Abstract
The latest years, oil and gas demand reduction incurred market turbulences as a result of oil wells exploitation uncertainties and new green policies towards sustainability that turn the stakeholders to eco-friendlier energy sources. A challenging alternative to this direction is the increment of biomass share in the overall consumed energy balance. From many standpoints of view, biomass has minor impact on the CO2-cycle balance “operating” as an offset against CO2 photosynthesis. In the present work, a practically holistic interpretation of biomass energy contribution in our societies was outlined. Expert systems were developed as a tool to biomass energy analysis and certain models were presented to approach estimation of individual parts of biomass exploitation chain. The tendency of energy crop land availability and best cultivated practices were presented as well. A schematic cost analysis of biomass utilization was performed under most common operational scenarios. Economic evaluation, future strategic planning and environmental impact from energy biomass utilization were all analyzed up to a certain point. Biomass as a renewable energy form is expected to bring about a positive cost/benefit ratio. Biomass, in general, is easier to handle, (storage-transportation), cost-effective and more beneficial in terms of greenhouse gases (GHG) net emissions as results from an incorporated ad hoc developed SWOT analysis.
Highlights
Nowadays, energy consumption is increasing continuously due to advanced industrialization and population growth
Biomass as a renewable energy form is expected to bring about a positive cost/benefit ratio
Apart from greenhouse gases (GHG), diesel fuel oil consumption contributes to other air pollutants including NOx, SOx, CO, particulate matters (PMs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Klass, 1998)
Summary
Nowadays, energy consumption is increasing continuously due to advanced industrialization and population growth. Large-scale introduction of biomass derived energy could contribute to sustainable development on several fronts, environmentally, socially and financially (McLaughlin, Samson, Bransby, & Wiselogel, 1996) up to the point to claim that scientists’ support that biomass is considered to be one of the best sources of energy (Kulkarni & Dalai, 2006) and a way to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (Turkenburg, 2000). Biomass improves soil and water quality and increases net economic returns to a depressed rural economy (McLaughlin, Samson, Bransby, & Wiselogel, 1996) resulting in significant economic and environmental benefits to the society and a great leap towards sustainability (Sharif, Nasrulhaq, Majid, Chandran, & Zuliana, 2007) and to the climate stabilization (Hall, Rosillo-Calle, Williams, & Woods, 1993)
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