An Approach to Identify the Suitable Plant Location for Miscanthus -Based Ethanol Industry: A Case Study in Ontario, Canada

Poritosh Roy, Animesh Dutta and Bill Deen
Additional contact information
Poritosh Roy: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Animesh Dutta: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Bill Deen: Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The life cycle (LC) of ethanol extracted from Miscanthus has been evaluated to identify the potential location for the Miscanthus -based ethanol industry in Ontario, Canada to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and minimize the production cost of ethanol. Four scenarios are established considering the land classes, land use, and cropping patterns in Ontario, Canada. The net energy consumption, emissions, and cost of ethanol are observed to be dependent on the processing plant location and scenarios. The net energy consumption, emissions, and cost vary from 12.9 MJ/L to 13.4 MJ/L, 0.79 $/L to 0.84 $/L, and 0.45 kg-CO 2 e/L to 1.32 kg-CO 2 e/L, respectively, which are reliant on the scenarios. Eastern Ontario has emerged as the best option. This study reveals that Miscanthus is a potential feedstock for the ethanol industries in Ontario, even if it is cultivated on marginal land. This study also highlights the contribution of energy crops ( Miscanthus ) to avoid the potential technical and economic constraints of lignocellulosic biomass for the renewable energy industry. Miscanthus may help avoid competition with food crops for prime land (higher quality land that is suitable for food crops), avoid the food versus fuel debate, help meet the ethanol demand, and achieve the GHG emissions abatement target of Canada.

Keywords: Miscanthus; ethanol; plant location; Ontario; greenhouse gas (GHG) emission; production cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/9/9266/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/8/9/9266/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:8:y:2015:i:9:p:9266-9281:d:54922

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().