The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are both strongly committed to expanding the role of biomass as an energy source. In particular, they support biomass fuels and products as a way to reduce the need for oil and gas imports; to support the growth of agriculture, forestry, and rural economies; and to foster major new domestic industries--biorefineries--making a variety of fuels, chemicals, and other products. As part of this effort, the Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee, a panel established by the Congress to guide the future direction of federally funded biomass R&D, envisioned a 30 percent replacement of the current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030. Biomass--all plant and plant-derived materials including animal manure, not just starch, sugar, oil crops already used for food and energy--has great potential to provide renewable energy for America's future. Biomass recently surpassed hydropower as the largest domestic source of renewable energy and currently provides over 3 percent of the total energy consumption in the United States. In addition to the many benefits common to renewable energy, biomass is particularly attractive because it is the only current renewable source of liquid transportation fuel. This, of course, makes it invaluable in reducing oil imports--one of our most pressing energy needs. A key question, however, is how large a role could biomass play in responding to the nation's energy demands. Assuming that economic and financial policies and advances in conversion technologies make biomass fuels and products more economically viable, could the biorefinery industry be large enough to have a significant impact on energy supply and oil imports? Any and all contributions are certainly needed, but would the biomass potential be sufficiently large to justify the necessary capital replacements in the fuels and automobile sectors? The purpose of this report is to determine whether the land resources of the United States are capable of producing a sustainable supply of biomass sufficient to displace 30 percent or more of the country's present petroleum consumption--the goal set by the Advisory Committee in their vision for biomass technologies. Accomplishing this goal would require approximately 1 billion dry tons of biomass feedstock per year.

/pdf/biomass-as-feedstock-for-a-bioenergy-and-bioproducts-3s9zwbb88u.pdf

Biomass as Feedstock for A Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which use electricity from the grid to power a portion of travel, could play a role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport sector. However, meaningful GHG emissions reductions with PHEVs are conditional on low-carbon electricity sources. We assess life cycle GHG emissions from PHEVs and find that they reduce GHG emissions by 32% compared to conventional vehicles, but have small reductions compared to traditional hybrids. Batteries are an important component of PHEVs, and GHGs associated with lithium-ion battery materials and production account for 2–5% of life cycle emissions from PHEVs. We consider cellulosic ethanol use and various carbon intensities of electricity. The reduced liquid fuel requirements of PHEVs could leverage limited cellulosic ethanol resources. Electricity generation infrastructure is long-lived, and technology decisions within the next decade about electricity supplies in the power sector will affect the potential for l...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es702178s

Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from plug-in hybrid vehicles: implications for policy.

Two-echelon multiple-vehicle location-routing problem with time windows for optimization of sustainable supply chain network of perishable food

Renewable-energy sources often are regarded as dispersed and difficult to collect, thus requiring substantial land resources in comparison to conventional energy sources. In this review, we present the normalized land requirements during the life cycles of conventional- and renewable-energy options, covering coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, photovoltaics, wind, and biomass. We compared the land transformation and occupation matrices within a life-cycle framework across those fuel cycles. Although the estimates vary with regional and technological conditions, the photovoltaic (PV) cycle requires the least amount of land among renewable-energy options, while the biomass cycle requires the largest amount. Moreover, we determined that, in most cases, ground-mount PV systems in areas of high insolation transform less land than the coal-fuel cycle coupled with surface mining. In terms of land occupation, the biomass-fuel cycle requires the greatest amount, followed by the nuclear-fuel cycle. Although not detailed in this review, conventional electricity-generation technologies also pose secondary effects on land use, including contamination and disruptions of the ecosystems of adjacent lands, and land disruptions by fuel-cycle-related accidents.

/pdf/land-use-and-electricity-generation-a-life-cycle-analysis-33uoy93x1o.pdf

Land use and electricity generation: A life-cycle analysis

National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap

This publication presents the results of the latest (2002) inventory of U.S. major land uses, drawing on data from the Census, public land management and conservation agencies, and other sources. The data are synthesized by State to calculate the use of several broad classes and subclasses of agricultural and nonagricultural land over time. The United States has a total land area of nearly 2.3 billion acres. Major uses in 2002 were forest-use land, 651 million acres (28.8 percent); grassland pasture and range land, 587 million acres (25.9 percent); cropland, 442 million acres (19.5 percent); special uses (primarily parks and wildlife areas), 297 million acres (13.1 percent); miscellaneous other uses, 228 million acres (10.1 percent); and urban land, 60 million acres (2.6 percent). National and regional trends in land use are discussed in comparison with earlier major land-use estimates.

/pdf/major-uses-of-land-in-the-united-states-2002-550atztsyi.pdf

Major Uses of Land in The United States, 2002

The United States has a total land area of nearly 2.3 billion acres. Major uses in 1997 were forest-use land, 642 million acres (28 percent); grassland pasture and range, 580 million (26 percent); cropland, 455 million (20 percent); miscellaneous other uses, 300 million (13 percent); and special uses, 286 million acres (13 percent). Cropland acreage decreased from 1992 to 1997, but by only 1 percent (5 million acres). Grassland pasture and range decreased 2 percent (11 million acres). Special uses (primarily parks and wildlife areas) increased by 5 million acres, continuing an almost uninterrupted upward trend since 1945. Miscellaneous other uses increased 17 million acres, mostly due to expanding urban area. Rural residential area (a new category) was estimated to be 73 million acres in 1997. Urban and rural residential area, together, accounted for about 46 percent of miscellaneous other uses. Private land ownership was 60 percent of the total land area; Federal ownership was 29 percent; and State, other public, and Indian trust lands, together, accounted for the remaining 11 percent of the land area.

Marlow Vesterby

Papers

Major Uses of Land in The United States, 2002

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 1997

Major Uses of Land in The United States, 2002

Estimating U.S. Cropland Area