An ASABE Meeting Presentation Paper Number: 064186

A Conceptual Comparison of Biopower Generation Options

Amit Kumar, Assistant Professor
University of Alberta, 4-9 Mechanical Engineering Building, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2G8, E-mail: Amit.Kumar@ualberta.ca

Written for presentation at the 2006 ASABE Annual International Meeting Sponsored by ASABE Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon 9 - 12 July 2006
Abstract. Biomass is a renewable fuel and is considered nearly carbon neutral. There are myriad options for its usage and it is important to evaluate different bioenergy options. Apart from usage of biomass for electricity, biomass can be used to produce liquid fuels such as bio-oil. Electricity can be generated from biomass: by direct combustion of biomass; or by production of bio-oil through pyrolysis of biomass and combustion of bio-oil to produce electricity. The benefit of production of bio-oil is that its energy density is very high as compared to as received biomass. A decision on the bio-power production method should be based on the most economic and mature route. This study analyzes mountain pine beetle (MPB) killed wood as the feedstock for production of electricity through the bio-oil route and compares it with the direct combustion route of biomass to produce electricity. The MPB infestation of British Columbias (BC) forest has reached an epidemic proportion and is spread over an area of 10 million hectares. According to the current estimates of BCs Ministry of Forests and Range, about 1 billion cu. m of trees would be killed by MPB by 2013. This infestation would result in large scale loss of jobs and the standing dead trees are a fire hazard and if left unharvested will decay and release carbon back to the atmosphere. The cost of bio-oil production from a 220 dry tonnes per day plant using the infested wood for two locations (one remote and other near the industry) in BC is in the range of C$0.27 C$0.29 per liter. The cost of producing electricity using this bio-oil is above C$100 per MWh which is higher than the current power price in BC. This cost is also higher than the cost of production of electricity by direct combustion of infested wood in a boiler (C$68-C$74 per MWh). Keywords. Mountain pine beetle infested wood, Bio-oil, Biopower, Economics, Cost, Technoeconomic assessment.
The authors are solely responsible for the content of this technical presentation. The technical presentation does not necessarily reflect the official position of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), and its printing and distribution does not constitute an endorsement of views which may be expressed. Technical presentations are not subject to the formal peer review process by ASABE editorial committees; therefore, they are not to be presented as refereed publications. Citation of this work should state that it is from an ASABE meeting paper. EXAMPLE: Author's Last Name, Initials. 2006. Title of Presentation. ASABE Paper No. 064186. St. Joseph, Mich.: ASABE. For information about securing permission to reprint or reproduce a technical presentation, please contact ASABE at rutter@asabe.org or 269-429-0300 (2950 Niles Road, St. Joseph, MI 49085-9659 USA).

Introduction
Mountain pine beetle (MPB) infestation of BCs forest is expected to have a significant detrimental impact on the forest industry. The total area of infestation by summer of 2005 was about 10 million hectares. The infestation is expected to kill approximately 960 million m3 of tree by 2013 (Clark, 2005). According to the estimates of BCs Ministry of Forests, 200-600 million cu. m of wood would remain unharvested. Regions where the damaged wood is not harvested will experience loss of jobs in the forestry sector and impact on the viability of communities. The unharvested biomass is a fire hazard to regrowing species, and hence there is the risk of even more economic damage. This unharvested wood, if left to decay in the stands, would release carbon into the atmosphere. Utilization of this wood for energy and other bio-based products use will help in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and contribute to Canadas commitment towards the Kyoto Protocol. Among different bioenergy options, it can be used to produce electricity and liquid biofuels such as bio-oil. Bio-oil is an organic liquid which is dark brown in color. It is produced by the fast pyrolysis of biomass. Biomass feedstock can include forest biomass as well as agricultural biomass. Various research groups around the world have studied bio-oil and are developing technologies for its production and utilization (see for example, Grassi and Bridgwater, 1993; Juste and Monfort, 2000; Graham et al., 1994). Several companies have developed processes to produce bio-oil and are in various stages of demonstration and commercialization (for example, Ensyn Group Inc., 2001; DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 2001). Bio-oil can be combusted to produce electricity and can also be used in manufacturing of specialty chemicals. The bio-oil production technology used in this study will be discussed in subsequent section. The proposed study looks at the alternative use of MPB killed wood in the Province of British Columbia at two locations: Nazko road and Quesnel region. The objective of this study was to carry out a preliminary techno-economic analysis for using a portion of B.C.s mountain pine beetle for the production of bio-oil (cost in $/liter) and estimate the cost of production of electricity ($/MWh) by using the produced bio-oil in a boiler for two locations mentioned above. These locations are identified as most appropriate locations for biofuel plant based on the availability of large amount of unharvestable MPB infested wood (Eng, 2005a). This research work estimates the cost of bio-oil production from harvesting and transporting a portion of the beetle infested pine wood to a dedicated conversion plant for a period of 20 years. The cost of electricity production from bio-oil is then compared with the cost of production of electricity by direct combustion of biomass. British Columbias forest consists of both coniferous and deciduous tree species. The coniferous species include lodgepole pine, douglas fir, spruce, hemlock, cedar, and true firs. Among these lodgepole pine is the most susceptible to MPB attack. The extent of infestation is difficult to estimate because of the variability in the rate of infestation and the increase in infestation every year. MPB attacks mature trees that have larger diameters and thick bark, which helps protect the beetles from predators. MPBs attack the trees in a symbiotic relationship with blue stain fungi. Infected trees are typically 80-100 years old and have low resistance to the fungi. Beetles feed on the sapwood and the fungus attacks the trees resistance mechanisms, resulting in the death of the tree (Pacific Forestry Centre, 2005). This study focuses on the killed lodgepole pine in the interior of B.C. Current estimates are that at least 200 million m3 of wood would remain unharvested (Ministry of Forest and Range (MoFR), 2003) and this may increase up to 600 million m3. The area included in this study is the Quesnel timber supply area (TSA) and specifically locations where the MPB infestation is severe. Two sites within this study area were selected: the West

Road/Nazko River area has a very high concentration of surplus MPB killed trees, and the Quesnel area is expected to have lower density but still a large amount of unharvested infested wood situated closer to a community, rail line, major access road and major transmission line. In this study the yield for 60 year or older lodgepole pine stands is estimated using the initial report by MoFR (Eng, 2005a) and also from personal communication with Marvin Eng of MoFR (Eng, 2005b). Actual amounts of MPB killed trees and the fraction of them that are surplus to existing forestry operations is under current re-evaluation within the MoFR, and yield figures may be adjusted in the future. In this study we assume that MPB killed trees are cut and skidded to the roadside. At the roadside the whole tree is chipped and chips are transported to the plant by a chip van. Thus in this case limbs and tops are also chipped and used as fuel. Typically, the residues (limbs and tops) range from 15% to 25% of the total tree biomass in the forest. In this study we have assumed a value of 20% for the residues, and hence actual yield is 25% higher than merchantable volume. The final average standing yield per gross hectare for lodgepole pine is estimated at 64.1 m3 for the West Road/ Nazko location and 37.5 m3 for Quesnel location. Gross hectares include all other land uses such as other forest species and non-forest land use.

Bio-oil Production from MPB Killed Wood Scope and Cost

The scope of this study is a dedicated bio-oil production plant operating for 20 years using biomass from infested pine trees. Cost factors are developed for each element of the scope and are included in detail in this section. The costs are reported for a plant having capacity of about 220 dry tonnes per day. This is equivalent to a plant producing about 10 million gallons per year (MMGY) or 40 million liters per year (ML). All costs are reported in 2004 Canadian dollars. This study is based on the existing practices in the forest industry of western Canada. The study assumes clear-cutting throughout the infested pine plots, skidding the whole tree to the roadside, and whole tree chipping at the roadside. Trees are drawn from throughout the harvest area, giving a constant average transportation distance to the bio-ethanol plant over the life of the plant. The study draws on regionally specific detailed studies of the costs of recovering forest biomass performed by the Canadian Forest Service, the Ministry of Forest (British Columbia), the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), from other literature, and from personal discussions with researchers and equipment suppliers. Delivered biomass cost from different sources shows a wide variation as these studies include cost of different operations and systems. This study draws on cost studies by FERIC for most of the operations. Harvesting for fuel wood is simpler and involves fewer steps than harvesting for lumber or pulp: trees are not bucked or delimbed, and residues are not left over at the roadside, and trees are not loaded onto trucks but rather left at roadside for chipping. Hence, our costs are at the lower end of the range of FERIC estimates (MacDonald, 2005). The harvesting system in this study is a feller-buncher and a grapple skidder; tree-to-truck cost includes only felling and skidding. Truck loading and unloading costs are included in the transportation cost. Costs for construction of logging roads, and silviculture costs are included for harvesting the infested forest; these are a significant component of overall cost. Biomass cost in this study is thus based on full recovery of all costs associated with harvesting, transportation and chipping, including capital recovery. A detailed literature review and discussion on biomass harvesting and transportation cost is given in an earlier study by the author on the utilization of MPB killed trees for power production (Kumar et al, 2005a). Delivered wood costs used in this study are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Delivered Cost of Biomass Components Felling ($/m3) Skidding ($/m ) Silviculture ($/m3) Roads and infrastructure ($/m ) Overheads ($/m ) Chipping ($/m3) Hauling ($/m ) Total delivered cost ($/m3)
*

This study* 6.00

3

3.00 3.15
3

3.90 5.00 5.00 3.781 29.83

All the costs have been estimated based on the discussion with personnel from FERIC Western Division (McDonald and Sauder, 2005) and are close to FERICs lower estimate of biomass delivered cost (McDonald, 2005). Details of 1 cost estimates are given in Kumar et al. (2003 & 2005a) and Kumar (2006). This is based on the formula given in Favreau (1992). Hauling cost given in Table 1 is for Quesnel location for a plant using 220 dry tonnes per day. Hauling cost for West Road/Nazko location at the same capacity is $3.56 per m3.

Description of Other Cost Factors

Biomass collection and transportation in the forest
Capital costs for harvesting equipment are not estimated in this study but rather treated as a custom operation cost that includes capital and operation costs; this is equivalent to assuming that the bio-oil plant operator contracts out harvesting.

Storage of biomass at the plant site

The storage time is assumed to be three months for the time when roads are impassable. Trees are chipped at the roadside in the forest and transported to a plant by a chip van.

Grinding of biomass at the plant site

Biomass received at the plant is in the form of chips of size 2-3 inches. For bio-oil production it is further ground to a size of 0.04 inches which helps in high heat transfer (DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 1999). A cost of $6.80 per dry tonne is included in this study for grinding (Mullaney et al., 2002).

Bio-oil characteristics and production technology

Bio-oil can be produced from a variety of biomass feedstock. Bio-oil is produced from the fast pyrolysis of lignocullulosic biomass. In addition to production of bio-oil in the process, a high quality char and a combustible gas is also produced. Bio-oil is not a petroleum-based product and is insoluble in petroleum-based materials such as #2 fuel oil or gasoline. Bio-oil contains about 30% water and hence has a low heating value than light fuel oil and diesel by about 55% (Cole Hill Associates, 2004). Several companies have developed technologies for production of bio-oil from woody biomass (see for example, DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 2000; Freel and Graham, 2000;

Biomass Technology Group, 2004). Various research groups around the world have also studied bio-oil and are developing technologies for its production and utilization (see for example, Grassi and Bridgwater, 1993; Juste and Monfort, 2000; Graham et al., 1994; Mullaney et al., 2002). A typical bio-oil production process consists of feedstock preparation which includes grinding, drying (if the moisture content of the biomass is high), fast pyrolysis of biomass in a fluidized bed, decomposition of biomass in solid char, gas and vapors, separation of char by a cyclone, condensation of the vapors to get bio-oil. This study is based on the pyrolysis of softwood to produce bio-oil. This process is same as proposed by DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation (DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 1999, 2000). This study draws on previous technoeconomic work by Mullaney et al. (2002) for a bio-oil plant. Full capital costs are calculated for bio-oil production, and are adjusted for capacity. Capital cost Capital costs are calculated for two locations in B.C. At a plant capacity of 220 dry tonnes per day (40 million liters per year), capital costs for Quesnel and West Road/Nazko River are about $18.5 million and $19.4 million, respectively. Capital costs for Quesnel and West Road/Nazko River are different because of the remote location factor which is discussed below. The study done by Mullaney et al., (2002) includes capital cost for three different size plants and these reported costs are used in this study. Location This study analyzes two locations based on the availability of majority of unharvested infested wood. These locations are: West Road/Nazko River and Quesnel, B.C. The location is driven by availability of infested wood and proximity to existing highways for biomass transportation. Capital costs for Quesnel and West Road/Nazko River have been escalated by 5% and 10%, respectively. A bio-oil plant at Quesnel would not require labour to be housed in a camp for construction as it is near to the population. However, a plant at West Road/Nazko River will need a camp for labour. Capital cost for Quesnel location is escalated by 5% as there might be some cost in transporting labour from Prince George, BC on daily basis. Operating and administration costs For a bio-oil plant, a total of 15 staff is assumed. This is based on earlier studies by Mullaney et al. (2002). This staffing level consists of one plant manger, one supervisor, four shift breakers, four field operators, four Forklift operators and one administrative staff responsible for accounting, bookkeeping and purchasing. Salary for each is assumed based on the data given in these reports. Plant reliability and startup profile Biomass handling plants have operating outages that are often associated with solids handling problems. In this study, a bio-oil plant operating availability of 0.95 is used. Startup of solids based plants is rarely smooth, and this is accounted for by assuming a plant availability of 0.85 in year 1 and 0.90 in year 2. In year three and beyond, the availability goes to 0.95. Bio-oil transportation by truck A bio-oil plant located in West Road/Nazko River will be remote from the existing highway and distribution infrastructure. In this study it is assumed that bio-oil produced from a plant in West Road/Nazko River location is transported to Quesnel at a cost of 2 cents/liter by trucks (Borjesson, 1996). This cost is not attributed for Quesnel case as the produced bio-oil is already near the distribution infrastructure.

Reclamation A site recovery and reclamation cost of 20% of original capital cost, escalated, is assumed in this study, spent in the 20th year of the project. Because the charge occurs only in the last year, it is an insignificant factor in the cost of bio-oil. Return Bio-oil cost is calculated to give a pre-tax return of 10%. Note that an actual plant would be financed by a mix of debt and equity that would be specific to the project developer, hence no attempt is made to calculate a return on equity.

Bio-oil Results
Resource requirement and production cost
Table 2 gives bio-oil plant characteristics, cost input data, amount of wood required over 20 years to support the bio-oil plant, the geographical footprint and the bio-oil production cost for two locations. Note that if all of the minimum assumed available 200 million m3 of otherwise unharvested MPB wood were to be used for bio-oil production, it would support 57 bio-oil plants each of capacity 40 million liters per year, over their life, producing 800 million liters of bio-oil. Figure 1 shows the bio-oil cost as a function of plant capacity.
0.45 0.4

Cost of bio-oil production ($/liter)

0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 0 50 100 150 200 250

Bio-oil production cost at Quesnel (without bio-oil transportation cost) Bio-oil production cost at West Road/Nazko River (with bio-oil transportation cost)

Capacity of plant (dry tonnes/day)

Figure 1. Bio-oil cost as a function of capacity for MPB killed wood based plant. Large scale bio-oil plants are benefited by the economy of scale. The capacities that are considered in this study are in range of what has been proposed by the typical bio-oil companies. The optimum size, at which bio-oil production cost is minimum, is not yet reached and there is possibility of increasing the capacity of the plant provided the technology permits.

Composition of bio-oil cost

Table 3 shows the makeup of bio-oil cost in $/liter and $/gallon. Note that costs are for the first year of operation at full capacity (year 3), but are deflated back to the base year 2004.

Operation and maintenance cost is in the range of 44% - 48% of the total bio-oil cost, followed by delivered cost of biomass (34% - 37%) and capital cost (17% - 18%). Transportation cost is a small component because of smaller transportation distances. Cost of storage of biomass at the plant is less than one cent per liter and hence is not shown in Table 3. Bio-oil produced at West Road/Nazko River location is transported by trucks to Quesnel for distribution. This cost of transportation is about 7% of the bio-oil production cost. The difference in the cost of bio-oil for two locations is due to the cost of transportation of bio-oil produced at the West Road/Nazko River location by truck to Quesnel. Electricity production from bio-oil Bio-oil can be used for the production of electricity. Electricity can be generated by bio-oil in three ways: in a gas turbine coupled with a generator; in a combined cycle mode with exhaust from gas turbine used to produce steam which is then used to run a steam turbine; and, in combined heat and power generation (DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 2000). The cost of production of electricity is different for the three modes and depends significantly on the delivered biomass cost. Detailed electricity generation cost is reported by DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation using bio-oil from a simple gas turbine (DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 2000). A plant producing 40 million liter per year of bio-oil can provide fuel for a 10 MW power plant. Based on the reported cost, it is estimated that the cost of power generation from MPB infested wood based bio-oil is above $100 per MWh at a delivered feedstock cost of about $75 per dry tonne for Quesnel and West Road/Nazko River locations. The electricity produced at the West Road/Nazko location will have to be transmitted to Quesnel where the main BC Hydro grid exists. This will add further cost to the total cost of electricity delivery. At this cost, electricity generation from bio-oil is not competitive with the existing electricity price in B.C. A combined cycle plant for electricity generation or combined heat and power generation plant might improve the economics.

Discussion
This study does not take any credit or subsidy into account in calculating the cost of bio-oil. Government incentive can help in improving the economics of bio-oil. This study does not include any revenue which can be generated by selling char. If surplus char is left after drying of the biomass, it can be sold and that can improve the economics of bio-oil. Biomass yield in this study has been estimated for a healthy lodgepole pine stand. MPB killed trees might have a different yield than the healthy stands. One future step is confirmation of MPB wood yields based on whole tree chipping. Higher moisture content of the fuel reduces the lower heating value. The equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of wood estimated in this study is for a particular region, and is averaged over a year. EMC varies with relative humidity and temperature, and the impact of varying conditions over the year on both EMC and the energy content of the wood can be evaluated in more detail if the project proceeds. Higher moisture content will increase the biomass transportation cost for bio-oil. In this study bio-oil is transported from West Road/Nazko River location to Quesnel for distribution. At Quesnel bio-oil can used for the production of electricity or chemicals. Electricity production by a centralized stand alone plant is not competitive with existing power price in B.C. Use of bio-oil for production of high value chemicals can be further evaluated.

Table 2: Bio-oil plant characteristics and costs Factor

Bio-oil plant size (million liters/yr) Biomass consumption (dry tonnes per day) Plant life (years) Theoretical bio-oil, char and gas yield (weight %) o Bio-oil o Char o Combustible gases Plant operating factor: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 onwards Bio-oil plant capital cost for 2 cases (million dollars) Quesnel West Road/Nazko River 1 1 0.3 18.5 19.4 Value 40 220 20 Source / Comments This is equivalent to about 10 million gallons per year bio-oil plant. This is equivalent to a biomass consumption of 72,300 dry tonnes per year. Note that the plant could likely run longer than 20 years based on forest harvest residues, mill wastes, or other sources of biomass. This is derived from DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation (2000) and Mullaney et al. (2002).

66 21 13 0.85 0.90 0.95

These are for whole bio-oil plant and are derived from Mullaney et al. (2002). A location specific escalation of 5% is included in the cost for Quesnel to allow for a distributed construction work force that would require daily transportation to the plant site, and an escalation of 10% is included for West Road/Nazko River for a camp based remote construction site. It includes all the operating and administrative staff salaries and an overhead of 30% adopted from Mullaney et al. (2002). This is the cost of chemicals and water for third year of operation when plant is running at full capacity (Mullaney et al., 2002). (Mullaney et al., 2002)

Average annual operating and administration cost (million dollars) Chemicals and water cost (million dollars) Cost of non production utilities and labor (million dollars)

Factor
Cost of natural gas for pyrolysis ($/GJ)

Value 8

Source / Comments Assumed. This cost of natural gas is used in the model based on DynaMotive data that heat requirement is approximately 2.5 MJ per kg of biooil produced. Out this 1 MJ per kg of bio-oil produced is required from natural gas (DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation, 2000) This is electricity consumption level per operating hour for a 220 dry tonne plant (Mullaney et al., 2002). Plant startup is at the end of year 3 of construction. Estimated based on discussions with industry.

Cost of electricity requirement (kWh/hr) Spread of costs during construction (%) Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Factor to reflect capital cost impact for location. Quesnel West Road/Nazko River Annual maintenance cost.

1,800

20 35 45

1.05 1.10 10% of initial capital cost per year 10 % 20% of initial capital cost 0.02 Mullaney et al. (2002).

Aggregate pre-tax return on capital (blend of debt plus equity). Site recovery and reclamation costs. Bio-oil transportation cost ($/liter)

A bio-oil plant would combine debt and equity, and hence a blended value of 10% return on capital is conservative. The reclamation cost is escalated and is assumed to be in the 20th year of operation. This is the cost of transportation of bio-oil from West Road/Nazko River location to Quesnel for distribution. This is for transportation of 100 km by trucks and is derived from Borjesson (1996).

Table 3: Resource requirement and cost composition for a MPB killed tree biomass based bio-oil plant over 20 years
West Road/Nazko River Capacity of plant (dry tonnes/day) Capacity of plant (million liters/yr) [million gallons/yr] Amount of biomass required over 20 years (actual m ) Amount of biomass required over 20 years (merchantable m3) Project draw area (km x km) Note: only the surplus MPB killed trees within this area are used for fuel. Cost elements Delivered Biomass Cost Components Harvesting cost Transportation cost Silviculture cost Road Construction cost Chipping and grinding cost Total delivered biomass cost Capital cost recovery Operation and Maintenance Cost Components Maintenance cost Operating and administration cost Miscellaneous chemicals and water cost Non production utilities and labor cost Cost of electricity usage Cost of natural gas usage Bio-oil transportation cost Total operation and maintenance cost Total Bio-oil Production Cost from MPB Killed Wood 0.04 (0.17) 0.02 (0.08) 0.02 (0.08) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.02 (0.08) 0.14 (0.52) 0.29 (1.09) 0.04 (0.17) 0.02 (0.08) 0.02 (0.08) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.00 (0.00) 0.11 (0.52) 0.27 (1.02) $/liter ($/gallon) 0.04 (0.17) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.02 (0.08) 0.10 (0.38) 0.05 (0.20) $/liter ($/gallon) 0.04 (0.17) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.01 (0.04) 0.02 (0.08) 0.10 (0.38) 0.05 (0.20)
3

Quesnel 220 40 [10] 3,556,140 2,844,900 35 by 35

220 40 [10] 3,556,140 2,844,900 27 by 27

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Conclusions and Recommendations

The cost of producing bio-oil from MPB wood in a 220 dry tonnes per day plant is $0.29 per liter ($1.11 per gallon) for plant located in West Road/Nazko River with a transportation cost of biooil to Quesnel and $0.27 per liter ($1.02 per gallon) for plant located in Quesnel without any transportation cost of bio-oil. Operation and maintenance cost is in the range of 44% - 48% of the total bio-oil cost, followed by delivered cost of biomass (34% - 37%) and capital cost (17% 18%). The cost of bio-oil from Quesnel location is lower than the bio-oil cost at West Road/Nazko River location mainly because of the transportation cost of bio-oil. The plant will require about 3.5 million actual m3 (2.8 million merchantable m3) of wood over 20 years. The draw area for West Road/Nazko River and Quesnel locations is 27 km by 27 km and 35 km by 35 km, respectively. If this oil is used for production of electricity, the cost of electricity generation is more than $100 per MWh. Table 4 gives a comparison of the options. Table 4: Comparison of bioenergy options for MPB infested wood Options Bio-oil Economics Cost of production of bio-oil from a centralized plant based on MPB infested wood ranges from $0.27 to $0.29 per liter. Cost of production of electricity (from a gas turbine coupled with a generator) based on bio-oil produced from MPB infested wood is above $100 per MWh at a feedstock cost of about $75 per dry tonne. Electricity from MPB infested wood based bio-oil is expensive than existing power price in BC. Cost of electricity production based on direct combustion of MPB infested wood is in the range of $68 to $74/ MWh. Electricity production from direct combustion of MPB infested wood is expensive than existing power price in BC. Status of Technology No large scale stand alone power plant based on bio-oil from softwood is operating commercially today. Technology for large scale stand alone power plant based on bio-oil is still under development. Comments Not an option to be implemented immediately. Economics of production of high value chemicals or combined heat and power plant can be evaluated.

Biopower (evaluat ed in earlier study by Kumar et al., 2005)

Large scale biomass power plant available (e.g. 240 MW biomass power at Pietarsaari, Finland). Technology for electricity generation from biomass is mature.

It is a feasible and viable option today with government subsidy for green power. This technology can be implemented immediately.

In summary, MPB killed wood provides a unique opportunity to convert otherwise wasted biomass in B.C. to useful biofuels and biopower. Conversion of MPB infested wood to bio-oil provides an option for utilization of this wood resource, but today, this option is not lucrative as compared to the electricity generation from direct combustion of MPB wood in a power plant. Production of electricity by direct combustion of MPB infested wood can be implemented immediately and it can help sustain jobs, contribute to a clean environment, potentially help

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Canada meet its obligations under the Kyoto accord, and put Canada at the forefront of biomass utilization.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to BIOCAP Canada Foundation for the financial support to carry out this project. The author is thankful to personnel from the Western Division, Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) for their valuable comments on the harvesting, transportation and storage of biomass. However, all the conclusions, recommendations and opinions are solely the authors, and have not been endorsed by any other party.

References
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