This discussion focuses on three main types of aquatic biomass; macroalgae, microalge, and floating plants. The difference between macroalgae and microalgae is that macroalge are big organisms like seaweed and kelp, but microalgae are single celled organisms like spirulina and chlorella. Floating plants are an interesting biomass to consider insomuch as they are invasive, they grow fast, and they are fairly easy to harvest.

From a bioenergy perspective landfills are an excellent source of biomass and carbon, if you can engineer a way to deal with its unpredictable composition and level of contaminants. The only solution for trash for decades has been to landfill it or incinerate it, but this is changing. The size of the carbon reserve, the fact they are so consolidated, and their frequent presence near urban areas is making landfills the target for a variety of bioenergy companies.

If you are interested in receiving the written slide notes for each lecture, please contact the USDA supported Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest project at; ahb.nw@ad.wsu.edu.

An associated online E-campus course is also offered at Oregon State University; ecampus.oregonstate.edu/soc/ecatalog/ecoursedetail.htm?subject=BRR&coursenumber=350&termcode=all

Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grant no. 2011-68005-30407 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

1. Early Bioenergy History
2. Recent Bioenergy History
3. Feedstocks Fossil Fuels
4. Feedstocks Forest & Field Biomass Sources
5. Feedstocks Aquatic Biomass & Urban Wastes
6. Carbon Feedstock Comparisons
7. Biomass Chemistry
8. Fuel Chemistry
9. Bioenergy Industry Overview
10. Mechanical Conversions Oil Extraction & Size Reduction
11. Mechanical Conversions Drying & Densification
12. Combustion & Gasification
13. Pyrolysis & Liquefaction
14. Biomass to Parts
15. Biomass Parts to Products
16. Oil Conversions & Syngas Conversions
17. Fermentations
18. Photosynthetic Organisms and Animals
19. Integrated Biorefineries
20. Biorefining in North America
21. USA Fuel Paradigm
22. Renewable Energy and Fuel Policy
23. Basic Energy Economics
24. Process Analysis with LCA and TEA
25. Emissions and Sustainability Considerations

This series contains 25 short lectures, each between 10 and 15 minutes long. The content in these lectures is flexible and can be used in a variety of ways to communicate bioenergy concepts to audiences from diverse backgrounds. An important objective of this series is to present facts about bioenergy and biofuels, and use them to explore misconceptions.