Spatial Analysis of Residual Biomass and Location of Future Storage Centers in the Southwest of Europe

Abstract

Forests can be exploited for obtaining biomass, which belongs to a bioenergy group with great energy potential that could replace fossil fuels. This article presents a novel procedure to quantify, map and define biomass, which takes into account both environmental and economic issues. With regard to the environment, only the annual growth of tree species is considered, and not the previous stocks. The growth is determined by logarithmic equations through an original procedure supported by a biomass estimator, which represents the amount of biomass generated annually for energy use, and by means of Excel tables, the exploitable biomass values are obtained. Previously, and by using GIS, areas with slopes exceeding 20% are discarded, thus avoiding soil erosion and damage, and in any case that biomass is not extracted for economic reasons. The same procedure is followed, discarding those areas located more than 4 km from forest roads and runways, as transport costs are increased. Finally, those layers with low energy potential are eliminated as well. Therefore, annually selected quantities of biomass can be obtained safely and abundantly by using detailed distribution maps of the resources, and through planning and performing efficient forestry extraction works.

A GIS Approach to Locate a Small Size Biomass Plant Powered by Olive Pruning and to Estimate Supply Chain Costs

“…In Mediterranean areas, biomass availability for biogas production has been studied in Sicily (Italy), reporting that the region could produce 211,000 Mg year −1 of biomass, which can be converted into 15,373,000 m 3 of biogas and 30,000 Mg of soil amendment, generating 23.1 GWh of electricity [46,47]. Su Jeong and Ramírez-Gómez instead applied an MCDA analysis to optimize the location of biomass facilities in Spain concerning both forestry and agriculture biomass [20], whilst López-Rodríguez et al performed similar studies in Southern-West Europe focusing only on forestry biomass [25].…”

“…Certainly, the degree of the sustainability of a given biomass plant depends on several factors, such as: a regular and consistent biomass availability, well-designed logistics of feedstock supply, and optimal use of the resources [18][19][20][21]. Particularly, the location of the power plant is critical [22] and the Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the most powerful and widely accepted tools for planning in agriculture and forestry sectors [23][24][25][26]. In fact, GIS permits us to combine both spatial and non-spatial factors such as the extractable biomass from forests and orchards, cost indicators and particular restrictions applied on a given area [27][28][29] to assess land suitability for the location of the biomass plant [30][31][32] and support the decision-making phase of the whole supply chains [19,33,34].…”

A Review on Supply Costs and Prices of Residual Biomass in Techno-Economic Models for Europe

“…The 91 data sets came from the unambiguous studies and the uniquely identified sources. On average, there was a difference of almost five years, although there were outliers such as the study by López-Rodríguez et al [65], which contained data on costs going back 26 years; this was because the cited source [87] by Graham, from the year 2000, is indexed to 1993. One point that stood out was that the EU project "Biomass Futures" [8] occasionally used 20-year-old data from several cascades.…”

Energy potential of woody biomass in Ukraine’s forests and prospects for its utilization as an alternative energy source

“…Forest plant communities can serve as a source of biomass, which features high energy potential and capable of replacing fossil fuels. Currently, there are studies that analyze the spatial distribution of biomass and the location of storage centers in southwestern Europe by quantifying, mapping, and defining biomass taking into account environmental and economic aspects [9].…”