Economic and Environmental Analysis of Pellets’ Production in Rio Pardo Watershed, Brazil

Abstract

Economic and environmental aspects of residues energetic use in Brazil are extremelly important. In one hand, the country is today a recognized bioenergy producer in a global scenario; on the other, it is still struggling to provide a reliable renewable energy supply to rural communities. Local demand could be supplied through small investments using local forest mill residues as feedstock to produce value-add bio-based energy fuels. Therefore, this work aims at evaluating wood pellets production as an alternative source for supplying regional heat demand for drying grains and tobacco in the Rio Pardo Watershed (RPW), Brazil. It presents techno-economic analysis and risk assessment for a pellet plant supplied by sawmill residues available at the RPW. The results showed the economic feasibility of pellets production in the RPW. The pellets can be a clean, renewable alternative energy source to firewood for supplying farms demand for drying grains and tobacco.

Co-pelletization of Industrial Sewage Sludge and Rice Straw: Characteristics and Economic Analysis

“…To further develop the sustainable energy conversion of sewage sludge, the co-pelletization of sewage sludge and rice straw at various ratios has been comprehensively investigated by physiochemical analysis. Dessbesell et al (2019) conducted a risk assessment and economic analysis of a wood pellet plant at a sawmill in the Rio Pardo Watershed in Brazil and found that the mill wood pellets could be used as an energy source for farms. In an environmental analysis, Saosee et al (2020) used a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of electricity production in Thailand to compare fossil fuels and wood pellets and found that in terms of quality, resource scarcity, ecosystems, and human health, using wood pellets as a 2018) studied the economics of a process to produce pellets for utilization in a biogas plant and found that the pelleted (6 %-10%) dry matter substrate content was produced at a cost of 88-90 EUR/ton.…”