1. Biomass and Biofuels Production and Consumption
Dr. James Houser, Ph.D.
Department of Technology
Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA
Biomass and Biofuels Production and Consumption

2. Sources
Mexico’s Long-Term
Energy Outlook:

3. Terms
In 2007, North Carolina General Assembly ratified Senate Bill 3 (NCGS § 62-2 et seq.), which established a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard which defines biomass as:
“agricultural waste, animal waste, wood waste, spent pulping liquors, combustible residues, combustible liquids, combustible gases, energy crops, or landfill methane; or waste heat derived from a renewable energy resource.”
Biofuel
Associated with liquid fuel
Biomass
Associated with heat and power (electrical) production.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § (a)(8)

4. EIA defined Sectors End Use Industry Transportation
(does not include losses associated with electricity generation and transmission)
Industry
Transportation
Residential and Commercial
Electrical Generation

5. EIA defined Sectors Industry Transportation
Manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and construction, processing and assembly, space conditioning and lighting.
Uses more energy globally than any other end-use sector.
50 percent of the world’s total delivered energy.
Transportation
Energy consumed in moving people and goods by road, rail, air, water, and pipeline.
2nd only to the industrial sector.
30 percent of the world’s total.
Most of it in the form of liquid fuels.

6. EIA defined Sectors Residential and Commercial Residential
households, excluding transportation uses.
Commercial (services and institutional sector)
businesses, institutions, and organizations that provide services.
traffic lights and city water and sewer services
One-fifth of the world’s total

7. World

8. World Energy Use

9. World Liquid Use
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010

10. World Liquid Use Unconventional oil sands extraheavy oil biofuels
coal-to-liquids
gas-to-liquids
shale oil
Oil sands from Canada and biofuels, largely from Brazil and the United States, are the largest components of future unconventional production
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010

11. World Liquid Use
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010
2007 – biofuels 1.4 % of total world liquid fuels production
2035 – biofuels 3.7 % of total world liquid fuels production (prediction)

12. World Electricity Production
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2009

13. World Electricity Production Biomass
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010

14. Industrial Sector Biomass
Biomass for heat and power production currently provides the vast majority of renewable energy consumed in the industrial sector (90 percent), and it is expected to remain the largest component of the industrial sector’s renewable energy mix through the projection period.
U.S. Energy Information Administration / International Energy Outlook 2010

15. USA

16. USA Liquid Fuels

17. USA

18. USA

19. USA

20. USA
In 2007 Congress approved the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)
Goal of 36 million gallons per year from all sources by 2022.
Sets a national renewable fuel standard in four categories of fuel derived from biomass
National Renewable Fuel Standard Program - Overview April , 2010, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, US Environmental Protection Agency,

21. USA
National renewable fuel standard in four categories of fuel derived from biomass
Biomass-Based Diesel: 1 billion gallons per year by 2012, produced from fats and oils not co-processed with petroleum and meeting a 50% lifecycle greenhouse gas threshold.
Cellulosic Biofuel: 16 billion gallons by 2022, produced from cellulose, hemicellulose, or lignin and meeting a 60% lifecycle GHG threshold.
Advanced Biofuel: Total of 21 billion gallons by 2022, produced from anything except corn starch ethanol (including cellulosic biofuels and biomass-based diesel) and meeting a 50% lifecycle GHG threshold.
Renewable Biofuel: Total of 36 billion gallons per year by 2022 produced from corn starch or any other qualifying renewable fuel at new facilities and meeting a 20% lifecycle GHG threshold.
National Renewable Fuel Standard Program - Overview April , 2010, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, US Environmental Protection Agency,

24. USA Ethanol

25. USA Biodiesel

26. Ethanol Plants - Existing & Under Construction (Jan. 2008)

27. USA Biodiesel
Source: National Biodiesel Board

28. USA Alternative Vehicles

30. USA Ethanol The US produced 10.5 B bushels of corn last year (in 2007)
Each bushel of corn produces gal of fuel ethanol
Therefore, 28.4 B gal of ethanol could be produced if we used 100% of the corn produced, replacing only 18.9 B gal of gasoline
This falls far short of the 140 B gal of gasoline currently used by the transportation sector but would be enough to make all fuel used E14
To replace all 140 B gal with E85 would require 179 B gal of ethanol, 65 B bushels of corn, and 436 M acres of land
According the USDA 2007 Agricultural Census there is 406 M acres of cropland in the US.
Source: USDA
Courtesy of dr. J.E. Ramsdell, Department of Technology, ASU

31. Biofuels Maximum Production in North Carolina from Traditional Feedstocks
To replace just 10-percent of the gasoline used in NC with fuel ethanol (E10) would require approximately 645 million gallons of ethanol (E100).
If this fuel were to be produced in-state from traditional feedstocks grown in-state, it would require approximately 230 million bushels of corn which would require an additional 2.5 million acres of cropland (based on ten-year average yield for NC of 92.1 bushels/acre).
To replace just 10-percent of petroleum diesel fuel used on-highway in NC with biodiesel (B10) would require approximately 110 million gallons of pure biodiesel (B100).
If this fuel were to be produced in-state from traditional feedstocks grown in-state, it would require approximately 65 million bushels of soybeans which would require an additional 2.3 million acres of cropland (based on ten-year average yield for NC of 28 bushels/acre).
Source: USDA
Courtesy of dr. J.E. Ramsdell, Department of Technology, ASU

32. Courtesy of dr. J.E. Ramsdell, Department of Technology, ASU

33. USA Electricity

34. USA North Carolina
600 MW of existing non-utility owned renewable energy capacity in North Carolina.
Hydroelectric made up one third of the total
Balance from biomass cogeneration
Small amount from landfill gas and municipal solid waste incineration.
Biomass facilities produce electricity primarily for industrial uses, but a 50 MWWood Energy Plant in Craven County provides electricity to the grid under the NC GreenPower, a voluntary donation program with approximately 8000 subscribers.
Analysis of a Renewable Portfolio Standard for the State of North Carolina,

35. USA
The use of renewable fuels, such as waste and biomass, in the U.S. industrial sector grows faster than the use of any other energy source in the Reference case, and its share of the industrial fuel mix rises from 8 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2035

36. USA

37. Mexico
Mexico’s Long-Term
Energy Outlook:

38. Mexico

39. Mexico

40. Mexico

41. Mexico
Conzelmann, G., et al. (2005). Mexico’s Long-Term Energy Outlook: Results of a Detailed Energy Supply and Demand Simulation. Energy Studies Review Vol. 14, No , pp

42. Concerns

43. Concerns
Friends of the Earth supports a sustainable and efficient energy policy, but finds that biomass is unsustainable and inefficient: “This drive to substitute fossil fuels with biofuels is driven in large part by an assumption that bio-based energy is sustainable for the planet. However, biofuels can create significant environmental harm. Large-scale agricultural production of corn and other crops used for biofuels often involves massive fertilizer inputs, use of large quantities of water, and soil erosion. Also, rather than helping prevent global warming, biofuels can actually cause global warming as a result of deforestation and the destruction of other natural ecosystems.”

44. Concerns
About 81%more energy is required to produce a liter of ethanol using wood than the energy harvested as ethanol.
Pimentel, D. and T. Patzek Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass and Wood; Biodiesel
Production Using Soyybean. Pages in D. Pimentel (Ed.) Biofuels, Solar and Wind as Renewable
Energy Systems: Benefits and Risks. Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Section 15.5 Wood Cellulose
Conversion into Ethanol, page 383
A report by Argonne Labs states the biomass pollution problem:
“Most studies conducted so far have concluded that producing biofuel will double total NOx emission compared to conventional petroleum-based fuels.” And: “The limitation of the proposed options is an increase in total VOC emissions for almost all options”
MayWu, Ye Wu, and Michael Wang, Mobility Chains Analysis of Technologies for Passenger Cars and Light-Duty Vehicles Fueled with Biofuels: Application of the GREET Model to the Role of Biomass in America’s Energy Future (RBAEF) Project, Argonne National Laboratory-Energy Systems Division, ANL/ESD/07-11 (May 2005) pages 33 and 37.

45. Concerns
Some contend replacement of fossil fuels with biofuels does not solve the greenhouse gas (GHG) problem

46. Concerns
The natural carbon cycle takes a very long time to return the carbon dioxide gas to non-gaseous carbon. Burning biomass from forests immediately adds CO2 to the atmosphere where it remains for decades. The US EPA published the following finding: Indeed, for a given amount of CO2 released today, about half will be taken up by the oceans and terrestrial vegetation over the next 30 years, a further 30 percent will be removed over a few centuries, and the remaining 20 percent will only slowly decay over time such that it will take many thousands of years to remove from the atmosphere.
Zeller, L.A., and D. Mickey Smoke and Mirrors: A Report on Biomass, Bio-energy, and Global Warming. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Glendale Springs, NC

47. Concerns
“Dangerous human-made interference with climate: A GISS modelE study,” Published Nov 22
2006 by The Oil Drum: Europe, Archived Nov , accessed

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