Woody Biomass Fuel Crops in Interior Alaska

摘要

As the price of traditional fossil fuels escalates, there isud-- increasing interest in using renewable resources, such asud-- biomass, to meet our energy needs. Biomass resources are ofud-- particular interest to communities in interior Alaska, whereud-- they are abundant (Fresco, 2006). Biomass has the potentialud-- to partially replace heating oil, in addition to being a possible source for electric power generation (Crimp and Adamian, 2000;ud-- Nicholls and Crimp, 2002; Fresco, 2006). The communities ofud-- Tanana and Dot Lake have already installed small Garn boilers toud-- provide space heating for homes and businesses (Alaska Energyud-- Authority, 2009). A village-sized combined heat and powerud-- (CHP) demonstration project has been proposed in North Pole.ud-- In addition, several Fairbanks area organizations are interested inud-- using biomass as a fuel source. For example, the Fairbanks Northud-- Star Borough is interested in using biomass to supplement coalud-- in a proposed coal-to-liquids project, the Cold Climate Housingud-- Research Center is planning to test a small biomass fired CHPud-- unit, and the University of Alaska is planning an upgrade toud-- its existing coal-fired power plant that could permit co-firingud-- with biomass fuels. The challenge for all of these projects is inud-- ensuring that biomass can be harvested on both an economicallyud-- and ecologically sustainable basis.