Bioenergy Devices: Energy and Emissions Performance for the Residential and Industrial Sectors in Mexico

Abstract

Biomass represents 10% of the total energy use and 55% of all renewable energy in Mexico. It is a key energy source to help Mexico achieve a low-carbon development path to comply with the strict climate mitigation targets needed to avoid catastrophic consequences. However, a major limitation in the construction of reliable future mitigation scenarios is the lack of information regarding in-country greenhouse emission factors associated to both traditional and modern bioenergy devices. This paper aims to close this gap, providing detailed estimates of energy and emission factors from bioenergy devices in the Mexican residential and industrial sectors. In particular, four energy tasks, comprising 67% of current bioenergy use in the country, were selected (charcoal production, biomass drying, space heating, and cooking) with a total of nine bioenergy devices: traditional earth mound charcoal kiln, flash dryer, heater, five types of cookstoves, and an open fire. The thermal efficiency ranged from 10 ± 1 to 26 ± 5% for the cooking devices, 95 ± 1 to 96 ± 1% for the space heater, 34 ± 8% for the charcoal kiln, and 10 ± 2% for the biomass dryer. The modified combustion efficiency was calculated to be 88 ± 1% for the earth mound charcoal kiln, 96-98% for the cookstove, and 93-98% for the space heater. The products of incomplete combustion ranged from 21 ± 6 to 48 ± 12 g for the cooking devices and 58 ± 18 to 340 ± 107 g for the space heaters. CO 2 emission factors ranged from 102 ± 2 to 119 ± 2 g/MJ for the local biomass stoves. Relative to other pollutants, the CO emissions per energy unit were the highest, ranging from 1193 ± 184 mg/MJ for the space heater to 18,121 ± 1232 mg/MJ for the earth mound charcoal kiln. The total global warming potential was estimated to be 35 ± 2 gCO 2 e/MJ for the ONIL stove (modified) and 158 ± 4 gCO 2 e/MJ for the earth mound charcoal kiln. The estimates presented in this study represent an important contribution to Mexico's inventories in terms of energy performance and emissions parameters of four energy tasks in the industrial and residential sectors. This information will be a baseline to estimate carbon footprint, life cycle assessments, GHG emissions scenarios, and mitigation strategies for local and regional Mexican conditions. KeywordsSolid biofuels • Cooking and heating • Production processes • Energy consumption • Short-lived climate pollutants • CO 2 e * Víctor Ruiz-García

Future Scenarios of Firewood Consumption for Cooking in the Mexican Tropical Region

“…The most important assumptions for the construction of this scenario are shown in Table 4. The selection of the ICS that replace TSF was carried out through a bibliographic review of the ICS that are currently on the market for Mexico and that the technical and economic data of such devices are known, therefore, the ICS called "Ecoestufa" was chosen, whose technical information is reported in reference [39]. A linear ICS replacement rate was used that was calculated to reach 100% TSF substitution by the year 2050.…”

Multifactorial Assessment of the Bioenergetic Potential of Residual Biomass of Pinus spp. in a Rural Community: From Functional Characterization to Mapping of the Available Energy Resource

“…Therefore, the heating value resulting from the characterization process was extrapolated to all the residual biomass available on a weekly, monthly and annual basis, for each workshop and for all the studied workshops, as well as for all the workshops in the community. Also, the available technical potential was estimated considering the combustion technologies used in the town, which are mainly open-air stoves without insulation, with an average thermal efficiency of 10% [48,49].…”

“…If the available energy were used to manufacture solid biofuels to be used in traditional stoves (10% efficiency) [48], and these could preserve the calorific coefficient analyzed in this research, a projection of the technical potential for the 50 workshops can be inferred at between approximately 7 TJ/year and 28 TJ/year, which could satisfy the energy demand of many families [79]. For example, the demand of 140 families could be satisfied, considering some previous studies (199 GJ/year) [49].…”

Promoting a Sustainable Energy Transition in Mexico: the Role of Solid Biofuels

“…One of the most important stages in the life cycle of fuels and biofuels is the use stage, where the combustion emission profiles influence the most; however, specific emission profiles for end-use devices are scarce and often unavailable. To this end, Ruiz-García et al [11] report the energy and emissions performance of nine selected bioenergy end-use devices for the residential and industrial sectors in Mexico, specifically for the operations of charcoal production, biomass drying, space heating, and traditional cooking. They report thermal and combustion efficiencies, and emission factors (products of incomplete combustion, CO 2 , and criteria pollutants) and GWPs for the nine devices, an important contribution for life cycle inventories in Mexico and a baseline information for mitigation strategies.…”