Robust paths to net greenhouse gas mitigation and negative emissions via advanced biofuels

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1920877117
• Publication Date: 2020-08-25T00:30:58Z
• Authors: John L. Field; Tom L. Richard; Erica A. H. Smith...; Hao Cai; Mark S. Laser; David S. LeBauer; Stephen P. Long; Keith Paustian; Zhangcai Qin; John J. Sheehan; Pete Smith; Michael Q. Wang; Lee R. Lynd
• Keywords: Cellulosic ethanol; Carbon neutrality

Significance The climate benefits of cellulosic biofuels have been challenged based on carbon debt, opportunity costs, and indirect land use change, prompting calls for withdrawing support research development. Using a quantitative ecosystem modeling approach, which explicitly differentiates primary production, balance, biomass harvest, we show that none these arguments preclude from realizing greenhouse gas mitigation. Our assessment illustrates how deliberate choices the performance current-day ethanol technology technological advancements capture storage addition could produce several times mitigation potential competing land-based biological schemes. These results affirm logic biofuels, consistent with their prominent role in many stabilization scenarios.