DOE: 1 Billion Tons of Biomass Production Achievable by 2030

The United States can sustainably produce at least 1 billion tons of nonfood biomass annually by 2030, an Energy Department official said July 19.

“We really feel confident there is enormous U.S. potential to produce biomass,” Alison Goss Eng, a program manager in the department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, said during a briefing held by the non-profit Environmental and Energy Study Institute. “Every time we do this analysis we get more confident in this number.”

Achieving such a goal could potentially displace more than 30 percent of the country’s petroleum consumption and result in carbon dioxide emissions reductions of 400 million ...