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Biomass co-firing with coal is a near-term option to displace fossil fuels and can facilitate the development of biomass conversion and the build-out of biomass supply infrastructure. A GIS-based modeling framework (EU-28, Norway, and Switzerland) is used to quantify and localize biomass demand for co-firing in coal power plants and agricultural and forest residue supply potentials; supply and demand are then matched based on minimizing the total biomass transport costs (field to gate). Key datasets (e.g., land cover, land use, and wood production) are available at 1,000 m or higher resolution, while some data (e.g., simulated yields) and assumptions (e.g., crop harvest index) have lower resolution and were resampled to allow modeling at 1,000 m resolution. Biomass demand for co-firing is estimated at 184 PJ in 2020, corresponding to an emission reduction of 18 Mt CO 2 . In all countries except Italy and Spain, the sum of the forest and agricultural residues available at less than 300 km from a co-firing plant exceeds the assessed biomass demand. The total cost of transporting residues to these plants is reduced if agricultural residues can be used, as transport distances are shorter. The total volume of forest residues less than 300 km from a co-firing plant corresponds to about half of the assessed biomass demand. Almost 70% of the total biomass demand for co-firing is found in Germany and Poland. The volumes of domestic forest residues in Germany (Poland) available within the cost range 2-5 (1.5-3.5) €/GJ biomass correspond to about 30% (70%) of the biomass demand. The volumes of domestic forest and agricultural residues in Germany (Poland) within the cost range 2-4 (below 2) €/GJ biomass exceed the biomass demand for co-firing.Half of the biomass demand is located within 50 km from ports, indicating that long-distance biomass transport by sea is in many instances an option. K E Y W O R D Sagriculture, bioenergy, CO 2 emissions, co-firing, European Union, forestry, geographic information system, residues

Biomass pellets provide a pivotal opportunity in promising energy transition scenarios as a renewable source of energy. A large share of the current utilization of pellets is facilitated by intensive global trade operations. Considering the long distance between the production site and the end-user locations, pellets may face fluctuating storage conditions, resulting in their physical and chemical degradation. We tested the effect of different storage conditions, from freezing temperatures (−19 • C) to high temperature (40 • C) and humidity conditions (85% relative humidity), on the physicochemical properties of untreated and torrefied biomass pellets. Moreover, the effect of sudden changes in the storage conditions on pellet properties was studied by moving the pellets from the freezing to the high temperature and relative humidity conditions and vice versa. The results show that, although storage at one controlled temperature and RH may degrade the pellets, a change in the temperature and relative humidity results in higher degradation in terms of higher moisture uptake and lower mechanical strength.

This paper aims to quantify the benefits of switching from a system dependent on traditional biomass to systems running on more efficient fuels and technologies. It is estimated that even when open fires burning fuelwood are replaced by improved cooking stoves (ICSs) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stoves, and biomass is processed in dedicated biomass power plants, a net reduction in CO 2 emissions is still obtained. The ICS/LPG stove/biomass combustion power plant configuration could provide an average net reduction of 84 kg-C e /tDM. Meanwhile, a net reduction of 105 kg-C e /tDM could be obtained when implementing a ICS/LPG stove/biomass gasification power