The DOE awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) to Forest Concepts for developing Modular Community-Scale Biomass Pre-Processing System

AUBURN, WA, UNITED STATES, September 7, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award to Forest Concepts for developing Modular Community-Scale Biomass Pre-Processing Systems as a component of their program for Community-Driven Solutions for a Just and Equitable Energy Transition. Communities across the nation will benefit from localized biomass processing and utilization facilities that increase economic activity and create local, family wage jobs. In the western United States, manufacturing of forest biomass from wildfire risk reduction and forest health improvement projects into biofuels, biochar, and other bioproducts provides market-based solutions to the wildfire crisis.

Distributed community-scale bioproduct generation is a key component of equitable clean energy transition in rural communities.. Today, it is extremely time consuming an expensive to design and obtain permits for community-based biomass facilities. Many communities, entrepreneurs, and project developers who want to do good give up or run out of funds and patience. Project design and planning processes must be streamlined to meet the societal need for rapid build-out of emerging carbon sequestration and bioproducts facilities at distributed community scale. During Phase I of the project, Forest Concepts demonstrated the viability of a community engagement process that directly fed into engineering and facility planning in a disciplined, quantitative, and transparent manner. Phase II will further develop the design processes and conduct a live case study.

Dr. Jim Dooley, CTO and Co-founder of Forest Concepts, states “The project team will adapt and refine the community engagement portion [of this project] using our company’s longstanding Appreciative Design Method that merges social systems with classical design engineering to create innovative solutions to complex problems. The technical portion of the proposal endeavors to deploy innovative milling, screening, and beneficiation systems into a modular solution and site plan for deployment at multiple community-based biomass preprocessing centers across the nation.”

Forest Concepts is partnering with two organizations to execute the project and conduct a live case study. C6 Forest to Farm (www.c6f2f.org) is developing community-based woody biomass processing and biochar production centers in north-central Washington, and By Design Engineering (www.ByDesignEng.com) is a regional professional engineering firm that will be using the results of the project and methods developed for approaching these kinds of projects with future communities.

The choice of C6 Forest to Farm as the community partner for this project directly supports the goals of the U.S. strategy for addressing the wildfire crisis. C6 is in the heart of the 2.4 million acre Central Washington Initiative (CWI) funded beginning in 2023, Both Forest Concepts and several potential sites for C6 to put facilities are in the Congressional District represented by Dr. Kim Schrier. Representative Schrier is following the project closely.

Since 1998, Forest Concepts’ innovations through the woody biomass chain simplify logistics, reduce costs and energy consumption, and improve feedstock quality and availability for conversion to biofuels, biochemicals, and biopower. To learn more be sure to visit: www.forestconcepts.com

Contact:
Forest Concepts LLC Mike Perry, CEO 253.333.9663 mperry@forestconcepts.com

Michael C Perry
Forest Concepts, LLC
+1 253-333-9663
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