How would the Biomass Commodity Exchange help the biomass/bioenergy marketplace?
Although significant progress is being made in the development of technologies to convert biomass to bioenergy, commercialization of such technology faces a different set of hurdles. Commercial deployment of these technologies requires significant investment. Investments will be made only if such commercial projects are financially viable. This requires not only a reasonable expectation of the demand and price of final bioenergy products but of the supply and price of biomass inputs. The demand price of bioenergy can be reasonably estimated by the price of its substitutes. Electrical power generated from biomass has a value comparable to electricity generated from coal. The value of cellulosic ethanol can be approximated by the value of corn-based ethanol. The supply price of biomass is more uncertain. For many of these products there is little or no demand and hence no market. Much forest residual is burned or allowed to decompose; some is converted to landscaping material. There is v
