Biomass in different biotopes – an extensive resource - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 85

CHAPTER 5
Biomass in different biotopes - an extensive resource
Erik Dahlquist & Jochen Bundschuh
In this chapter, an overview will be made of the available biomass resources, primarily in Europe,
covering different climate zones from north to south, from arctic over boreal into Mediterranean
temperate or subtropical climates. Europe can be seen as an example of what is actually very
similar around the globe in Russia, China and North America. Some other climates and biotopes
are also covered as comparison, especially the tropics in West Africa (Twenneboah, 2000) and
sub-tropics in South Africa. The intention is to give more details than the chapter on the global
resources, where the coverage was more general. Much of the data come from Eurostat (2010)
andWorld Development Indicators (2011). Concerning specific data on selected crop sources are
among others Salisbury and Ross (1992) and Weidow (1998).
5.1 BIOENERGY IN NORTHERN EUROPE
One country in Europe has really utilized biomass energy in a very extensive way. This is Sweden,
where 132TWh biomass was used 2010 of a total 400TWh energy. This is more than the amount
of fossil oil used although the applications are different. Of the total energy use approximately
55-65TWh/y comes from Nuclear power, and 60-70TWh/y from hydropower. About 12TWh
electricity comes from bioenergy converted after combustion and steam production to electricity
in steam turbines. In addition, 6TWh wind power was produced 2011. Of course, it may be unfair
to compare the total use of biomass to electric power made in other ways, but biomass is mostly
used for heating buildings and for use in process industries. Thus, it is reasonable. Most of the
fossil fuels thus are utilized for transportation, where 99 out of 103TWh comes from fossil oil
products in Sweden. The rest is electricity, ethanol and biogas. In the future, we can foresee that
the gas and diesel fuel will be replaced with bio-fuels, as well as by electricity. The electricity then
would be produced in CHP, combined heat and power plants, in energy combines, where different
chemicals and electricity are produced aside of heating and cooling, as well as with hydropower,
wind power and solar power. There should be no technical problem for Sweden to be independent
of fossil fuels by the year 2050. The problem is more to find enough economic incentives for new
technologies. In Dahlquist et al . (2007) and Paz et al . (2007), pathways to fossil-fuel free energy
system are discussed on a regional level in the Stockholm-Mälardalen region of Sweden.
There is generally an issue if we can achieve a fossil-fuel-free society without causing harm to
the environment. Different aspects of this are covered inmany papers. Some examples like Bassam
(1998) are discussing the use of different energy crops and their impact on environment and devel-
opment. Lambers et al . (1998) are covering ecological aspects related to plant physiology, while
Larsson and Granstedt (2009) are presenting how a sustainable agriculture could be achieved.
One issue is to reduce the negative effect of agriculture on the Baltic Sea, which is today suffering
strongly from eutrophication. Their conclusion is that we should halve the fertilizer dosage and
not use more than what can be produced by animals in a balanced farming. They also say that this
will lead to no further leakage of phosphorus to the Baltic Sea, but also the production of food
will go down by some 25%. This can be compensated by reducing the amount of meat we eat to
give a better efficiency from the given farmland area we have in the region to final food supply.
Ernfors et al . (2008) have studied how emission of greenhouse gases is correlating to agriculture
of different kind. In northern Europe, we can see a major emission of N 2 O during springtime
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