Harvesting Technologies and Costs of Biomass Production from Energy Crops Cultivated on Farms in the Małopolska Region

Dariusz Kwaśniewski, Aleksandra Płonka and Paweł Mickiewicz
Additional contact information
Dariusz Kwaśniewski: Department of Production Engineering, Logistics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Production and Power Engineering, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 30-149 Krakow, Poland
Aleksandra Płonka: Department of Economics and Food Economy, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 31-120 Krakow, Poland
Paweł Mickiewicz: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: This study aimed to assess biomass production costs from perennial energy crops, such as Miscanthus giganteus , Sida hermaphrodita , and coppiced willow, in selected agricultural holdings. This assessment was based on applied technologies for harvesting the biomass of the energy crops mentioned above. The scope of the study included research on ten farms located in Małopolska and establishing the possibility of biomass production from selected energy crops in these entities. Biomass production costs have been estimated using the computer application “Bioalkylation”. The result of the research was the answer to the question: what can be the cost range of biomass production from perennial energy crops for the crops Miscanthus giganteus , Sida hermaphrodita , and coppiced willow as the most popular plants? The study shows that production costs depend primarily on the harvesting technology used and the machinery used in the farm. The harvest with rotary mowers, small presses, and windrows was applied regarding Miscanthus giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita . The costs of biomass production were, on average, 424.7 EUR ha −1 for Miscanthus giganteus and 278.9 EUR ha −1 for Sida hermaphrodita . Concerning tonne, this was 37.6 EUR t −1 for Miscanthus giganteus and 30.0 EUR t −1 for Sida hermaphrodita , respectively. In the case of harvesting energy willow, in the form of whole shoots, inefficient and labour-intensive technologies using chainsaws and combustion cutters were applied. The biomass production costs were thus the highest among the assessed plants and amounted, on average, to 612.1 EUR ha −1 , which in terms of tonne corresponded to a value of 30.6 EUR. The obtained results and the analysis presented in the paper may help in planning the cultivation of perennial energy crops in order to obtain biomass used for heating purposes on a farm.

Keywords: biomass; production costs; Miscanthus giganteus; honeysuckle; energy willow; agricultural holding (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/131/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/131/ (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:15:y:2021:i:1:p:131-:d:710922

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 ().