ECMD Contact: Colin Messer

(505) 476-3314

ColinJ.Messer@state.nm.us

Wood burning for heating is perhaps the most traditional use of bioenergy in New Mexico, and this continues to be the largest use. The other common use of bioenergy in New Mexico involves the production of methane from municipal wastewater sludge. This fuel is then burned to heat the digestion process, and in some cases to also generate electricity for operation of the plant.

Bio-energy is produced by combustion of either non-fossil biological feedstock or other products made from such feedstock. The feedstock may be either produced or harvested explicitly for such use, such as grain milo and firewood, or may be a waste stream from agricultural, municipal or industrial sources. Distribution of and access to the resource are critical to the success of bioenergy use. For this reason the creation of bioenergy is often found at the point of availability of a waste stream, with a facility's size determined by that stream.

Resources and Production
Use of forest products as fuel is perhaps the oldest and most traditional use of bioenergy in New Mexico. The best available research on New Mexico fuel-wood indicates that 197,000 cords were harvested in 1986, which is neither a significant drain on the growing stock inventory nor a competitor with the timber products industry.

Albuquerque and Las Cruces are using the anaerobic digestion of municipal wastewater sludge to generate methane gas. The gas then fuels the production of electricity and heat to power the wastewater facilities. Los Alamos, Roswell and Carlsbad are using the resulting methane to heat the digesting process, water or both. Several sawmills burn waste wood to provide heat for wood drying kilns.

The waste stream bioenergy resource in New Mexico has been studied in detail. The total potential for energy production in this sector is large, at 35 trillion Btu per year, although a large share of this resource is allocated for other uses such as particleboard manufacture. The largest sources in this sector are sawmill/ wood product waste and municipal solid waste.

Recent Developments
Several new bioenergy projects are underway in New Mexico. The City of Albuquerque and New Mexico State University are carrying a long-term study of a municipal solid waste bioreactor design into the field-scale construction phase. The cities of Las Cruces and Ojinaga, Mexico, are jointly studying a process for growing fuel-wood with wastewater sludge.

The U.S. Forest Service is working with the State Forestry Division on two wood chip fueled power systems, one at Jemez Mountain schools and the other a steam boiler at Fort Bayard Veterans Hospital, that use lumber mill residues and forest thinnings for fuel.

Rapid growth of the New Mexico dairy industry has greatly increased the production of manure in New Mexico. The State of New Mexico is working with the U.S. Department of Energy and Dairy Producers of New Mexico, a local dairy trade organization, to develop a project involving the use of a bioreactor to produce methane from this waste. The New Mexico dairy industry produces 1.15 million tons of manure annually - a potential source of methane gas for energy.

Additional Information

Biomass Program - U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

New Mexico's Forests, 2000 - USDA and Rocky Mountain Research Station Report