Sustainable Agro-Biomass Market for Urban Heating Using Centralized District Heating System

Abstract

The importance of biomass for energy production is included in the government program “Energy Policy of Poland until 2040”. Biomass is one of the most stable renewable energy sources (RES), and its resources are the largest of all alternative energy sources. The paper presents and discusses the most important conditions that are related to the possible usage of the biomass that is obtained from agriculture for heating purposes. The aim of the study is to assess the energy potential of a selected agro-biomass and to indicate its effective use for the production of district heat. The research uses: in-depth statistical data analysis (data were obtained from the Central Statistical Office and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture), inference methods, short- and long-term forecasting, the minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm, and methods of single- and multi-criteria optimization for the selection of the most advantageous variant. The research covers three different scenarios: optimistic, moderate, and pessimistic. The results of the study present: technical and energy potential of biomass, taking into account its type, energy properties, and places of its collection; optimum location of intermediate storage and processing sites; and the optimum storage frequency of its transport to energy companies.

Transformation of the Polish Heating Sector Based on an Example of Select Heat Energy Companies Supplying Energy to Local Government Units

“…It is also important that the modernization of municipal heating plants brings many benefits for both residents and the whole society: According to many authors, the right solution for the energy transition is a flexible combination of the electricity and heating sectors into smart energy systems. This can contribute to both the integration of renewable energy and decarbonization [11,12,30,95]. In the near future, in terms of heat supply, 4GDH and 5GDH systems, i.e., low-temperature district heating networks that are integrated with sustainable energy systems using renewable energy sources and heat storage, will dominate [11][12][13]96,97].…”

“…One study aimed to investigate the energy potential of solid biomass in the Opolskie Voivodeship, a region located in the south of Polish. Duczkowska and others pointed out that even in such a narrow scope, there is a lack of studies [30].…”

Optimizing Forest-Biomass-Distribution Logistics from a Multi-Level Perspective—Review

“…Comparisons have been made between the ecological efficiency of using different forms of forest and woody biomass as sources of construction raw material or [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] combined heat and power (CHP) [52,[96][97][98], and in solid fuel production [99], while other studies have compared different types and dimensions of technology for producing products or bioenergy [100][101][102][103].…”