Roadmap for Agriculture Biomass Feedstock Supply in the United States (2003)

The Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee established a goal that biomass will supply 5% of the nation’s power, 20% of its transportation fuels, and 25% of its chemicals by 2030. These combined goals are approximately equivalent to 30% of the country’s current petroleum consumption. The benefits of a robust biorefinery industry supplying this amount of domestically produced power, fuels, and products are considerable, including decreased demand for imported oil, revenue to the depressed agricultural industry, and revitalized rural economies. A consistent supply of highquality, low-cost feedstock is vital to achieving this goal. This biomass roadmap defines the research and development (R&D) path to supplying the feedstock needs of the biorefinery and to achieving the important national goals set for biomass. To meet these goals, the biorefinery industry must be more sustainable than the systems it will replace. Sustainability hinges on the economic profitability of all participants, on environmental impact of every step in the process, and on social impact of the product and its production. In early 2003, a series of colloquies were held to define and prioritize the R&D needs for supplying feedstock to the biorefinery in a sustainable manner. These colloquies involved participants and stakeholders in the feedstock supply chain, including growers, transporters, equipment manufacturers, and processors as well as environmental groups and others with a vested interest in ensuring the sustainability of the biorefinery. From this series of colloquies, four high-level strategic goals were set for the feedstock area: • Biomass Availability – By 2030, 1 billion dry tons of lignocellulosic feedstock is needed annually to achieve the power, fuel, and chemical production goals set by the Biomass Research and Development Technology Advisory Production Committee • Sustainability – Production and use of the 1 billion dry tons annually must be accomplished in a sustainable manner • Feedstock Infrastructure – An integrated feedstock supply system must be developed and implemented that can serve the feedstock needs of the biorefinery at the cost, quality, and consistency of the set targets • System Profitability – Economic profitability and sustainability need to be ensured for all required participants in the feedstock supply system. For each step in the biomass supply process—production, harvesting and collection, storage, preprocessing, system integration, and transportation—this roadmap addresses the current technical situations, performance targets, technical barriers, R&D needs, and R&D priorities to overcome technical barriers and achieve performance targets. Crop residue biomass is an attractive starting feedstock, which shows the best near-term promise as a biorefinery feedstock. Because crop residue is a by-product of grain production, it is an abundant, underutilized, and low cost biomass resource. Corn stover and cereal straw are the two most abundant crop residues available in the United States. Therefore, this roadmap focuses primarily on the R&D needed for using these biomass sources as viable biorefinery feedstocks. However, achieving the goal of 1 billion dry tons of lignocellulosic feedstock will require the use of other biomass sources such as dedicated energy crops. In the long term, the R&D needs identified in this roadmap will need to accommodate these other sources of biomass as well.