Continued obstacles to wood-based biomass production in the southeastern United States

Abstract

International demand for wood-based biomass for bioenergy production is growing, and private forestlands in the southeastern United States have the potential to supply that demand. The southeastern United States (Southeast) is the world's largest exporter of wood pellets for bioenergy, primarily to the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). However, wood-based biomass production accounts for only a small share of total wood removals from private forestlands in the Southeast. There is sufficient wood-based biomass in the Southeast to support greater production of wood pellets for domestic and international markets without redirecting timber from sawtimber and pulpwood production. In 2018–19, we conducted 39 semi-structured interviews with private forest landowners, foresters, loggers, and biomass production facility managers in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia to obtain their views on wood-based biomass production in the Southeast. Although landowners were interested in supplying wood for biomass as a byproduct of timber harvesting, they seldom participated in wood-based biomass production because of limited and unreliable access to biomass markets. Loggers and production facility managers had not invested in biomass production because they remain skeptical about the financial viability of wood-based biomass. Continued obstacles to biomass production include: price competition with fossil fuels and conventional wood products; inconsistent domestic government support for biomass production; concerns about meeting the sustainability requirements to export wood-based biomass to the UK and EU; and the high costs associated with harvesting low-grade wood for biomass. The barriers to biomass expansion in the southeastern United States remain primarily economic and political rather than biophysical.