Biomass energy efficient forest

For each level of silvicultural intensity, the reported values indicate the production of forest biomass is highly energy-efficient. However, it should be observed that the calculations in Tables ll-VI do not take into account processing of the biomass, notably drying, and transport, which can be highly variable. 

If methanol from biomass was used as a substitute for oil (33 quads) in the United States, about 1000 million hectare of forest land per year would be needed to supply the raw material. This land area is much greater than the 162 million ha of United States cropland now in production. Although methanol production from biomass may be impractical because of the enormous size of the conversion plants, it is significantly more efficient than ethanol production using corn based on energy output and economic use of cropland. 

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