Bioenergy for development - Technical and environmental dimensions - FAO Environment and energy paper 13













Table of Contents


by
J. Woods and D.O. Hall
Kings College London
Division of Life Sciences
London, United Kingdom

FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FAO - Fiat/Panis
Rome, 1994

Reprinted 1995

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M-08
ISBN 92-5-103449-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

© FAO 1994

This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software and careful manual recorrection. Even if the quality of digitalisation is high, the FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.


Table of Contents


Summary

Abbreviations.

1 Introduction.

2. The potential for energy from biomass.

Theoretical optimum productivity.
Factors limiting growth
Potential global productivities.
Present land use and availability.

Wastelands & Potential land for Forests.
Land Reclamation Case Studies.

Land availability.
Carbon balances and fossil-fuel substitution.

Energy Output:Input Ratios.

3. Rural energy & industry: Its role in sustainable development.

Industrial uses of biomass.
Charcoal.

Brazil.
Somalia.

Ethanol.

Brazil.
Zimbabwe.

Heat.

Austria.

Combined heat and power (CHP).

Denmark (biogas).

Electricity.

United States of America.
Brazil.
India.
Mauritius.

Employment potential.

4. Bioenergy conversion technologies.

Direct combustion processes.

Co-firing.

Thermochemical processes.

Pyrolysis.
Carbonisation.
Gasification.
Catalytic Liquefaction.

Biochemical processes.

Anaerobic Fermentation.
Methane Production in Landfills.
Ethanol Fermentation.
Biodiesel.

5. Environmental interactions.

Health.
Global warming.
Environmental benefits of correctly managed biofuel production.
Biodiversity.
Soil-carbon cycles.

6. Policy, socio-economics and institutions.

Internalisation of Externalities.

Carbon Taxes.
Tradeable Permits.
Hidden costs & subsidies.

Regulations.

Energy Efficiency.
Land Availability.

Institutions.
Policy options at the country level.

7. Conclusions.

Land availability.
Environment.
Economics.
Constraints.

References.

Tables and figures