Economic prospects of advanced biomass-based energy carriers in EU-15 up to 2050 (original) (raw)

The Potential of the Bioenergy Market in the European Union—An Overview of Energy Biomass Resources

Energies

One of the bases of the European policy and energy strategy is the biomass and bioenergy obtained from it. It is estimated that by 2023, the annual demand for biomass will have increased from the current level of 7 EJ to 10 EJ. There are significant differences between estimates of the bioenergy potential due to the fact that the authors of publications do not use consistent methodology and assumptions. Forest biomass, agricultural residues, and energy crops are the three main sources of biomass for energy production. Energy crops are likely to become the most important source of biomass. Land use and its changes are a key issue in the sustainable production of bioenergy as the availability of biomass determines its potential for energy security. This article is a review of the latest publications on the bioenergy potential of the member-states of the European Union. The consumption of energy and its potential were presented, with a special focus on renewable sources, especially bio...

Biomass energy in industrialised countries—a view of the future

Forest Ecology and Management, 1997

Biomass fuels currently (1994) supply around 14% of the world's energy, but most of this is in the form of traditional fuelwood, residues and dung, which is often inefficient and can be environmentally detrimental. Biomass can supply heat and electricity, liquid and gaseous fuels. A number of developed countries derive a significant amount of their primary energy from biomass: USA 4%, Finland 18%, Sweden 16% and Austria 13%. Presently biomass energy supplies at least 2 EJ year−1 in Western Europe which is about 4% of primary energy (54 EJ). Estimates show a likely potential in Europe in 2050 of 9.0–13.5 EJ depending on land areas (10% of useable land, 33 Mha), yields (10–15 oven-dry tonnes (ODt) ha−1), and recoverable residues (25% of harvestable). This biomass contribution represents 17–30% of projected total energy requirements up to 2050. The relative contribution of biofuels in the future will depend on markets and incentives, on continuous research and development progress, and on environmental requirements. Land constraints are not considered significant because of the predicted surpluses in land and food, and the near balance in wood and wood products in Europe.There is considerable potential for the modernisation of biomass fuels to produce convenient energy carriers such as electricity, gases and transportation fuels, whilst continuing to provide for traditional uses of biomass; this modernisation of biomass and the industrial investment is already happening in many countries. When produced in an efficient and sustainable manner, biomass energy has numerous environmental and social benefits compared with fossil fuels. These include improved land management, job creation, use of surplus agricultural land in industrialised countries, provision of modern energy carriers to rural communities of developing countries, a reduction of CO2 levels, waste control, and nutrient recycling. Greater environmental and net energy benefits can be derived from perennial and woody energy cropping than from annual arable crops which are short-term alternative feedstocks for fuels. Agroforestry systems can play an important role in providing multiple benefits to growers and the community, besides energy. In order to ameliorate CO2 emissions, using biomass as a substitute for fossil fuels (complete replacement, co-firing, etc.) is more beneficial from social and economic perspectives than sequestering the carbon in forests.Case studies are presented for several developed countries and the constraints involved in modernising biomass energy along with the potential for turning them into entrepreneurial opportunities are discussed. It is concluded that the long term impacts of biomass programmes and projects depend mainly on ensuring income generation, environmental sustainability, flexibility and replicability, while taking account of local conditions and providing multiple benefits, which is an important attribute of agroforestry-type systems. Biomass for energy must be environmentally acceptable in order to ensure its widespread adoptions as a modern energy source. Implementation of biomass projects requires governmental policy initiatives that will internalise the external economic, social and environmental costs of conventional fuel sources so that biomass fuels can become competitive on a ‘level playing field’.

The role of biomass in heat, electricity, and transport markets in the EU27 under different scenarios

Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 2013

The National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs), as submitted to the European Commission by the 27 European Union member states (EU27), show ambitious development paths for the deployment of biomass in the heat, electricity, and transport sectors up to 2020. This study analyzes the distribution of different biomass feedstocks over these sectors for various biomass scenarios, examining the fi xed development paths described in the NREAPs, while also presenting a possible change in biomass demand for these scenarios. The analysis also reaches beyond the scope of the NREAPs up to 2030. The allocation of biomass for heating (H), electricity (E) and transport (T) applications in the EU27 has been modeled using the RESolve toolkit. RESolve can work both in a static mode and in a dynamic mode. In the static mode the demand for biomass based energy per sector (H, E, and T) is constrained to a fi xed amount, whereas in the dynamic mode this constraint is relaxed: the interaction with other renewable (and partially also fossil) energy sources may result in a change in bioenergy demand. From the analysis it can be concluded that in most EU countries the NREAP fi gures for bioenergy deployment will not be reached under the present regional and national policy/support schemes and market developments. When applying stricter sustainability criteria, the bioenergy developments in the EU27 decrease even further. These effects are strongest for the use of biofuels in transport and biogas for electricity.

CO2-reduction potentials and costs of biomass-based alternative energy carriers in Austria

Energy, 2014

A forced use of renewable energy sources (RES) is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. Among RES biomass-based resources play a specific role regarding their CO 2-reduction potentials, their energetic potentials and their overall costs for different derived energy carriers. From various categories of biomass resources e forestry, agricultural crops, short rotation coppices or waste products e different alternative energy carriers (AEC) like biofuels 1st or 2nd generation, electricity or hydrogen can be produced. In this paper we analyse possible biomass-based energy chains for different AEC in Austria. We investigate their overall potential by 2050, corresponding CO 2-reduction potentials and resulting CO 2 saving costs. The core results of this analysis are: (i) the overall potential by 2050 is approximately 130 PJ compared to 30 PJ in 2010; and (ii) the corresponding CO 2-reduction potential is about 7 million tons CO 2equ. This is roughly two-third reduction compared to the use of conventional fuels. The major conclusion is that only if a tuned portfolio of actions e CO 2-tax, ecological monitoring system, a focussed R&D programme for second generation biofuels and fuel cells e is implemented the potential of new biomass-based AEC can be exploited up to 2050 in an optimal way for society.

Sustainable biomass supply in EU

Over 50% of the targets for renewable energy use in 2020 as specified in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) will need to come from bioenergy. As a consequence the demand for biomass will increase strongly over the coming years. In the Biomass Futures project it is estimated that the EU biomass potential ranges between 375 to 429 MtOE depending on the sustainability criteria applied. This would cover at least 2.5 times the amount that is needed to realize the total bioenergy demand as set in the NREAPs for 2020. In a demand analysis with the RESolve model it is predicted that only a part (37%) of domestic biomass supply will actually be exploited by 2020 while the rest of the demand will be met by imported biomass. The question now arises as to whether there a mismatch between the bioenergy supply and the final demand? What types of biomass sources are expected to be under exploited and is there a need to stimulate their use in order to diminish our import needs and ...

Total costs and benefits of biomass in selected regions of the European Union

Energy, 2000

The paper describes results of the BioCosts project in which a comprehensive analysis of the economic and environmental performance of the energy use of biomass was carried out for selected existing facilities throughout the European Union. It is demonstrated that the appropriately organized use of biofuels has significant environmental advantages compared to the use of fossil fuels. Mitigation of global warming is the largest single incentive to use biofuels. However, only a few technologies are economically competitive under prevailing conditions, while others lead to up to 100% higher energy production costs than fossil fuels. Employment effects of using biofuels are small but positive.

Diversity of biomass usage pathways to achieve emissions targets in the European energy system

Research Square (Research Square), 2023

Biomass is a versatile renewable energy source that can be used in all parts of the energy system, but it is a limited resource and usage needs prioritisation. Here we use a sector-coupled European energy system model to explore the range of cost-effective near-optimal solutions for achieving stringent emissions targets. We show that provision of biogenic carbon rather than energy is the main value of biomass, with the energy system cost increasing by 20% if biomass is excluded. It is not crucial in which sector biomass is used if it is combined with carbon capture to enable negative emissions and e-fuel production. A shortage of renewable electricity or hydrogen primarily increases the value of biomass for fuel production, which appears as the marginal abatement option and is most sensitive to uncertainties. Biomass usage is significantly affected if the biomass is associated with upstream emissions.