1,720,992 research outputs found
Socio‐economic opportunities from Miscanthus cultivation in marginal land for bioenergy
Full text linkSubstantial areas of agricultural land in south European countries are becoming increasingly marginal and being abandoned due to arid climate with prolonged summers and low rainfall. Perennial, lignocellulosic crops, such as Miscanthus, offer an outlet that couples agriculture with energy, creates employment, and increases profits from feedstock production in rural areas. This research paper follows an Input Output methodology and uses an econometric model to investigate the impact of crop yielding performance and marginal land to jobs and profit from the cultivation and supply of Miscanthus in low quality, marginal land in Italy and Greece. Two value chain cases are analysed: small scale Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and Fast Pyrolysis Bio Oil (FPBO). The cultivation of Miscanthus in both reference value chains exhibits good employment prospects, with smaller scale value chains creating more labour‐intensive logistics operations. The activities can also generate substantial financial profit especially with higher crop yields. Results show a pronounced relationship between profitability and crop yield for both reference value chains ‐ cultivation and supply operations become more profitable with increasing yield. It is, therefore, important to achieve higher yields through good cropping practices, while maintaining high levels of environmental sustainability
Where Can Bioenergy Heat Applications Be The Most Suitable? A Market Segmentation Analysis Of The UK Heat Market
No full textOverview of the markets for energy crops in EU-27
No full textAmong the key drivers that promote the development of one or other
market, in the short and long term, the following can be considered as the most important: regular energy crops’ feedstock supply and consistency in terms of quantity and quality, sustainable growth and environmental impacts, market demands and state of development, price competitiveness, and technological scale-up.
Taking these issues into account, this perspective is a concise review of the state of the energy markets in the EU27 in the light of policy demand, economic and environmentally sustainable options, and the optimum choices of energy crops from 2010 to 2030
Lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock for energy, fuels, biobased chemicals and materials in Europe An integrated assessment on using biomass resources among different demand sectors
No full textxxThe EU-FP7 project ‘S2Biom’ (http://www.s2biom.eu/) provides support to the delivery of sustainable
non-food biomass for energy, fuels and chemicals/materials at local, regional and pan European level,
with focus on lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks and their applications. Within Work package 7 of
S2Biom an integrated assessment has been carried out on using biomass resources among different
demand sectors including energy, fuels, chemicals and materials.
Preliminary results indicate that demand for lignocellulosic biomass for chemicals and materials at pan
European level in 2020 would be around 1% of the corresponding demand for conventional bioenergy
and biofuels, increasing to a few percents in 2030. Key factors affecting this picture are the rate of
technology development (both for advanced chemicals/material and for biofuels and bioenergy), the
exact shaping of the supporting policy framework, and the future of the (petro)chemical industry in
Europe. Besides, the oil price is a strong factor affecting the prospects for biobased chemicals and
materials.
The assessment has been based on ECN’s Resolve-Biomass model, an analytical least-cost optimization
tool that has been expanded to cover both the biobased energy and chemicals sectors. It has been
applied to explore several scenarios for the role biomass can play in reaching the EU renewable energy
targets in 2020, and in providing a solid base for biobased chemicals. The optimization has been based
on criteria such as least cost, most welfare, most GHG avoidance etc. The scenarios defined within this
work package have been modelled, followed by the sensitivity analysis, focusing on logistics aspects,
fossil fuel prices, biomass prices etc.
Next to new biobased technology data, the RESolve Biomass model was also updated with results of an
extensive market review for biobased applications, with a focus on chemicals and materials For this
review, the focus has been on sectors that can create significant biomass demand, i.e. relatively bulky
chemicals markets. For the market analysis 10 product-market combinations (PMCs) were identified as
possible significant consumers of biomass resources in the Pan-European area, including C6 and C5
sugars (C6-C5 chemistry: plastics, others), BTX (petrochemical industry), advanced biofuels, and
conventional energy. The focus was to quantify the demand for biomass feedstock for these PMCs in
2020 and 2030.
The modelling results will be an important component for the development of a roadmap within S2Biom
supporting decision making, particularly at Pan-European level, for developing more sustainable and
promising long-term options and avoiding lock-in effects to pursue short term goals.
Presentation preferences: Oral presentation
Target: Scientific & Industria
The potential demand for bioenergy in residential heating applications (bio-heat) in the UK based on a market segment analysis
No full textHow large is the potential demand for bio-heat in the UK? Whilst most research has focused on the supply of biomass for energy production, an understanding of the potential demand is crucial to the uptake of heat from bioenergy. We have designed a systematic framework utilising market segmentation techniques to assess the potential demand for biomass heat in the UK. First, the heat market is divided into relevant segments, characterised in terms of their final energy consumption, technological and fuel supply options. Second, the key technical, economic and organisational. factors that affect the uptake of bioenergy in each heat segment are identified, classified and then analysed to reveal which could be strong barriers, which could be surmounted easily, and for which bioenergy heat represents an improvement compared to alternatives. The defined framework is applied to the UK residential sector. We identify provisionally the most promising market segments for bioenergy heat, and their current levels of energy demand. We find that, depending on the assumptions, the present potential demand for bio-heat in the UK residential sector ranges between 3% (conservative estimate) and 31% (optimistic estimate) of the total energy consumed in the heat market. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Bioeconomy and green recovery in a post-COVID-19 era
Full text linkThe spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a health crisis and repetitive lockdowns that disrupted different economic and societal segments. As the world has placed hope on the vaccination progress to bring back the socio-economic “normal,” this article explores how the bioeconomy can enhance the resilience and sustainability of bio-based, food, and energy systems in the post-COVID-19 era. The proposed recovery approach integrates technological innovations, environment, ecosystem services, “biocities,” food, rural economies, and tourism. The importance of integrating culture, arts, and the fashion industry as part of the recovery is underlined towards building a better bioeconomy that, together with environmental safeguards, promotes socio-cultural and economic innovations. This integration could be achieved supporting communities and stakeholders to diversify their activities by combining sustainable production with decarbonization, stimulating private investments in this direction and monitoring the resulting impact of mitigation measures. Food systems should become more resilient in order to allow adapting rapidly to severe crises and future shocks, while it is important to increase circularity towards the valorization of waste, the integration of different processes within the biorefinery concept and the production of bio-based products and biofuels
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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