[CPEO-BIF] Biomass from brownfields

["Robert Hersh" <b_hersh@verizon.net>]

State University of New York (SUNY)
Office of Communication

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) has begun
harvesting shrub willows from land that was once considered an industrial
waste site, and within a few days, the wood will be transported to an
upstate New York biomass plant for use in its electric power facility.
The harvest marks a milestone in the generation of a new source of
sustainable energy.

"We're using society's castoffs, residuals such as biosolids and yard waste
mulch, to improve the quality of the soil," said Douglas J. Daley, director
of the ESF-based SUNY Center for Brownfield Studies.
ESF has worked at the site, known as the Solvay Settling Basins, in
partnership with Honeywell International, which owns the land. The basins
contain the by-product of soda ash production conducted by a previous
industrial operation.

The current harvest marks the first time productive willow shrubs have been
grown on a site where former industrial operations resulted in soil with a
high ph content, meaning it is unusually alkaline. Honeywell fertilized the
site several years ago with biosolids that were the by-products of a
wastewater treatment operation, said ESF's Dr. Timothy A. Volk, who helps
lead ESF's short-rotation woody crops program. He said the fertilization
enhanced the growth of the willow shrubs, which typically do not thrive in
such conditions.

"These beds have growth rates as high as we have on agricultural land," Volk
said. Daley said the healthy willow crop demonstrates the long-term success
of using biosolids and yard waste mulch in brownfield redevelopment
projects.

For the entire article, see
http://www.esf.edu/newspubs/news/2007/02.01.shrubs.htm


Bob Hersh
CPEO



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