Greenhouse gas performance of heat and electricity from wood pellet value chains – based on pellets for the Swedish market

Increased bioenergy demand has triggered a discussion on the sustainability of solidbiomass-based fuels and a system for sustainability criteria has been discussed within the EU.This paper assesses the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for heat and electricity from selectedwood pellet value chains for the Swedish market and the associated potential emissions reduction inrelation to fossil fuels using a life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective, and in relation to the approachdescribed in recent EU policy developments. Nine different wood pellet value chains for heat and/or power production in Sweden are assessed (including pellets from Sweden, Latvia, Russia, andCanada). Selected assumptions are varied in a sensitivity analysis. The total factory-gate GHG emissionsat the conversion facility for the wood pellet value chains studied, range between 2 and 25 gCO2-eq/MJ pellets with Swedish pellets at the lower end, and Russian pellets using natural gas fordrying the raw material at the higher end. Imported pellets from Latvia, Russia, and Canada that usebiomass for drying may also reach relatively low levels of GHG emissions. The potential GHG reductionas compared to a certain fossil fuel default energy comparator is 64–98% for the electricity producedin the pellet value chains studied and 77–99% for the heat produced. Thus, many wood pelletvalue chains on the Swedish market will most likely be able to meet strict demands for sustainabilityfrom a GHG perspective

Spatial modeling of techno-economic potential of biojet fuel production in Brazil

It is expected that Brazil could play an important role in biojet fuel (BJF) production in the future due to the long experience in biofuel production and the good agro-ecological conditions. However, it is difficult to quantify the techno-economic potential of BJF because of the high spatiotemporal variability of available land, biomass yield, and infrastructure as well as the technological developments in BJF production pathways. The objective of this research is to assess the recent and future techno-economic potential of BJF production in Brazil and to identify location-specific optimal combinations of biomass crops and technological conversion pathways. In total, 13 production routes (supply chains) are assessed through the combination of various biomass crops and BJF technologies. We consider temporal land use data to identify potential land availability for biomass production. With the spatial distribution of the land availability and potential yield of biomass crops, biomass production potential and costs are calculated. The BJF production cost is calculated by taking into account the development in the technological pathways and in plant scales. We estimate the techno-economic potential by determining the minimum BJF total costs and comparing this with the range of fossil jet fuel prices. The techno-economic potential of BJF production ranges from 0 to 6.4 EJ in 2015 and between 1.2 and 7.8 EJ in 2030, depending on the reference fossil jet fuel price, which varies from 19 to 65 US$/GJ across the airports. The techno-economic potential consists of a diverse set of production routes. The Northeast and Southeast region of Brazil present the highest potentials with several viable production routes, whereas the remaining regions only have a few promising production routes. The maximum techno-economic potential of BJF in Brazil could meet almost half of the projected global jet fuel demand toward 2030