The 2016 Billion-Ton Report, jointly released by the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, concludes that the United States has the potential to sustainably produce at least 1 billion dry tons of nonfood biomass resources annually by 2040.These renewable resources include agricultural, forestry and algal biomass, as well as waste. They encompass the current and future potential of biomass, from currently available logging and crop residues to future available algae and dedicated energy crops—all useable for the production of biofuel, biopower and bioproducts.
The report findings show that under a base-case scenario, the United States could increase its use of dry biomass resources from a current 400 million tons to 1.57 billion tons under a high-yield scenario.Increasing production and use of biofuel, biopower and bioproducts would substantially decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the utility and transportation sectors and reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil as the domestic bioeconomy grows.
The analysis was led by ORNL with contributions from 65 experts from federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration, as well as national laboratories (Idaho National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), and universities (the University of Tennessee, North Carolina State University, South Dakota State University and Oregon State University), as well as private companies (Energetics, Inc. and Allegheny Science and Technology).
Based on the press release by Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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