Biomass cannot supply everything: New report calls for strategic prioritisation of limited resources
Caroline Randall
Marketing Manager
BB-REG-NET has developed a decision-support tool and priority tower that ranks biomass applications by necessity, directing the limited resource toward sectors like chemicals where no alternatives to biogenic carbon exist.
A new report to be published by BB-REG-NET highlights the need for UK policymakers to move beyond sustainability criteria alone and establish clear priorities for how limited biomass resources (biogenic carbon) are allocated, as global demand threatens to far outstrip sustainable supply.
The report, Making the most of biomass: Guiding Principles for Biomass Utilisation in Policy Development, points out that the current global harvest of biomass already stands at 13 billion tonnes annually. While annual harvestable biomass globally amounts to approximately 40 billion tonnes, the additional amount that could be extracted without degrading soils, depleting ecosystems or undermining food security ranges from just 6 to 14 billion tonnes. Future demand from aviation, shipping and chemicals alone could require around 8 billion tonnes of biomass.
To address this challenge, the report introduces a Decision Support Tool that produces a seven-level Biomass Priority Tower ranking applications from essential to unnecessary. Food production, ecosystem services, biodiversity and medicines manufacturing occupy the “penthouse” level, while electricity generation without carbon capture and road transport biofuels for domestic vehicles sit at the “basement” level because viable alternatives already exist or are rapidly emerging.
The report highlights the distinction between “decarbonisation” and “defossilisation”. While energy systems can be decarbonised through wind and solar power, the chemicals, plastics and materials sectors require carbon molecules as fundamental building blocks. These industries cannot be decarbonised; they must be defossilised by switching from fossil carbon to renewable carbon sources. This positions biomass not as one option among many for these sectors, but as fundamentally necessary.
The publication comes as the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero consults on a Common Biomass Sustainability Framework until February 2026. While that consultation focuses on strengthening sustainability criteria for biomass sourcing, the BB-REG-NET report addresses a complementary challenge: ensuring that sustainably sourced biomass flows to applications where it delivers the greatest benefit.
Dr Adrian Higson, Director of Alder BioInsights and lead author of the report, said: “Sustainability criteria are essential, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. Biomass is a limited and highly contested resource, and we need to be honest about the fact that some sectors – such as chemicals, materials and aviation – have no viable alternatives to biogenic carbon, while others do. The current DESNZ consultation on a Common Biomass Sustainability Framework is a welcome opportunity to embed clear prioritisation principles alongside sustainability standards, so that biomass is directed where it delivers the greatest strategic value for the UK.”
The report draws on four stakeholder workshops held in York and Sheffield during 2025, bringing together participants from across the bio-based sector. These sessions revealed strong consensus that food production and ecosystem services must be protected above all else, and that the availability of alternative technologies should be a determining factor in how biomass is allocated. This shared recognition that biomass must be directed where it is genuinely needed underpins the Decision Support Tool’s methodology.
Three core principles underpin the Decision Support Tool’s approach. First, the social value of health, wellbeing and ecosystem services should be the top priority. Second, biomass should be directed to applications where no alternatives exist. Third, priority should be given to pathways that inherently produce clean carbon dioxide streams suitable for capture, rather than retrofitting capture technology onto combustion processes.
The report draws attention to the UK’s particular vulnerability in biomass supply chains. We already import 80 per cent of the wood we consume and run a trade deficit in cereals, meaning domestic biomass resources are limited. This import dependency is starkly illustrated by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, the UK’s largest single renewable electricity generator, which burns 7.6 million tonnes of wood pellets annually – 99 per cent of which are shipped from overseas, primarily from North America. With global competition for biomass intensifying, the report argues that the UK cannot afford to direct its limited supplies toward applications where alternatives exist.
Dr Jen Vanderhoven, Chief Executive Officer of the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) and contributor to the report, said: “Our report provides policymakers with a practical, evidence-based tool to support more coherent decision-making on biomass use. As government consults on sustainability, there is a real opportunity to go further and ensure policy alignment across energy, industrial strategy and the bioeconomy. The Decision Support Tool and Biomass Priority Tower offer a clear framework to help ensure scarce biomass resources are used where they are genuinely needed and where they can deliver the greatest societal and economic benefit.”
The European Union has already moved on prioritisation through its cascading use principle embedded in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), the legislation governing how member states account for and incentivise renewable energy. RED III mandates that woody biomass be used first for products, then to extend product life, then for reuse, recycling, and only finally for bioenergy. By contrast, the UK currently lacks an equivalent framework for directing biomass toward highest-value applications. The BB-REG-NET Decision Support Tool offers a methodology to fill this gap, applicable across all biomass types and end uses.
The full report can be downloaded here
