Like the Burning Bio News, I have been tracking prices all year. Some of the materials I am tracking do not have public exchanges. Some of the fuels have seasonal prices and some are voluntarily reported. I am posting the materials that have fairly reliable price series.

There are many, many footnotes. They will get posted here as I get to them. My current goal is to have this fully operational by the end of the 2007. I believe I can keep up with the weekly prices. All of these that are posted are publicly available.

When one begins to ‘meddle’ with non-market economic values like $/MMBTU, important boundaries get crossed. There is a physical and cultural world of difference between grass hay and crude oil. Moisture contents must be removed. The size and weight of the bale has to be assumed (assigned). Even with great care important information does not make the transition.

Two key components of these calculations are the tabled HHV that were used and the densities that may not enter into the price, but add significant value to the interpretation. For instance coal is a great bargain in the $/MMBTU metric. The agricultural materials are right behind coal as a fuel bargain, but coal is very dense and the ag materials are light and fluffy. The added transportation costs of moving a ton of ‘light and fluffy’ changes the value, but not the $/MMBTU. To supplement the information contained in the $/MMBTU metric, I am posting the Higher Heating Values (HHV) and the material densities. I will fill in the missing densities as I can.

Coal is the most dense, with the ag residues being the least dense.

This is a work in progress, so if you have suggestions, please email them to biomassdata@sbcglobal.net.