A spatial approach to bioeconomy: Quantifying the residual biomass potential in the EU-27

Lorie Hamelin, Magdalena Borzęcka, Małgorzata Kozak and Rafał Pudełko

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2019, vol. 100, issue C, 127-142

Abstract: Bioeconomy is seen as a key strategic innovation pillar in the European Union, and this involves, among other things, mobilizing biomass resources. This study presents a geo-localized methodology in order to quantify the overall (theoretical) residual biomass potential for each NUTS-3 region of the EU-27 + Switzerland (NUTS-3 is the smallest regional division in Eurostat's Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics). Estimates were made for biomass residues stemming from 4 main activities: i) agriculture (straw, manure, residues from pruning permanent plantations); ii) forestry (forestry residues); iii) urban greenery management (residues from managing urban green areas and roadside vegetation); and iv) food waste (agri-industrial food process waste and municipal biodegradable waste). A review of earlier assessments using a variety of spatial coverages is also presented. Our results reveal the importance of residual biomass as a key feedstock for the European bioeconomy: we found that 8500 PJ y−1 are available for these streams (theoretical potential), which corresponds to the whole annual (2015) primary energy consumption of Italy and Belgium combined. Straw (3800 PJ y−1) and forestry residues (3200 PJ y−1) were shown as the top-two contributors. Our geo-localized approach uncovered outliers in terms of regional trends, revealing very specific opportunities for these regions. This includes the NUTS-3 region of Paris (France) where the highest biomass density was found with ca. 25 TJ km−2 (essentially food waste), and the NUTS-3 of Jaen (Spain), the main region of olive oil in the world, with great opportunities stemming from the olive oil industry.

Keywords: GIS; Crop residues; Circular economy; Manure; Food waste; Straw; Residual grass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118307214
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:rensus:v:100:y:2019:i:c:p:127-142

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.10.017

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().