{"id":7251,"date":"2015-05-18T13:01:13","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?p=7251"},"modified":"2017-02-07T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:07:15","slug":"northern-maine-has-capacity-for-grass-biomass-production-but-has-its-day-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/2015\/05\/18\/northern-maine-has-capacity-for-grass-biomass-production-but-has-its-day-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Maine Has Capacity for Grass Biomass Production, but Has Its Day Come?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-7252 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Dr.Jason Johnston and UMPI student Scott Belair\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-105x79.jpg 105w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-317x238.jpg 317w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-423x317.jpg 423w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-634x476.jpg 634w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-846x635.jpg 846w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-951x713.jpg 951w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair-1268x951.jpg 1268w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2015\/05\/FieldInvestigation-Dr.Jason-Johnston-and-UMPI-student-Scott-Belair.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,300px\" \/><\/a>As scientists comb the globe for renewable energy ideas, biomass \u2013 the use of plant material and animal waste as fuel \u2013 has come to the fore as a potential solution. Could this new market have a future in Maine\u2019s northernmost county?<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.umpi.edu\" target=\"_blank\"> University of Maine at Presque Isl<\/a>e (UMPI), <a href=\"http:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\">University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\" target=\"_blank\">Bowdoin College<\/a> recently investigated the feasibility of using perennial grasses as a source biomass in Aroostook County. In a report to Aroostook stakeholders and an academic paper that looks at four townships, the researchers lay out the case in detail.<\/p>\n<p>The conclusion, in short: a perennial grass biomass industry is probably feasible. But you probably won\u2019t have Aroostook grass heating your home anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on our research, conversion of Aroostook County\u2019s extensive sub-prime farmland into grass biomass production is not feasible under present technological and market conditions. However, our investigation suggests that its time may come in the future,\u201d said <a href=\"http:\/\/connect.umpi.maine.edu\/~chunzeng.wang\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chunzeng Wang<\/a>, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at UMPI. <a href=\"http:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/news\/news-2\/northern-maine-has-capacity-for-grass-biomass-production-but-has-its-day-come\/\">See more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As scientists comb the globe for renewable energy ideas, biomass \u2013 the use of plant material and animal waste as fuel \u2013 has come to the fore as a potential solution. Could this new market have a future in Maine\u2019s northernmost county? Researchers at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), University of Maine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mitchellcenter","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/mitchellcenter\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":613,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":613,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11635,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251\/revisions\/11635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}