Price projections of feedstocks for biofuels and biopower in the U.S.

Matthew Langholtz, Robin Graham, Laurence Eaton, Robert Perlack, Chad Hellwinkel, Daniel G. De La Torre Ugarte

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

The economic availability of biomass resources is a critical component in evaluating the commercial viability of biofuels. To evaluate projected farmgate prices and grower payments needed to procure 295 million dry Mg (325 million dry tons) of biomass in the U.S. by 2022, this research employs POLYSYS, an economic model of the U.S. agriculture sector. A price-run simulation suggests that a farmgate price of $58.42Mg -1 ($53.00dryton -1) is needed to procure this supply, while a demand-run simulation suggests that prices of $34.56 and $71.61Mg -1 ($30.00 and $62.00dryton -1) in are needed in 2012 and 2022, respectively, to procure the same supply, under baseline yield assumptions. Grower payments are reported as farmgate price minus resource-specific harvest costs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)484-493
Number of pages10
JournalEnergy Policy
Volume41
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2012

Keywords

  • Agricultural policy analysis
  • Bioenergy
  • U.S. Energy independence and security act

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Price projections of feedstocks for biofuels and biopower in the U.S.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this