Increased markets for renewable energy feedstocks have led to an expansion of the woody biomass industry in the Southeastern United States. Virginia has had biomass markets for several decades and provides an opportunity to study both producer and market characteristics. A survey was conducted among biomass harvesting business owners in Virginia designed to characterize harvesting operations and markets, assess business owner opinions related to the current and future state of the industry, and update/expand the results of a previous survey from 2014. Biomass harvesting operations in Virginia were generally conventional single crew roundwood operations utilizing their own residues for biomass. Production levels varied widely with biomass comprising an average 31% of total production. Material was comminuted utilizing large (485 median kW) older (13.2 years average) whole-tree chippers fed by a single loader. Coastal Plain operations were larger scale than Piedmont operations, though those in the Piedmont had been in business longer. Businesses had a median of $400,000 USD invested in biomass production equipment, which was double their median investment in the previous survey. Logging businesses that had produced biomass longer were significantly more likely to report profiting from biomass. In addition, loggers derived numerous non-monetary benefits from biomass production (e.g., improved aesthetics and cleaner sites, leading to increased landowner satisfaction), with most business owners planning to continue production in the future. This study provides stakeholders an overview of the current state of biomass harvesting businesses in Virginia and a discussion on benefits loggers derive from biomass markets.

可再生能源原料市场的增加导致美国东南部木质生物质产业的扩张。弗吉尼亚州拥有几十年的生物质市场，并提供了研究生产者和市场特征的机会。在弗吉尼亚州的生物质收获企业主中进行了一项调查，旨在描述收获业务和市场，评估企业主对行业当前和未来状况的看法，并更新/扩展 2014 年之前的调查结果。生物质收获业务在弗吉尼亚州，通常是利用自己的残渣生产生物质的传统单人圆木作业。生产水平差异很大，生物质平均占总产量的 31%。使用由单个装载机喂食的大型（中值 485 千瓦）较旧（平均 13.2 年）全树削片机粉碎材料。沿海平原的经营规模比皮埃蒙特的经营规模大，尽管皮埃蒙特的经营时间更长。企业在生物质生产设备上的投资中位数为 400,000 美元，是上次调查中投资中位数的两倍。生产生物质的时间更长的伐木企业报告从生物质中获利的可能性要大得多。此外，伐木者从生物质生产中获得了许多非货币利益（例如，改善美学和更清洁的场地，从而提高土地所有者的满意度），大多数企业主计划在未来继续生产。