Carbon Cycle Implications of Forest Biomass Energy Production in the Northeastern United States

Canham, Charles D.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9478-2_4

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…If not used for biomass energy, such feedstocks would decay over time, releasing their stored carbon as CO 2 or CH 4 even in the absence of combustion. In such practice forest biomass energy may have less carbon impact than modeled here, depending in part on changes in forest detrital carbon stocks compared to a ‘no use’ scenario (Canham, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Forest biomass energy: assessing atmospheric carbon impacts by discounting future carbon flows

2015

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Although forest biomass energy was long assumed to be carbon neutral, many studies show delays between forest biomass carbon emissions and sequestration, with biomass carbon causing climate change damage in the interim. While some models suggest that these primary biomass carbon effects may be mitigated by induced market effects, for example, from landowner decisions to increase afforestation due to higher biomass prices, the delayed carbon sequestration of biomass energy systems still creates considerable scientific debate (i.e., how to assess effects) and policy debate (i.e., how to act given these effects). Forests can be carbon sinks, but their carbon absorption capacity is finite. Filling the sink with fossil fuel carbon thus has a cost, and conversely, harvesting a forest for biomass energy -which depletes the carbon sinkcreates potential benefits from carbon sequestration. These values of forest carbon sinks have not generally been considered. Using data from the 2010 Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences 'Biomass sustainability and carbon policy study' and a model of forest biomass carbon system dynamics, we investigate how discounting future carbon flows affects the comparison of biomass energy to fossil fuels in Massachusetts, USA. Drawing from established financial valuation metrics, we calculate internal rates of return (IRR) as explicit estimates of the temporal values of forest biomass carbon emissions. Comparing these IRR to typical private discount rates, we find forest biomass energy to be preferred to fossil fuel energy in some applications. We discuss possible rationales for zero and near-zero social discount rates with respect to carbon emissions, showing that social discount rates depend in part on expectations about how climate change affects future economic growth. With near-zero discount rates, forest biomass energy is preferred to fossil fuels in all applications studied. Higher IRR biomass energy uses (e.g., thermal applications) are preferred to lower IRR uses (e.g., electricity generation without heat recovery).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Forest biomass energy: assessing atmospheric carbon impacts by discounting future carbon flows

2015

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“…The 1997 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Kyoto Protocol determined that in order to transition toward a more sustainable energy system, biomass energy would be categorized as carbon neutral, and was eligible for alternative energy credits and incentives (UNFCCC, 2008). There is scientific debate as to whether biomass is, in fact, carbon neutral, or heavily carbon positive, depending on how much of the overall biomass supply chain cycle one chooses to quantify and over what length of time (Canham, 2013;Johnson, 2009). Nevertheless, both the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom authorities have repeatedly backed the carbon-neutral categorization for biomass energy, and EU member countries are committed to it in their strategic goals for energy transition (Brack et al, 2018;European Climate Foundation, 2019; European Commission on Energy, 2019; Volpi, 2019).…”

Section: Energy Transition Ports and Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Materiality in the Seam Space: Sketches for a Transitional Port City Dome District

Ramos

2021

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Biomass material volatility generates new opportunities for port-city relationships. Alternative energy markets require specialized port facilities to handle new bulk commodities like biomass. Wood pellets, a type of biomass, present warehousing challenges due to combustion danger. The industrial response to this risk has generated new storage forms for port regions. The return to bulk cargo reintroduces materiality as a focus for port city research, which had generally been regarded as a peripheral concern since the advent of the shipping container. The container had come to represent a borderless, ‘fast capitalism’ throughput model, but research on port ‘accidents’ has complicated this reductive globalization narrative. The programmatic dynamism of wood pellet dome structures suggests new spatially-porous possibilities for an interstitial border space at the port-city interface with material commonalities and hybrid potentials for resilient logistics and civic facilities. In contrast to container cargo unitization, the dome signifies the standardization of the coastal/riparian port environment. Dome structures can help ports plan for the complex challenges of cargo material behaviors and increasing extreme weather events. The article begins with wood pellet materiality to then explore programmatic possibilities that industrial construction technology generates. Conceptually, this joins the proposal of port as ‘seam space’ with port-city resilience planning and the porosity celebrated in recent urbanism literature. Scaling up from wood pellet materiality to an interstitial port-city district, the article contributes to calls for increased attention to materiality as a means to envision new urban agendas.

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“…The 1997 UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol determined that to meet climate objectives, biomass energy would be categorized as carbon-neutral, and thus was eligible for alternative energy credits and incentives (2008). This sparked scientific debate, which continues today, as to whether biomass fuel processing is, in fact, carbon neutral, or heavily carbon positive, depending on how much of the overall biomass supply chain cycle one chooses to quantify and over what length of time (Canham, 2013;Johnson, 2009). As with other renewable energies, biomass is less "energy dense" and more "spatially expansive" (Smil, 2010) than fossil fuels, so the possibility of land use and other socio-environmental conflicts can potentially counter-balance their net carbon reduction gains (Gumundsdottir et al, 2018: 582, Huber, 2015.…”

Section: Biomass Wood Pelletsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomass logistics: Mythistory and sociotechnical imaginary in trans-Atlantic wood pellet assemblage

Ramos

2020

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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The paper focuses on the role of mythistory and the sociotechnical imaginary in stabilizing the links of a particular biomass supply chain running from the forests of Georgia in the US Southeast to diffuse markets across the European Union. Trans-Atlantic wood pellet assemblage demonstrates how mythistories and sociotechnical imaginaries are deployed to opportunistically frame wood as nature, agriculture, and energy as part of governance strategies to coordinate and operationalize the “multiple, spontaneous spatial strategies” that the biomass industry requires. I use assemblage theory to explore how Georgia’s mythistory and the European sociotechnical imaginary form the abstract machine that conditions relationships for the functionality and maintenance of the wood pellet supply chain. I then chart the concrete assemblage of the trans-Atlantic biomass supply chain, which requires the collaboration of a broad network of state and non-state actors. The case helps to ground the current global energy transition period in material and political practices that are contingent, opportunistic, and likely also transitional, even though the sector involves deep capital and political investment throughout the supply chain.

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Carbon Cycle Implications of Forest Biomass Energy Production in the Northeastern United States

Cited by 6 publications

References 38 publications

Forest biomass energy: assessing atmospheric carbon impacts by discounting future carbon flows

Forest biomass energy: assessing atmospheric carbon impacts by discounting future carbon flows

Materiality in the Seam Space: Sketches for a Transitional Port City Dome District

Biomass logistics: Mythistory and sociotechnical imaginary in trans-Atlantic wood pellet assemblage

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