B. Schlamadinger et G. Marland, FULL FUEL-CYCLE CARBON BALANCES OF BIOENERGY AND FORESTRY OPTIONS, Energy conversion and management, 37(6-8), 1996, pp. 813-818
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Energy & Fuels",Mechanics,"Physics, Nuclear",Thermodynamics
Forestry projects can - at least temporarily - mitigate the net flux o
f anthropogenic CO2 to the atmosphere by removing C from the atmospher
e and sequestering it in growing trees. The net flux of C to the atmos
phere can also be reduced if trees are burned to displace the burning
of fossil fuels and are then replanted to recycle the C back into the
biosphere, or if wood is used for products that store carbon and are o
therwise made from other, more energy-intensive materials. A computer
model is employed to calculate carbon balances of two land management
and biomass utilization scenarios - conventional forest management and
short-rotation forestry. Sensitivity analyses reveal that the most im
portant site and system dependent parameters for the net reduction of
carbon emissions are the site occupancy prior to the project, growth r
ate, efficiency of biomass conversion into energy and non-energy produ
cts, and carbon emission rates and efficiencies of displaced fossil fu
el cycles. The results demonstrate that time is another important cons
ideration and that projects can look considerably different, in terms
of C balance, when the endpoint of the analysis is 20, 50, or 100 year
s.