Abstract
Evaluation of Three Forest-Based Bioenergy Development Strategies in the Inland Northwest, United States
Highlights
We modeled woody biomass harvest, processing, and transportation, and evaluated profitability and potential socioeconomic impacts to determine the overall viability of each strategy
To better understand the social and economic opportunities and challenges forest-based bioenergy development poses, we carried out four research efforts we: (1) conducted in-depth interviews and facilitated meetings to understand stakeholder perspectives on opportunities, tradeoffs, and obstacles to forest-based bioenergy development in the region and to define meaningful scenarios for feedstock and economic analyses; (2) modeled woody biomass availability to better understand the costs and size of facilities that available feedstock can consistently and sustainably supply; (3) modeled supply chains to better understand profitability and likelihood of success; and (4) analyzed economic impacts to evaluate tradeoffs at community and regional scales
Our research supports converting forest biomass into pellets for existing pellet markets while biofuels production continues to advance toward profitability and scale
Summary
The scenarios are based on current bioenergy research, development efforts, and stakeholder input They include a small-scale system that produces drop-in transportation biofuel and biochar, a large, regional system that produces bio-aviation fuel, and a midsized pellet production system. To better understand the social and economic opportunities and challenges forest-based bioenergy development poses, we carried out four research efforts we: (1) conducted in-depth interviews and facilitated meetings to understand stakeholder perspectives on opportunities, tradeoffs, and obstacles to forest-based bioenergy development in the region and to define meaningful scenarios for feedstock and economic analyses; (2) modeled woody biomass availability to better understand the costs and size of facilities that available feedstock can consistently and sustainably supply; (3) modeled supply chains to better understand profitability and likelihood of success; and (4) analyzed economic impacts to evaluate tradeoffs at community and regional scales. Synthesizing the analyses from each project component helped investigators and stakeholders better understand potential forest-based bioenergy development in the region
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