Plant biomass are woody and non-wood materials (e.g., oil palm, bamboo, rattan, bagasse, and kenaf) and are abundant and renewable resource. Unfortunately, the heavy reliance on this resource is a threat to forest ecosystems and a recipe for accelerated land resource degradation. Due to the increasing scarcity of wood resources, many rural communities have shifted to utilization of crop residues for many different applications. The non-wood biomass is readily available, environmental friendly, and technologically suitable, and therefore, an excellent raw material for the future. The non-wood materials like bamboo, rattan, oil palm, and bagasse have superior properties and durability, which can be further prolonged by the modifi cation treatment. The modifi cation treatments increase the performance of the non-wood and could make it suitable for applications in many fi elds ranging from construction industry to automotive industry. This chapter deals with the properties improvement techniques of the selected non-wood biomasses and evaluates its applications for various purposes. The new developments dealing with the improvement of non-wood properties have also been presented in the chapter. The performance of non-wood biomass materials has been compared to the wood-based materials. Recent studies pertaining to the above topics have also been cited. Finally, the advanced applications of the improved non-wood biomasses have been highlighted.

Biomass and bioenergy

Energy demands, pollution and global warming induced by globalization are rising, thus calling for alternative sources of energies. In particular, biofuels are increasingly used for transportation, electric power and heat energy generation. Biofuels can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50%. Biofuels are produced from organic matter and waste such as dry lignocellulose, algae, yeast, restaurant greases, food grain, non-food grain and animal fats. Biofuel from crop residues can be promoted by government subsidies to reduce the fuel price and meet the requirement of industries, transportation and agricultural sectors.

Biofuels, biodiesel and biohydrogen production using bioprocesses. A review

Bio-oil is considered a renewable feedstock for the production of energy, fuels, chemicals and carbon materials. These specifically include the direct combustion of bio-oil as a boiler fuel, the production of biofuel from bio-oil via hydrotreatment, or the production of value-added chemicals via separation and acid-catalysis/hydrogenation or the conversion of bio-oil to carbon materials via polymerisation/cracking. So far, considerable efforts have been made to develop feasible method for utilizing bio-oil. However, it remains a challenge to find a suitable outlet for the commercial application of bio-oil. The conversion of bio-oil into the useful products has been the focus of numerous studies. Therefore, the review of the progress of this area is of importance for providing the necessary information for assessing the feasibility of the varied process for the application of bio-oil in a comparative manner. This work reviewed the progress of bio-oil as the feedstock for the use as boiler, heavy-duty engine fuel, or the use as the feedstock for the production biofuel, hydrogen, chemicals, carbonaceous materials, binder for electrode and asphalt, pesticide and fertilizer, polyurethane foam and plastics. In addition, the major issues associated with the application of bio-oil as well as the techno-economic aspects of each application were analysed as well. Suggestions were given for the future developments in each application. The analysis indicated that majority of these technologies are mainly in the initial stages of developments. Either cost or the technical issues are the major barrier for the commercial application of bio-oil in large scale.

Progress of the applications of bio-oil

https://research.chalmers.se/publication/522738/file/522738_Fulltext.pdf

Advanced biofuels to decarbonise European transport by 2030: Markets, challenges, and policies that impact their successful market uptake

Foresight methods are useful for long-range planning such as strategic energy management, energy policy, and renewable and sustainable energy planning to manage uncertainties. Futures studies may affect the anticipation and speculation of future and emerging technologies. In this paper, biofuels futures are explored based on a critical evaluation of the literature to draw the state-of-the-art for the future-oriented biofuel research. A six-fold typology mapping from two main futures studies methodologies is used. (i) descriptive scenarios, forecasts, and statistical scenarios as descriptive methods; (ii) roadmaps, visions, and backcasts as prescriptive methods. The expectations embodied in the literature are then explored through deriving research challenges about the future of biofuels: (1) the main motives and driving forces in a biofuel era; (2) the main obstacles or difficulties confronting a biofuel era; (3) the plausibility and importance of each of different scenarios; (4) key technological breakthroughs for the bioeconomy; (5) details about development, maturity and flourish; (6) biofuel era's significant achievement. The literature explains a wide range of plausible futures, from centralized systems related to technological breakthroughs to decentralized systems based on small-scale renewable. Fundamental technological elements are uncovered, and a plausible biofuel economy is drawn along with the necessary pathway to reach it. The review shows a general agreement that a biofuel economy would develop gradually, and a prompt shift to biofuels would require powerful governmental support coupled with significant disruptions such as changes in environmental principles of countries, technology breakthroughs, higher oil prices, and urgency of climate change.

Outlook on biofuels in future studies: A systematic literature review

Biomass for energy in the EU – The support framework

This paper aims to present a comparative analysis of biogas electricity deployment in EU countries over the period of 2010–2017. The analysis shows that the deployment of biogas electricity is mainly linked to the moment of the shift in the support framework, the maturity of tenders and the feasibility of long-term objectives. With 200 incentives in place the EU has created favourable conditions to support biogas electricity. Manure and waste are the main feedstocks of biogas electricity in the EU that receive the highest incentives. However, the recent shift towards capacity market mechanism has had an adverse effect in the deployment of biogas electricity. The way in which the biogas is currently valorised, has not been very effective in some EU countries. We found that the EU average growth rate of biogas electricity over 2016–2017 dropped 4 times compared with 2014–2016. Plans/targets have been very supportive in the fast deployment of biogas electricity. Nevertheless, a clear post 2020 picture for renewables is still missing in several EU countries that are risking lagging in biogas electricity deployment. The future of biogas is been seen promising on the upgrade to biomethane as a sustainable input for environment and economy.

Support for biogas in the EU electricity sector – A comparative analysis

The energy policy in France that focuses on energy transition and reduction of greenhouse gases, has provided favourable conditions for the deployment of solar photovoltaics. In September 2018 more than 80% of the expected plan of solar photovoltaics capacity for this year was reached. After 2010 the support for solar photovoltaics in France took the form of capacity market mechanism. This paper aims to provide insight to this shift that brought the highest additional installed capacity of solar photovoltaics in France. The objective of this paper is to provide an indicative analysis on how the capacity market mechanism for solar photovoltaics in France has changed over years and how administrative procedures related to this mechanism have been improved. The analysis shows that this system has been favourable to small scale producers even that lately a tendency is seen to move towards large-scale projects. The system has seen a high level of competition, especially between ground-mounted projects, oversubscribing the required volume with more than 12 times. For each MW solar photovoltaics required through calls for tender, 3.5 MW were offered by the submitted dossiers. We found that in 2017 the average price of tenders for solar photovoltaics almost halved compared with the level this indicator had in 2011. For ground mounted solar photovoltaics projects, the prices decreased by 72%. For rooftop installations the decrease accounted for 60%. Despite the improvements done in administrative procedures, still some barriers are in place influencing the speed of the deployment of solar photovoltaics technology in France.

https://www.ijsmartgrid.org/index.php/ijsmartgridnew/article/download/36/pdf

An Analysis of Capacity Market Mechanism for Solar Photovoltaics in France

France promoted the deployment of solar photovoltaic through the use of the most widespread type of support among EU countries, the feed-in tariff, combined with feed-in premium and tendering system. This paper overviewed the French historic framework of the support for this technology as well as the way in which this support changed quantitatively over period 2002-2017. The paper provides insight to the relationship between the amount of incentives granted, the average tariffs, the final renewable electricity generated from this technology and its installed capacity through an indicative analysis that reveals a positive/no patterns/negative correlation in short term (incentives versus the production of incentivized energy), as well as in long term (incentives versus the installed capacity). Feed-in tariff scheme gave the real uptake for solar photovoltaic in France, which had the intended effect of the policies that were introduced to promote it. We found that 1% increase in the amount of support for solar photovoltaics in France during period 2005-2016 has contributed to an increase by 0.6% in the installed capacity of this technology. Further we found that the incentives for solar photovoltaics given from tendering system decreased the most over years compared with the incentives from regular feed-in tariffs. The insight analysis shows that indicators as gross domestic production, CO 2 emissions, spot electricity prices, households’ electricity prices, unitary feed-in tariff through regular and tendering system are important to define the trend of the solar photovoltaic capacity in France. The combination between feed-in tariffs and tendering system produced in 2011 the largest additional capacity over the period under analysis. Overall, the analysis shows that the French supporting policies for photovoltaic have been effective in promoting this technology.

Martin Jégard

Papers

Biomass for energy in the EU – The support framework

Support for biogas in the EU electricity sector – A comparative analysis

An Analysis of Capacity Market Mechanism for Solar Photovoltaics in France

Support for Solar Photovoltaic in France – A Shift towards Capacity Market Mechanism