Sustainability impacts of increased forest biomass feedstock supply – a comparative assessment of technological solutions

Abstract

Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 20757 "TECH4EFFECT". Special thanks to Olalla Díaz-Yáñez for providing the background data of her paper and Hans Verkerk for EFISCEN runs. 3 Sustainability impacts of increased forest biomass feedstock supply-a comparative assessment of technological solutions Sustainably managed forests provide renewable raw material, which can be used for primary/secondary conversion products and as biomass for energy generation. The potentially available amounts of timber, which are still lower than annual increments, have been published earlier. Access to this timber can be challenging for smalldimensioned assortments, however, technologically improved value chains can make them accessible while fulfilling economic and environment criteria. This paper evaluates the economic, environmental and social sustainability impacts of making the potentially available timber available with current and with technologically improved value chains. This paper focusses on increasing the biomass feedstock supply for energy generation. Quantified impact assessments show which improvements in terms of costs, employment, fuel and energy use, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions can be expected if better mechanized machines than before are provided. Comparative results for current and innovative machine solutions in terms of fuel use, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions have been calculated using three different methods. This was done in order to quantify not only the impact of the technology choice but also the effect of the choice of the assessment method. Absolute stand-alone values can be misleading in analyses and the use of different impact calculation approaches in parallel is clarifying the limits of using LCA-based approaches. Impacts are calculated using three methods: Sustainability Impacts Assessment (SIA), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Emission Saving Criteria (ESC). The ESC has been discussed for the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive. Potential EU-wide results are presented.

Sustainable forest biomass: a review of current residue harvesting guidelines

“…The need for guidance specific to forest biomass harvesting, set within general SFM governance, will likely grow as governments increasingly enact energy policies to mitigate climate change and as forest biomass harvesting and conversion technologies become more efficient [42][43][44][45] and profitable. Increased European demand for both domestic-and foreign-sourced wood pellets [97] and adoption of the cascading principle in national forest policies [26] (i.e.…”

“…countries, or states or provinces within a country and with legislative power) or regions of countries have developed or considered developing their own guidelines. The demand for forest biomass, and hence for biomass harvesting guidelines, will likely grow as GHG emission reduction policies, improvements in biomass conversion technology and increasingly efficient harvesting practices reduce forest bioenergy costs and increase feedstock value [42][43][44][45]. Current forest operations can leave as little as 11% of harvesting residues on some sites [46] and guidelines can help ensure sustainability once this feedstock has enough economic value to justify removal across a wider range of sites.…”

Forest Biomass and Bioenergy Supply Chain Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review on the Barriers and Enablers

“…Furthermore, the "improvement of public awareness and perceptions levels" [28,29], as a social enabler, is affected by training and the revelation of advantages and disadvantages to the public, and affects the acceptance and development rates of these industries. The "technology innovations with technical improvements in forest industry" [30], as a technical enabler, are affected by efficient research and development procedures, and cause the infrastructure in forest biomass and bioenergy SCN to be innovative. Furthermore, the "optimal logistics strategies" [31,32], as a strategic enabler, are affected by managerial knowledge and time-related and location-related potentials, and affect the ability of forest biomass and bioenergy SCN to operate in coordination according to the norms.…”

Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forest Operations: a Review

“…Data can be collected from field studies (from earlier studies or purposefully organized), modeling results and inquiries or statistics [21,[40][41][42]. Sustainability indicators should be relevant to the topic and balanced with regard to economic, environmental, and social sustainability, as well as feasible in terms of data availability and quality [41,43,44].…”