Why Biomass Residue Is Not as Plentiful as It Looks: Case Study on Economic Supply of Logging Residues

Abstract

Biomass inventories and techno‐economic supply studies tend to overestimate economic supply of crop and timber residues, because they ignore human decisions on whether to permit residue removal. By combining information about biophysical availability, production and delivery costs, and the willingness of different types of decision maker to permit removal of logging residues, we develop a realistic prediction of economic supply that becomes very price inelastic. Because managers of only 52% of Michigan and Wisconsin forestland studied would allow the removal of logging residues, we conclude that most forecasts overestimate residue biomass supply by 50 to 100%.

Investigation of NIR spectroscopy and electrical resistance-based approaches for moisture determination of logging residues and sweet sorghum

“…Accordingly, the market for biorefinery materials continues to increase with the transition from the petroleum to the biochemical industry (Costa and De Morais 2011;Erickson et al 2012). In pursuing economical biorefining using lignocellulosic biomass, unused forest biomass left on site from logging offers great potential (Swinton et al 2021). Logging residues, which mainly consist of branches, twigs, and top parts of trees, account for approximately 36% of untapped potential feedstock (Langholtz et al 2016).…”