Abstract
Wood pellets could potentially contribute to bioenergy demand in the European Union (EU). Market cost constraints as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings thresholds imposed by the European Commission however limit the potential use of pellets. A spatially explicit assessment of import potentials of both pellets and torrefied pellets, based on the growing stock of forestry biomass in the US, Canada, Brazil, Russia and Baltic States, was combined with an analysis of supply chain costs and emissions in order to analyse potentials as limited by different levels of costs and emission constraints. Results show that in case of GHG savings thresholds of 70%, 80% and 85% the total import potential is reduced to 61 to 24 and 1 Mt, respectively. The potential for torrefied pellets is larger in all cases, 44 Mt in the case of an 80% limit. Import potentials at cost limits of 200, 175, 150 and 125 €/t are reduced from 58 Mt to 52, 38 and 9 Mt pellets, respectively, with little difference between pellets and torrefied pellets. This work shows that spatially explicit variation in feedstock availability and logistics has a significant impact on total import potentials and must therefore be included in any assessment of bioenergy potential and trade.
Highlights
In the European Union (EU), the energy transition is largely shaped by the renewable energy targets set for 2020 in the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive (RED I) and for the period 2020–2030 in its recast (RED II) [1]
In their long-term vision for a prosperous climate-neutral economy, the European Commission foresees an important role to be played by biomass, especially in sectors which are more difficult to decarbonize such as industry and transport, by using biomass for the production of aviation fuel, industrial process heating and bio-based materials and chemicals [3]
Emissions of torrefied pellets are lower than emissions of pellets, the difference between the two increases with increasing transport emissions
Summary
In the European Union (EU), the energy transition is largely shaped by the renewable energy targets set for 2020 in the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive (RED I) and for the period 2020–2030 in its recast (RED II) [1]. In several EU countries, increased utilization of woody biomass for electricity and heat is a means to reaching renewable energy targets [2] In their long-term vision for a prosperous climate-neutral economy, the European Commission foresees an important role to be played by biomass, especially in sectors which are more difficult to decarbonize such as industry and (heavy) transport, by using biomass for the production of aviation fuel, industrial process heating and bio-based materials and chemicals [3]. These different applications can all be covered by the utilization of sustainably sourced lignocellulosic biomass. In 2018, the EU supplemented 17 Mt of wood pellet production with the importation of Energies 2020, 13, 1761; doi:10.3390/en13071761 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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