Potential Biomass Supply in the United States
A data set for four potential biomass production regions in the United States was created. Acreagewas broken down into land units by land capability class (Walsh and Graham, 1995) and average land rental values from the 12th sign-up of USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (Osborn,Liacuna, and Linsenbigier, 1992 ). Data on potential biomass yields and production costs by land class was assembled by ORNL for land suitable for biomass (crop, CRP, and pasture land with medium to high conversion potential) in the four regions shown in Figure 1. Calculations assume that biomass yields, production budgets, and CRP land rents applied to all land in a unit. Switchgrass was the representative grass crop while poplar was the wood crop for all regions except for willows in the North East. The yield scenarios (labeled by year) represented judgments about the potential success of biomass research programs: 2000 – yields attainable with current technology, 2005 – yields with improved management and clonal and varietal selection, and 2020 – yields that could be achieved with a sustained multi-regional genetic improvement program. Table 1 summarizes the data set used for estimation of the potential biomass supply in the U.S.
