While bioenergy facilities are not built to optimize development of their components, this issue of Biomass Magazine makes clear that they are great incubators of innovation. While the endgame of this industry is the production of energy products from biomass inputs, it is being built upon a rock-solid foundation of equipment that meets a steady stream of ever-changing operational requirements. In Katie Fletcher&rsquo;s page-38 feature, &ldquo;Biogas Buffer,&rdquo; she dives into biogas storage innovation. In a perfect world, every biogas project would be able to exactly match biogas generation and consumption. Biogas operators are well aware that this is an impossibility, and thus demand for storage has driven innovation in that sector. Not only do various storage approaches allow biogas facilities to deliver steady volumes of gas to power-producing engines, they also allow for routine maintenance of power units, without throttling back or shutting down a facility&rsquo;s bioreactor. Similarly, in Anna Simet&rsquo;s page-36 story about landfill gas optimization, &ldquo;Getting More Gas,&rdquo; wellhead monitors alone were responsible for improving gas production enough to bring a fourth genset, idled until then, online and into production. Ron Kotrba&rsquo;s &ldquo;State-of-the-Art Algae PBRs&rdquo; on page 49 is arguably the issue&rsquo;s most forward-looking story. In it, he details the central role that optimization of photobioreactors is playing in that sector&rsquo;s commercialization velocity. In his conversation with Algenol CEO Paul Woods, he learned that, initially, maximum light distribution drove R&amp;D efforts, but his team is now using PBR design to affect a broad range of operational variables, including temperature, pH, salinity, oxygen and nutrient levels. Regardless of your level of involvement in the algae industry, the story offers a must-read look at the future of agricultural cultivation. While writing my own page-16 feature, &ldquo;Densifying Dynamos,&rdquo; on nonpelletizing biomass densification equipment, I was surprised by the operational flexibility this equipment affords existing producers. The deployment of a compressed log machine at Superior Pellet Fuels is making a real difference in the facility&rsquo;s ability to make total use of installed handling and drying infrastructure, as well as the plant&rsquo;s available labor. Chad Schumacher, the plant&rsquo;s general manager, credits the equipment with unlocking nearly 90 percent his local marketplace who are unable to use the wood pellets his plant had previously been producing exclusively. This issue of Biomass Magazine makes clear that each gain in output, efficiency and greater marketplace access can ultimately be traced back to a single piece of equipment, a strong foundation indeed.
Author: Tim Portz Vice President of Content&nbsp; &amp; Executive Editor tportz@bbiinternational.com

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While bioenergy facilities are not built to optimize development of their components, this issue of Biomass Magazine makes clear that they are great incubators of innovation. 

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