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U.S. Billion-Ton Update: Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry

U.S. Billion-Ton Update: Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry

Full Title:  U.S. Billion-Ton Update: Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry
Author(s):  Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Publisher(s):  U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date: August 1, 2011
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

The report, Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply (generally referred to as the Billion-Ton Study or 2005 BTS), was an estimate of “potential” biomass within the contiguous United States based on numerous assumptions about current and future inventory and production capacity, availability, and technology. In the 2005 BTS, a strategic analysis was undertaken to determine if U.S. agriculture and forest resources have the capability to potentially produce at least one billion dry tons of biomass annually, in a sustainable manner—enough to displace approximately 30% of the country’s present petroleum consumption. To ensure reasonable confidence in the study results, an effort was made to use relatively conservative assumptions. However, for both agriculture and forestry, the resource potential was not restricted by price. That is, all identified biomass was potentially available, even though some potential feedstock would more than likely be too expensive to actually be economically available.

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