March 6, 2006
Where the wood is | Scott Christiansen touts a new report showing potential for biofuel in Maine
By Chris Churchill
Trees. Maine's got 'em. No big news there. But here's what Scott Christiansen believes is big news: Despite a decades-long decline in the state's natural-resources economy, trees still have the power to transform rural Maine, turning a swath of the state that's seen disinvestment into an economic power.
Christiansen isn't talking about tried-and-true North Woods sectors like paper or timber. He's talking about using wood to produce the juice that fires the world: fuel. And with the recent release of a study 18 months in the making, Christiansen has a blueprint for how to spin a seemingly pie-in-the-sky scheme into reality. The Biorefinery Feasibility Study, he says, shows "a way to take trees, use technology that already existsˆ and turn it into fuels that we're already using."
Christiansen, 45, heads the Fractionation Development Center, a nonprofit based in Rumford and charged with attracting biofuel investment to Maine. The FDC and the River Valley Growth Council commissioned the study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Maine Technology Institute and written mostly by researchers at MicroChem Technologies Inc. in Longwood, Colo. It isn't an easy or entertaining read, as it delves into the highly technical world of biofuel production, but Christiansen says the report contains an underlying message anyone can understand: There's big money ˆ and a bright future for rural Maine ˆ in trees.
In 20 years, according to the report, Maine could host a network of 68 biofuel refineries that employ 7,000 workers and help convert mostly low-value forest products such as bark, sawdust or mill scraps to oil, propane and other fuels. Those refineries could produce hundreds of millions of biofuel gallons annually, making Maine both an energy exporter and 50% fuel self-sufficient. "There isn't another state that can reach that level," Christiansen says. "We have both a small population and 17 million managed acres of forestland."
The job now for Christiansen and other biofuel backers is to persuade energy companies, investors and policymakers of the report's importance. Christiansen says Maine's Congressional delegation has shown early support for a forest-based biofuels industry, and says early talks have begun with energy companies, which would need to open corporate wallets for a network of biofuel plants to become a reality in Maine. "These are conversations that are being enabled by the study," he says. "There's never been a basis for that before ˆ and that's progress."
Still, the development process is a formidable task. To fully realize the future depicted in the plan, Christiansen says, would require $5 billion in private investment over 20 years. But Christiansen, who worked in international development in outer Mongolia and Hong Kong before coming to Rumford, is experienced in bringing development to remote locales.
There are other hurdles. While turning trees into fuel is already technically possible, Christiansen concedes that technology has not been developed to produce fuels on the scale proposed in the report. There are also environmental-impact worries. Would a profitable biofuels industry denude the North Woods? Energy companies, after all, have not been known for restraint in the face of profits. "We're concerned about that," Christiansen concedes, "because if you can make a buck, there are going to be abusers."
Yet Christiansen believes Maine lawmakers can address ecological concerns before problems arise. Environmental issues, he says, should be a part of discussions generated by the study, which he calls a blueprint for a brighter economic future. "You're talking about hugely impacting the rural economy," Christiansen says. "A tremendous amount of capital investment would be realized in the parts of Maine that have been losing population ˆ because that's where the wood is."
Christiansen isn't talking about tried-and-true North Woods sectors like paper or timber. He's talking about using wood to produce the juice that fires the world: fuel. And with the recent release of a study 18 months in the making, Christiansen has a blueprint for how to spin a seemingly pie-in-the-sky scheme into reality. The Biorefinery Feasibility Study, he says, shows "a way to take trees, use technology that already existsˆ and turn it into fuels that we're already using."
Christiansen, 45, heads the Fractionation Development Center, a nonprofit based in Rumford and charged with attracting biofuel investment to Maine. The FDC and the River Valley Growth Council commissioned the study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Maine Technology Institute and written mostly by researchers at MicroChem Technologies Inc. in Longwood, Colo. It isn't an easy or entertaining read, as it delves into the highly technical world of biofuel production, but Christiansen says the report contains an underlying message anyone can understand: There's big money ˆ and a bright future for rural Maine ˆ in trees.
In 20 years, according to the report, Maine could host a network of 68 biofuel refineries that employ 7,000 workers and help convert mostly low-value forest products such as bark, sawdust or mill scraps to oil, propane and other fuels. Those refineries could produce hundreds of millions of biofuel gallons annually, making Maine both an energy exporter and 50% fuel self-sufficient. "There isn't another state that can reach that level," Christiansen says. "We have both a small population and 17 million managed acres of forestland."
The job now for Christiansen and other biofuel backers is to persuade energy companies, investors and policymakers of the report's importance. Christiansen says Maine's Congressional delegation has shown early support for a forest-based biofuels industry, and says early talks have begun with energy companies, which would need to open corporate wallets for a network of biofuel plants to become a reality in Maine. "These are conversations that are being enabled by the study," he says. "There's never been a basis for that before ˆ and that's progress."
Still, the development process is a formidable task. To fully realize the future depicted in the plan, Christiansen says, would require $5 billion in private investment over 20 years. But Christiansen, who worked in international development in outer Mongolia and Hong Kong before coming to Rumford, is experienced in bringing development to remote locales.
There are other hurdles. While turning trees into fuel is already technically possible, Christiansen concedes that technology has not been developed to produce fuels on the scale proposed in the report. There are also environmental-impact worries. Would a profitable biofuels industry denude the North Woods? Energy companies, after all, have not been known for restraint in the face of profits. "We're concerned about that," Christiansen concedes, "because if you can make a buck, there are going to be abusers."
Yet Christiansen believes Maine lawmakers can address ecological concerns before problems arise. Environmental issues, he says, should be a part of discussions generated by the study, which he calls a blueprint for a brighter economic future. "You're talking about hugely impacting the rural economy," Christiansen says. "A tremendous amount of capital investment would be realized in the parts of Maine that have been losing population ˆ because that's where the wood is."
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