Clarification on "biomass", "regional biomass", and "delivered biomass"

[Youyi77]

Hi team,

I am a bit confused about the "biomass" concepts in GCAM after I read the online document.

I also found some related figures. Wondering if my understanding is correct:

• The biomass in GCAM represents switchgrass, miscanthus, crop residues, eucalyptus, MSW, willow, and sugar crops.
• The components of regional biomass and delivered biomass are the same as biomass as they are subparts of biomass.

And what is the difference between purpose-grown biomass production and regional biomass consumption?

[pkyle]

It sounds like your understanding it correct; all of those different biomass streams go into a single blended commodity called biomass which is the sole input to regional biomass which adds a non-energy cost for processing, and then this is the commodity that goes on to biomass consumers directly, or for sectors that have an additional cost mark-up, to delivered biomass. When we refer to "purpose-grown" biomass, that means the biomass_grass and biomass_tree crops in the AgLU module, differentiated from waste by-products of other activities (crop residues, milling and forestry residues, generic municipal and industrial wastes). Note that sugar crops, corn, soybeans, oil palm, and other oil crops follow a different production pathway; these "first-generation" biofuel feedstocks are represented as standard crops in the AgLU module (output-unit is Mt, not EJ), and are only used for producing biomass liquids in the liquid fuel refining sector. They don't have general energy purposes.

[Youyi77]

Hi Page, thank you so much as always! Super helpful.