U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Biomass Program

Feedstock Types

A variety of biomass feedstocks can be used to produce transportation fuels, biobased products, and power. Currently, a majority of the ethanol produced in the U.S. is made from corn or other starch-based crops. The Biomass Program, however, is focusing most of its R&D on the development of cellulosic feedstocks – non-grain, non-food-based feedstocks such as switchgrass, corn stover, and woody material – and on technologies to convert cellulosic material into transportation fuels and other products. Using cellulosic feedstocks can not only alleviate the potential concern of diverting food crops to produce fuel (PDF 2.6 MB) Download Adobe Reader, but also has a variety of environmental benefits.

Because such a wide variety of cellulosic feedstocks can be used for energy production, the Biomass Program has grouped potential feedstocks into categories – or pathways – in which to align R&D efforts across all of the Program's R&D platforms. In the immediate and near term, the Feedstock Platform will focus on the sustainable production, collection, and use of readily available, low-cost agricultural residues and industrial wastes. In the near to mid term, the Platform will address additional agricultural and forestry residues, as well as potentially a few dedicated energy crops. In the longer term, the efforts of the Feedstock Platform will involve the development and use of both herbaceous and woody dedicated energy crops. Figure 1 below shows some of the specific feedstocks being considered in each of these areas.

Figure 1: Resource-Based Biorefinery Pathways

Figure 1: Pathways diagram illustrating relationship between different feedstocks and the processing technologies used to convert them to fuels, power, and products, which are then distributed to the end-user. Corn and grains are converted in either existing wet or dry mills. Oilseeds and plants are converted in existing oil seed mills. Agricultural Residues are converted via future agricultural residue processing. Energy crops (wood energy crops and perennial herbaceous crops) are converted via future energy crop processing. Forest resources (existing and repurposed pulp and paper and forest products mills) are converted separately. Industrial and other wastes are converted separately. All these processes combined create biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts. Biofuels are distributed via bulk distribution infrastructure, and go to retail marketing networks and vehicle end-uses. Biopower is distributed via grid connectivity to end-users. Bioproducts are distributed via bulk distribution infrastructure, and go to chemical intermediate and consumer end-use markets.

The jointly produced USDA and DOE Billion Ton Study (PDF 6.0 MB) Download Adobe Reader further identifies and categorizes the types and amount of biomass feedstocks currently available, as well as those potentially available in the future. Work is being done within the Feedstock Platform and in conjunction with Program partners to refine the study to identify the specific feedstock resources available in each geographic region of the U.S. and for what cost. More details about this work can be found in the Sustainable Feedstock Production and Feedstock Logistics portions of this site. Additional publications on the various feedstocks are also available.