An assessment of biomass feedstock availability for the supply of bioenergy to University College Dublin

Abstract

As the cost of energy rises due to an increase in fossil fuels prices, the need to develop a sustainable alternative that will reduce green house gas emissions has increased in importance. One such alternative to reduce dependency on fossil fuels is the use of biomass for bioenergy generation. This study aims to quantify how much biomass can be produced in a specific area with a maximum haulage distance of 75 km to its end location, in this case, a large residential campus, to supply fuel to a biomass boiler. The study is carried out by identifying potential sources of biomass within the catchment zone and then quantifying it under different scenarios. The first scenario focuses on minimum land use impact, which quantifies how much biomass could be achieved taking just 10% of biomass from the sources identified. The second scenario is the maximum energy scenario and is set out to establish the maximum amount of energy that could be generated within the catchment zone using 50–100% of available biomass. The final scenario is the environmental scenario which looks to quantify biomass while not infringing on existing land uses such as agriculture and forestry. Results show that scenario one could produce almost 6 PJ of energy which is, scenario two could produce over 31 PJ of energy and scenario three could produce almost 14 PJ of energy.