Year: 2024
Type: report
Abstract: Bioenergy provided the largest single source of renewable energy in the United States in 2022, comprising approximately 5% of U.S. energy produced (EIA 2023) (Figure ES-1). The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is to develop and demonstrate technologies to accelerate net greenhouse gas emissions reductions through the cost-effective, sustainable use of biomass and waste feedstocks across the U.S. economy. This report assesses the potential for renewable biomass resources to support DOE goals by displacing fossil resources such as petroleum with renewable biogenic carbon resources that, when managed efficiently, have a lower climate impact than petroleum sources of carbon. Demand for renewable fuels is growing, especially for the aviation, marine, and rail sectors. For example, the Biden administration’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge targets the production of 35 billion gallons per year of SAF by 2050. Such targets raise the question: Does the United States have sufficient biomass supplies, within a practical range of environmental, economic, and resource constraints, to fill these needs? The answer is yes, provided adequate markets can be established, and that environmental safeguards are established to ensure sustainable outcomes. This report aims to inform stakeholders of the types and quantities of biomass resources that could potentially be available in the future and under what conditions. The report provides a detailed assessment of current and potential biomass production capacity in the United States at defined price points and under conditions that protect food production and environmental integrity.
DOI: 10.2172/2441098
Authors: Matthew Langholtz, USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), USDOE, Craig Brandt, Robin Clark, Hope Cook, Scott Curran, Maggie Davis, Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Rebecca Efroymson, John Field, Chad Hellwinckel, Ryan Jacobson, Keith Kline, Oluwafemi Oyedeji, Esther Parish, Erik Schmidt, Timothy Theiss, Alex Badgett, Bruno Klein, Anelia Milbrandt, Matthew Wiatrowski, Troy Hawkins, Longwen Ou, Udayan Singh, Jingyi Zhang, Andre Coleman, Song Gao, Lee Miller, Troy Saltiel, Lesley Snowden-Swan, Peter Valdez, Yiling Xu, Yunhua Zhu, Burton English, Lixia Lambert, Kristen Davis, Julianne De angelo, Robert Abt, David Rossi, Karen Abt, Consuelo Brandeis, Jeremy Fried, Prakash Nepal, Jeffery Prestemon, Kathleen Champion, Anne Otwell, Benjamin Saenz, Eliza Harrison, Claire O dea, Gregory Cooney, Jeffrey Hoffmann, Michael Shell, Ryan Davis, Lee Walker
Institutions: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Laboratory of the Rockies, Argonne National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Oklahoma State University, University of California, Irvine, US Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Southern Research Station, Columbia University, Institute for Systems Biology, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Bioenergy Technologies Office
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402968633