Biomass supply

Another biofuel of importance is wood. The Forest Service, which is part of USDA, administers national forest lands for the sale of wood for wood fuel. Besides determining the quantity of wood fuel to bring to market by collecting and analyzing statistics on woody biomass supply and use, the Forest Sendee sponsors forest biomass energy-related research in conjunction tvitli federal and state agencies, as well as universities. 

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. 

Biomass supplies almost 15% of the world s energy. In developing countries this amount can be as high as 50%. Nepal, Ethiopia, and Haiti derive most of their energy from biomass. Kenya, Maldives, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius derive over half. 

The energetic efficiency of the process refers to the energy input required to produce one unit of energy of fuel output. While this approach is rather simplistic, as it does not take into account upstream emissions, for instance from crude oil production or biomass supply, the general conclusions do not change. 

All coal and central natural-gas hydrogen plants are assumed to have carbon-capture and sequestration (CCS). Biomass hydrogen plants are assumed to be smaller (30-200 tonnes/day), compared with 50-400 tonnes/day for natural gas central SMRs, and 250-1200 tonnes/day for coal plants. We use a regional biomass supply curve (which specifies the amount of biomass available at a certain /tonne) (Walsh et al., 1999), to reflect biomass feedstock cost increases as demand grows. 

The absolute moisture content of the biomass as delivered before on-site drying, the absolute moisture content of the biomass supplied to the gasifier after on-site drying, and the difference between the two - i.e. the extent of drying (note moisture content is quoted throughout this study on a dry basis - kg liquid per kg solid, %). Biomass dry input... 

We set the data about biomass and land uses on the basis of the analyses in reference [5l and middle or reference projections in World Bank [11], IPCC [12] [13], and other references [14] [15]. The details of the biomass supply and demand data were described in the reference [5j. 

Ni fixation is the major input of fixed N to the ocean (Figure 2). N2 fixation is carried out by Ni fixers, cyanobacteria and other microorganisms able to convert N2 into biomass N. Subsequent remineralization of this biomass supplies new N to the dissolved fixed N pools in the surface and subsurface ocean. Field collections of Trichodesmium colonies, the best-known genus of open ocean N2 fixer, have yielded a of c. — 2%o to - -0.5%o. Taking into account the of dissolved N2 (0.6%o in the surface mixed layer), this range in is consistent... 

The market penetration analysis uses an iterative process that converges toward equilibrium biomass supply/demand/price conditions. Sup-ply/demand/price equilibrium is defined here as the situation in which the production price of the biomass feedstocks is at the levels necessary to match the supplies of feedstocks with the demands for them. Figure I is a flow diagram of the procedure. 

Among them, the value of residues and waste seems to be the most relevant outcome of the industry. This aspect reinforces the concept of biorefinery based on the best use of low-cost materials. The creation of job opportunities is the second-most important effect, which is a very relevant social objective. In fact, employment is among the most important aspects affecting the demographic trend, one of the most critical aspects in rural areas. The biomass supply from dedicated crops deserves to be monitored, to avoid imbalance between the food and the nonfood sector. This may cause the loss of tradition in local foods, implying the loss of a cultural asset. The last relevant issue is represented by the agri-... 

Perlack RD, Stokes BJ. (2011). US BiUion-Ton Update Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry. U.S. Department of Energy, August 2011. 

This is a particular challenge for optimizing biomass supply systems, which, for economic viability must focus on cost reduction, but are also constrained by environmental sustainability and feedstock quality requirements, both of which introduce in-field variabilities that influence and are influenced by logistics parameters. Sustainability and quality constraints underpin the resource supply/demand balance fundamentally in such a way that methodologies are needed to identify not only a system s limitations, but also determine which variables have the greatest potential for cost savings within these constraints. 

Pigott, J. (2009), Biomass supply economics managing the supply cost of raw materials , TAPPI International Bioenergy and Bioproducts Conference, 14—16 October 2009, Memphis, TN. 

Methods and tools of supply chain management (SCM) provide the basic principles and means to analyze logistical issues related to the value added chain and the organization of the biomass supply chain. These tools raise companies awareness of the overall operation and thus increase cross-company... 

Generally, biomass supply or logisties eosts are incurred by the operations to supply the raw material from its site of production to consumers. Five different t5rpes of logistics costs have been distinguished [8],... 

The Fraunhofer IFF has determined that indirect costs account for 9-20% of the total costs. One study identified certain factors that most fi equently affect indirect costs in the overall biomass supply chain ... 

The indirect costs, for example, for supply planning and coordination, turned out to constitute a significant portion of the biomass supply costs, but are not normally enter into costing. The smaller the biomass yields, the more considerable indirect costs. Oversized special equipment used by service providers, which is not justifiable for a cost effective crosscompany supply chain, is another cost driver. 

In addition to technical problems at the interfaces between the individual actors in the biomass supply chain, deficits in oiganization and IT especially impede organizing biomass value added cost effectively and ecologically sustainably. Interactions between and factors influencing the actors and their impact on the cost effectiveness and efficiency of internal and cross company operations are often overlooked. 

From the site of production to the consumer, the biomass supply chain is characterized by many spatially distributed, time-variable biomass sources and many spatially distributed providers and consumers (see Fig. 2). A multitude of actors (forest owners, forestry operations, private forestry contractors, carriers, transport companies, combustion plant operators, etc.) must collaborate in the strongly customer-oriented supply chain. This diverse and complex network of partners collaborates in different operations and exchanges information through a multitude of interfaces. 

Consistent use of advaneed ICT can significantly cut costs in the overall operation and is instrumental to the successful implementation of integrated plarming based on sound foundations and proper tools with standardized interfaces accessible to all of the biomass supply chain s actors. 

When these strategies and approaches are rigorously followed, the optimized plarming and control of the biomass supply chain cuts indirect and direct costs significantly and sustainably. 

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