Comparing the life cycle impacts of using harvest residue as feedstock for small- and large-scale bioenergy systems (part I)

In part I of our two-part study, we compare the timing-adjusted GHG (greenhouse gas) balance and life cycle impacts of potentially using harvest residue (unmerchantable small-diameter roundwood) in an existing large (211 MWe) wood pellet-fired (formerly coal-fired) power plant in Ontario, Canada, versus a hypothetical small (250 kW(e)) wood chip gasification plant that recovers heat in addition to producing electricity. Although the large, retrofitted power plant has a higher electrical efficiency, the small plant has lower environmental impacts (TRACI 2.1), mainly due to the benefits of drying the biomass inputs with recovered heat, having a shorter fuel shipping distance, and reduced biomass processing. The small plant emits 38 g of fossil fuel-derived CO2 eq./kWh, versus 134 g/kWh from its large-scale counterpart. Although these GHG emissions are insignificant relative to the forest carbon emissions from gasification and combustion (13-1.4 kg CO2/kWh), the harvest residue would have decomposed over time had it been left on the forest floor. After 100 years, forest carbon storage decreases by 3.8-4.1 kg from the sustained production of 1 kWh of electricity per year. The decline in carbon storage delays net GHG mitigation by 4 (small-scale system) to 7 years (large-scale system) when displacing electricity from coal. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.