Citation:
F. van der Hilsta, V. Dornburg, J.P.M. Sanders, B. Elbersen, A. Graves, W.C. Turkenburg, H.W. Elbersen, J.M.C. van Dam, A.P.C. Faaij, Potential, spatial distribution and economic performance of regional biomass
chains: The North of the Netherlands as example, Agricultural Systems, Volume 103, Issue 7, September 2010, Pages 403-417.
Abstract:
This work assesses the viability of regional biomass chains by comparing the
economic performance of potential bioenergy crops with the performance of
current agricultural land uses. The biomass chains assessed are ethanol
production from Miscanthus and from sugar beet in the North of the Netherlands.
The competitiveness of bioenergy crops is assessed by comparing the Net Present
Value (NPV) of perennial crops, current rotations, and rotation schemes which
include additional years of sugar beet. The current land use and soil
suitability for present and bioenergy crops are mapped using a geographical
information system (GIS) and the spatial distribution of economic profitability
is used to indicate where land use change is most likely to occur. Bioethanol
production costs are then compared with petrol costs. The productions costs
comprise costs associated with cultivation, harvest, transport and conversion to
ethanol. The NPVs and cost of feedstock production are calculated for seven soil
suitability classes. The results show that bioenergy crops are not competitive
with current cropping systems on soils classed as “suitable”. On less suitable
soils, the return on intensively managed crops is low and perennial crops
achieve better NPVs than common rotations. Our results showed that minimum
feedstock production costs are 5.4 €/GJ for Miscanthus and 9.7 €/GJ for sugar
beet depending on soil suitability. Ethanol from Miscanthus (24 €/GJ) is a
better option than ethanol from sugar beet (27 €/GJ) in terms of costs. The cost
of bioethanol production from domestically cultivated crops is not competitive
with petrol (12.34€/GJ) production under current circumstances. We propose that
the method demonstrated in this study provides a generic approach for
identifying viable locations for bioenergy crop production based on soil
properties and cur