U.S. Pellet Industry Analysis

摘要

This report is a survey of the U.S. Pellet Industry, its current capacity, economic drivers, and projected demand for biomass pellets to meet future energy consumption needs. Energy consumption in the US is projected to require an ever increasing portion of renewable energy sources including biofuels, among which are wood, and agrictulrual biomass. Goals set by federal agencies will drive an ever increasing demand for biomass. The EIA projections estimate that renewable energy produced by 2035 will be roughly 10% of all US energy consumption. Further analysis of the biofuels consumption in the US shows that of the renewable energy sources excluding biofuels, nearly 30% are wood or biomass waste. This equates to roughly 2% of the total energy consumption in the US coming from biomass in 2009, and the projections for 2035 show a strong increase in this amount. As of 2009, biomass energy production equates to roughly 2-2.5 quadrillion Btu. The EIA projections also show coal as providing 21% of energy consumed. If biomass is blended at 20% to co-fire coal plants, this will result in an additional 4 quadrillion Btu of biomass consumption. The EISA goals aim to produce 16 billion gal/year of cellulosic biofuels, and the US military has set goals for biofuels production. The Air Force has proposed to replace 50% of its domestic fuel requirements with alternative fuels from renewable sources by 2016. The Navy has likewise set a goal to provide 50% of its energy requirements from alternative sources. The Department of Energy has set similarly ambitious goals. The DOE goal is to replace 40% of 2004 gasoline use with biofuels. This equates to roughly 60 billion gal/year, of which, 45 billion gal/year would be produced from lignocellulosic resources. This would require 530 million dry tons of herbaceous and woody lignocellulosic biomass per year.