Posted: 11.14.2011

On Tim Baye’s list of Wisconsin biomass-based Products, lipstick looms  
larger than ethanol.

“One of the most attractive markets this year is a paraffin derivative  
for lipstick use made from bio-based materials,” says Baye, a UW– 
Extension professor of business development who specializes in  
bioenergy consulting and executive education.

“The bio-based chemical market is appealing because you get a better  
return on a more modest amount of feedstock compared to fuels,” he  
says. “The markets are not as volatile as they are for liquid fuels,  
and we don’t need major infrastructure, such as pipelines, to move the  
stuff. We can do it by truck and train.”

Baye has been crunching numbers on bioenergy projects for 27 years,  
both in his current job and in several private sector positions,  
including a two-year stint leading an initiative to start up an  
ethanol plant. Since the mid-1990s he’s also been experimenting with  
growing biofuel crops—switchgrass, sorghum, aspen and mixed grass  
stands—on a 240-acre farm in Woodman.

Asked what he thinks Wisconsin will be doing with biomass in the  
future, he quickly ticks off a dozen projects that already are  
operating or are on the drawing boards. The tally includes electrical  
plants fueled by everything from old railroad ties to landfill waste  
to willow, paper mills that have branched into wood pellets and  
biodiesel, and municipalities making biogas and fertilizer from  
wastewater.

Notably lower on his list: corn-based and cellulosic ethanol.“We’ll  
continue to produce liquid fuels from biomass, including corn, as long  
as the margins are justifiable,” Baye says. “But we don’t have the  
long growing season they have down South and in the tropics. That’s  
where you have higher biomass growth rates and yields, and that’s  
where we’re likely to see most of the biomass-based liquid fuels  
produced.”

What he does expect to see are lots of multipurpose facilities, where  
firms supplement their core business with energy and other biomass- 
based products in order to diversify, cut costs, spur revenues and  
make use of industrial residues. He cites the paper industry as a  
prime example.

“A number of our paper plants are planning on bolting on technology  
platforms to allow them to produce products other than paper,” he  
says. “A pulp tree may still go to the paper plant, but be converted  
to something much different than paper.”

He points to a Wisconsin paper mill, Flambeau River Papers, and its  
planned sister facility, Flambeau River BioFuels, as a national  
leader. Flambeau River Papers is refining its residual, pulp liquor—a  
rich red-brown broth left over from the paper-making process—into such  
value-added products as xylitol, used in making sugar-free gum, and  
into a binder used for dust control on dirt roads. The paper mill is  
powered by a biomass-fueled boiler. Flambeau River Biofuels plans on  
producing biodiesel and industrial lubricants and waxes in a facility  
scheduled to begin construction in 2012.

This strategy isn’t limited to paper plants. Corn-based ethanol plants  
are also considering adding processes to improve performance and  
diversify. Some of the first cellulosic ethanol plants have taken this  
approach and are eyeing the chemical market too.

Baye also expects to see more biogas digesters—producing methane and  
generating power and heat—coupled with municipal waste treatment  
plants to deal with wastewater and industrial residuals laden with  
organic content from food processors and other manufacturers.

“Municipalities are under pressure to upgrade these plants, which  
means higher charges,” Baye says. “To minimize these upgrades, they  
will look to divert the organic material and get a little gift back in  
the form of biogas. And there are a number of opportunities for them  
to produce additional, high value products—especially fertilizers.”  
New regulations addressing phosphorus management will likely  
accelerate this trend.

Baye says that many such projects will require partnerships between  
municipalities, local industries and farmers, who will grow  
switchgrass, sorghum and other bioenergy crops as additional feedstock  
for the digesters.

And even if Wisconsin doesn’t lead the pack in ethanol production,  
Baye thinks the Badger State will benefit from any growth in the  
ethanol industry. The expertise acquired making paper, beer, silage  
and cheese transfers nicely to the bioenergy business, and it’s a  
marketable product in and of itself, he points out.

“In the future we probably will be buying cellulosic fuel from other  
regions, but we’ll be selling them chemicals and enzymes and vats and  
pumps, technology, legal services and know-how,” Baye says.

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