Abstract
The Billion-ton Reports series has addressed the technical economic potential of supplying additional biomass from farmland and forests. Underlying each of the reports and supporting scenarios is a series of assumptions that drive the modeled output. The assumptions have developed over time with the support of technical experts from industry, academia, and government. Energy crops have not yet reached commodity scale, and only exist in commercial production in a limited number of regions, so many of the key assumptions of biomass potential are not supported by commercial demonstrations across multiple regions. This report examines the biomass potential of herbaceous energy crops from US farmland when alternative assumptions concerning production are modeled. In particular, the assumption of energy grasses, both perennial and annual, is modified with respect to land eligibility, annual rotations, and yield growth. The results of these changes are presented in six scenarios – three of which are modifications to the base-case scenario and three to the high-yield scenario. The impact on land enrolled and biomass supply are discussed with respect to the most recent 2016 Billion-ton Report results.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 120-128 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2019 |
Funding
Correspondence to: Matthew Langholtz, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831. E-mail: [email protected] This manuscript has been co-authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.
Keywords
- biomass
- biomass sorghum
- economics
- energycane
- herbaceous energy crops
- miscanthus
- resource assessment
- switchgrass