Resources for Sustainability: Mapping Database for Wood Bioenergy Industry

Among biomass feedstock assets, wood waste is plentiful around many parts of the country and can offer suitable bioenergy generation potential.

Team Gemini develops a variety of projects with technologies to utilize various feedstocks for numerous bio-products—from biogas generation that can create sustainable electricity and thermal energy, to more niche products like biofuels, pelletized/granulated and other compost, cellulosic separation of C5 and C6 sugar contents, to fertilizer and more.

One of the initial steps is to assess viability of different technology combinations, along with sizing each component. Wood biomass is not the only form of feedstock that can be used in biofuels and bioenergy generation, but it’s one of the more common ones.

This entry in Team Gemini’s ongoing “Resources for Sustainability” series will highlight a new project originating from an endowment to document and map the wood bioenergy industry.

The vision for Wood2Energy.org was to develop a database and mapping tool that aggregates facility level data to deliver a unique perspective of the wood bioenergy industry. With separate, clickable layers and simple symbology organizing data by facility type, size, operational status, and additional detailed information for each data point, users have the ability to plot and contextualize data from the macro-level down to the site-level.

The data itself, which has been aggregated from the public domain (existing databases, industry publications, reports, press releases, newsletters, etc.) will be updated on an ongoing basis by the Ecostrat data management team. Given the scale of this project and the dynamic nature of the market segments covered, anyone with information to fill gaps or fix errors is asked to support the overall effort by contacting Ecostrat with information.

Maximizing resource creation while eliminating environmental impacts is among Team Gemini’s primary endeavors. With wood biomass contributing to that effort, it’s important to keep updated on pioneering projects around the country and globe that utilize this resource. However, it’s not the only element of creating a sustainable infrastructure, with components like water treatment and conservation, sustainable agriculture, and overall waste management being other key components.

Feel free to explore more topics on our Resources page, or contact us if you’d like to recommend others.

For a full listing of Team Gemini sustainability tools and resources, please visit our resources page at http://teamgemini.us/resources/.