Sustainable biomass production for energy in Thailand

Abstract

This study aims to estimate the land availability for biomass production, identify and evaluate the biomass production options by yield per ha and financial viability, estimate the sustainable biomass production for energy, and estimate the energy potential of biomass production. Two scenarios are proposed to determine the feasible land for biomass production by 2010, namely Scenario 1 (S1) and Scenario 2 (S2). S1 assumes that there will be no increase in the area under food production by 2010 while S2 considers an increase of 10% in the area under food production by 2010. Two biomass demand scenarios are also considered, namely incremental biomass demand (IBD) scenario and full biomass demand (FBD) scenario. The potential land available for biomass production is identified by the use of the Thai Forest Sector Master Plan target area. Under the two scenarios, the land for production of biomass to meet the biomass demands for industrial wood, sawn wood and fuelwood, and the area that can be dedicated for biomass production for bioenergy are estimated. The total potential available for biomass production is 22.5 million ha. The land for production of biomass to meet the demands is 0.512 million ha under the IBD scenario and 6.524 million ha under the FBD scenario. The land dedicated for bioenergy production is 8.329 and 2.911 million ha, respectively for the two scenarios. For the IBD scenario, the land dedicated for bioenergy will be allocated from community forest (CMF) and non-protected area system (NPAS) where both categories are suitable for short rotation plantation or Eucalyptus. For FBD scenario, the land dedicated for bioenergy will be allocated from NPAS only. For IBD scenario, the annual bioenergy production ranges from 106.6 to 33.3 million ton. For FBD scenario, the annual bioenergy production ranges from 37.3 to 11.6 million ton. The potential electricity generation using biomass by 2010 varies from 106.6 to 11.6 TWh . The investment required for biomass production for energy is projected. Barriers and strategies for biomass production for energy are also discussed in this study.