The Midwest Biomass Exchange is a free interactive marketplace designed to bring together buyers and sellers of woody and agricultural-biomass feedstocks for fuel and other higher value products, thereby promoting the use of biomass for heat and energy.

The Exchange allows users to list wood and agricultural biomass feedstocks for sale, or place ‘wanted’ listings to buy fuel feedstocks. Fuel feedstock choices include sawmill and manufacture residues (bark, chips, shavings, sawdust or other coarse residues), timber harvest residues, recycled wood, residential or industrial fuel pellets, agricultural crop residues (e.g., corn stover) and dedicated energy crops (willow, hybrid poplar, switch grass, Miscanthus). 

The service is available to users anywhere in the United States and Canada, but focuses primarily on the Midwest region of the US, in line with the mission of Heating the Midwest Inc.

The Midwest Biomass Exchange has been adapted and builds on a precursor – the Minneapolis Biomass Exchange, a marketplace developed by Kevin Triemstra that allowed users to list quantities of agricultural and woody biomass for sale for a variety of uses, including livestock feed. The Midwest Biomass Exchange expands the platform of the previous Minneapolis Biomass Exchange to broaden the reach of its benefits and services focusing more closely on woody- and agricultural biomass for fuel for heat and/or power generation from a variety of sources. This work was supported by funding from the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Marketing Unit, and with generous support from Kevin Triemstra.

The Exchange is hosted by Heating the Midwest, a non-profit 501c3 organization that seeks to promote the use of biomass for thermal energy. Established in 2011, Heating the Midwest Inc. represents more than 800 industry, government, non-profit, university and tribal organizations committed to increasing awareness, education and outreach for heating with biomass in the Midwest. The Marketplace fits Heating the Midwest’s long-term goals to promote markets for biomass fuel-to-energy systems which creates demand for biomass from public and private land, including hazardous fuel reduction, community and urban forest residues, and mill and manufacturing residues.