Description

ANNOTATION: This paper focuses on describing the methods used to estimate forest biomass supply curves and describing selected overall results of the analysis, including information on all forest and agricultural supply sources and maps indicating the estimated location of biofuels plants using cellulosic feedstocks that would include forest biomass feedstocks. The model developed here included information on forest biomass supply curves by county (developed using Forest Service FIA data), agricultural biomass supply curves, transportation networks, and capital and operating costs of selected conversion technologies. Results indicate biofuels could potentially provide between 5 and 10 percent of projected transportation fuel demand in the region with fuel price between $2.40 and $3.00 per gasoline gallon equivalence (gge) excluding local distribution costs and taxes. At a target price of $2.40/gge, forest biomass could supply an estimated 11 million oven dry tons per year, or about 9 percent of total feedstock supplied.