Biomass Statistics
Fans of biomass energy will enjoy a new statistical compendium produced by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in partnership with the United States Department of Energy (DOE).
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The authors break down the biomass industry into four groups: biofuels, biopower, biorefineries and feedstocks. The groups are further divided into appropriate categories with a variety of statistics listed for each category.
For example, the rise in gasoline prices over the past year has increased consumer interest in alternative fuels. Ethanol and biodiesel are the two most common forms of alternative fuels on the market today. Ethanol, typically a corn alcohol, is blended with gasoline for use in the traditional gasoline engine that drives about 97% of the U.S. automobile market. Biodiesel is a an oil that comes from a variety of plants, typically soybeans, and can be blended with diesel fuel to run a variety of diesel engines from school buses to farm tractors.
The Biomass Energy Data Book provides something for everyone with their roughly forty sets of statistics on biofuels. For example, did you know that California leads the way in ethanol use? According to the book, California used 15,779,408 gallons of ethanol blended fuel in 2004, close to half of the total in the United States (total=34,349,052 gallons). Between 2004 and 2005, biodiesel production tripled from 25 million gallons to 75 million gallons.
The statistics are not original, they are collected from a variety of industry and government sources. The strength of the book is that it provides one stop shopping for accurate figures, that are easily accessible with a few clicks of the mouse, and a spreadsheet program to open up the .xls files. This is the first edition of the book and hopefully the DOE on Oak Ridge National Laboratory will continue to update it over time.
© 2006 Patricia A. Michaels