(511a) Sustainable Biofuel Production: a DOE Perspective

The Biomass Program at the U.S. Department of Energy is committed to developing the resources, technologies, and systems needed for biofuels to grow in a way that protects our environment. To that end, we are working to develop diverse, non-food feedstocks that require little water or fertilizer, selectively harvest biomass components while leaving adequate soil nutrients, and assess life-cycle impacts of the major scale-up in biofuels production, from feedstocks to vehicles as mandated by the Energy Independence of Security Act of 2007.

Department of Energy research addresses a range of the environmental aspects of biofuel production including land use and soil health, water use, biodiversity and impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Projects profiled will be focus on large cross-cutting efforts such as regionally-based dedicated energy crop demonstration trials and a national-scale Bioenergy GIS framework.