Competing uses of biomass: Assessment and comparison of the performance of bio-based heat, power, fuels and materials

Gerssen-Gondelach, S.J.; Saygin, D.; Wicke, B.; Patel, Martin; Faaij, A.P.C.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.197

Scientific article

English

Competing uses of biomass: Assessment and comparison of the performance of bio-based heat, power, fuels and materials

Contributors

Gerssen-Gondelach, S.J.; Saygin, D.; Wicke, B.; Patel, Martin; Faaij, A.P.C.

Published in

Renewable & sustainable energy reviews, vol. 40, p. 964-998

Publication date

2014

Abstract

The increasing production of modern bioenergy carriers and biomaterials intensifies the competition for different applications of biomass. To be able to optimize and develop biomass utilization in a sustainable way, this paper first reviews the status and prospects of biomass value chains for heat, power, fuels and materials, next assesses their current and long-term levelized production costs and avoided emissions, and then compares their greenhouse gas abatement costs. At present, the economically and environmentally preferred options are wood chip and pellet combustion in district heating systems and large-scale cofiring power plants (75–81 US$2005/tCO2-eqavoided), and large-scale fermentation of low-cost Brazilian sugarcane to ethanol (−65 to −53 $/tCO2-eqavoided) or biomaterials (−60 to −50 $/tCO2-eqavoided for ethylene and −320 to −228 $/tCO2-eqavoided for PLA; negative costs represent cost-effective options). In the longer term, the cultivation and use of lignocellulosic energy crops can play an important role in reducing the costs and improving the emission balance of biomass value chains. Key conversion technologies for lignocellulosic biomass are large-scale gasification (bioenergy and biomaterials) and fermentation (biofuels and biomaterials). However, both routes require improvement of their technological and economic performance. Further improvements can be attained by biorefineries that integrate different conversion technologies to maximize the use of all biomass components.

Keywords

Biomass value chains
Bioenergy
Biomaterials
Technology review
Production costs
GHG abatement costs

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

GERSSEN-GONDELACH, S.J. et al. Competing uses of biomass: Assessment and comparison of the performance of bio-based heat, power, fuels and materials. In: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews, 2014, vol. 40, p. 964–998. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.197

Article (Published version)

Identifiers

PID : unige:43320
DOI : 10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.197

Additional URL for this publication

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364032114006571

Journal ISSN

1364-0321

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Creation

10/11/2014 16:11:00

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10/11/2014 16:11:00

Update

14/03/2023 22:26:26

Status update

14/03/2023 22:26:26

Last indexation

30/10/2024 21:24:56

Competing uses of biomass: Assessment and comparison of the performance of bio-based heat, power, fuels and materials

Contributors

Published in

Publication date

Abstract

Keywords

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

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Additional URL for this publication

Journal ISSN

Technical informations

Creation

First validation

Update

Status update

Last indexation