ForewordThe United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) both place high importance on developing resources and conversion technologies for producing fuels, chemicals and power from biomass. The two departments are working together on several aspects of bioenergy. This report is the third to be produced from joint collaboration. This and other reports can be found at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/publications.html.The website for biomass feedstock research sponsored by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the Biomass Program (OBP) can be found at: http:// bioenergy.ornl.gov/. More general information about OBP's feedstock research program can be found at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/ biomass_feedstocks.html.The website for research and development sponsored by the USDA Forest Service can be found at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ research/.

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An engineering economic analysis of a biomass pelleting process was performed for conditions in North America. The pelletization of biomass consists of a series of unit operations: drying, size reduction, densifying, cooling, screening, and warehousing. Capital and operating cost of the pelleting plant was estimated at several plant capacities. Pellet production cost for a base case plant capacity of 6 t/h was about $51/t of pellets. Raw material cost was the largest cost element of the total pellet production cost followed by personnel cost, drying cost, and pelleting mill cost. An increase in raw material cost substantially increased the pellet production cost. Pellet plants with a capacity of more than 10 t/h decreased the costs to roughly $40/t of pellets. Five different burner fuels-wet sawdust, dry sawdust, biomass pellets, natural gas, and coal were tested for their effect on the cost of pellet production. Wet sawdust and coal, the cheapest burner fuels, produced the lowest pellet production cost. The environmental impacts due to the potential emissions of these fuels during the combustion process require further investigation.

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Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising cellulosic biomass feedstock for biorefi neries and biofuel production. This paper reviews current and future potential technologies for production, harvest, storage, and transportation of switchgrass. Our analysis indicates that for a yield of 10 Mg ha -1 , the current cost of producing switch-