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In commemorating almost anything, it can be easy to forget what came before the event celebrated. In the case of the Committee on Renewable Resources for Industrial Materials (CORRIM) or, more accurately CORRIM II, the roots are deep, extending at least back to 1970. This report chronicles the events leading up to the creation of the original CORRIM effort, outlines the early history of CORRIM II, and includes observations regarding future directions. The story begins around the time of the first Earth Day, involves a congressionally authorized initiative focused on industrial raw materials that largely ignored renewables, leads to action by the wood science and technology community to include consideration in federal policymaking of wood and agriculturally derived material, and results in the formation of CORRIM I. After a period of several decades during which raw material issues loom progressively larger, the story resumes with the reengagement of the wood science community concurrent with development of a new environmental impact evaluation tool--life-cycle assessment--and concludes with incorporation of CORRIM II in 1996. The end of the story, however, is also the beginning, with much already accomplished but much yet to be done., Materials, Environment, and CORRIM I Industrial raw materials security was very much on the national agenda during and immediately following World War II. Findings were not encouraging. The final report [...]

Abstract Using wood wastes provides an opportunity to avoid fossil carbon emissions from the combustion of natural gas or other fossil fuels. Using a life-cycle assessment, a new biomass boiler [...]

Abstract The use of wood waste for heating in urban settings provides an opportunity for communities to reduce annual fossil emissions by directly reducing the amount of fossil fuel used. [...]

The heightened interest in biofuels addresses the national objectives of reducing carbon emissions as well as reducing dependence on foreign fossil fuels. Using life-cycle analysis to evaluate alternative uses of wood including both products and fuels reveals a hierarchy of carbon and energy impacts characterized by their efficiency in reducing carbon emissions and/or in displacing fossil energy imports. Life-cycle comparisons are developed for biofuel feedstocks (mill and forest residuals, thinnings, and short rotation woody crops) with bioprocessing (pyrolysis, gasification, and fermentation) to produce liquid fuels and for using the feedstock for pellets and heat for drying solid wood products, all of which displace fossil fuels and fossil fuel-intensive products. Fossil carbon emissions from lignocellulosic biofuels are substantially lower than emissions from conventional gasoline. While using wood to displace fossil fuel-intensive materials (such as for steel floor joists) is much more effective in reducing carbon emissions than using biofuels to directly displace fossil fuels, displacing transportation fuels with ethanol provides the opportunity to also reduce dependence on imported energy. The complex nature of wood uses and how wood fuels and products interact in their environments, as well as the methods needed to understand these impacts and summarize the relative benefits of different alternatives, are discussed herein. Policies designed to increase biofuel use by subsidies or mandates may increase prices enough to divert biomass feedstock away from producing products, such as for composite panels, resulting in increased emissions from fossil fuel-intensive substitutes. Policies that fail to consider life-cycle implications are discussed, identifying their unintended consequences., The life-cycle inventory (LCI) data for the many different uses of wood reveal a hierarchy of different opportunities to reduce carbon emissions or increase energy independence, both being current national [...]

A deterministic spreadsheet model developed in an earlier Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) project that calculates cost, fuel, and chemical outputs of forest management and harvesting activities was modified to include logic for systems used to recover forest residue. Two illustrative biomass recovery systems with variations were modeled. A system to recover residues after whole-tree harvesting operations was applied to a representative forest stand in the Inland West. Whole-tree chipping in an early thinning was applied to a representative forest stand in the Southeast United States. Emission factors and life-cycle outputs were developed for the systems through the SimaPro v7.3 model using one if its environmental impact methodologies called TRACI2. Most environmental outputs, including global warming potential, had a direct relationship to fuel consumption of the recovery systems. These outputs were subsequently used as inputs to life-cycle analysis in biofuel conversion facilities. Fuel consumption for recovery of residues from the log landing was 8.10, 12.0, and 16.0 liters per bone dry metric ton (BDmT) at haul distances of 48, 97, and 145 km, respectively. Corresponding fuel consumption for whole-tree chipping and hauling at these distances was 10.5, 16.0, and 21.5 liters/BDmT. Shuttling ground residue from the landing for reload and a subsequent long haul of 145 km increased fuel consumption 32 percent over the residue recovery base case. Shuttling loose residue for centralized processing with a long haul distance of 145 km increases fuel consumption by 86 percent over recovery directly from the landing., ********** The location, slope conditions, and ease of access of forest biomass supplied to biofuel plants are highly variable. Additional variability derives from the size and distribution of material in [...]

Using life-cycle inventory production data, the net global warming potential (GWP) of a typical inland Northwest softwood lumber mill was evaluated for a variety of fuel types used as boiler inputs and for electricity generation. Results focused on reductions in carbon emissions in terms of GWP relative to natural gas as the fossil alternative. Woody feedstocks included mill residues, forest residuals, and wood pellets. In all fuel-substitution scenarios, increasing the use of biomass for heat generation decreased GWP. Using woody biofuels for electricity production is somewhat less effective in lowering carbon emissions than when used for heat energy. Heat generation at the mill under the current practice of using about half self-generated mill residues and half natural gas resulted in a 35 percent reduction in GWP over 100 percent natural gas. The greatest reduction in GWP (66%) was from increased use of forest residuals for heat energy, eliminating the use of fossil fuels as a direct heating fuel at the mill. We summarize the results by documenting that greater use of woody biomass for heat energy will reduce carbon emissions over fossil-based fuels., ********** Recent technological advances have provided numerous options for the conversion of biomass to energy. These technologies include electricity production, pellet production for residential and industrial heating, woody and agricultural [...]

The different uses of wood result in a hierarchy of carbon and energy impacts that can be characterized by their efficiency in displacing carbon emissions and/or in displacing fossil energy imports, both being current national objectives. When waste wood is used for biofuels (forest or mill residuals and thinnings) fossil fuels and their emissions are reduced without significant land use changes. Short rotation woody crops can increase yields and management efficiencies by using currently underused land. Wood products and biofuels are coproducts of sustainable forest management, along with the other values forests provide, such as clean air, water, and habitat. Producing multiple coproducts with different uses that result in different values complicates carbon mitigation accounting. It is important to understand how the life-cycle implications of managing our forests and using the wood coming from our forests impacts national energy and carbon emission objectives and other forest values. A series of articles published in this issue of the Forest Products Journal reports on the life-cycle implications of producing ethanol by gasification or fermentation and producing bio-oil by pyrolysis and feedstock collection from forest residuals, thinnings, and short rotation woody crops. These are evaluated and compared with other forest product uses. Background information is provided on existing life-cycle data and methods to evaluate prospective new processes and wood uses. Alternative management, processing, and collection methods are evaluated for their different efficiencies in contributing to national objectives., ********** Sustainably managed forests remove carbon from the atmosphere during their growth cycle, transferring that carbon by harvesting and processing to product carbon stores or fuels that displace fossil fuel-intensive [...]

Abstract Understanding the environmental burdens from residential construction is increasingly important as consumers become more aware of the impacts of their purchasing decisions. In 2004, The Consortium for Research on [...]

Assessments of material flows and their environmental consequences are increasingly needed to address an expanding list of environmental performance issues. An analysis of the flow of mass, energy, and carbon [...]

The nonprofit Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) has been developing comprehensive environmental performance information on wood building materials consistent with life-cycle standards (http://www.corrim.org/). The articles published in [...]

The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) is a nonprofit corporation of scientists from 15 member research organizations. CORRIM is engaged in research to assess the environmental performance [...]

Economists have frequently taken the blame for business plans not being achieved; and some press reports have unmercifully charged the profession with both poor forecasts and an inadequate understanding of [...]