Planning biomass energy production in a farming area

Abstract

A thorough analysis of biomass supply and of energy demand should be carried out at local scale in order to optimize bioenergy plans and deal with the related social ad environmental issues. We present a method to identify the optimal use of biomass: local biomass availability is assessed, the road network is used to evaluate transportation costs, and different energy conversion technologies are considered. Energy crops and animal slurries are considered as feedstocks. We also estimate the amount of land available for energy crops, given the current land use. The comparison between possible conversion systems is carried out solving an optimization problem for the net energy produced in the system, accounting for energy needs for biomass cultivation, collection, and transportation. An emissive indicator is used to evaluate the amount of carbon equivalent emissions avoided. The economic performance of the systems is also analysed. The method is applied to the province of Ravenna in Italy. Transport and cultivation energy and emissions are much smaller than the energy produced or the emissions avoided. The biomass transformation chain can indeed provide 1.9-3.3% of the present power consumption and may reduce GHG emissions by 1-3.5% by replacing fossil fuels.