 Assessing the economic feasibility of short rotation loblolly biomass plantationsRapeepan Kantavichai, Tom V. Gallagher and Larry D. Teeter Forest Policy and Economics, 2014, vol. 38, issue C, 126-131 Abstract: Recently, interest in short rotation loblolly plantations as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuel production has been growing. This study explored the potential of these plantations as an economically feasible alternative by validating a simulation growth model with two young loblolly plantations located in Coastal Plain Alabama and analyzing the breakeven price of a biomass plantation by comparing it to the expected value from a traditional timber management prescription on two typical AL sites in Piedmont and Coastal Plain. With three real discount rates; 5%, 7% and 9%, we found that landowners would find short rotation biomass plantations attractive when the stumpage price is approximately $10.50ton−1 on a Piedmont site with a 14-year rotation and approximately $13.50ton−1 on a Coastal Plain site with a 9-year rotation. Sensitivity analysis of the breakeven price suggests that biomass breakeven price would increase 15% on the Piedmont site and 22% on the Coastal Plain site when sawtimber prices increase by 50%. Keywords: Loblolly; Short rotation; Biomass; Bioenergy; Cellulosic biofuel; Forest management (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:38:y:2014:i:c:p:126-131 DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2013.05.003 Access Statistics for this article Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier |
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