Effects of boreal forest management practices on the climate impact of CO2 emissions from bioenergy

Francesco Cherubini, Anders H. Strømman and Edgar Hertwich

Ecological Modelling, 2011, vol. 223, issue 1, 59-66

Abstract: In Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from biomass combustion are traditionally assumed climate neutral if the bioenergy system is CO2 flux neutral, i.e. the quantity of CO2 released approximately equals the amount of CO2 sequestered in biomass. This convention is a plausible assumption for fast growing biomass species, but is inappropriate for slower growing biomass, like forests. In this case, the climate impact from biomass combustion can be potentially underestimated if CO2 emissions are ignored, or overestimated, if biogenic CO2 is considered equal to anthropogenic CO2. The estimation of the effective climate impact should take into account how the CO2 fluxes are distributed over time: the emission of CO2 from bioenergy approximately occurs at a single point in time, while the absorption by the new trees is spread over several decades. Our research target is to include this dynamic time dimension in unit-based impact analysis, using a boreal forest stand as case study. The boreal forest growth is modelled with an appropriate function, and is investigated under different forestry regimes (affecting the growth rate and the year of harvest). Specific atmospheric decay functions for biomass-derived CO2 are then elaborated for selected combinations of forest management options. The contribution to global warming is finally quantified using the GWPbio index as climate metric. Results estimates the effects of these practices on the characterization factor used for the global warming potential of CO2 from bioenergy, and point out the key role played by the selected time horizon.

Keywords: Global warming; CO2 emissions; Bioenergy; Boreal forest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380011003693
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ecomod:v:223:y:2011:i:1:p:59-66

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.06.021

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().