Committed to Bioenergy Sustainability, BETO Program Manager Addresses Mitigating Environmental Impacts

by Andrea Bailey (U.S. Department of Energy) Accelerating the widespread adoption of bioenergy technologies that can offer equitable and affordable solutions to decarbonize the transportation, industrial, and agricultural sectors is a priority for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). BETO is committed to developing sustainable sources of renewable energy that provide alternative energy options, supporting environmental equity in both rural and urban communities while creating economic opportunities across the nation.

BETO’s Data, Modeling, and Analysis (DMA) program mission is to support research, analysis, and tool development to address the economic and environmental dimensions of bioenergy and bioproducts. DMA’s Program Manager, Andrea Bailey, collaborates with BETO’s three other subprograms, Renewable Carbon Resources, Conversion Technologies, and Systems Development and Integration, to develop cost, performance, and sustainability targets for specific feedstocks and bioenergy technologies. DMA also acts as a liaison across the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's analysis efforts interfacing with other programs, DOE leadership, and federal agencies to assist in understanding bioenergy and achieving maximum decarbonization.

Data, Modeling, and Analysis Program and Decarbonization

DMA supports BETO’s decarbonization goals by setting milestones and assessing progress in alignment with the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to achieving net-zero emission by 2050. “I’ve been working with national laboratories on updating models and proposing new projects concerning sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and decarbonization. We have a lot of economic models that conduct big picture, full bioenergy supply chain analysis,” said Bailey.

These tools, methods, and assessments help BETO focus its technology development priorities and support creating a thriving bioenergy industry that is economically self-sustaining, protects natural resources, and enhances environmental and social benefits. Tools include the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Bioenergy Models collection and Argonne National Laboratory’s (ANL’s) Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) Model, a life cycle analysis tool that simulates the energy use and emissions output of various vehicle and fuel combinations. DMA plays a prominent role in assessing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and sustainability goals for initiatives such as the SAF Grand Challenge goal to scale up new technologies to produce SAF on a commercial scale and achieve a minimum of a 50% reduction in life cycle GHGs compared to conventional fuel.

Community Impacts of Building Biorefineries

Bailey’s work with DMA is also focused on equitable and minimal impact of siting [locating] biorefineries, a facility that converts biomass to renewable energy and bioproducts. BETO has supported resources like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL’s) biositing tool, a mechanism for selecting facility sites for new construction or expansion of existing bioenergy activities. “Understanding biorefineries has been a good pivot. If we’re going to do large demonstration scale facilities, we want to make sure that beyond just analyzing the technology, we’re also analyzing the actual impacts of building and locating a facility of that size,” said Bailey.

Biorefineries can provide an important pathway to ensure efficient use of biomass resources as part of an emerging sustainable bioeconomy. However, according to Bailey, commercialization and large-scale diffusion of biorefineries will require analysis of environmental considerations for communities from air quality to truck traffic to noise pollution. “Clean energy is going to benefit everyone, but some communities may bear increased burdens from the process to achieve a clean energy future. If we talk to communities and are willing to hear about siting problems from air quality to water availability, bioenergy is going to have a better future because it shows we understand what’s going on. The global benefit of bioenergy is huge, but sometimes the people most vocal about bioenergy are impacted on the local level and if we ignore them, we’re ignoring a huge part of how bioenergy is going to contribute to decarbonization goals,” explained Bailey.

BETO is also committed to ensuring that the principles of environmental justice (EJ) are applied to all activities in treating people fairly and achieving early and meaningful involvement by our affected communities and broader stakeholder populations. “BETO has been prioritizing broadening the ability of different stakeholders to interact with the office. Whether it’s applying for funding opportunities, educating applicants on how funding resources work, or holding workshops, there are DOE resources that can help people now,” voiced Bailey.

BETO has hosted several listening sessions to integrate community concerns into funding solicitations and to receive feedback on siting biorefineries. In January 2024, BETO’s LBNL hosted a listening day with attendees from universities, non-profits, and state and local government. Attendees provided feedback on how DOE can engage communities through funded projects, best practices for community engagement of biorefinery siting, future research needs on biorefinery siting, and metrics for assessing proposed biorefineries. “Understanding what practices best advance environmental justice and prevent disproportionate and adverse environmental and health impacts while extending more direct benefits to host communities will be crucial to meeting volumetric [biomass] production goals,” stated Bailey. Several regional listening days are planned for the future.

Partnering with Farmers on Sustainability

Sustainability activities focused on land use and productivity are also a part of DMA’s portfolio. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has a project titled, Assessing the Economic Impact of Complementary Ecosystem Services that examines the methods to better quantify the value of ecosystem services associated with bioenergy crops, including water quality improvements and increased biodiversity. The laboratory is developing a tool landowners can use to better visualize the direct benefits on their own land.

ANL also has a project, Ecosystem Services Entrepreneurship Assistance, and recently published an online version of their Scaling Up PERennial Bioenergy Economics and Ecosystem Services (SUPERBEEST) Tool. The laboratory is in the process of demonstrating the tool with landowners. It allows landowners in 12 midwestern states to map out economically and/or environmentally marginal farmland that could be converted from traditional corn and soybean to more suitable perennial bioenergy crops with the intent of creating resilient rural communities. They have also partnered with the American Farmland Trust (AFT) to host targeted listening sessions with groups of non-traditional landowners, including women and Tribal landowners. Bailey said, “We’re working with landowners on their needs surrounding bioenergy and how national laboratories can assist.”

Bailey has worked at BETO since 2014, starting in the Conversion Technologies subprogram before moving to DMA in 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. READ MORE