Beyond the Biofrontier: Balancing Competing Uses of the Biomass Resource

This study considers the optimal end uses for biomass resources in Europe by assessing the environmental costs and benefits of using biomass for three different sectors: heat and power, liquid fuels and bio-based materials. In principle, each of these three competing uses could grow to use all the sustainably available biomass in Europe in the long term, according to the authors. This analysis compares the three competing uses for biomass across four impact categories.