VISUALIZATION

Bioenergy researchers are using the geographic information system (GIS) and an ORNL supercomputer and 30 x 8 ft video display to visualize and understand environmental factors for regional production of biomass. This combination of tools is expected to boost biomass production success - computer modeling and data collection are being used to help determine the competitive advantage and the logistics of collecting, storing, transporting, and pretreating the feedstocks for specific geographic locations. Bioenergy researchers use ORNL’s EVEREST display to visualize and analyze environmental factors in growing feedstocks best suited to a specific area. One series of complex interactions involves spatial datasets for environment, cropping patterns, available biomass residue, and soils. These data are sometimes available at different spatial scales and are therefore difficult to aggregate or assimilate. In the past, simply understanding county-level data was sufficient, but the ability to analyze data at finer resolutions provides scientists a more complete understanding of the eventual availability of different kinds of biomass for supplying a biorefinery industry. The capability of visualizing spatial data is an important part of the effort and is a key ORNL contribution to the work of the Regional Feedstock Partnerships. The ORNL facility known as EVEREST (Exploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology) is enabling bioenergy researchers to use one of the world's fastest supercomputers along with superior graphics capabilities to view their data on the giant display. Using EVEREST, they can view and analyze data collections in ways that were previously not possible. Sun Grant Centers of Excellence were created in 2003 by Congress and are funded jointly by the Department of Transportation, DOE, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to serve as regional hubs to lead research, education, and outreach efforts to expand U.S. bioenergy resources. The University of Tennessee “Knoxville is the Sun Grant Center for the Southeast. The other four Sun Centers are located at South Dakota State, Oregon State, Oklahoma State, and Cornell Universities. Leaders of the Sun Grant Centers met at ORNL in February 2007 with Bioenergy Program scientists and others to discuss the benefits of scientific collaboration using GIS spatial data. Through DOE's Regional Feedstock Partnerships, the Sun Grant Centers, USDA, Regional Biomass Energy Programs, and national laboratories are working to understand the regional nature of biomass feedstocks, the best ways to procure feedstocks, and their relative costs. The report Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry, published by DOE/EERE in 2005, estimated a billion tons of biomass per year could replace 30% of U.S. petroleum consumption. (A team of ORNL and USDA scientists produced the report.) Biomass may come from agricultural or forestry residues or from sustainably produced grassy or woody biomass crops. The goal of the U.S. Biofuels Initiative is to replace 30% of the liquid transportation fuels in this country with renewable fuels from biomass by the year 2030.