USDA Releases Biofuels Roadmap to Achieve 2020 Renewable Energy Standard

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released its "Regional Roadmap to Meet the Biofuels Goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard by 2022". It is a comprehensive strategy "to address barriers related to the development of a successful biofuels market that will achieve, or surpass, the current U.S. Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS2)." The goal of the congressionally-mandated RFS2 is to "use at least 36 billion gallons of bio-based transportation fuels by 2022", for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Corn ethanol will constitute a portion of the 36-billion-gallon target, amounting to about 15 billion gallons. Of the remaining 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels needed to achieve the total 36 billion gallon goal, 16 billion gallons is required to come from advanced cellulosic biofuels (fuels made from cellulosic feedstocks) that also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 percent relative to gasoline."

A partial breakdown according to feedstock is as follows: (a) 13.4 billion gallons from including perennial grasses, energy cane, and biomass sorghum; (b) 500 million gallons from oilseed crops, (c) 4.3 billion gallons from crop residues (corn stover, straw), and (d) 2.8 billion gallons from woody biomass (logging residues only). The biofuels digest website mentions that the USDA report "did not include projections on feedstock capacity from municipal solid waste, animal fats and yellow crease, or algae — although it reported that the EPA (in its own projections) has projected 100 million gallons from algae, 380 million gallons from animal residues, 2.6 billon gallons from municipal waste (MSW) and 2.2 billion gallons from imported fuels". The full USDA report can be downloaded at the biofuels digest website (URL above).