IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i23p16430-d1290956.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green Energy Prospects of Electricity Generated from Short-Rotation Woody Crops—Quantifying the EROIg of Bioelectricity

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica Daaboul

    (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University Clayton Campus, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia)

  • Patrick Moriarty

    (Department of Design, Monash University Caulfield Campus, Melbourne, VIC 3145, Australia)

  • Damon Honnery

    (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University Clayton Campus, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia)

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report (AR6) allocates 15% to 43% of global primary energy to biomass in 2050 across multiple mitigation scenarios. The report also emphasizes the importance of electrification. For increased reliance on electricity and on biomass, bioelectricity is expected to play a major role. It is therefore vital to know whether the energy generation potential of biomass electricity can support the removal of its environmental impact, particularly as generation at large scale is expected to rely almost solely on energy crops. This paper evaluates the potential of short-rotation woody crops in generating green electricity. This is performed using the “Green Energy Return on Investment (EROIg)” methodology, which indicates the net energy generated after investing in ecosystem maintenance energy (ESME). This study found that the EROIg of bioelectricity is marginally larger than unity when converted to its primary equivalent form (EROIg -PE ). Three design options were proposed to improve bioenergy’s EROIg. Among these options, pelletizing wood chips has the largest advantage with an EROIg of 1.11 and an EROIg -PE of 3.17. We conclude with a discussion of the indirect advantages of growing energy crops, and discuss how this technique can be used alongside others to help generate cleaner energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Daaboul & Patrick Moriarty & Damon Honnery, 2023. "Green Energy Prospects of Electricity Generated from Short-Rotation Woody Crops—Quantifying the EROIg of Bioelectricity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:23:p:16430-:d:1290956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16430/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16430/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raugei, Marco & Fullana-i-Palmer, Pere & Fthenakis, Vasilis, 2012. "The energy return on energy investment (EROI) of photovoltaics: Methodology and comparisons with fossil fuel life cycles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 576-582.
    2. Fabre, Adrien, 2019. "Evolution of EROIs of electricity until 2050: Estimation and implications on prices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Feng & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2020. "Differences in CO2 emissions of solar PV production among technologies and regions: Application to China, EU and USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Hong, Sanghyun & Kim, Eunsung & Jeong, Saerok, 2023. "Evaluating the sustainability of the hydrogen economy using multi-criteria decision-making analysis in Korea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 485-492.
    3. Zhaoyang Kong & Xiucheng Dong & Bo Xu & Rui Li & Qiang Yin & Cuifang Song, 2015. "EROI Analysis for Direct Coal Liquefaction without and with CCS: The Case of the Shenhua DCL Project in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-22, January.
    4. Ron Swenson, 2016. "The Solarevolution: Much More with Way Less, Right Now—The Disruptive Shift to Renewables," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Jacques, Pierre & Delannoy, Louis & Andrieu, Baptiste & Yilmaz, Devrim & Jeanmart, Hervé & Godin, Antoine, 2023. "Assessing the economic consequences of an energy transition through a biophysical stock-flow consistent model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    6. Suopajärvi, Hannu & Pongrácz, Eva & Fabritius, Timo, 2013. "The potential of using biomass-based reducing agents in the blast furnace: A review of thermochemical conversion technologies and assessments related to sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 511-528.
    7. Lina I. Brand-Correa & Paul E. Brockway & Claire L. Copeland & Timothy J. Foxon & Anne Owen & Peter G. Taylor, 2017. "Developing an Input-Output Based Method to Estimate a National-Level Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    8. Hongshuo Yan & Lianyong Feng & Jianliang Wang & Yuanying Chi & Yue Ma, 2021. "A Comprehensive Net Energy Analysis and Outlook of Energy System in China," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Trainer, Ted, 2013. "Can Europe run on renewable energy? A negative case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 845-850.
    10. Colla, Martin & Ioannou, Anastasia & Falcone, Gioia, 2020. "Critical review of competitiveness indicators for energy projects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Ana García-Garre & Antonio Gabaldón & Carlos Álvarez-Bel & María Del Carmen Ruiz-Abellón & Antonio Guillamón, 2018. "Integration of Demand Response and Photovoltaic Resources in Residential Segments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-31, August.
    12. Pickard, William F., 2013. "Transporting the terajoules: Efficient energy distribution in a post-carbon world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 51-61.
    13. Suopajärvi, Hannu & Pongrácz, Eva & Fabritius, Timo, 2014. "Bioreducer use in Finnish blast furnace ironmaking – Analysis of CO2 emission reduction potential and mitigation cost," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 82-93.
    14. Fizaine, Florian & Court, Victor, 2015. "Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 106-118.
    15. Kourkoumpas, Dimitrios-Sotirios & Benekos, Georgios & Nikolopoulos, Nikolaos & Karellas, Sotirios & Grammelis, Panagiotis & Kakaras, Emmanouel, 2018. "A review of key environmental and energy performance indicators for the case of renewable energy systems when integrated with storage solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 380-398.
    16. Bhandari, Khagendra P. & Collier, Jennifer M. & Ellingson, Randy J. & Apul, Defne S., 2015. "Energy payback time (EPBT) and energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar photovoltaic systems: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 133-141.
    17. Yamashiro, Ririka & Mori, Akihisa, 2023. "Combined third-party ownership and aggregation business model for the adoption of rooftop solar PV–battery systems: Implications from the case of Miyakojima Island, Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    18. Monika Foltyn-Zarychta, 2021. "Future-Generation Perception: Equal or Not Equal? Long-Term Individual Discount Rates for Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    19. Julio Cesar Marques & Fernando Gasi & Sergio Ricardo Lourenço, 2024. "Biofuel in the Automotive Sector: Viability of Sugarcane Ethanol," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-24, March.
    20. Xie, Minghua & Wei, Xiaonan & Chen, Chuanglian & Sun, Chuanwang, 2022. "China's natural gas production peak and energy return on investment (EROI): From the perspective of energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:23:p:16430-:d:1290956. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.