Suchergebnisse

Biomass, a broad term for all organic matter of plants, trees and crops, is currently regarded as a renewable energy source which can contribute substantially to the world's energy supply in the future. Various scenarios for the development of energy supply and demand, such as compiled by the World Energy Council (WEC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Shell and the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), indicate that biomass has the potential to make a large contribution to the world's energy supply. Estimates of this potential in the year 2050 vary from 14% to 50% of the total supply, or from 100 to about 300 EJ/yr. It is estimated that currently biomass contributes 10-14% of the energy supply, which is equivalent to about 40-55 EJ/yr. The use of firewood in developing countries makes up a large part of this 40-55 EJ, but there it is for a large part non-commercial and non-sustainable use of biomass. In recent years there has been renewed interest in biomass as a commercial and sustainable source of energy. There are three main reasons for this: 1. Technological developments, in the field of crop production and conversion technology permit the more efficient and cleaner utilisation of biomass at lower costs. These developments make bioenergy more competitive with energy produced from fossil fuels. 2. The agricultural systems of especially the European Union and the United States are producing food surpluses. This situation has led to policies whereby agricultural land is 'set-aside', resulting in depopulation of rural areas. The continuously increasing productivity in agriculture might strengthen these trends. There is therefore a desire to develop alternative crops. Energy crops could be a suitable alternative since there is virtually an infinite market for this, provided the costs are competitive with those of fossil fuels. 3. There is a threat of global climate change due to the rapid increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, especially CO2 in the atmosphere, resulting mainly from the large scale use of fossil fuels. If produced sustainably, biomass can be a carbon neutral alternative for fossil energy carriers. If biomass is to make a substantial contribution to the world's energy supply it will have to include not only biomass residues - such as from commercial forestry (e.g. thinnings) and agriculture (e.g. straw) - and organic wastes, but also energy crops. Perennial crops seem to be a particularly promising energy source. Crops like Short Rotation Coppice (e.g. Willow and Eucalyptus) and grasses (e.g. Miscanthus) give a relatively high net energy yield per hectare, have a low environmental impact and produce relatively cheap energy. The use of such crops in a Biomass Integrated Gasifier/Combined Cycle (BIG/CC) plant to produce electricity or combined heat and power, and the gasification of these crops to produce fuels like methanol and hydrogen appear to be promising routes for achieving high energy conversion efficiency at relatively low cost. However, despite the promising outlook, various barriers are hampering the large scale development and implementation of commercial biomass energy systems. Currently, the commercial use of biomass to generate electricity is limited mainly to the utilization of zero- or low-cost biomass waste or residues. At the moment specially cultivated biomass is too expensive an option. However, biomass is able to compete on a significant scale in countries, like Sweden, Denmark and Brazil, where government policies support its use financially or have actively discouraged the use of fossil fuels (such as by the introduction of a carbon tax). The complexity of large scale bioenergy systems is also a barrier. Furthermore, biomass has a relatively low energy density. The production of biomass is bound up with seasons and makes high demands on organization and logistics. Furthermore, it involves many different actors involved in the production and utilisation of energy crops: farmers, utilities, industries, governments, etc. Difficulties concerning public acceptability and uncertainties concerning the ecological effects of the large scale production of use of biomass be form another problem. Last but not least, the availability of land may be a major problem if the large scale production of energy crops is being considered. If agriculture is not modernizing, especially in developing countries, there might be very little room left for alternative crops. Energy farming may then conflict with food production, a situation which is highly undesirable. This thesis focuses on a number of aspects relating to the utilization of biomass and waste for energy purposes. The general objective of this work is as follows: "To analyse the possibilities for biomass (both crops and wastes) as a modern energy carrier in the Dutch energy system." Therefore this thesis has the following specific objectives: 1. To analyze of the technical, economic and environmental characteristics of Biomass Integrated Gasifier/Combined Cycle technology for the conversion of biomass and waste streams. 2. To examine the potential energy supply of energy farming, biomass residues, organic waste streams and waste in the Netherlands. 3. To analyze of the potential costs and benefits of different biomass energy systems (including waste treatment) in the Netherlands.

Background: The growing awareness for climate change and security of supply leads to a increasing share of renewable energy in which biomass plays an important role. Especially in the European Union (EU-27), where member states have agreed on a binding target of a 20% renewable energy share of total energy consumption by 2020 (Renewable Energy Directive, 2009/28/EC), biomass use for bioenergy is expected to grow substantially. Moreover, the gap between domestic supply and domestic demand is growing, resulting in increasing imports of solid biomass from both EU and non-EU countries. In northwest Europe, sea ports play an important role because they provide access to (inter-continental) sources of biomass from countries with domestic supply exceeding domestic demand (for example Canada, US, Russia). To facilitate further growth of bulk solid biomass trade, the Port of Rotterdam wants to stimulate the development of a Biomass Hub concept. Insight is therefore required in the current and future biomass trade flows and the potential role of ports as a result of biomass use in northwest Europe. Objectives and approach: This study aims to quantify potential trade flows used for heat and electricity generation in the captive and contestable hinterland of Rotterdam to 2030. Countries considered relevant for solid biomass trade in the port of Rotterdam region are the Netherlands as well as Belgium, Denmark Germany and the United Kingdom (northwest Europe). To assess the potential trade flows of solid biomass, first scenarios are developed based on existing model projections and biomass resource assessments. This report (Report I), describes the background data and the scenarios. The second report (Report II) will include a more detailed assessment of the biomass supply potentials in key supply regions in the world such as Brazil, the US and Russia. Furthermore, the demand of solid biomass in northwest Europe will be assessed in more detail to update the scenarios with actual market and policy information. It is therefore possible that the demand, as described in this report, based on existing scenario projections, will deviate from the final scenario projections in Report II that will include more actual details. For example, plans for co-firing in northwest Europe have been changed in the last years. Therefore, these scenarios will be complemented with available market information on plant level in northwest Europe.

Sustainable management & rational use of natural biomass resources are important drivers for extended (trade) statistics on biofuels. Sustainability criteria & certification of biomass are under development through the EU Biofuels Directive and national initiatives within the EU (UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland) as well. Generally, physical traceability is required. Biomass trade for energy is an unrecorded market and involved market parties require transparent information. More comprehensive trade statistics support policy makers, scientific researchers and other stakeholders involved. Renewable sources with stock changes, like solid biofuels & liquid biofuels (IEA Bioenergy Task 40, 2008) are mostly required to be recorded in order to track the growing international trade flows. A good example is the Joint Wood Energy Enquiry, which shows the significance of all cross border wood flows.

Sustainability considerations guide political decisions concerning energy supply options. In this article a start has been made for the development of a sustainability framework for carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems in the Netherlands. Using a participatory approach (which includes an exploratory workshop, two interactive meetings, an international survey and in-depth interviews), nine sustainability criteria for CCS based energy systems were defined and 36 main concerns about the sustainability of carbon, capture and storage systems (by criterion) were identified. Analysis shows that concerns related to the following criteria are most relevant: clean, flexible, just, competitive and publicly acceptable. Furthermore, via stakeholder consultations and through interviews, a list of actions to tackle the concerns was developed. These actions can be clustered into three groups: (i) increasing research and development, (ii) including CCS in a policy portfolio, and (iii) raising public awareness. Finally, actions that should take place in the next 2 years were identified.

In this article the environmental and socio-economical impacts of the production of ethanol from sugarcane in the state of São Paulo (Brazil) are evaluated. Subsequently, an attempt is made to determine to what extent these impacts are a bottleneck for a sustainable and certified ethanol production. Seventeen environmental and socio-economic areas of concern are analysed. Four parameters are used to evaluate if an area of concern is a bottleneck: (1) the importance of the area of concern, based on the severity of the impact and the frequency of which an aspect is mentioned in the literature as an area of concern, (2) the availability of indicators and criteria, (3) the necessity of improvement strategies to reach compliance with Brazilian and/or (inter) national legislation, standards, guidelines and sustainability criteria, and (4) the impact of these improvement strategies on the costs and potential of ethanol production. Fourteen areas of concern are classified as a minor or medium bottleneck. For 7 areas of concern the additional costs to avoid or reduce undesirable effects have been calculated at +10% for each area of concern. Due to higher yields and overlapping costs the total additional production costs of compliance with various environmental and socio-economic criteria are about +36%. This study also shows that the energy input to output ratio can be increased and the greenhouse gas emissions reduced by increasing the ethanol production per tonne cane and by increasing the use of sugarcane waste for electricity production. A major bottleneck for a sustainable and certified production is the increase in cane production and the possible impacts on biodiversity and the competition with food production. Genetically modified cane is presently being developed, but is at this moment not (yet) applied. Both a ban on and the allowance of the use of genetically modified cane could become a major bottleneck considering the potentially large benefits and disadvantages, that are both highly uncertain at this ...

The objective of this article is to examine the consequences of technological developments on the market diffusion of different renewable electricity technologies in the EU-25 until 2020, using a market simulation model (ADMIRE REBUS). It is assumed that from 2012 a harmonized trading system will be implemented, and a target of 24% renewable electricity (RES-E) in 2020 is set and met. By comparing optimistic and pessimistic endogenous technological learning scenarios, it is found that diffusion of onshore wind energy is relatively robust, regardless of technological development, but diffusion rates of offshore wind energy and biomass gasification greatly depend on their technological development. Competition between these two options and (existing) biomass combustion options largely determines the overall costs of electricity from renewables and the choice of technologies for the individual member countries. In the optimistic scenario, in 2020 the market price for RES-E is 1 €ct/kWh lower than in the pessimistic scenario (about 7 vs. 8 €ct/kWh). As a result, total RES-E production costs are 19% lower, and total governmental expenditures for RES-market stimulation are 30% lower in the optimistic scenario.

As the Dutch government as well as the European Union have set themselves clear goals for the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, significant efforts are being made by many to achieve the desired CO2 emissions reduction targets (e.g. 50% reduction in 2050 at the EU level). For the actual implementation of new technologies such as CO2 capture and storage the development of social support can be crucial. One of the goals of the CATO program was to learn more about the factors which affect societal support (or the lack of it) for CO2 capture and storage technologies. This study has investigated the choices the general public would make after having received and evaluated expert information on the consequences pertaining to these choices. The choice to study informed opinions and choices was made for several reasons. Earlier research in the Netherlands (Huijts, Midden & Meijnders, 2007; De Best-Waldhober, Daamen & Faaij, 2006, 2009) as well as outside the Netherlands (Ashworth, Pisarski & Littleboy, 2006; Ashworth et al., 2008; Ha-Duong, Nadaï & Campos, 2008; Itaoka et al., 2008; Reiner et al, 2006; Sharp, Jaccard & Keith, 2006, see Section 1.1) showed that the majority of the general public has no knowledge of CCS. Several studies furthermore show that people are inclined to give their opinion when asked, even if they have no knowledge whatsoever on the topic at hand (Bishop, Oldendick & Tuchfarber, 1986; Schuman & Presser, 1981). These opinions proof to be easily influenced (Strack, Schwarz & Wänke, 1991) and highly unstable (Daamen et al, 2006) and thus very unreliable as predictors for future public opinion. The current study therefore aimed at collecting informed as well as uninformed opinions (Section 1.2).