The head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration is anticipating a significant expansion of biomass in the nation’s energy system within the next 25 years.

Dr. Richard Newell told attendees at the 4th annual International Biomass Conference in St. Louis on Tuesday that includes liquid biofuels and electric power working in combination. “You have advanced biofuels made from cellulose and other feedstocks and in the process of producing these advanced biofuels, you also produce electricity,” he said.

Newell was impressed with the attendance at the conference and the great variety of potential energy feedstocks represented. “While corn ethanol has already seen significant expansion, we’re seeing expansion in biodiesel, there’s a lot of other potential pathways that we could be seeing in the future and I think over the next 5-10 years we’ll know a lot more than we do now about exactly where biomass is going to go in the U.S. energy future.”

Listen to a brief interview with Newell here: Richard Newell at Biomass Conference