Biomass potential

For the energetic use of biomass a wide range of different resources is available in principle e.g. forest wood, straw, cereal, liquid manure). They derive from the agricultural and silvicultural primary production respectively from the industries that follow the primary production as well as from waste management i.e. when organic materials leave the production process).  

Furthermore there are energy crops, which can be cultivated as aimual or perennial cultures on agricultural land for exclusive energetic use. 

Considering the current demand on food and fodder an available land area of about 2 Mio ha can be assumed for biomass production exemplarily within the Federal Republic of Germany as one country in Central Western Europe. On this area different types of plants are cultivated for different purposes. 

Such a procedure leads to an estimation of an upper border, since in practice the selection of suitable cultivation cultures is significantly reduced due to the given local conditions. 

However, the biomass declared e.g. herbaceous biomass, energy crops) can be used only once (either thermo-chemical or bio-chemical or physical-chemical). Thus the entire fuel potential amounts for the German example to approximately 1,000 to 1,300 PJ aT (approximately 8% of the present German primary energy consumption). 

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Biomass potentials are mainly determined by agricultural productivity and the amount of land accessible for energy crop production. The total area under energy crops in the EU was around 1.6 million hectares in 2004 (estimate for 2005 2.5 million hectares), which represents nearly 3% of the total arable land. AEBIOM (2007) estimated a total biomass supply of 220 MtOE for the year 2020, while 23 MtOE are covered by wood-based bioenergy (direct from forests) and 88 MtOE by agriculture-based energy crops (by-products not considered). The Commission has estimated that about 15% of the EU s arable land (17.5 million hectares) would be used to reach the targets for 2020. 

Different feedstocks were included in the analyses in the case of the biomass potentials or data about certain biomass categories were missing on a regional disaggregated level. 

The Renewables-Intensive Global Energy Scenario (RIGES) predicts a primary energy potential from biomass resources for Western Europe to be 14160 PJ/year by 2025 and 14 170 PJ/year by 2050 (Johansson et al., 1993). Thereby the biomass potential comprises resources from wood, energy crops, agricultural residues and industrial biomass residues. The estimates are based on the biomass production at that time in combination with assumptions of future growth rates. 

Figure 5.16. Biomass potentials in terms of primary energy for the years 2010 and 2020.

The chosen reference year is 2040. The biomass potential is taken from the Green-X project on the additional renewable potential in the EU (see www.green-x.at/Green-X %20viewer.htm). The time horizon of the Green-X forecasts is 2020. It is assumed that the potential remains constant after 2020. North Africa has the largest additional potential (wind and solar), followed by Turkey (biomass) and Norway (hydro). 

Howlett, K., and Gamache, A. (1977). Silvicultural Biomass Farms, Vol. 2, Biomass Potential of Short Rotation Farms," Technical Report 7347. Mitre Corp., McLean, VA. 

The potential of sugar canc residues is approximately 14% of the mass of stalks. This means that for each tonne of sugar cane stalks, there is 140 kg of dry residues. This potential is only slightly lower than the bagasse yield itself and therefore the biomass potential can, theoretically, be almost doubled by using green harvesting. 

In view of the low nutritional quality of the mangrove detritus, the production of phytoplankton and bacterial biomasses may represent important pathways for the synthesis of high quality biomass potentially available to the grazers in the mangrove creek systems (Bano etal., 1997). On the other hand, the heterotrophic conditions may also have negative consequences for the... 

There have been numerous estimates made on the total biomass and biomass potential of our forests 3,1Q). The inventory procedure used is based on estimates and averages, and is fully described by Wahlgren and Ellis (U). Forest surveys based on biomass measurement techniques are needed to accurately determine the quantities and location of our wood resource. Many studies on measuring the weight of individual trees, and to a lesser extent forest stands, have been made. This work has been summarized by Keays (12). and Hitchcock and McDonnell (12)- As work in forest biomass measurement is refined, regional weight tables can be developed and accurate biomass inventories compiled. 

Table 7.2 shows the present technical biomass potential based on the criteria mentioned above. Considering residues, by-products and waste they are differentiated in herbaceous biomass e.g. straw, landscape conservation material), wood e.g. forest residual wood, industrial residual wood) and other biomass e.g. excrements, organic industrial waste). The forest potentials include the wood not used as a raw material i.e. firewood, forest residual wood) and that share of the annual incremental growth which is not used at the moment. 

Table 7.2 Technical biomass potential exemplarily in the Federal Republic of Germany. ... 

The available biomass potentials discussed in Chapter 3 can be converted by the options outlined in Chapter 2 into thermal energy, electric energy and/or fuels. However, individual technologies for miscellaneous fields of application are in different states of technological development some are industrially used or ready for the market and others are still at research or pilot plant level. This technical variety combined with the expected increase of the potentials thereby represents an ideal possibility for integrating biomass successfully into the energy system. 

Table 5.7 Availability of biomass-estimated biomass potential in the EU in millions of tons/ ...

The world average net available biomass potential for nonfeed and nonmaterial purposes is expected to amount to 200-700 EJ per annum in 2050 (Lysen, 2000). To fulfill the requirement, enough biomass is available worldwide. The market price will be internationally settled because other countries will claim the same biomass. Appropriate involvement in the developing international market is a requisite to become an important international player. 

Keller, F. A., Hamilton, J. E., Nguyen, Q. A. (2003). Microbial pretreatment of biomass potential for reducing severity of thermochemical biomass pretreatment. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 105,27-41. 

Eischer, G., Prieler, S., Velthuizen, H., Biomass Potentials of Miscanthus, Willow and Poplar Results and Policy Implications for Eastern Europe, Nothern and Central Asia, Biomass and Bioenergy 28, 119-132 (2005). 

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