The TMU at Work

Woody Biomass Grant Program

Over the past few years, the TMU has administered the national woody biomass utilization grant program. This program focuses on helping communities and rural businesses improve efficiencies in processing and using woody biomass removed from forest restoration activities, such as reducing hazardous fuels, handling insect and diseased conditions, or treating forestlands impacted by catastrophic weather events. These funds are targeted to help communities, entrepreneurs, and others turn the by-products of forest restoration activities into marketable forest products and/or energy products.

Program goals

• Help reduce forest management costs by increasing value of biomass and other forest products generated from forest restoration activities
• Create incentives or reduce business risk for increased use of biomass from national forestlands
• Institute projects that target and help remove economic and market barriers to cost-effective hazardous fuel reduction activities

Examples of past award projects

• Produced residential and industrial pellets from hazard fuel treatment residues for a local greenhouse.
• Purchased scragg mill and dry kiln to produce flooring and paneling for use in homes in area.
• Purchased a track-mounted mechanized harvester, feller-buncher for cut-to-length merchandizing of hazardous fuel reduction treatments; material used for shavings, energy, and timbers.
• Purchased truck for loading and transporting pole material collected from hazardous fuel treatments around town to post & pole operator.
• Purchased whole tree chipper for onsite hazardous fuel treatments; material used for biomass energy.
• Used hazardous fuel treatment to test co-firing of boiler with biomass and determine economics; material used for biomass energy.
• Purchased and installed a dry kiln and resaw to improve recovery and use of hazardous fuel treatment material to produce molding and paneling.
• Replaced existing boiler system in high school with a wood biomass heating system.
• Purchased horizontal grinder and band resaw to utilize material from hazardous fuel reduction treatments; material will be used for lumber.
• Purchased and install a new biomass boiler for producing 1.5 MW power to grid from hazardous fuel reduction treatments.
• Installed a recovery system to use slabs and other material that currently goes to waste; material is derived from small-diameter forest thinning material.
• Purchased horizontal grinder; material processed is shipped to biomass power plant for energy.
• Purchased and installed shaving processor to produce high-quality animal bedding from material too small to process into logs; material removed from hazardous fuel treatments.
• Purchased a horizontal feed tub grinder to use material currently left in woods after hazardous fuel treatment; material transported to utility for biomass energy.
• Purchased feller-buncher, tanglehead processor, and skidder in order to process hazardous fuel treatments and transport material to mill.
• Constructed a 1,000-kW co-generation facility at a prison utilizing woody biomass as the primary fuel.
• Installed a pressure treatment cylinder at post-and-pole facility to add value to material.