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Preventing clothes from shedding may be impractical, if not impossible. However, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™) consortium have developed an emerging solution that could address the challenge at its source: replace today’s petroleum-derived polyester with a nontoxic, biodegradable alternative made from PHAs, short for “polyhydroxyalkanoates.”

New Assessment Shows That America’s Abundant Supply of Renewable Resources Can Produce Enough Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Exceed Projected 2050 Market Demand

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the 2023 Billion-Ton Report (BT23), which shows that the U.S. could triple its production of biomass to more than 1 billion tons per year. The report—the fourth in a series of assessments of potential biomass resources in the United States since 2005—finds that 1 billion tons of biomass could satisfy over 100% of the projected demand for airplane fuel in the country, allowing the U.S. to reduce emissions in the aviation industry with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Computational Science Center are hard at work enabling the conversion of biomass to fuels and products at industrial scale. Computational tools can model biomass conversion at scales ranging from small lab beakers to biorefineries, which can help accelerate and de-risk the newest technology developments.