(Press-News.org) (Millbrook, N.Y. – Feb 17, 2011) Forest biomass could replace as much as one quarter of the liquid fossil fuel now being used for industrial and commercial heating in the Northeastern United States. That's according to a new report released today by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.
But the report also has sharp caveats: The potential for forest biomass varies widely within the region, and forest resources must be carefully managed to protect the other important services and goods they provide. Under the right circumstances, however, the report found that forest biomass can provide a domestic energy resource, create local jobs, and provide incentives to forest owners.
"In targeted applications, the heat generated by locally-grown biomass can reduce dependence on fossil fuels and support local economies," said Dr. Charles D. Canham, a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute and co-author of the report. "But each forested landscape is different, and regional variation in forest conditions and energy infrastructure means there is no one-size-fits-all solution."
The report analyzed U.S.D.A. Forest Service Forest data from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
It found that using forest biomass for heat in the region was far more effective in replacing liquid fossil fuels than converting it to cellulosic ethanol for road transport. Biomass burned in combined heat and power plants reduced fossil fuel use more than five times more effectively than substituting gasoline with cellulosic ethanol.
Under best-case scenarios, however, the energy generated sustainably from forest biomass in the Northeast could replace only 1.4% of the region's total fossil fuel energy. But for some states, biomass energy could be much more compelling when replacing fossil fuel use in certain sectors.
"Maine and New Hampshire show the greatest potential for forest biomass energy," said Dr. Thomas Buchholz, a researcher at the University of Vermont's Carbon Dynamics Lab and co-author on the report. "Our study found that New Hampshire could replace as much as 84 percent of its liquid fossil fuel dependence in the industrial and commercial heating sector, and Maine could replace 49 percent of its liquid fossil fuel dependence in the home-heating sector."
But the report cautioned that utmost care must be observed in all parts of the region.
"There is a misconception that Northeastern forestland is a vast, untapped resource," Canham commented. "This is simply not true. Unrealistic growth in biomass energy facilities could lead to serious degradation of forest resources. While forest biomass is part of the renewable energy toolkit, it is by no means a panacea."
"Forest biomass can be an important element of a low-carbon energy future," added contributing author Dr. Steven Hamburg of Environmental Defense Fund. "But we'll need ongoing scientific oversight to ensure it is done sustainably."
INFORMATION:
To access the full report, Forest Biomass and Bioenergy: Opportunities and Constraints in the Northeastern United States, please visit: www.caryinstitute.org/biomass.html.
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is a private, not-for-profit environmental research and education organization in Millbrook, N.Y. For more than twenty-five years, Cary Institute scientists have been investigating the complex interactions that govern the natural world. Their objective findings lead to more effective policy decisions and increased environmental literacy. Focal areas include air and water pollution, climate change, invasive species, and the ecological dimensions of infectious disease. Learn more at www.caryinstitute.org
Turning forests into fuel: New report outlines promise and limits of biomass energy in the Northeast
2011-02-18
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Unraveling how prion proteins move alon axons in the brain
2011-02-18
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the motors that move non-infectious prion proteins (PrPC) – found within many mammalian cells – up and down long, neuronal transport pathways. Identifying normal movement mechanisms of PrPC may help researchers understand the spread of infectious prions within and between neurons to reach the brain, and aid in development of therapies to halt the transport.
Their study is published in the February 18 edition of the journal Cell.
The small prion protein is found in the cell membrane ...
Pollution triggers genetic resistance mechanism in a coastal fish
2011-02-18
For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York's Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined colleagues from New York University (NYU) and NOAA to investigate this phenomenon and report that the tomcod living in the Hudson River have undergone a rapid evolutionary ...
Study links social security improvements to longer life span
2011-02-18
New findings from researchers at New York Medical College suggest that when Social Security benefits are improved, people over the age of 65 benefit most, and may even live longer.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, Americans over the age of 65 experienced steep declines in the rate of mortality in the periods that followed the founding of and subsequent improvements to Social Security. The authors urge that as Congress and the President discuss changes to Social Security they consider the benefit of reduced mortality and improved ...
World's first chemical guided missile could be the answer to wiping out cancer
2011-02-18
Deakin University medical scientists have created the world's first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile, placing them a step closer to creating a medical 'smart bomb' that would seek out and eradicate the root of cancer cells.
The Deakin researchers have worked with scientists in India and Australia to create the world's first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that acts like a guided missile to seek out and bind only to cancer stem cells. The aptamer has the potential to deliver drugs directly to the stem cells (the root of cancer cells) and also to be used to ...
Swedish discovery could lead to new stroke therapy
2011-02-18
The only acute treatment for a stroke currently available is thrombolysis. This uses drugs that dissolve the blood clot responsible for the stroke, but it only reaches around 10 per cent of stroke patients in time to prevent lasting damage. For other patients, there are no other effective drugs that reduce the loss of brain function following a stroke.
Researchers at the Laboratory for Experimental Brain Research in Lund, together with American researchers, have discovered a substance that reinforces the brain's self-healing functions after a stroke. It has long been ...
Choose less contaminating products thanks to eco-labeling
2011-02-18
Ensuring the sustainability of the products we use is a fundamental challenge for society, and is becoming ever more important for consumers and companies. A researcher from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) has come up with an eco-labelling system that provides environmental information, showing the carbon footprints generated by the goods and services in question during their "life cycle".
"This study provides an alternative means of efficiently communicating environmental information to companies, consumers and interested parties – the eco-label. This ...
Sleeping Trojan horse to aid imaging of diseased cells
2011-02-18
A unique strategy developed by researchers at Cardiff University is opening up new possibilities for improving medical imaging.
Medical imaging often requires getting unnatural materials such as metal ions into cells, a process which is a major challenge across a range of biomedical disciplines. One technique currently used is called the 'Trojan Horse' in which the drug or imaging agent is attached to something naturally taken up by cells.
The Cardiff team, made of researchers from the Schools of Chemistry and Biosciences, has taken the technique one step further with ...
Cell-phone use not related to increased brain cancer risk
2011-02-18
Radio frequency exposure from cell phone use does not appear to increase the risk of developing brain cancers by any significant amount, a study by University of Manchester scientists suggests.
The researchers used publically available data from the UK Office of National Statistics to look at trends in rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England between 1998 and 2007.
The study, published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics, reported no statistically significant change in the incidence of brain cancers in men or women during the nine-year time period under observation.
"Cell ...
Emotional response may predict how the body responds to stress
2011-02-18
New York, NY, 17 February 2011 – Your emotional response to challenging situations could predict how your body responds to stress, according to research published this month in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
"People who reported high levels of anger and anxiety after performing a laboratory-based stress task showed greater increases in a marker of inflammation, than those who remained relatively calm," said Dr Judith Carroll, who conducted the study at the University of Pittsburgh. "This could help explain why some people with high levels of stress experience ...
Preterm mothers' milk contains less antioxidants than mothers completing their gestation
2011-02-18
A study conducted at the University of Granada and at the University Hospital San Cecilio revealed that preterm mothers' milk contains low concentrations of coenzyme Q10. This is a complex of great medical importance, due both to its antioxidant capacity and to its role as a component of the electron transport chain, among other functions.
This study counted with the participation of a group of researchers of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology "José Mataix" (from to the Andalusian Government research groups AGR-145 and CTS-627), and with the collaboration ...