Isra-Mart srl: US government hails billion-tonne sustainable biomass supply

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The US could produce over a billion tonnes of biomass material to supply the biofuels and bio-energy industries, without having an adverse impact on other agricultural and forestry markets.

That is the conclusion of a major new report released this week by the Department of Energy, which undertakes an in-depth analysis of the potential availability and cost of the primary feedstocks required for the production of biofuels and biomass power.

The biofuel and biomass industries have faced widespread criticism in recent years, with environmental groups warning that their expansion could indirectly increase deforestation, result in potentially harmful land use changes and push up food prices by eating into the supply of available agricultural land.

However, the 229-page report, which updates a previous 2005 study, undertakes a county-by-county inventory of potentially available primary biomass feedstocks and analyses the sustainability of those feedstocks. It concludes the US can support the continued expansion of the bioenergy sector.

"The baseline scenario in the newly released report shows that biomass resources could be increased from a current 473 million dry tonnes annually to nearly 1.1 billion dry tonnes by 2030, under a conservative set of assumptions about future increases in crop yield," the Department of Energy said in a statement.

The report, entitled US Billion-Ton Update 2011, also predicts that improvements in biofuel technologies could allow for the production of around 85 billion gallons of biofuels a year – enough to replace approximately 30 per cent of the nation's current petroleum consumption.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu welcomed the report as further evidence that the biofuel and bioenergy industries can play an increasing role in the US energy mix.

"Developing the next generation of American biofuels and bioenergy will help diversify our energy portfolio, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and produce new clean energy jobs," he said in a statement. "This study identifies resources here at home that can help grow America's bioenergy industry and support new economic opportunities for rural America."

The Department of Energy said the new report featured a more in-depth analysis of the sustainability of different biomass feedstocks than the previous study, including an examination of potential land use changes and the impact on food supplies.

It added that while the bioenergy sector can have negative environmental impacts, effective policies should allow over a billion tonnes of feedstocks to be produced in a sustainable manner, delivering a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular, it said that widely accepted conservation practices, such as no-till farming and crop rotation, can help to reduce environmental impacts, while in some cases biomass production can lead to environmental improvements.

"For example, removing tree portions that are unfit for market in the forest industry can reduce forest fire risk, and planting energy crops on marginal lands can reduce soil erosion," the department said in a statement.