Elsevier

Renewable Energy

Volume 81, September 2015, Pages 499-508
Renewable Energy

Building integrated bioenergy production (BIBP): Economic sustainability analysis of Bari airport CHP (combined heat and power) upgrade fueled with bioenergy from short chain

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.03.057Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The definition of the Zero Energy Kilometer (ZKE) approach was presented.

  • Integration of local bioenergy in civil infrastructure was discussed.

  • Current renewables incentive schemes and their trends were analyzed.

  • According to ZKE model, the most suitable bioenergy for the case study was identified.

Abstract

Harnessing biomass-derived energy can improve environmental and economic sustainability of a Combined Heat and Power production. The paper presents a new decision making policy and its application in meeting the energy up-grading needs of the Bari airport (300 kWe), based on an economic-environmental analysis related to the use of different bioenergy from short chain (<70 km). The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how a “Zero Kilometer Energy” design model in a CHP plant represents a more sustainable alternative to the conventional approach, in terms of impacts on the local socio-economic system. The study has been carried out in order to promote a synergistic and sustainable relationship between a territory and the infrastructures that service it, in terms of energy supply chain. For this purpose, three different bioenergy production systems (biomass from wood waste, vegetable oil/biodiesel and biogas from food waste) harnessing local agro-energy resources in Apulian region (Italy) were analyzed. The analysis has been integrated by a DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) Method, identifying the economic feasibility to make an informed choice. Finally the theoretical paybacks under different governmental incentive schemes, from 2012 to 2015, have been calculated along with estimated carbon savings to highlight the energy market trends for the different biomass resources.

Introduction

In response to predictions of increasing global energy consumption and GHG emissions, one adaptation strategy that has been encouraged is the planning, design, and increased installation of bioenergy plants, such as biomass combustion, thermo-chemical conversion and biogas and biofuels production. In order to enable commercial availability of advanced bioenergy at large scale by 2020, European Union has adopted several measures [1] to aim at production costs allowing competitiveness with fossil fuels at the prevailing economic and regulatory market conditions.

A number of studies have been conducted to investigate bioenergy sustainability using environmental and socio-economic indicators [2], [3] and life cycle assessment analysis [4]. While LCA studies have considered different key methodological issues and assumptions [5], for example, in relation to energy balance [6], land-use changes [7] and GHG savings [8], relatively little is yet known about the relationships between groups of factors [9], such as the sizes, types, and locations of bioenergy plants which together influence their effectiveness in improving territorial sustainability. Even a recent research article [10] shows that there is no rationale for discriminating between scales of stationary bioenergy plants related to environmental performances; but associated impact due to energy distribution has been considered decisive.

Although a large number of specific applications of bioenergy from dedicated crops are documented. Recently, several studies have focused on electricity production from dedicated short-rotation bioenergy crops [11], [12], [13]. One of these studies [12] has shown that there is no clear environmental advantage between some dedicated bioenergy crops (corn and miscanthus) and conventional fossil fuel for several energy-related products, although some advantages in terms of mitigating climate change, considering biogenic CO2 emissions as carbon neutral. The future of biomass energy supply would lie in the optimization of current technologies evaluating capabilities of decentralized renewable combined heat and power production [14].

A recent scientific research [15], dealing with optimization of bioenergy scale, has focused on economic aspects; it has pointed out that there is a clear trade-off between economy of scale related to the energy production size and the biomass procurement costs due to increasing supply chain size, in particular the raise of transportation distances. Other links have been found between scales of deployment and life cycle environmental impact. For instance, another recent study [16], focusing on an energy distribution perspective, has highlighted the close relationship between the environmental assessment parameters and the operational losses of bioenergy systems. Therefore, the reduction of supply chain costs and cons is possible through efficient proximity logic [17], promoting short production–consumption pathways for energy. Short chain is indeed not only a logic solution, but also a way to develop the role of territory in the bioenergy systems.

In order to improve sustainability level, it is necessary to investigate and build a new relationship with the territory, not only as the place of production and consumption. Just taking a holistic design approach will be possible to enhance the local impacts of energy production, meeting the territorial needs, so that energy will turn into a driver for development.

This model, shown below, allows comparison at a social, economic, environmental sustainability level with the ability to develop suitable bioenergy profiles that are specific to a local context, hereinafter called “Territorial Energy Vocation” (TEV). In particular, it will be pointed out how a sustainable planning approach [18] represents a viable alternative to ordinary energy design and management.

Section snippets

Methods

In order to achieve the sustainability goal, the specialized approach so far has focused on improving energy systems efficiency, by building many models [19] in relation to production, distribution and consumption, whereas separated from each other. The holistic approach tries to act simultaneously on the three sectors, taking advantage of the high-level policy attention on bioenergy as a driver to showcase the territorial energy vocation (TEV) and to pursue socially acceptable dynamics for the

Results and discussion

The holistic approach described in the second section is the original core around which an economic analysis organized in sixteen scenarios for each available bioenergy is developed. Overall, the economic feasibility study evaluates forty-eight (48) scenarios, considering the three local bioenergy: (B) Biogas from food waste, (O) Vegetable Oil/Biodiesel and (W) Wood chips from pruning of olive trees. In order to describe the scenarios in the discussion, an alphanumeric code has been adopted (X

Conclusions

In this paper, a new model to support the decision making during the process of planning a bioenergy supply chain has been presented. The results can be summarized as follows:

  • The case study of Bari airport (Italy) has been executed to introduce and evaluate sustainability level improvements of the supply chain different stages: the biomass supply, the operating cash flows, the governmental incentive schemes and territorial impacts.

  • Defining the question of an optimal and sustainable energy

Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by “Progetto Avvio alla Ricerca 2012” a research grant funded by Sapienza University of Rome (n. 000328_2012_NASTASI), Principal Investigator: Benedetto Nastasi, titled: “Bioenergy: relation between the development of system solutions and incentive schemes”.

References (32)

  • S. French et al.

    The varied contexts of environmental decision problems and their implications for decision support

    Environ Sci Policy

    (2005)
  • L. de Santoli et al.

    Energy characterization of CHP fuelled with hydrogen enriched natural gas blends

    Energy

    (2013)
  • EIBI (European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative). Boosting the contribution of bioenergy to the EU climate and energy...
  • R. Hammerschlag

    Ethanol's energy return on investment:  a survey of the literature 1990−present

    Environ Sci Technol

    (2006)
  • G. Guest et al.

    Life cycle assessment of biomass-based combined heat and power plants: centralized versus decentralized deployment strategies

    J Industrial Ecol

    (2011)
  • S. Hauka et al.

    Economic evaluation of short rotation coppice systems for energy from biomass—a review

    Renew Sustain Energy Rev

    (2014)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text