THE CATSKILL GRASS BIOENERGY PROJECT
Natural Resources/Aquaculture
Paul Cerosaletti
Cornell Cooperative Extension
HAMDEN
Abstract
The Catskill Grass BioEnergy Project (available at: www.ccedelaware.org ), is a program developed and implemented by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County that is fostering the development of a local grass bio-energy economy to meet residential and small business thermal heating needs through direct combustion of grass pellets. The project approach is a production-to-consumption research and demonstration project, providing education to local farmers interested in producing grass biomass, assisting New York State’s first commercial grass pelleter EnviroEnergy LLC in developing grass pellets using local biomass, and demonstrating the use of grass pellets in real world heating applications. These applications include indoor pellet stoves and outdoor pellet furnaces heating a variety of public buildings at nine sites in a three county area in the Catskill region of New York State. Outreach methodologies include open houses, written media, static poster displays, oral presentations at local and regional conferences, as well as a robust website that provides general information and links to resources on grass biomass as well as virtual tours of all of the project demonstration sites.
Authors: Cerosaletti, P. E.
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Cerosaletti, P. E. Extension Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County, New York, 13782