C. Brown, S. Csonka, V.H. Dale, G. Herwick, R.D. Jackson, N. Jordan, S. Kaffka, K.L. Kline, L.R. Lynd, C. Malmstrom, R.G. Ong, T.L. Richard, C. Taylor and M.Q. Wang. 2014. Take a Closer Look: Biofuels Can Support Environmental, Economic and Social Goals. Environmental Science and Technology. DOI: 10.1021/es5025433


Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13

Outputs
Target Audience: The NEWBio Consortium proposes to provide the scientific and practical knowledge needed to design a sustainable future, to educate and engage the entrepreneurs, employees, farmers, landowners, students, policy makers, and citizens who will put that knowledge to work, and to support the commercial entities that have already developed in the Northeast and continue to facilitate their interactions to create successful feedstock production to fuels systems. To that end, during this reporting period (September 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013), NEWBio reached the following audiences: ---Commercial entities through the establishment of plantings on reclaimed mine lands in Pennsylvania, and the establishment of demonstration sites in West Virginia and Ohio; --A local government policy-making group (Crawford County Commissioners) as participants in a field-scale perennial grass planting at a public farm site in northeastern Pennsylvania; --Farmers, landowners, and entrepreneurs through the forward-positioning of pecialized planting equipment with a NEWBio industry collaborator, to promote their engagement in the biomass value chain; --Industry professionals, academia, government officials and local landowners are among the approximately 40 to 60 individuals who each month attend Bioenergy webinars on such topics as Biomass Feedstock Production in the Northeast, Building Support for Biomass Thermal in the Northeast, The Future of Residential Wood Heating, Switchgrass-Miscanthus-Arundo Growth on Surface Mines in West Virginia. These same audiences also attend NEWBio Biomass Short Courses (one day workshops). The theme for our 2012-2013 workshops is "The Business of Biomass" and included Grass Energy, Bioenergy Supply Chain Business Opportunities, and Pellets and Power as topics. --NEWBio Education programs included the Bioenergy Scholar program, where eight undergraduate students spent an immersive nine-weeks over May-June-July under the tutelage of a NEWBio researcher; two K-12 Educator week-long workshops (one in West Virginia, one in Pennsylvania) where 20 secondary educators enhanced their bioenergy knowledge and skills with the goal of incorporating what they learned into their classroom teaching; and development of an online graduate-level bioenergy course that will launch in Fall 2013 through Penn State's World Campus. Seven deserving graduate students will receive scholarships to attend this course. --Postdoctoral researchers (three), graduate students (13), and undergraduate students (20) were engaged in formal classroom and/or laboratory training, and in practicum experiences in the field. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? NEWBio conducts an aggressive monthly meeting and teleseminar schedule to support internal project team training and professional development, and dissemination of research results and extension offerings to a wider public audience; NEWBio developed the Bioenergy Scholar program to afford undergraduate students the opportunity to work side-by-side with NEWBio researchers in an intensive summer internship; NEWBio conducts monthly webinars on bioenergy-related topics that are public and advertised with participants across the region and throughout the U.S.; Graduate and undergraduate students are employed at each NEWBio institution to support NEWBio activities in the laboratory and in the field; Two secondary educator workshops were held this year, with NEWBio researchers training 20 K-12 teachers; NEWBio is well-represented at professional conferences with 59 research and outreach presentations documented through June 2013. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Over 450 people have attended bioenergy short courses and webinars offered thus far on basic and advanced bioenergy topics, and from two to three times more watch the archived recordings of the webinars. The post-course evaluation survey for our NE Perennial Grass Energy offering indicated that 94 percent of the respondents found the overall quality of the event good or excellent. Of these respondents, 29 percent planned to use the information they learned to better inform their business or farming plans. Similarly for the Biomass Supply Chain course, 74 percent of survey respondents rated the course content as good or excellent, with 26 percent indicating they would use the course to assist with their long-term business plans and farm-related decisions on feedstock production. The NEWBio team has contributed 59 research and outreach presentations to diverse audiences, including high school educators, an international biomass conference in China, and our own monthly All Hands meetings; Our project team has engaged a wide variety of new students and staff, including 3 postdoctoral researchers, 13 graduate students, 15 undergraduate students, eight bioenergy scholars and five technical staff members whose contributions are clearly helping advance thrust activities and achieve NEWBio objectives. A few examples include: Postdoc Kusumal Ruamsook, who is a co-author on a supply chain article under review for a refereed publication; Postdoc Joshua Herr, who is collecting soil samples from trial sites and conducting metagenomic analysis of soil microorganisms; Graduate student Damon Hartley, who is coordinating our cross-thrust data management team; Graduate student Wanyan Wang, who also is collecting soil samples and contributing to metagenomic analysis, and willow phenotyping; Graduate student Amanda Ramcharan, who is modeling the nitrogen requirements for NEWBio feedstocks and examining theses landscape impacts; Undergraduate Danielle Lesso, who has been responsible for maintaining the Education thrust’s public webpage; and three Cornell University undergraduate interns who are assisting with field trial plantings and other tasks that will advance the genetic willow and switchgrass studies. NEWBio can document landowner, community and public participation in the project: Penn State University and NEWBio corporate partner Double A Willow signed a memorandum of agreement to forward-position a specialized willow planter with Double A Willow that will be made available for use at reduced costs to local landowners who would otherwise be unable to engage in crop production. Double A Willow purchased a new planter for this purpose and took possession of it this spring; Penn State Extension and the Crawford County Commissioners are negotiating a memorandum of understanding that will allow NEWBio the use of a 100-acre farm owned by the county as a demonstration site in Northwest Pennsylvania; Corporate partner Aloterra Energy signed a materials transfer agreement with Penn State to allow the transfer of proprietary miscanthus rhizome materials to PSU for field trials on Penn State lands. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? NEWBio Plan-of-Work for Year 2: September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2014 Thrust 1 - Human Systems Task 1.1: Understanding Social and Economic Constraints Activities will include analyzing the sensitivity of economic availability of biomass, defining and identifying marginal lands, and identifying and describing the knowledge, attitudes, risk perceptions and ownership motivations of local landowners. Task 1.2: Assess demonstration sites as they pursue scale up of biomass crop production and supply chain infrastructure Activities over the course of the project will include identifying, monitoring, and addressing the positive and negative social impacts of demonstration sites. Thrust 2 – Feedstock Improvement Task 2.1: Breeding of non-invasive triploid hybrids of willow displaying hybrid vigor Activities will include execution of parallel recurrent selection programs for tetraploid and diploid species, development of genotyping-by-sequencing markers for tetraploid species and development of new triploid progeny. Task 2.2: Genetic basis for pest and disease resistance in willow and perennial grasses Activities will include surveys of willow and switchgrass germplasm for resistance to pests and disease, starting seed of switchgrass progeny from controlled crosses conducted in 2013 and preparing same for planting in the field. Task 2.3: Breeding and selection of cultivars adapted for Northeast conditions Activities will include evaluation of willow and switchgrass germplasm based on vigor on soil conditions that are limiting to growth in the Northeast and develop and evaluate new switchgrass progeny. Task 2.4: Breeding and selection of willow and switchgrass yields on reclaimed mine lands. Activities will include measurement and analysis of willow and switchgrass growth data from field trials planted in 2012-2013 on reclaimed mine lands in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Thrust 3 – Harvest, Pre-processing, and Logistics Task 3.1: Significantly reduce the harvesting cost per ton of biomass feedstocks from willow and perennial grasses Activities will include acquiring forage harvester production data (time-motion, fuel consumption, fuel emissions). Task 3.2: Quantify the role of preprocessing for densification and storage on transportation efficacy and downstream fuel conversion Activities will include conducting torrefaction and pyrolysis feedstock tests, measuring energy and fuel yields from torrefied feedstocks, and continuing densification studies on miscanthus, switchgrass and willow. Task 3.3: Assess the storage requirements and effects of long-term storage on the quality of willow and perennial grasses Activities will include the continuation of existing storage studies and analysis of storage impacts, and begin storage studies for miscanthus with a summer wet harvest. Task 3.4: Techno-economic analysis, cost engineering, and life cycle analysis of densification, storage preprocessing and biorefinery integration Activities will include modifying the current base model to represent alternative feedstock supply chains. Thrust 4 – Systems Performance and Sustainability Task 4.1: Site- and crop-specific knowledge gaps Activities will include collection of yield data to populate biomass production models, quarterly sampling of nitrogen, nitrous oxide emissions, and carbon at demonstration sites. Task 4.2: Benchmark scenarios Activities will include completion of soils and weather databases to further the development and ongoing revisions to crop management schedules and simulation scenarios. Task 4.3: Regional feedstock supply and environmental assessment Activities will include assimilating the process-based modeling and experimental data from Task 4.2, and air and water quality impacts for five different demonstration site scales. Task 4.4: Biomass to biofuel life cycle analysis and multi-criteria sustainability Activities will include defining protocols for five different industrial scales and identifying missing or ambiguous data. Thrust 5 – Safety and Health Task 5.1: Biomass safety program development Activities will include analyzing relevant published literature, acquiring necessary data on injuries and exposure reports, evaluating existing safety and health programs and identifying deficiencies and gaps in same Task 5.2: Safety and health hazard inventory Activities will include multiple visits to biomass harvesting and storage sites. Thrust 6 – Extension Task 6.1: Integrated demonstration sites Activities will include identifying demonstration sites and related personnel, stakeholders and audiences. Task 6.2: Biomass equipment access program Activities will include compiling information on field site locations and acreages in need of equipment access, and coordinating this data with NEWBio time-motion data collection needs. Plans also call for the acquisition of a willow harvester for the access program. Task 6.3: Small business and economic development Activities will include the identification and comparison of various business and supply chain models, and identification of supply chain gaps and deficiencies. Task 6.4: Expand eXtension.org for willow and warm-season grasses Activities will include developing the willow/warm-season grasses webspace, identifying priority topics for publication, and determining details and a timeline for the development of specific content. Task 6.5: Interactive and innovative learning-lessons tools Activities will include identifying topics and issues for use by NEWBio in distributing information to the NEWBio project team, industry stakeholders, and the general public. Thrust 7 – Education Task 7.1: Secondary Educator Training Activities will include applicant recruitment and receipt/review of candidate applications, the identification of program dates and locations for Summer 2014 workshops, and collaboration with site directors to plan local tours and identify local speakers. Task 7.2: Regional Bioenergy Scholars Program Activities will include obtaining feedback from Year 1 scholars and host institutions, recruitment of Year 2 scholars, maintenance of online resources for the program, application review and placement with host institutions. Task 7.3: Graduate Distance Education in Bioenergy Activities will include the marketing of the program, receipt and review of student applications and identification of scholarship recipients for spring 2014 courses. Thrust 8 – Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) and Program Evaluation Task 8.1: Executive and Thrust Conference Calls Activities will include monthly leadership team conference calls, and monthly joint leadership-management team conference calls, and frequent thrust team conference calls. Task 8.2: All Hands Teleseminars and Meetings Activities will include monthly teleseminars and an annual meeting that provide project updates to the NEWBio project team, our advisory board, industry and agency partners and interested members of the public. Task 8.3: External Advisory Board Meetings and Strategic Planning Activities will include an annual stakeholder review of NEWBio tasks and performance facilitated by external evaluators, and the establishment of an active feedback loop for strategic planning. Task 8.4: Task and Project Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of stakeholders engagement processes and assessment of NEWBio capacity to create stronger linkages between knowledge and action (K2A) via a team survey and interviews with key team members. Task 8.5: Administrative Evaluation Activities will include evaluation of program administration via a team survey and interviews with key team members.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Thrust Accomplishments Human Systems. The team began to acquire and synthesize socio-economic data and develop a media library on social acceptability of biomass. They also collected soil and climate data for trial plots, and completed a critical review of supply chain management alternatives for biomass value chains. Feedstock Improvement. The breeding program for willow conducted more than 60 crosses, with 11 successful so far. Switchgrass breeding nurseries were established, and willow cuttings were collected for 2013 plantings in NY and on reclaimed mine land in Pennsylvania. Partnerships were secured with MeadWestvaco in West Virginia to establish willow and switchgrass demonstration sites, and with The Wilds in Ohio to establish switchgrass and miscanthus demonstration sites on abandoned mineland. Collaborative efforts with colleagues in South Korea, China and the UK led to the acquisition of Salix seed from the Jiangsu Academy of Forestry in Nanjing and nine willow genotypes from Rothamsted Research Station in the UK. Harvest, Preprocessing, Logistics. The HPL team designed willow and switchgrass harvesting protocols and time-motion data collection procedures for a forage harvester and switchgrass baler. Key parameters for biomass harvesting models were identified, and data collection begun for Life Cycle Analysis and Techno-Economic Analysis modeling studies. Time-motion data collection was initiated as well. The team also developed experimental design and analytical methods protocols for densification and storage studies, and initiated same. Systems Performance and Sustainability. The team defined benchmark locations for its regional feedstock supply and environmental assessment monitoring and modeling. Weather and radiation base data sources were identified, and the first eddy covariance tower to monitor CO2 flux in willow was deployed in Pennsylvania (April 2013). Cover crop experiments were established in New York and Pennsylvania. The team also initiated a broader partnership with ORNL for overall data management coordination, and established a project data management working sub-group with representatives across NEWBio thrusts to coordinate data and metadata collection. Safety and Health. The Safety team conducted a literature search to review hazard and risk exposure and identified a framework for describing injury prevention opportunities and risk evaluations. A technical paper abstract was accepted for presentation at two conferences. Extension. Working with NEWBio advisory board members, industry partners, and other organizations, Extension identified potential field demonstration sites in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. The team secured the participation of the Crawford County Commissioners (PA) to carry out a field-scale perennial grass planting at a public farm site for NEWBio outreach and research purposes. Extension also forward-positioned a step planter with advisory board member and corporate partner Double A Willow. Three bioenergy workshops were delivered (Perennial Grass Energy in the Northeast, Farming Wood for Heat and Biofuels, and The Business of Biomass: Supply Chains), as well as four bioenergy webinars (Miscanthus and Energy, Switchgrass, Miscanthus, and Arundo Growth on Surface Mines in WV, Add Some Heat: Building Support for Biomass Thermal in the Northeast and Biomass Feedstock Production in the Northeast: Land Use, Yields, and Sustainability. Industry and NEWBio team members were presenters with participants drawn from industry, academia, and the public. The Extension and Education Teams also developed four fact sheets, and various NEWBio display materials. Education. The Education team has three major programs as its activities, and all three are fully operational. Promotional materials and application information were developed for each program and made available in hardcopy and online. The Bioenergy Scholars Program, which places eight applicants with mentors at NEWBio partnering institutions, inaugurated the program on May 28 at Delaware State University. Nine weeks of immersion on various bioenergy topics end with scholar presentations in a symposium-style setting. The Secondary Educator Training program completed its first full session in West Virginia in early July; a second workshop occurs in late July. The Education team developed the curriculum and worked with site directors to organize the training. The program accepts 20 educators each year for a intensive week-long workshop on bioenergy. The Graduate Distance Education program offered scholarships to the first seven graduate students for an online course this fall, ABE 884, Biomass Energy Systems. Leadership, Stakeholder Involvement, Knowledge-toAction (K2A) and Program Evaluation. Team meetings have been the key deliverable during this start-up year, with monthly leadership, management, and all hands meetings held. The All Hands meetings are virtual seminars with featured presentations by NEWBio project team members. In February, the leadership team released a request for proposals for NEWBio’s initial round of seed grants. Four proposals were funded and will be initiated this summer. NEWBio’s external evaluation consultants developed a project team survey, secured IRB approval for same, and distributed it in April.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Thomchick, E. and K. Ruamsook. 2013. Potential Woody Biomass Supply Chain Scenarios: A Conceptual Study, in Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) 2013 International Conference: Sustainable Production and Service Supply Chains, to be held on September 912, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2012 Citation: Richard, T.L. The Northeast Woody/Warm-season Biomass consortium - new business models for perennial biofuels, presented in Regional Approaches to Sustainable Bioenergy Systems session, ASA, CSSA, and SSSA International Annual Meetings, Cincinnati, OH. Oct. 21, 2012. Oral presentation.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2012 Citation: Hartley, D and J.Wang. 2012. Analysis of harvesting logistic on woody biomass supply chains for community based bioenergy projects in West Virginia, Proceedings of the Council on Forest Engineering Annual Meeting: Engineering New Solutions for Energy Supply and Demand, New Bern, NC, September 9-12, 2012.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Marra, M., T. Keene, J. Skousen, and T. Griggs. 2013. Switchgrass yield on reclaimed surface mines for bioenergy production. J. Env. Qual. 42: 696-703
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: NEWBio website launched in October 2012, with news, events, project team and partner listings, and Extension and Education pages that detail the programs and learning opportunities available through the project. http://www.newbio.psu.edu/default.asp
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Jacobson, M. 2012. NEWBio Energy Crop Profile: Shrub Willow Fact Sheet, Penn State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA.Fact sheet available at conferences and workshops and on NEWBio website.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Jacobson, M. 2012. NEWBio Energy Crop Profile: Miscanthus Fact Sheet, Penn State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA.Fact sheet available at conferences and workshops and on NEWBio website.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Jacobson, M. 2102. NEWBio Energy Crop Profile: Switchgrass Fact Sheet, Penn State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA. Fact sheet available at conferences and workshops and on NEWBio website.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Owen, S.C., S. Grushecky, and H. Nobert. A peek at the process of developing a willow demonstration area in Rupert, WV. Fact sheet published by West Virginia University Extension Service, Morgantown, WV. 2013.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Owen, S.C., S. Grushecky, and J. Skousen. Exploring new opportunities for sustainable bioenergy resources in the mountain state. Fact sheet published by West Virginia University Extension Service, Morgantown, WV. 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Thomchick, E. and K. Ruamsook. 2013. Conceptualizing Biomass Supply Chains, 13th Annual International Business Conference: Teaching, Research and Practice, Logistics, Transportation, and Supply Chain Management Track, Jacksonville, FL February 8-9, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Gouker, F., Serapiglia, M., Tang, H., Town, C., Buckler, E., Mitchell, S., Elshire, R., Hyma, K., Rodgers-Melnick, E., DiFazio, S., Barry, K., Lindquist, E., Schmutz, J., Tuskan, G., Smart, L. Sequencing and Assembly of the Salix purpurea Genome and Transcriptome to Improve Shrub Willow for Biomass Production, Jan. 13, 2013, International Plant and Animal Genome Conference (PAG-XXI), San Diego, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Hartley, D and J.Wang. 2012. Analysis of harvesting logistic on woody biomass supply chains for community based bioenergy projects in West Virginia, Council on Forest Engineering Annual Meeting: Engineering New Solutions for Energy Supply and Demand, New Bern, NC September 9-12, 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Wang, J. 2012. Woody biomass utilization for biofuels: Opportunities and challenges, International Conference on Biomass Energy Technologies. Nanjing, China. October 22-24, 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Smart, L.B. Breeding shrub willow for improved yield and biofuels conversion efficiency, Annual Meeting of NEERA1005 Multistate Research, Education, and Extension Project, Geneva, NY. Dec. 19, 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Smart, L.B. Breeding shrub willow as a sustainable feedstock crop for biofuel production, International Symposium on Forest Environments and Low Carbon Green Growth, Thirtieth Anniversary Symposium of the College of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, South Korea, Oct. 18, 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Smart, L.B., Gouker, F.E., Serapiglia, M.J., Town, C.D., Tang, H., Buckler, E.S., Elshire, R.J., Mitchell, S.E., DiFazio, S., Rodgers-Melnick, E., Tuskan, G.A., Carlson, J.E., Miller, R.O., Volk, T.A., and Fabio, E.S. Development of genomic resources and novel species hybrids for the genetic improvement of shrub willow feedstock crops Sun Grant Initiative National Conference, Oct. 3, 2012, New Orleans, LA.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Richard, T. and T.A. Volk. 2013. NewBio: The Northeast Woody/Warm-Season Biomass Consortium. Sun Grant Feedstock Partnership Meeting, Tunica, MS. Feb. 13 15, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Richard, T. L. NEWBio: Growing Sustainable Bioenergy Crops in the Northeast. Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Professionals Annual Conference. State College, PA. May 8, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Richard, T.L. The NEWBio Consortium: Scaling-up for the Region. Northeast Biomass Heating Seminar. Saratoga Springs, NY. April 3, 2013.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Owen, S.C., S. Grushecky, and J. Skousen. Giant Miscanthus: A bioenergy crop profile for WV. Fact sheet published by West Virginia University Extension Service, Morgantown, WV. 2013.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Owen, S.C., S. Grushecky, and J. Skousen. Switchgrass: A bioenergy crop profile for WV. Fact sheet published by West Virginia University Extension Service, Morgantown, WV. 2013.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Owen, S.C., S. Grushecky, and J. Skousen. Shrub Willow: A bioenergy crop profile for WV. Fact sheet published by West Virginia University Extension Service, Morgantown, WV. 2013.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Marra, M., T. Keene, J. Skousen, and T. Griggs. 2013. Switchgrass yield on reclaimed surface mines for bioenergy production. J. Env. Qual. 42: 696-703
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Yoder Aaron M., D.J. Murphy, and A.F. DeHart. A Technical Review on Safety in On-Farm Biomass Production and Storage Systems: Status and Industry Needs. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Technical Paper No. 1620568. Kansas City, MO, July 21-24, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: Jacobson, M.G. and W. Jiang. NEWBio: Growing Bioenergy Crops on Marginal Lands. Proceedings of the North American Agroforestry Conference. Charlottetown, Canada. June 18-21, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Spatari, S., G. Pourhashem, A.A. Boateng, C.A. Mullen, A.J. McAloon, and T.L. Richard. Life Cycle Assessment of Biomass Densification through Fast Pyrolysis. National Academy of Engineering, German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, April 26-27, 2013, Irvine, California.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Hartley, D.S and J. Wang. 2013. Analysis of Woody Biomass Supply Chains in the Northeastern United States. 67th International Convention of the Forest Products Society, Austin, TX, June 9-11, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Hartley, D.S. and J. Wang. 2013. Woody Biomass Supply Chains in the Northeastern United States: An Economic Analysis. Northeast Agricultural and Biological Engineers Conference, Altoona, PA, June 16-19, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Crawford, R., Layton, C., Hansen, J. L., Salon, P., Crawford, J., Viands, D. R. Switchgrass breeding in the presence of biotic and abiotic stresses, April 17, 2013, Dept. of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: L.B. Smart Genetic Improvement of Perennial Bioenergy Crops for Marginal Land. Northeast Bioenergy and Bioproducts Teacher Training Session, Ithaca, NY. June 19, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Mayton, H., Bonos, S. Long-term sustainable production of biomass via biodiversity and plant breeding, Symbiosis Conference: Expanding Commercialization of Mutualistic Microbes to Increase Bioenergy Crop Production, Ithaca, NY. Hosted by the US DOE, Bioenergy Technologies Office, June 20-21, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Posselius, J., L. Abrahamson, M. Eisenbies, C. Foster, D. Lewis, M. McArdle, R. Shuren, B. Stanton, B. Summers, T. Volk, J. Zerpa. Supply Systems for Short Rotation Woody Biomass, Northeast Agricultural & Biological Engineering Conference (NABEC), Altoona PA, June 16-19, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Eisenbies, T.A. Volk, L.P. Abrahamson, P. Castellano, C. Foster, S. Karapetyan, M. McArdle, J. Posselius, R. Shurn, B. Stanford, B. Summers, J. Zerpa. Development and Deployment of a Short Rotation Woody Crops Harvesting System Based on a Case New Holland Forage Harvester and SRC Woody Crop Header. Thousand Island Renewable Energy Forum, Kingston, ON, June 13-15, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Zhang S. and J. Liu. 2013. Mechanical Properties of Miscanthus (M. Giganteus). Northeast Agricultural and Biological Engineering Conference (NABEC), Altoona, PA, June 16-19, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Richards, B. K. Sustainable Bioenergy Production on Marginal Lands of NY and the Northeast: Resource Conservation Aspects. Cornell University Bioenergy & Bioproducts Education Program, Teacher Training Session, Ithaca, NY. June 26, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Spatari, S. LCA of Emerging Biomass Conversion Pathways to Fuels and Bio-based Products. 17th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Bethesda, MD, June 18-20, 2013
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Spatari, S. Technological, Climate Change and Sustainability Aspects of Future Transportation Fuels. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 4, 2013.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Stoof C.R., B.K. Richards, P.B. Woodbury, H. Mayton, J.H. Cherney and T. Steenhuis. Untapped Potential: Sustainable Bioenergy Production from Marginal Lands in the Northeast US. International Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Oct. 21-24, 2012, Cincinnati, OH.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Woodbury, P. Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production in New York State and the Northeast USA. Sustainable Bioenergy Production on Marginal Lands Seminar Series, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. January 20, 2013