Ethanol from wood reduces global warming emissions by 46% to 68% per MJ gasoline avoided

A study from the NTNU industrial ecology group conlcudes that ethanol from wood from boreal forests in Scandinavia could, depending on the system design, reduce global warming emissions of 46% to 68% per-MJ-gasoline avoided, along with reductions in most of the other environmental impact categories considered. Furthermore the study finds that the region's surplus forest-bioenergy resources are vast; use for the production of bioethanol today would have resulted in the displacement of 55% to 68% of the region's gasoline-based global warming emission—or 6% to 8% of Norway's total global warming emissions associated with road transportation. The study was published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology