Assessment of Conversion Technologies for Bioalcohol Fuel ...

Table 6 - Estimates of Annually Available Biomass in
California (Millions of Dry Tons per Year)
Agricultural Wastes/Residues
Gross Technical
Animal Manure 11.8 4.5
Field and Seed 4.9 2.4
Orchard and Vine 2.6 1.8
Vegetable 1.2 0.1
Food Processing 1.0 0.8
Total Agricultural 21.6 9.6
Forestry Wastes/Residues
Logging Slash 8.0 4.3
Forest Remediation Waste 7.7 4.1
Mill Residue 6.2 3.3
Chaparral 4.9 2.6
Total Forestry 26.8 14.3
Municipal Wastes/Residues
MSW Land filled 18.5 *
MSW Diverted from Landfills 18.4 9.2
Biosolids Land filled 0.1 *
Biosolids Diverted 0.6 0.5
Total Municipal 37.6 9.7
Total Biomass 86.0 33.6
* California Biomass Collaborative, Jenkins et al (2005)
** Land filled MSW and biosolids assumed to be available as landfill gas
The CBC inventory includes estimates of both gross annual biomass production and of
so-caled “technical resource potential” –the amounts in each biomass category
estimated to be potentially supplied for beneficial applications. The total estimated
technical potential of 33.6 million tons per year amounts to about 40 percent of the
estimated gross resource of 86 million tons. CBC’s report describes the estimate of
technical potentialas “a preliminary estimate based on technical and ecosystem
limitations in resource acquisition and does not strictly define the fraction of biomass
that is economicaly feasible to use.”
The CBC’s 2005 inventory provides a considerably higher estimate of state biomass
resources than the previous CEC estimates. In fact, the CBC estimate of technical
biomass potential approaches the original 1994 estimate of gross biomass potential
developed by the CEC, and the CBC’s latest estimate of gross biomass is about 70
percent higher than the CEC 1999 estimate. Also, the 2005 CBC report projects
growth of the gross and technical biomass resource potentials by 2017 to about 100
million tons and 40 million tons, respectively.
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