• Ethanol production surpassed 14.7 billion gallons in 2015. This compares to 175 million in 1980. The number of ethanol plants continues to see modest growth, increasing to 199 plants in 2016 with 3 new facilities under construction. This accounts for over 270,000 U.S. jobs.
• Biodiesel production reached 1.26 billion gallons in 2015 as compared to 343 million gallons in 2010. – Statistics from U.S. EIA indicate the U.S. consumed about 44 billion gallons of petroleum derived diesel in 2015.
• Wood pellets manufacturing has become an important component of the U.S. bioenergy sector. Driven by commitments by countries outside of the U.S. to meet GHG reduction goals in the electricity-generating sector. The U.S. has established itself as the largest global exporter (2016) of wood pellets at 4.6 billion kilograms of wood pellets. Also covered in the 2018 USDA report are biogas, waste to energy, renewable chemicals and biobased products.
Sources:
www.usda.gov/oce/energy/files/BIOINDICATORS.pdf www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/index.php#petroleum
Photo: USDA