Bio-energy supply chains and stakeholders

What are the management challenges and opportunities of bio-energy chains for both running their business efficiently and effectively and fostering the relationships with most relevant external stakeholders? This question is approached by systematically reviewing papers at the interface of bio-energy and supply chain or logistics issues. The review conducted as content analysis is based on an analytic framework that conceives bio-energy chains between challenges and benefits of bio-energy production with simultaneous internal supply chain management and external stakeholder management needs. Smartly designed and operated bio-energy projects hold promising potentials of contributing to sustainable development by both mitigating climate change and strengthening adaptation capabilities. Our analysis distils specific strategies and success factors for tapping this potential on two levels: On a supply chain level, individually adapted and designed supply chain systems relying on trustful information exchange, cooperation and relational governance safeguard profitability while holding adverse ecological and social impacts of operation down; they allow, for instance, minimising costs and emissions, implementing new technologies, and coping with environmental uncertainties such as crop failures and volatile prices. On a stakeholder level, governments as key actors for designing the future legal framework of bio-energy are primary targets for lobbying activities of bio-energy representatives. Respective arguments may focus on economic development and job generation. By minimising its adverse impacts on society and eco-systems and by communicating these efforts credibly, bio-energy warrants its superiority over fossil energy systems. Involving NGOs and residents in early stages of bio-energy projects via transparent two-way communication considerably increase societal acceptance.     

Modern Biomass Conversion Technologies

This article gives an overview of the state-of-the-art of key biomass conversion technologies currently deployed and technologies that may play a key role in the future, including possible linkage to CO₂ capture and sequestration technology (CCS). In doing so, special attention is paid to production of biofuels for the transport sector, because this is likely to become the key emerging market for large-scale sustainable biomass use. Although the actual role of bio-energy will depend on its competitiveness with fossil fuels and on agricultural policies worldwide, it seems realistic to expect that the current contribution of bio-energy of 40–55 EJ per year will increase considerably. A range from 200 to 300 EJ may be observed looking well into this century, making biomass a more important energy supply option than mineral oil today. A key issue for bio-energy is that its use should be modernized to fit into a sustainable development path. Especially promising are the production of electricity via advanced conversion concepts (i.e. gasification and state-of-the-art combustion and co-firing) and modern biomass derived fuels like methanol, hydrogen and ethanol from ligno-cellulosic biomass, which can reach competitive cost levels within 1–2 decades (partly depending on price developments with petroleum). Sugar cane based ethanol production already provides a competitive biofuel production system in tropical regions and further improvements are possible. Flexible energy systems, in which biomass and fossil fuels can be used in combination, could be the backbone for a low risk, low cost and low carbon emission energy supply system for large scale supply of fuels and power and providing a framework for the evolution of large scale biomass raw material supply systems. The gasification route offers special possibilities to combine this with low cost CO₂ capture (and storage), resulting in concepts that are both flexible with respect to primary fuel input as well as product mix and with the possibility of achieving zero or even negative carbon emissions. Prolonged RD&D efforts and biomass market development, consistent policy support and international collaboration are essential to achieve this.     

Cleaner production alternatives: Biomass utilisation options

The increasing price of energy, the security of supply, the reduction of green house gases, and the scarcity of oil and gas urge the use of more and more renewable energy. An important renewable energy source is the biomass which can be applied for heat, electricity, and transportation fuel production. The heat and electricity production are the so called “direct utilisation” alternatives and the transportation fuel production alternatives are the “indirect utilisation” alternatives of biomass energy. If efficient land use is considered, the alternatives can be compared on the basis of the utilisable energy produced from the biomass per hectare. It is shown that the bioethanol production from corn has about 89–99% less energy production capability than that of the direct utilisation alternatives. The cellulosic type bioethanol production technologies, since these partially directly utilise the biomass energy, have better energy utilisation potential, that is about 40–50% of direct alternatives.     

Zero techniques and systems – ZETS strength and weakness

Nature does not know the term “harmony”. Only humans should be in harmony with nature and artificial production system, particularly industry, should not destroy natural planetary cycles. It is clear that the world's industry and agriculture based on fossil resources exploitation are not sustainable. Harmony means complementary of natural and man-made cycles. However, there is a fundamental difference between industrial chains and biological chains. We can't use absolute analogy between biological chains and industrial chains. Industrial production chains are artificial created by humans. Zero Emissions concept accented that all industrial inputs can be completely converted into a variety of final products and that waste products can be converted into value added inputs for another chain of production or energy supply. In principle ZETS concept eliminates waste problem completely. The manufacturing line can be viewed as integrated technologies and series of production cycles and recycling systems. What is our opportunity to substitute renewable resources for fossil ones? The international climate conference in Kyoto (1997) and others can be regarded as tests for human capacity to cooperate and creatively manage two dominating carbon-rich solar energy conversion products: fossil organic materials and biomass. The former is found in rich deposits and is physically rather homogeneous (oil, gas and coal), whereas the latter is widely dispersed and highly diversified (microorganisms, plants and animals). Those aspects give oil refineries the character of compact cluster of chemical plants, whereas biomass refineries (biorefineries) are just as diverse as their feedstocks (mills for grain- and oilseeds, the food industry, fermentation plants, pulp and paper mills, etc.) This situation can inspire two questions. The first question is how the fossil carbon sources can be utilized without releasing greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In contrast to products from non-renewable resources, wood materials do not influence the atmospheric CO₂ balance. The second question is, when the oil production finally drops, whether clusters of processing units, designed for the upgrading of specific bioresources, can turn out a similar multitude of products as oil refineries do. The answers on these and other questions will be discussed in the context of ZETS using many case studies examples. Integrated ZETS have many advantages and disadvantages, too.     

A Greenhouse Gas Balance of two Existing International Biomass Import Chains

Various utility companies are considering or already initiated the import of biomass from abroad for electricity generation, especially via co-firing in coal-fired power plants. This results in international logistic biomass supply chains, which raise questions on the environmental performance of such chains. In this study, a life cycle inventory has been performed on two existing biomass import chains to evaluate the greenhouse gas balance of biomass import for co-firing. We considered production, transport and co-firing of wood pellets from Canada and palm kernel shells from Malaysia in a 600 MW _e coal-fired power plant in the Netherlands. Those chains are compared with various reference systems for energy production and the alternative use of biomass. Primary energy savings of these import and co-firing chains are between 70% and 100% of the biomass energy content. Net avoided greenhouse gas emissions are in the range of 340–2100 g/kWh. In the most optimistic scenario, pellet co-firing avoids methane emissions that would have occurred if the pellets were decomposed at landfills when not applied for energy production. In the most pessimistic scenario, palm kernel shell co-firing competes with the application as resource for animal feed production, which requires production and transport of an alternative resource. As the energy reference systems of the importing and exporting country and the alternative application of biomass have a significant impact on the net avoided greenhouse gas emissions, these factors should be considered explicitly when studying biomass trade for energy purposes.     

Influences, practices and opportunities for environmental supply chain management in Nova Scotia SMEs

Executives are increasingly paying attention to the importance of supply chain management [Lambert DM, Cooper MC. Issues in supply chain management. Industrial Marketing Management 2000;29(1):65–83; Hagelaar GJLF, van der Vorst JGAJ. Environmental supply chain management: using life cycle assessment to structure supply chains. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 2002;4:399–412]. The management of the supply chain can be a central aspect of a company's competitive advantage [Preuss L. Rhetoric and reality of corporate greening: a view from the supply chain management function. Business Strategy and the Environment 2005;14:123–139]. SCM also offers considerable opportunities to reduce a company's environmental impact. The supply chains of three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Burnside Industrial Park in Nova Scotia, Canada were investigated to explore the opportunities to improve environmental performance of SMEs linked in supply chains. This study confirmed that time and, to a lesser degree, financial resources to address solid waste and energy issues are the greatest limiting factors. Small suppliers, and even to a certain degree medium-sized enterprises, have difficulties in allocating resources to initiatives that are not viewed as directly related to their core function, namely manufacturing the product or providing the service. This study clearly demonstrated that opportunities exist to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste. Although, the benefits that would be gained from the implementation of any of the individual actions in the supply chains explored in this study are individually small, the cumulative benefits that could be achieved among supply chains and within industrial parks are substantial, given the number of small- and medium-sized enterprises.     

Bio-energy policies in a global context

Against the background of an increasing global demand for bio-energy, the need for sustainability standards and a certification system ensuring sustainable production and trade has grown rapidly. Nevertheless, there is currently no specific forum for discussions on how to deal with biomass trade at the multilateral level. Distortions in agricultural and energy trade regimes, the myriad of standards and the lack of a clear biomass classification in the multilateral trade regime suggest that bio-energy products may not deliver sustainable development gains for all trading partners. This paper analyses then the global impact of bio-energy policies on biomass production and trade, paying particular attention to sustainable development in the bio-energy sector. It examines how a possible reduction and elimination of trade barriers as well as a phasing out of trade distorting support measures would contribute to the development of a global sustainable bio-energy market.     

Globally regional life cycle analysis of automotive lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt batteries

Electric vehicles based on lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have seen rapid growth over the past decade as they are viewed as a cleaner alternative to conventional fossil-fuel burning vehicles, especially for local pollutant (nitrogen oxides [NO_x], sulfur oxides [SO_x], and particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 and 10 μm [PM_2.5 and PM₁₀]) and CO₂ emissions. However, LIBs are known to have their own energy and environmental challenges. This study focuses on LIBs made of lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), since they currently dominate the United States (US) and global automotive markets and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. The effects of globalized production of NMC, especially LiNi_1/3Mn_1/3Co_1/3O₂ (NMC111), are examined, considering the potential regional variability at several important stages of production. This study explores regional effects of alumina reduction and nickel refining, along with the production of NMC cathode, battery cells, and battery management systems. Of primary concern is how production of these battery materials and components in different parts of the world may impact the battery’s life cycle pollutant emissions and total energy and water consumption. Since energy sources for heat and electricity generation are subject to great regional variation, we anticipated significant variability in the energy and emissions associated with LIB production. We configured Argonne National Laboratory’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET®) model as the basis for this study with key input data from several world regions. In particular, the study examined LIB production in the US, China, Japan, South Korea, and Europe, with details of supply chains and the electrical grid in these regions. Results indicate that 27-kWh automotive NMC111 LIBs produced via a European-dominant supply chain generate 65 kg CO₂e/kWh, while those produced via a Chinese-dominant supply chain generate 100 kg CO₂e/kWh. Further, there are significant regional differences for local pollutants associated with LIB, especially SO_x emissions related to nickel production. We find that no single regional supply chain outperforms all others in every evaluation metric, but the data indicate that supply chains powered by renewable electricity provide the greatest emission reduction potential.

     

From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management

Academic and corporate interest in sustainable supply chain management has risen considerably in recent years. This can be seen by the number of papers published and in particular by journal special issues. To establish the field further, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it offers a literature review on sustainable supply chain management taking 191 papers published from 1994 to 2007 into account. Second, it offers a conceptual framework to summarize the research in this field comprising three parts. As starting point related triggers are identified. This allows putting forward two distinct strategies: (1) supplier management for risks and performance, and (2) supply chain management for sustainable products. It is evident that research is still dominated by green/environmental issues. Social aspects and also the integration of the three dimensions of sustainability are still rare.Both practitioners in companies and academics might find the review useful, as it outlines major lines of research in the field. Further, it discusses specific features of sustainable supply chains as well as limitations of existing research; this should stimulate further research.     

Bio-Energy Systems at the Community Level in the South Pacific: Impacts & Monitoring

Read, Sims and Adams (2001) detailed a case study for bio-energy implementation in a notional small Pacific Island and elaborated a theoretical model for assessing and simulating the socio-economic impacts of a particular bio-energy system designed to produce an exportable liquid fuel along with rural electricity supplies. An important conclusion was that there is no silver-bullet ‘one size fits all’ bio-energy system suited to all situations. Moreover, a system appropriate at one place and time may become obsolete with exogenous technological advance and/or as a community advances down its own development pathway. In order to understand how these issues interact in practice, a selected set of implementation projects is reviewed highlighting scale, capacity, community, technology, governmental policy and the concept of critical mass, as factors that are central to the successful development of the bioenergy sector. Through this evaluation, it is shown that: 1.A significant biomass supply resource base often exists locally in the form of agricultural and forestry residues on which modern bioenergy programmes could be initiated. The use of biomass energy flow charts are an important tool for evaluating the potential of local and national resources. 2. Without an integrated multi-disciplinary, multi-sector and whole-systems approach to the implementation of bioenergy schemes, long term success is likely to remain elusive. 3. There is a requirement at the national level for a coordinated approach with strong policy signals that overcome perverse and practical obstacles.     

西藏生物质能开发的资源、环境基础分析

开发生物质能是缓解能源供应紧张、环境污染严重这两大难题的理性选择。而由于生物质能蕴藏于生物质中,生物质又与区域自然地理特征息息相关,因此,各地发展生物质能具有明显的区域特性,不可一刀切。论文分析了西藏发展生物质能的资源条件和环境基础,认为西藏生物质能资源总量大而单位面积的生物净初级生产量不高,自然环境脆弱且生物质能利用与环境关系紧张。在前人关于西藏的太阳能、生物量、净初级生产量研究基础上,从生物质能转化过程的角度,提出了可利用生产量的概念及生物质能可持续利用的模式,继而估算出了西藏的生物质能资源总量2400×10⁴tce/a。最后,在肯定西藏生物质能开发的可行性的同时,提出了因地制宜,适度开发的战略。     

Role of Bio-Energy Plantations for Carbon-Dioxide Mitigation with Special Reference to India

Fuelwood plays an important role in the rural economy of the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Optimizing energy fixation in forest trees through high density energy plantations (HDEP), gasification of wood, and conversion of forest tree biomass, are some of the potential areas whereby additional research and development input for efficient management of atmospheric carbon in our energy system can be incorporated. For example, the photosynthetic efficiency of forest trees is rarely above 0.5%, which on the basis of theoretical considerations can be increased by up to 6.6%. Thus there is an ample scope to improve the efficiency up to 1%, which amounts to doubling of the productivity of the forests. Recent policy changes and experiences with wood-based bio-energy programmes in several countries indicate that woodfuels may become increasingly attractive as industrial energy sources. Use of biodiesel and the formulation of a project for undertaking 13.4 million ha of Jatropha plantations in India highlight the seriousness with which the Government of India is promoting carbon neutral energy plantations. The cost of establishment of plantations primarily for fuel production and its conversion to energy are major deterrents in this pursuit. Some of the issues in developing countries, like low productivity on marginal lands, degraded forest lands, and unorganized units for biomass energy conversion, result in cost escalation as compared to other energy sources. This paper revisits the scope for raising energy plantations, a comparison of the direct and indirect mitigation potential uses of plantations as an adaptation strategy through reforestation and afforestation projects for climate change mitigation and socio-economic issues to make this venture feasible in developing countries.     

Constructing sustainable palm oil: how actors define sustainability

Biofuels as a renewable source of energy have gained considerable importance in recent years. The use of biofuels is expected to rise since national governments of developed nations like the US and European countries see it as one of the ways to fulfill climate targets and increase the security in their energy supply. Production of biofuels is also expected to rise as developing nations see in biofuels the opportunity for connecting to international markets through supplying a new demand in the energy market.Several studies report on the environmental, social and economic gains and detriments that can arise from increased biofuel production and consumption. However, research that provides insight into the way in which such issues are defined by actors within the product chain is scarce. In this article we analyse how the strategies and value definitions of actors involved in the production and consumption of biofuels lead to specific definitions of sustainability. The empirical material concerns the chain of palm oil production in Colombia and electricity generation in the Netherlands. It is analysed using the method of action-in-context, which allows us to uncover the level and source of diversity of sustainability definitions in the product chain.While the current growth in production of palm oil is definitely buyer driven, the analysis of various activities in the chain shows that several aspects of sustainability are defined in more complex actor fields throughout the product chain.     

A life-cycle framework to analyse business risk in process industry projects

The chemical and related process industries are particularly exposed to high environmentally related costs arising from normal operation and accidents, not only of their own processes but also other processes in their supply chains. A methodology (Process environmental risk assessment—PERA) is presented for the assessment of all such risks during the design of new processes. This can be seen as a project-centred risk assessment that seeks potential problems along the whole supply chain. Each activity, resource use or waste source along the supply chain represents a potential interaction between the supply chain and the environment. These potential interactions are identified systematically using a life-cycle based assessment. To assess the risk to the project or process supply chain arising from those interactions the relevant stakeholders must be identified. Their likely response can then be considered and ranked according to the risk it poses. The methodology facilitates the management and communication of risk, and is illustrated by application to some aspects of the manufacture of PVC. The method could equally be applied to the assessment of existing processes.     

低碳供应链中第三方物流发展路径研究

第三方物流与企业合作从双边合作发展到多边合作,从闭环供应链发展到绿色供应链再到低碳供应链,第三方物流所起的作用愈发重要。通过对低碳供应链中第三方物流发展路径的研究,提出第三方物流的创新发展路径和联盟发展路径,其中创新发展以技术创新为主,创新模式采取多主体开放式创新;联盟发展包括横向联盟和纵向联盟,横向联盟整合多种功能型物流服务功能,纵向联盟即第三方物流与低碳供应链多边联动以进行全供应链管理。     

农作物生物质能的遥感估算——以广东省为例

农作物秸秆生物质能项目是生物质能最具产业化和规模化的集约利用方式之一,也是解决能源可持续发展和环境问题的有效途径之一。目前国内外对农作物秸秆生物质能总量估算都是基于传统的实地调查和统计数据来获取,缺乏详细的生物质能的空间分布信息,对生物质能源利用与规划指导粗略。论文以广东省为例,利用基于BIOME鄄BGC模型改进的MOD17A2/A3数据和TM数据对生物质能总量及空间格局进行估算和分析。根据生物质能可用部分的影响因素,建立可用生物质能决策模型。为能源消耗量大的省份在生物质能的有效利用方面提供了依据。     

欧美绿色供应链发展经验及启示

随着工业化、城市化的飞速发展,我国经济社会面临的资源环境瓶颈约束日益突出,实现经济发展和环境保护的同步推进是当前工作的重要内容,环境保护将扮演更为重要的角色。实施绿色供应链管理有利于改善高能耗高污染问题,提高企业生产效率,增强核心竞争力,促进企业和社会的可持续发展。欧盟和美国在推行绿色供应链管理方面成果显著,汲取其先进的政策和实践经验,对中国推进绿色供应链具有重要的借鉴意义。     

A material and energy flow model for co-production of heat and power

Co-production of electricity, district heat and industrial heat/process steam (heat and power, CHP) has been applied to a large, national scale, in only a few countries in the world, Denmark, The Netherlands and Finland. In this production method, the waste energy from electricity production is used in two quality levels. First, industrial process steam requirements can be met with this residual energy. Second, the waste energy is used in local district heating networks for households and other buildings in a city. In this integrated production method, a total fuel efficiency of 85% can be achieved. Through the technique of fluidized bed combustion, modern CHP plants can use coal and oil, and in addition, heterogeneous fuels such as biomass, industrial wastes and recycled fuels from households. In this paper, the CHP method is considered in terms of four categories of material and energy flows. For the purpose of considering the potential environmental gains and the difficulties of this production method when applied to integrated waste management and energy production, the four suggested categories are: matter (biomass) (1), nutrients (2), energy (3) and carbon (4). Corporate environmental management inventory tools, decision-making tools, management, organisational and administrative tools as well as information management tools that could be used in CHP-related material and energy flow management are shortly discussed. It is argued that for CHP energy and environmental management, it can be important to adopt an approach to networks of firms, rather than to an individual firm. The presented material and energy flow model may contribute to assessing, planning and implementing of CHP-based waste management and cleaner energy production.     

Evaluating Experience with Renewables Portfolio Standards in the United States

Increased use of renewable energy is one of several promising methods for reducing emissions of local, regional, and global air pollutants, including greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil-fuel based electricity production. Among the available options for encouraging renewable electricity generation, the renewables portfolio standard (RPS) has become especially popular in recent years. The RPS is a newly established policy mechanism, however, and experience with its use has not been widely documented and evaluated. This paper describes and evaluates the design, impacts, and early experience of 13 U.S. state RPS policies. These 13 policies share a common goal of encouraging renewable energy supply, but each specific RPS is designed differently. Our evaluation shows both successes and failures with this policy mechanism; some state RPS policies are positively impacting renewable energy development, while others have been poorly designed and will do little to advance renewable energy markets.We emphasize the importance of policy design details, and specifically highlight critical design pitfalls that have been commonly experienced. Though experience with the RPS is still limited, we have now gained some knowledge of the conditions and design features necessary to make an RPS policy work. An important objective of this article is therefore to identify and describe broad policy design principles and specific best practice design elements that might be used to guide the design of future renewables portfolio standards.     

Environmental principles applicable to supply chains design and operation

In this paper we deal with the problem of identifying environmental principles for the design and operation of supply chains. The operations that are included in supply chains are briefly described along with the approaches that are applied in order to improve their environmental performance. A background of environmental principles for achieving eco-efficiency and building of environmentally friendly organizational systems is presented and emphasis is put on the application of such principles “from cradle to grave”. Then, environmental principles applicable to particular objects of logistics networks planning are identified and commented upon. In addition, selective case studies from the literature, which show the applicability of the formulated principles and their relevance to practice, are discussed. The paper concludes with some remarks regarding the benefits for companies and societies, in general, that occur as a result of the application of the formulated principles.