International supply of solid and liquid biomass – importance of transportation in costs and greenhouse gas emissions

In globalized commodity markets, the orientation of the economy towards bio-economy and the energy transition to renewables, biomass is gaining importance as raw material and energy source. The regional gap between demand and supply is currently overcome by global biomass trade flows as shown for agricultural products and for wood fuels. Due to the increasing demand of biomass for energy and biofuels, these trade flows will expand in the future. A comprehensive model was developed to evaluate these supply chains for biomass on industrial scale and gain a detailed understanding of its related costs and GHG emissions (± ILUC). It consists of sub-models, such agricultural or forestry production, preconditioning and processing, road, rail and water transportation, transshipment and storage. The model was applied to six exemplary biomass production and supply paths with the target destination in Central Europe (Germany) – namely ethanol from Brazil, wheat and wood pellets from Canada, soybeans from the USA, palm oil from Indonesia and round wood from Russia. This represents the broad variety of biomass sources, supply regions and transportation distances of 6,200 to 17,900 kilometers.

Subjects

biomass

costs

greenhouse gas

supply chain

techno-economic analysis

transportation

Options

International supply of solid and liquid biomass – importance of transportation in costs and greenhouse gas emissions