An outline plan to create a woody biomass commodity exchange, the Biomass Commodity Exchange (BCEX), were announced today (9th July) by CleanTech Partners.

According to the company, the objective of BCEX is to increase the efficiency of the supply chain providing biomass to the existing forest products industry and the emerging forest biorefinery sector. The plan will examine facilitation of trading existing woody biomass markets, such as pulpwood, emerging open-loop biomass markets such as forest residue and the future trade of closed-loop energy crops, such as willow, poplar and switch grass.

Ed Corrigan, Director of Finance and Operations at CTP explained the goals for the project which are to;

• Facilitate expansion of the biomass market by providing a transparent pricing mechanism.
• Reduce trade costs in biomass commodities for both current and future market participants.
• Encourage market infrastructure investment by communicating current and future prices.
• Promote the efficient management of Upper Midwest and U.S. biomass resources.

“To meet the needs of privately-held forest resources and the demands of the growing wood-to-energy markets require a long-term commitment. This can be fostered through the combined efforts of the private sector, plus local and state agencies,” said Corrigan. “An important missing link to facilitate these markets is a commodity exchange that will standardize products, enable cost discovery and facilitate long-term contractual agreements.”

The project is being coordinated by Heartland Business Consultants (HBC).

According to Stephen Dinehart, President of HBC, “The biomass commodity exchange will ensure the future vitality of the current forest products industry plus biofuels and biorefineries and will make sure the most efficient, effective market in which to conduct business and trade is possible. To accomplish this, we are actively seeking public and trade input to the business plan for a woody biomass commodity exchange.

“The biomass industry is in the beginning of a new era across the United States,” Dinehart said. “Billions of dollars are being deployed to utilize our biomass resources for power generation and biofuels production – advanced and cellulosic. BCEX is the only project that is addressing the efficiency of the markets for that resource base.”The project is being funded by Wisconsin-based CleanTech Partner’s Biorefinery Development Collaborative, Focus on Energy, New Page Corporation, WE Energies and the Wisconsin Public Service, and nationally by the U.S. Forest Service.

More information about the Biomass Commodity Exchange can be found at www.biomasscommodityexchange.com.