Elsevier

Biomass and Bioenergy

Volume 111, April 2018, Pages 60-69
Biomass and Bioenergy

Research paper
Analyzing the potential of domestic biomass resources for the energy transition in Switzerland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.02.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Available woody and non-woody biomass resources are estimated using bottom-up approaches.

  • Explicit restrictions for sustainable resource utilization for bioenergy are defined.

  • Resources spatial distribution is an integrated part of the assessment.

  • Forest wood (26 PJ) and animal manure (27 PJ) represent the highest sustainable primary bioenergy potential in Switzerland.

Abstract

Biomass resource assessment constitutes the foundation for integrated bioenergy planning in order to evaluate the sustainable feasibility and to estimate the additional bioenergy potential. Its spatial distribution is an essential criterion to facilitate the exploitation of the untapped bioenergy potential by guiding industry and decision-making processes.

This paper provides regionalized and aggregated estimates of the potentially available resources for bioenergy in Switzerland (10 woody and non-woody biomass types). First, considering the different biomass characteristics and available data, appropriate methods at the finest scale possible were elaborated to estimate the annual domestic biomass amount which could theoretically be collected. Then, explicit and rationale restrictions for sustainable bio-energy production were defined according to the current state of the art. Finally, the additional potential was estimated considering the current bioenergy production. The procedures developed can be transferred to other countries and spatial scales according to the local situation and available data.

The Swiss biomass theoretical primary energy potential was estimated at 209 PJ per year, with the major contributions from forest wood (108 PJ per year) and animal manure (49 PJ per year). Almost half of the theoretical potential can be used for bioenergy in a sustainable way (26 PJ from forest wood and 27 PJ from animal manure yearly). The main restrictions are competing material utilizations, environmental factors, supply costs, as well as scattered distribution and small scale feasibility.

Introduction

Sustainable bioenergy can play a decisive role in the transition to a renewable energy system with possible applications in electricity, heat, fuels, and compensation of fluctuant renewable energy sources [1]. Also, the efficient use of locally available biomass resources can strengthen regional and national added values [[2], [3], [4]]. Switzerland has set itself the ambitious target to optimize both material and energy use of domestic biomass resources [[5], [6], [7]]. Similar targets have been set at the European level [2,8].

Previous studies have provided valuable steps towards quantifying the overall national biomass potential on an aggregated level in many countries using various approaches: literature review and projections [[9], [10], [11], [12]], bottom-up calculations on specific biomass e.g. Refs. [13,14]. For Switzerland [15,16], such studies revealed a substantial potentiality from woody biomass, animal manure and waste biomass at national scale. However, these were literature reviews which gathered information from different studies performed at different times with different methods, making comparisons between biomass types difficult. An homogenous approach enables more accurate and comparable results. Moreover, they did not investigate the respective spatial distribution and local biomass supply security which are known to be critical issues for investors in bioenergy facilities [17]. A spatial inventory assessment is required at different geographical scales to i) allow the in-depth availability and sustainability estimation, ii) facilitate the exploitation of untapped bioenergy potentials by guiding industry and policy development strategies [18]. Although a European project has tackled these issues [19], the spatial assessment is missing for Switzerland and also for many other countries, where analyses have been made only aggregated at the national level. The absence of analysis is due to the difficulty to gather data at the regional or lower scales and the lack of methods to use the available data in a meaningful way.

With these premises, the objective here is to demonstrate a method to assess the regionalized potential of biomass for energy in Switzerland with a bottom-up approach using data at the finest available scale. This bridges the gap between previous national aggregated assessments and specific business cases, which is needed to promote biomass uses. The developed procedures can then be transferred to other countries and spatial scales according to local situations.

Section snippets

Methodology

Exploring the potential of available biomass resources provides the foundation for technology development and integrated bioenergy planning at different local, national and global level. Many approaches are possible depending on data availability and biomass type, such as surveys [20], calculations based on land cover and characteristics [21], calculations based on available national databases [13,14,22] and expert literature studies [16]. In this paper, bottom-up approaches are provided to

Results

In this chapter results of estimated theoretical, sustainable and additional domestic biomass potentials for energy generation are presented. First, the two types of biomass with the largest sustainable potentials are featured as examples (section 3.1 for animal manure and 3.2 for forest wood). Then, an overview of all biomass types is shown (section 3.3). The overall results are summarized in Table 1. A more detailed result description for the other eight biomass types is available in the

Discussion

If the total biomass potential theoretically available in Switzerland is considered, its energy content could cover one fifth of the Swiss gross energy consumptions (1108 PJ [30]). The main restrictions regarding the resources limiting the sustainable use of biomass for bioenergy are competing material utilizations (especially when cascading use with subsequent energy recovery is feasible), environmental factors, as well as scattered distribution, small scale feasibility, and economical

Conclusions

Potentials spatial distribution is highly variable between our 10 biomass types and between regions of a similar size, thus indicating a need to conceptualize energy system adhering to local conditions. The presented bottom-up GIS-based approach allows better assessments of biomass potentials as compared to previous approaches. Furthermore, it improves the consistency of such assessments at different scales and for different regions, including explicit restrictions for sustainable resource

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Swiss Innovation Agency (Innosuisse) for funding within the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research, Biomass for Swiss Energy Future (SCCER BIOSWEET) and Dr. Carl Vadenbo (ETH Zurich, Chair of Ecological Systems Design) for useful comments on the manuscript.

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