Dedicated energy crops have the potential to supply a sustainable biomass feedstock to support the bioenergy industry. However, a major constraint for promoting energy crops has been the availability of land for establishing energy crops. In this study, we developed a spatially-explicit model to identify suitable and economically feasible sites for establishing energy crops based on biomass price, production costs and site-specific biomass productivity. Results from our study provided an objective evaluation of factors that influence the amount and spatial distribution of land suitable for establishing energy crops. In addition, our model had the ability to capture variation across the feasible areas because of changing biomass market and policy conditions. By performing a sensitivity analysis with different market and policy scenarios, we were able to identify the most effective and favorable scenarios that could maximize the available land for producing energy crops.

While the southeastern United States, including the state of Mississippi, has a strong natural resource base, woody biomass is not fully utilized to produce bioenergy in this region. This study intended to explore opportunities, issues, and the economic potential of wood-based bioenergy in the state of Mississippi. Realizing the importance of private forest landowner decisions in sustaining a bioenergy feedstock supply, one aim of this study was to understand their choices for preferred harvesting methods of supplying woody biomass for wood-based bioenergy industries. Study results indicated that landowners were interested in optimizing revenue from woody biomass utilization while minimizing damage to the surrounding environment and facilitating less site preparation. Similarly, by administering a survey instrument, total and unused volumes of residues in primary and secondary mill operations were also estimated. Availability of woody residue was higher in the primary wood processing industry. Similarly, the likelihood of getting feedstock would be higher if a wood-based bioenergy generating facility could be located near a larger, year round operational forest product industry. This study further accounted for the potential direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts of a state wood-based bioenergy industry. Three potential wood-based bioenergy industries namely wood-pellet, bio-oil and methanol-based gasoline facilities were considered for an economic analysis. Study results revealed that operation of a wood-pellet industry would contribute 82 full- and part-time jobs to the economy with $12 million worth of economic output to the Mississippi economy. Likewise, the operation of a bio-oil industry would generate 165 new full- and part-time jobs and provide an economic output of $17 million. Also, $96 million in economic output and 795 full- and part-time more jobs would be added by establishing a methanol-based gasoline industry. Clearly, these impacts are substantial and are likely to draw the attention of policy makers and investors towards wood-based bioenergy in Mississippi.