Cost of non-renewable energy in production of wood pellets in China

Abstract

Assessing the extent to which all bio-fuels that are claimed to be renewable are in fact renewable is essential because producing such renewable fuels itself requires some amount of non-renewable energy (NE) and materials. Using hybrid life cycle analysis (LCA)—from raw material collection to delivery of pellets to end users—the energy cost of wood pellet production in China was estimated at 1.35 J/J, of which only 0.09 J was derived from NE, indicating that only 0.09 J of NE is required to deliver 1 J of renewable energy into society and showing that the process is truly renewable. Most of the NE was consumed during the conversion process (46.21%) and delivery of pellets to end users (40.69%), during which electricity and diesel are the two major forms of NE used, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed that the distance over which the pellets are transported affects the cost of NE significantly. Therefore the location of the terminal market and the site where wood resources are available are crucial to saving diesel.

Keywords

wood pellet / non-renewable energy (NE) / hybrid life cycle analysis (LCA) / bio-fuel

References

[1] Baral A, Bakshi B R (2010). Emergy analysis using US economic input-output models with application to life cycles of gasoline and corn ethanol. Ecological modeling, 221(15): 1807–1818

[2] Bullard C W, Penner P S, Pilati D A (1978). Net energy analysis: handbook for combining process and input-output analysis. Resour Energy, 1(3): 267–313

[3] Carpentieri M, Corti A, Lombardi L (2005). Life cycle assessment of an integrated biomass gasification combined cycle (IBGCC) with CO₂ removal. Energy Convers Manage, 46(11-12): 1790–1808

[4] Chen G Q, Yang Q, Zhao Y H (2011a). Renewability of wind power in China: a case study of nonrenewable energy cost and greenhouse gas emission by a plant in Guangxi. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 15(5): 2322–2329

[5] Chen G Q, Yang Q, Zhao Y H, Wang Z F (2011b). Nonrenewable energy cost and greenhouse gas emissions of a 1.5 MW solar power tower plant in China. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 15(4): 1961–1967

[6] Fantozzi F, Buratti C (2010). Life cycle assessment of biomass chains: wood pellet from short rotation coppice using data measured on a real plant. Biomass Bioenergy, 34(12): 1796–1804

[7] Hendrickson C T, Lave L B, Matthews H S (2006). Environmental life cycle assessment of goods and services: an input-output approach. Washington: Resource for Future

[8] Hondo H, Sakai S, Tanno S (2002). Sensitivity analysis of total CO₂ emission intensities estimated using an input-output table. Appl Energy, 72(3-4): 689–704

[9] Hu Z Y, Fang F, Ben D F, Pu G Q, Wang C T (2004). Net energy, CO₂ emission and life-cycle cost assessment of cassava-based ethanol as an alternative automotive fuel in China. Appl Energy, 78(3): 247–256

[10] Lave L B, Cobas-Flores E, Hendrickson C T, McMichael F C (1995). Using input-output analysis to estimate economy-wide discharges. Environ Sci Technol, 29(9): 420A–426A

[11] Leng R, Wang C T, Zhang C, Dai D, Pu G Q (2008). Life cycle inventory and energy analysis of cassava-based fuel ethanol in China. J Clean Prod, 16(3): 374–384

[12] Lin C X, Yang S B, Chen J W, Wang Y, Zheng H B, Yang F L (2009). Hybrid life cycle analysis for coal versus straw briquettes. Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae, 29(11): 2451–2457 (in Chinese)

[13] Liu S Y, Wang Y L, Bai B, Su C J, Yang G F, Zhang F (2011). Analysis on combustion kinetics of corn stalk briquetting densification fuel. Transactions of the CSAE, 27(9):287–292 (in Chinese)

[14] Lu W, Zhang T Z (2010). Life-cycle implications of using crop residues for various energy demands in China. Environ Sci Technol, 44(10): 4026–4032

[15] Ma X Q, Zhang B L (2006). A study on the influence factors of straw briquette combustion velocity. Journal of Henan Agricultural University, 40(1): 77–82 (in Chinese)

[16] Magelli F, Boucher K, Bi H T, Melin S, Bonoli A (2009). An environmental impact assessment of exported wood pellets from Canada to Europe. Biomass Bioenergy, 33(3): 434–441

[17] Nguyen T L T, Gheewala S H (2008). Fuel ethanol from cane molasses in Thailand: environmental and cost performance. Energy Policy, 36(5): 1589–1599

[18] Ouyang S P, Hou S L, Zhao L X, Tian Y S, Meng H B (2011). The research progress in biomass annular mould forming for fuel technology. Renewable Energy Resources, 29(1): 14–22 (in Chinese)

[19] Pa A, Bi X T, Sokhansanj S (2011). A life cycle evaluation of wood pellet gasification for district heating in British Columbia. Bioresour Technol, 102(10): 6167–6177

[20] Sheng K C, Wu J (2004). Review on physical properties and forming mechanisms of biomass briquettes. Transactions of the CSAE, 20(2): 242–245 (in Chinese)

[21] Sjølie H K, Solberg B (2011). Greenhouse gas emission impacts of use of Norwegian wood pellets: a sensitivity analysis. Environ Sci Policy, 14(8): 1028–1040

[22] Suh S, Lenzen M, Treloar G J, Hondo H, Horvath A, Huppes G, Jolliet O, Klann U, Krewitt W, Moriguchi Y, Munksgaard J, Norris G (2004). System boundary selection in life-cycle inventories using hybrid approaches. Environ Sci Technol, 38(3): 657–664

[23] Uasuf A, Becker G (2011). Wood pellets production costs and energy consumption under different framework conditions in Northeast Argentina. Biomass Bioenergy, 35(3): 1357–1366

[24] Wang C B, Zhang L X, Yang S Y, Pang M Y (2012). A hybrid life cycle assessment of nonrenewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions of a village level biomass gasification project in China. Energies, 5(12): 2708–2723

[25] Win K M, Persson T, Bales C (2012). Particles and gaseous emissions from realistic operation of residential wood pellet heating systems. Atmos Environ, 59: 320–327

[26] Yang Q, Chen B, Ji X, He Y F, Chen G Q (2009). Exergetic evaluation of corn-ethanol production in China. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 14(5): 2450–2461

[27] Yang Q, Chen G Q (2012). Nonrenewable energy cost of corn-ethanol in China. Energy Policy, 40(2): 340–347

[28] Zhai P, Williams E D (2010). Dynamic hybrid life cycle assessment of energy and carbon of multicrystalline silicon photovoltaic systems. Environ Sci Technol, 44(20): 7950–7955

[29] Zhang G L, Zhang Z T, Sun Z B, Qu B X, Li C H, Xu C M (2011). Analysis of problems of biomass briquette production and application. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research, 33(8): 177–183 (in Chinese)

[30] Zhang L X, Wang C B, Song B (2012). Carbon emission reduction potential of a typical household biogas system in rural China. J Clean Prod (in press)

[31] Zhu J L, Wang Z W, Shi G X, Yang S H, He X F, Lei T Z (2010). Life cycle assessment of corn straw pellet fuel. Transactions of the CASE, 26(6):262–266 (in Chinese)

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2012BAC13B01) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors gratefully acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their highly valuable and constructive comments and suggestions.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg