Transition Strategies: Resource Mobilization Through Merchandisable Feedstock Intermediates

A variety of feedstock types will be needed to grow the bioeconomy. Respective logistics and market structures will be needed to cope with the spatial, temporal, and compositional variability of these feedstocks. At present, pilot-scale cellulosic biorefineries rely on vertically integrated supply systems designed to support traditional agricultural and forestry industries. The vision of the future feedstock supply system is a network of distributed biomass processing centers (depots) and centralized terminals. This introduces methods to increase feedstock volume while decreasing price and quality supply uncertainties. Depots are located close to the resource, while shipping and blending terminals are located in strategic logistical hubs with access to high bulk transportation systems. The system emulates the current grain commodity supply system, which manages crop diversity at the point of harvest and at the storage elevator, allowing subsequent supply system infrastructure to be similar for all resources. The initiation of depot (pilot) operations is seen as a strategic stepping stone to transition to this logistic system. A fundamental part of initiating (pilot-) depot operations is to establish the value proposition to the biomass grower, as biomass becomes available to the market place only through mobilization. A feedstock supply industry independently mobilizing biomass by producing value-add merchandisable intermediates creates a market push that will derisk and accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies. Companion markets can help mobilize biomass without biorefineries. That is, depots produce value-added intermediates that are fully fungible in both a companion and the biorefining market. To achieve this, a separation between feedstock supply and conversion industry may be necessary.