Use of renewable resources for non-food materials

Renewable resources are a source of energy, and a feedstock for fuel or chemical reactions. Fossil raw materials are used as the main source for energy supply in the range of about 7-8 billion tons oil equivalent/year. Biomass production is about 170 000 million tons a year. Theoretically this biomass amount would be enough to replace fossil fuels completely. However, realistically only 3% or about 6000 million tons of plant material can in fact be cultivated, harvested and processed. There would not be enough renewable resources even if they were all used exclusively to replace fossil fuels. Replacement of fossil fuels by plants will not be an objective at all in the near future.