Breakout Session 11:  Agriculture and Bioenergy - Achieving Sustainability

Organizers: 
Rick Cruse, Iowa State University
Robin Graham, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Click here for a Paper entitled "Defining a Future Bioeconomy for the Nation: Bio-Renewable Resources and Complex Systems

The production of transportation fuels from plant materials produced on agricultural land will impact the energy consumer, rural communities, rural infrastructure, and the nation's natural resources in a myriad of complex ways. The development path this bioenergy industry takes  will define whether or not bioenergy can truly fulfill its presumed potential for both reducing dependence on foreign oil and providing a significant and sustainable component of this nation's energy portfolio  The Agricultural Bioenergy breakout will develop a sustainable bioenergy vision and identify actions that will allow us to realize this vision.

Discussants

Nathanael Greene, Senior Policy Analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, will discuss environmental implications of using plant biomass for energy production.  Questions that will be addressed include: How do we determine environmental limits of biomass harvest for energy? What biomass feedstocks are most likely to be sustainable? What are the environmental pitfalls of producing biomass feedstock and how can they be avoided? Can the production of biomass feedstock benefit the environment? If so, how?  What are the environmental trade-offs of using bio-based rather than petroleum-based transportation fuels?  

Paul Lasley, Professor and Chair of Rural Sociology at Iowa State University, will discuss social implications of a large scale bioenergy industry.  Questions that will be discussed include: How might a bioenergy affect rural communities?  How will a bioenergy industry affect rural economics?  What are the social implications of different technological methods for converting biomass to liquid fuels? 

Lee Lynd, Professor of Engineering and Adjunct Professor of Biology at Dartmouth College,  will discuss the energy potential that exists in biological materials - mostly crop materials produced on the nation's rural lands.  Questions that will be addressed include: What is the energy balance associated with growing, harvesting, transporting, and  converting plant materials to liquid fuels? How much fuel can be produced from this nation's available plant materials?  What future technologies might be developed that will improve efficiency of converting biomass to fuels?


Links of Interest

U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy

U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program

Roadmap for Agriculture Biomass Feedstock Supply in the United States (pdf file)

Vision for Bioenergy and Biobased Products in the United States (pdf file)

A Billion Ton Feedstock Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry (pdf file)

National Renewable Energy Program

National Resources Defense Council - Bringing biofuels to the pump

USDA Agricultural Research Service Bioenergy program

USDA Farm Service Agency Bioenergy Program