Evaluating Economic Alternatives for Wood Energy Supply Based on Stochastic Simulation

Abstract

Productive forests, as a major source of biomass, represent an important pre-requisite for the development of a bio-economy. In this respect, assessments of biomass availability, efficiency of forest management, forest operations, and economic feasibility are essential. This is certainly the case for Mexico, a country with an increasing energy demand and a considerable potential for sustainable forest utilization. Hence, this paper focuses on analyzing economic alternatives for the Mexican bioenergy supply based on the costs and revenues of utilizing woody biomass residues. With a regional spatial approach, harvesting and transportation costs of utilizing selected biomass residues were stochastically calculated using Monte Carlo simulations. A sensitivity analysis of percentage variation of the most probable estimate in relation to the parameters price and cost for one alternative using net future analysis was conducted. Based on the results for the northern region, a 10% reduction of the transportation cost would reduce overall supply cost, resulting in a total revenue of 13.69 USD/m 3 and 0.75 USD/m 3 for harvesting residues and non-extracted stand residues, respectively. For the central south region, it is estimated that a contribution of 16.53 USD/m 3 from 2013 and a total revenue of 33.00 USD/m 3 in 2030 from sawmill residues will improve the value chain. The given approach and outputs provide the basis for the decision-making process regarding forest utilization towards energy generation based on economic indicators.

Quality of eucalyptus wood chips for bioenergy as a function of drying time and horizontal chipper settings

“…Many studies are showing the quality and viability of using wood chips [ [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] ]. Furthermore, it is known that the way horizontal chippers are configured [ [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] ] and the drying time of wood logs [ 10 , 23 , 26 ] affect the quality of the produced chips.…”

Techno-Economic Assessment of Heat Supply Systems in Woodchip Drying Bases for Wood Gasification Combined Heat and Power

“…There are many kinds of economic studies about woody biomass [9], including the difference in production costs between firewood and woodchips [10], the availability of chips [11] and woody residues [12] for energy production use, the feasibility of pellet production from sawmill residues for grain drying [13], the feasibility of pelleting agricultural waste for energy use purposes [14], evaluation of the profitability of whole tree harvesting [15], and economic evaluation of woodchip storage [16,17]. Fusco et al [18] used a modeling approach to identify plant sizes that would make an air dryer for poplar woodchips feasible for small-scale biomass steam boilers; Del Giudice et al [19] tested a prototype of a mobile rotary dryer and were able to remove 17% of water in poplar woodchips and 31% of grapevine and black locust woodchips.…”

Evidências da análise espacial na bioenergia florestal para geração eletricidade. Uma revisão

“…Hernández et al (2018) (AA+EF) realizaram análise de viabilidade para a bioenergia no México e apontaram os gastos com transporte como os principais responsáveis pelo aumento no tempo de retorno do investimento. Os autores destacaram que os altos investimentos podem ser explicados pela compra ou aluguel de caminhões e tratores, distâncias entre florestas e destino final, baixa integração entre áreas florestais e centros de transformação e más condições de infraestrutura rodoviária.…”