International vs. domestic bioenergy supply chains for co-firing plants: The role of pre-treatment technologies

RENEWABLE ENERGY

卷:119

Article

Mauro, Caterina¹  Rentizelas, Athanasios A.²  Chinese, Damiana¹ 

[1] Univ Udine, Dipartimento Politecn Ingn & Architettura, Via Sci 206, I-33100 Udine, Italy

[2] Univ Strathclyde, Dept Design Manufacture & Engn Management, 75 Montrose St, Glasgow G1 1XJ, Lanark, Scotland

关键词: Biomass supply chain;    International logistics;    Carbon equivalent emissions;    Torrefaction;    Pelletization;    Bioenergy;    Co-firing;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.renene.2017.12.034

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Co-firing of solid biomass in existing large scale coal power plants has been supported in many countries as a short-term means to decrease CO2 emissions and rapidly increase renewable energy shares. However, many countries face challenges guaranteeing sufficient amounts of biomass through teliable domestic biomass supply chains and resort to international supply chains. Within this frame, novel pretreatment technologies, particularly pelletization and torrefaction, emerged in recent years to facilitate logistics by improving the durability and the energy density of solid biomass. This paper aims to evaluate these pre-treatment technologies from a techno-economic and environmental point of view for two reference coal power plants located in Great Britain and in Italy. Logistics costs and carbon emissions are modelled for both international and domestic biomass supply chains. The impact of pre-treatment technologies on carbon emission avoidance costs is evaluated. It is demonstrated that, for both cases, pre-treatment technologies are hardly viable for domestic supply. However, pre-treatment technologies are found to render most international bioenergy supply chains competitive with domestic ones, especially if sourcing areas are located in low labour cost countries. In many cases, pre-treatment technologies are found to guarantee similar CO2 equivalent emissions performance for international compared to domestic supply chains. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free