Sustainable biomass supply and demand: a scenario analysis

Abstract

This paper provides a concise summary and dis- cussion of key results of the study “Sustainable biomass potentials for biofuels in competition to food, feed, bioen- ergy and industrial material use in Germany, Europe and the world”. The scenario-analysis developed in this paper differentiates between the global level and the European Union level, providing a perspective on future trends and developments. Specifically, results of the present study provide a detailed view of possible scenarios for a sus- tainable supply of biomass until the year 2050, and of the development of demand in all biomass sectors: food, feed, chemicals and materials, bioenergy and biofuels. Due to this approach, one can clearly see under which assump- tions global supply shortages or a sufficient coverage of demand may occur.

Keywords

• bio-economy
• biomass
• bioenergy
• scenario analysis