Co-firing of imported wood pellets – An option to efficiently save CO2 emissions in Europe?

Co-firing coal with wood pellets for U.S. electricity generation: A real options analysis

“…Detert and Kotani (2013) employ ROA to determine the optimal trigger-coal price for switching to renewable energy (a mix of wind and solarthermal sources). Specifically in terms of wood pellets, research has revealed co-firing wood pellets with coal is one of the most cost-attractive options to reach the EU-2020 targets (Ehrig and Behrendt, 2013). Dwivedi et al (2014) indicate the United Kingdom importing wood pellets from the U.S. Southeast for electricity generation could at least lower GHG by 50% compared with fossil fuels.…”

Greenhouse gas performance of heat and electricity from wood pellet value chains – based on pellets for the Swedish market

“…But when it is not possible to distinguish the contribution of other GHG emissions (than CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) in the underlying references, they are included but assumed to be of minor importance. This concerns data from Ehrig and Behrendt (which also includes GHG emissions of perfluoromethane and perfluoroethane) and potentially some of the data from Sikkema et al . who base some of their data on Magelli et al, who also include other GHG emissions.…”

“…hydro power), is justified as the production mix is used for the imported pellets. The Russian production mix is based on Ehrig and Behrendt (production year not specified) and the Latvian production mix for 2008 is based on Eurostat and Gode et al . Since the electricity network in Latvia is partly integrated with the Russian network and Latvia is highly dependent on import of electricity, the impact of this assumption is assessed in the sensitivity analysis.…”

“…GHG emissions balances for different wood pellet value chains (including transport and in most cases pellet use) are presented in for example, Ehrig and Behrendt, Dwivedi et al, Giuntoli et al, Magelli et al, and Sjølie and Solberg . These studies report GHG emissions for pellets based electricity that correspond to a GHG emission reduction compared to average EU fossil fuelled electricity at 50–92% (using an emission factor of 198 g CO 2 ‐equivalent (eq)/MJ el for the fossil EU electricity).…”

Net environmental impacts of low-share wood pellet co-combustion in an existing coal-fired CHP (combined heat and power) production in Helsinki, Finland

“…Besides transportation, it is especially important to evaluate the climate aspects of feedstock used in pellet production. Often wood waste from forests infected by bark beetle is utilised [10] but even healthy standing forest may be the feedstock in some cases, causing sustainability concerns [48]. Tree tops and thinning and harvesting residues may also be used in the pellet industry [26,42], although such application is rather theoretical, as softwood needles cause corrosion in coal-fired boilers due to the high share of alkali metals.…”