Estimating the energy return on investment of forestry biomass: Impacts of feedstock, production techniques and post- processing
(2024) Global Change Biology. Bioenergy — Vol. 16, n° 6, p. 1-18 (2024)
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- Authors
Boissonnet, Guillaume 
- Abstract
- The Energy Return On Investment (EROI) is a recognised indicator for assess-ing the relevance of an energy project in terms of net energy delivered to soci-ety. For woody biomass divergences remain on the right methodology to assessthe EROI leading to large variations in the published estimates. This article pre-sents an in- depth discussion about the EROI of woody biomass in three differ-ent forms: woodchips, pellets and liquid fuels. The conceptualisation of EROIis further developed to reach a consistent definition for biomass post-processedfuels. It considers, on top of the external energy investments, the grey energyassociated with the energy used to enrich the fuel. With the proposed methodol-ogy, all woodchips have an EROI of the same order of magnitude, between 20and 37, depending on forestry types, operations and machineries. For secondaryresidues, the first estimate is 170 if, as co-products, no energy investment is al-located to the forestry operations and transport. On the basis of a mass allocationfor forestry operations and transport, the EROI for secondary residues becomesof the same order of magnitude as that for wood chips. Woodchips can be furtherpost-processed into pellets or liquid fuels. Pellets have an EROI of 4–7 if the heatis externally supplied and 8–23 if internally supplied (self-consumption of part ofthe raw material). Liquid fuels derived from primary wood and residues throughgasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis have an EROI between 4 and 16. Fuelenhancement with hydrogen (Power & Biomass to Liquids) impacts negativelythe EROI due to the low EROI of hydrogen produced from renewable electricity.However, these fuels offer other advantages such as improved carbon efficiency.A correct estimate of EROI for forestry biomass, as proposed in this work, is anecessary dimension in assessing the suitability of a project.
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Citations
Colla, M., de Chambost, E., Merceron, L., Blondeau, J., Jeanmart, H., & Boissonnet, G. (2024). Estimating the energy return on investment of forestry biomass: Impacts of feedstock, production techniques and post- processing. Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, 16(6), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13146 (Original work published 2024)