The University of Washington’s College of Forest Sciences has implemented a program to help further research that allows for woodland biomass byproducts to be turned into alternative energy resources.

“[Biomass] is really the biggest form of waste in the world,” said Dorothy Paun, an associate professor who is part of the core three-person research and development team. “This is waste we need to get rid of, and there’s an awful lot of it.”

Woody biomass consists of excess materials from forest floors, small diameter timber and other organic material with cellulose content. Researchers have recently been focusing efforts on efficient methods to convert this otherwise wasted material into useful products like ethanol.

“We think this collaboration is unique,” Paun said. “I know a lot about forestry and forestry schools, and there really isn’t any other collaboration like this going on.”

The team assesses forest areas with state-of-the-art equipment to examine how much excess material there is, how much is necessary to leave behind, what kinds of wood are available and other data sets, said Monika Moska, an assistant professor of remote sensing and biometrics. Moska’s task is to gather and interpret such data.

The raw harvested product is the domain of Renata Bura, an assistant professor in natural products chemistry. Bura’s task is the actual conversion process of turning biomass into ethanol.

The biomass goes through a short pretreatment period, at which point the materials are differentiated from cellulose and hemi-cellulose, Bura said. After pretreatment is the hydrolysis process, which takes 24 to 48 hours. The hydrolysis process involves various chemicals and enzymes that vary depending on the type of material. These enzymes convert the cellulose to sugars.

After the hydrolysis process is the fermentation process, which can also be done at the same time.

“Fermentation for bioconversion is very similar to making beer,” Bura said. Yeast is used to ferment the sugars and convert them into carbon dioxide and ethanol, an alcohol frequently found in gasoline.

“I can convert anything with cellulose or hemi-cellulose…[including] very pretreated municipal solid waste,” Bura said.

The team is very enthusiastic about the prospects, Paun said. “This research is cutting edge.”

The program was recently awarded $1.5 million.

“We’re going to have to pursue all possible means of renewable energy production if we are to make a dent in our energy needs,” said Rick Gustafson, a professor of forest resources, in a statement about the award.

Reporter Jeff Tripoli: jefftripoli@thedaily.washington.edu