Recorded Webinars
Recorded Webinars
Original Webinar Date: October 19, 2021
Jonathan Kays, Forestry Extension Specialist, University of Maryland Extension
Description: Jonathan Kays, Forestry Extension Specialist, University of Maryland Extension, will present on the Deep Row Entrenchment (DRE) of biosolids using hybrid poplar.
Biosolids, formerly known as “sludge,” refer to the residual materials removed from sewage during the wastewater treatment process. Biosolids are commonly applied to land for beneficial utilization, but it has become increasingly difficult to apply these biosolids on land due to nutrient management regulations, accelerating land prices, the disappearance of farm land, and social issues surrounding odors.
The utilization of biosolids using short rotational crops of hybrid poplar trees solves many of the problems associated with traditional biosolids application methods and holds great promise. Deep row entrenchment (DRE) is a biosolids beneficial reuse system that uses a one-time application of biosolids in wide and shallow trenches covered with overburden, and planted with hybrid poplar cuttings. Years of research by Gary Felton, water quality specialist, and Jonathan Kays, on a gravel spoil in southern Maryland demonstrated minimal impacts on water quality and revealed how this beneficial reuse system is best applied on gravel and coal strip mines for reclamation. Case studies showing the applicability of DRE for coal strip mine reclamation will be discussed.
The University of Maryland Extension just released a new 48-page extension bulletin on best practices for deep row entrenchment of biosolids (EB453). This publication provides best management practices resulting from years of research by the University of Maryland on a private gravel spoil site in southern Maryland. Application of the technique to coal mine spoils is discussed.
Best practices Publication:
Other publications and journal articles related to DRE:
Original Webinar Date: July 14, 2021
Darrel Fry, CEO, Advanced BioCarbon 3D
Description: How Advanced BioCarbon 3D is creating the next bioeconomy by creating local biorefineries that produce advanced materials from biomass.
It is Darrel Fry's personal mission as the CEO of Advanced BioCarbon 3D to improve the quality of life for all of us on this planet and one of the ways he is going about this is through the creation of sustainable advanced materials. Advanced BioCarbon 3D creates plastics from wood that are carbon negative, non-toxic, biodegradable, with engineered grade quality. This in combination with advances in manufacturing like 3D printing are revolutionizing how the world makes products and exponentially decreases carbon emissions by providing locally sourced high performance sustainable manufacturing materials.
Original Webinar Date: June 9, 2021
Matt Aro, Natural Resources Research Institute
Description: Matt Aro, Research Program Manager of Wood Products at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), University of Minnesota Duluth, provided an overview of wood products R&D and demonstration projects occurring at the NRRI and in partnership with key collaborators.
Original Webinar Date: May 12, 2021
Louis Licht, CEO, Ecolotree
Description: Modern phytoremediation manages Contaminants-of-concern (COC) each with specific legal permit requirements. Three different phytoremediation case histories will be detailed: a. A 15-acre landfill cover irrigated 15 million gallons of leachate treatment in Chicago; b. Panelview RV park with 5,000 gallon/day waste water treatment in rural Oregon, c. Urban industrial groundwater solvent plume irrigated onto an on-site buffer in Seattle.
Poplar/willow genetics allow construction of a robust and predictable reactor treating 'pollutants'. The Salicaceae rhizosphere pumps carbon and oxygen in and water out of the subsurface growing media. Sugars and proteins made by leaves move down phloem to grow roots that leak food for the attached microbes. With dense deep roots a root zone can grow a mixed microbe mass with greater diversity and activity. COCs adsorb and mineralize year-round even in dormancy because of stored carbon deposited by summer growth.
Ecolotree started planting in 1988. After 33 years planting trees around the country, over 50 EBuffers and ETCaps are functioning well. These technologies have a lower carbon footprint than other pollutant removal techniques. With a strong permit that takes full advantage of the rhizosphere reactor treatment capacity, a phytoremediation system can help keep the owner of liability in compliance. Greatly reduced operating costs often increase the value of a property.
Original Webinar Date: April 14, 2021
Timothy Volk, Senior Research Associate and Associate Chair, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Description: Biomass for bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts can be sourced from multiple feedstocks, including short rotation woody crops (SRWC) such as shrub willow (Salix spp.) and hybrid poplar (Populus spp.). Shrub willow grows rapidly on a range of sites including marginal land and former industrial sites, and provides numerous environmental benefits. The GHG balance of these systems is a key attribute and there is a need to understand the GHG impact as we strive to address climate change. This presentation will highlight recent results from studies including a spatial LCA of willow, a willow to biofuel process, and in a situation where willow is being used as evapotranspiraton cover instead of a geomembrane of clay cover. In all these situations, under certain conditions, the willow system is capable of a negative GHG impact; meaning it can take up and store more carbon than is released from all the other steps in the process. Contributing researchers: T.A. Volk, O. Therasme, T. Koch, Z. Tariq, and M. Eisenbies.
Original Webinar Date: March 31, 2021
Christopher C. Bowland and Amit K. Naskar, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Description: Lignin is the second most abundant plant biomass material. Finding value of lignin is critical to the cost competitive production of biofuels. However, utilization of lignin as a feedstock for value added materials remains very limited due to its hyper-branched oxygenated structures and characteristics associated with such structures e.g., high rigidity, low thermal stability and poor processability either in melt or solution. We address these challenges by dispersing oligomeric lignin domains in a compatibilized rubbery matrix. Significant improvement of the mechanical properties and processability with high lignin content in our new composite materials (40-70 wt%) offers a new opportunity for automotive and building applications. Formation of a networked structure by covalent or ionic crosslinking of lignin in rubber matrices with different polarities results in tunability of the glass transition temperatures of the composite and high stiffness and strength as well as additional shape memory effects. We also find that the hydroxyl groups of lignins could also be cross-linked with telechelic polyethylene oxide to make self-healing elastomers.
Original Webinar Date: February 17, 2021
Robin Clark, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Center for Bioenergy Innovation
Description: The Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) vision is to accelerate domestication of bioenergy-relevant, non-model plants and microbes to enable high-impact innovations at multiple points in the bioenergy supply chain. A key focus of CBI R&D is overcoming barriers to supplying high-yielding, robust feedstocks by accelerating science to identify and utilize key plant genes for growth, yield, and composition for two perennial feedstocks - poplar and switchgrass. In this presentation, members of the CBI Economics & Sustainability Analyses Team will discuss recent work to develop techno-economic assessment (TEA) models for quantifying the impacts of CBI fundamental R&D in poplar development and sustainability to reduce barriers that impact the entire feedstock supply chain. These models will be integrated with a conversion TEA model and sustainability analyses to create a set of field-to-end product analytical tools to predict potential impacts of CBI research on industrial cost and sustainability barriers. By applying a holistic assessment of the design, these TEAs will provide rapid feedback to experimentalists and will serve as a decision-making tool for dynamic project management. Our presentation will highlight recent analyses for two critical questions in prioritizing poplar genetic improvements: 1) comparing the relative impacts of poplar composition and poplar yield on the economics of biofuel production, and 2) assessing tradeoffs between maximizing poplar yield and yield stability to design low-risk biomass feedstock supply chains.
Original Web Meeting Date: December 10, 2020
This SRWC Regional Update features research and regional updates from Nerea Oliveira, National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Madrid, Spain, and Attila Benke, National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Forest Research Institute, Sárvár, Hungary.
Original Webinar Date: December 3, 2020
Bacterial Canker Disease on Populus × euramericana caused by Lonsdalea populi in Serbia
Milica Zlatković, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Description: Populus × euramericana (Dode) Guinier clone (cl.) “I-214” was introduced into Serbia in the 1950s and has become one of the most widely grown poplar species. In September 2019, cankers were observed on stems and branches of P. × euramericana cl. “I-214” trees in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The canker tissue was soft and watery, and a colorless fluid that smelled rotten flowed from the cracks in the bark. After two weeks, diseased trees experienced crown die-back and oozing of foamy, odorous exudates. In this webinar we will discuss the symptoms of a bacterial disease on P. × euramericana caused by Lonsdalea populi.
Multifunctional Uses of Short-Rotation Willow Coppice in the Bioeconomy Era
Ioannis Dimitriou, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Original Web Meeting Date: November 18, 2020
This SRWC Regional Update features research and regional updates from Raed Elferjani, Quebec Network for Reforestation and Intensive Silviculture, Quebec City, Quebec, and Richard Krygier, Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Edmonton, Alberta.
Original Webinar Date: November 12, 2020
Water Use Efficiency of Poplars Grown for Biomass Production in the North Central United States
Andrej Pilipović, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Description: Site conditions, especially water availability, significantly contribute to the productivity of poplar biomass plantations and often affect the performance of different clones due to G×E interactions. Proper use of clones or cultivars must consider selection of genotypes with high water use efficiency (WUE) that maximize yield for the available amount of water on site, while avoiding drought stress and growth impacts to the trees. During drought, stomatal closure induces increased amounts of accumulated δ13C carbon isotope in plant tissues that strongly correlates with WUE of plants and can be used as a parameter in selection of drought tolerant and productive genotypes. This presentation will elaborate the evaluation of WUE efficiency among genotypes grown at different sites in the Midwestern United States with aim to identify genotypes with high WUE for future deployment on water-limited sites in the region.
Carbon Sequestration Potential of Short Rotation Eucalypts
Don Rockwood, Florida FGT LLC, USA
Description: Intensively grown Eucalypts can be very productive SRWCs in various management scenarios that influence carbon sequestration rates. Biochar produced from Eucalypts may in turn be a useful soil amendment for Eucalypt culture and thus an opportunity to increase sequestration further.
Original Web Meeting Date: October 27, 2020
This SRWC Regional Update features research and regional updates from Ron Zalesny and Elizabeth Rogers, USDA Forest Service, and Neil Nelson, Bernie McMahon, Bill Lazarus, and Jeff Jackson, Natural Resources Research Institute. Presentation slides are available at these links: USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Research Institute.
Original Webinar Date: October 13, 2020
Analytical Techniques, Sap Flow Methodologies, Environmental Education: Integrating Diverse Disciplines in Phytotechnologies Research
Elizabeth Rogers, University of Missouri – Columbia, USA
Description: There is a need for large-scale studies on poplars grown for phytotechnologies, specifically regarding contaminant transport, fate, and degradation, as well as tree water usage, productivity, and phytoremediation potential. An ongoing project aims to evaluate the remediation efficacy of poplar phytoremediation buffers in the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior watersheds through the integration of analytical and field-based methodologies.
Establishment of Willows Using the DeValix Technique: Ecological Restoration Mats Designed for Phytotechnologies
Ryan Vinhal, University of Missouri – Columbia, USA
Description: Successful willow (Salix sp. and their hybrids) establishment is a major determinant in increasing the effectiveness of willows grown for phytotechnologies. The DeValix willow mat restoration technique was developed and tested in the current study to provide an alternative planting method to conventional vertical cuttings that can be used in a wide variety of environmental applications, including phytoremediation.
Original Web Meeting Date: September 30, 2020
This SRWC Regional Update features the research labs of Solomon Ghezehei and Dennis Hazel, North Carolina State University, and Timothy Rials, the University of Tennessee.
Original Webinar Date: September 23, 2020
Considerations for Adopting Hybrid Poplars in the Southeast Based on Selected End-Product
Solomon Ghezehei, North Carolina State University, discusses some considerations to make when adopting/matching hybrid poplars to sites in the southeastern USA, including physiography, rotation length and considerations for selected end-products (biofuels and solid wood products, specifically veneer). In addition, he discusses early performance of 16 pure and hybrid P. nigra clones, originally from Germany and Turkey and materials developed by the Natural Resources Research Institute, Univ. MN-Duluth (NRRI-UMD) in an effort to introduce and domesticate new high-potential HP varieties in the southeast USA.
New Hybrid Poplar Clones Show Exceptional Promise for Phytotechnologies
Ron Zalesny, USDA Forest Service, USA
Hybrid poplar clones produced by tree improvement efforts have shown considerable variation in their adaptability to different types of sites, with some being geographically robust, while others’ performance is tied to specific productivity supplysheds. In this webinar, Ron Zalesney, USDA Forest Service, discusses promising results from field-scale phyto-recurrent selection of new hybrid poplar genotypes developed by the University of Minnesota – Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) versus traditional commercial clones at sixteen phytoremediation buffer systems (i.e., phyto buffers) to reduce surface runoff and belowground water flow at closed landfills within the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan watersheds.
Original Web Meeting Date: August 27, 2020
This Regional Update features the research labs of Tim Volk, SUNY ESF, and Larry Smart, Cornell University. Tim Volk's presentation slides are available here: SUNY ESF Team Update.
Original Webinar Date: August 13, 2020
IPC Online Salix Database Proof of Concept
Presented by Patrick McGovern, Open4st, this OSGeoLive screencast demonstrates a Proof of Concept (POC) use case that incorporates database checklist views as a template to construct new epithet and family records. The presentation slides are available here: IPC Online Salix Database.
Application of the Social-Ecological Innovation in Action Model to a Hybrid Poplar Program
Jeff Jackson, University of Minnesota Extension, discusses an Extension partnership with the Natural Resources Research Institute to address the adoption of hybrid poplar as a feedstock in the developing bioeconomy. The presentation slides are available here: New Extension Model Used for Hybrid Poplar Program.
Original Webinar Date: June 18, 2020
Dr. Steve Hamilton, Michigan State University, discusses the experimental comparison of the climate impacts of seven different bioenergy feedstocks, and the climate impacts for ethanol vs electric light-duty vehicles. These findings were recently published by Dr. Hamilton and colleagues in the article, Empirical Evidence for the Potential Climate Benefits of Decarbonizing Light Vehicle Transport in the U.S. with Bioenergy from Purpose-Grown Biomass with and without BECCS.
Original Webinar Date: May 20, 2020
Kristen Bergstrand, Timber Utilization and Marketing Consultant, Minnesota DNR, discusses trends in the market for both natural and plantation-grown wood. This timely webinar also covers how the current pandemic could affect wood market trends, and emerging opportunities for wood in the bioeconomy.
Original Webinar Date: April 22, 2020
This webinar covers NRRI's (Natural Resources Research Institute's) hybrid poplar breeding program, presented by Bernie McMahon, Senior Research Scientist and Tree Improvement Specialist. He provides a background on their tree improvement process, discusses significant gains in tree performance, and explores current and future projects. The presentation slides are available here: The Hybrid Poplar Program at NRRI. A more detailed set of slides that provide additional program information is available here: The Hybrid Poplar Program at NRRI_Full Version.
Original Webinar Date: February 13, 2020
Ron Zalesny, Supervisory Research Plant Geneticist, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, provides a background on phytotechnologies, including phytoremediation. He then discusses advances in research and project applications, including his work in northern Great Lakes watersheds. The presentation slides are available here: Zalesny Phytoremediation.
Original Webinar Date: December 12, 2019
Brian Stanton, Senior Advisor to GreenWood Resources, discusses AHB's System for Advanced Biofuels Production from Woody Biomass in the Pacific Northwest. Patricia Townsend, Regional Extension Specialist for Washington State University, presents on AHB Extension and Foundations for a Future Industry. The presentation slides are available at these links: Advanced Biofuels Production and AHB Extension.
Original Webinar Date: December 3, 2019
Kristen Bergstrand, Timber Utilization and Marketing Consultant for the Minnesota DNR, discusses highlights from the LIGNA show in Germany. LIGNA is the world's largest forest products trade show.
Original Webinar Date: November 21, 2019
Attis Innovations is a leader in the development of cellulosic ethanol and bioproducts made from lignin. In this webinar, Chris Kennedy, Vice President of Marketing, discusses their cutting-edge research and commercial ventures. The presentation slides are available at this link: Attis Innovations.
Webinar: The Emerging Bioeconomy
Original Webinar Date: October 2, 2019
In this webinar, Brendan Jordan of the Bioeconomy Coalition of Minnesota discusses the bioeconomy, it's current state, and incentives available in Minnesota. Due to a technical difficulty, we were not able to record the webinar. The presentation slides are available at this link: The Emerging Bioeconomy
Original Webinar Date: August 21, 2019
In this webinar, Dr. Bill Lazarus of the University of Minnesota provides basic training on the Hybrid Poplar Economics Workbook.