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Abstract

Profitability of biomass production is the main condition to be fulfilled for farmers to be more interested in growing short rotation woody crops (SRWC). The aim of this study was to assess the cost and economic efficiency of production of chips from three SRWC species (willow, poplar, black locust) depending on the soil amendment method, biomass prices and the transportation distance to the end user. The economic analysis assessed the cost of dry chips and unit energy production, revenue, discounted pay-back period, net present value and internal rate of return.In the base scenario the highest revenue 292 (sic) ha(-1) year(-1) was found for willow amended with lignin. The best revenue for poplar (194 (sic) ha(-1) year(-1)) was achieved when the crop was fertilised with mineral fertiliser and amended with lignin. No options for black locust were profitable. Other economic indices were the best in the production of willow as well. The change in the biomass price and transport distance influenced the revenue in the production of all species. Our study has indicated the importance of the right choice of species and method of soil amendment, as this determined the biomass yield and it had a great effect on the cost of chip production and the amount of revenue gained from such production. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Salix viminalis; Populus nigra x P. maximowiczii; Robinia pseudoacacia; Production cost; Income; Revenue

Published in

Biomass and Bioenergy
2017, volume: 106, pages: 74-82
Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

SLU Authors

Global goals (SDG)

SDG7 Affordable and clean energy

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Soil Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.08.019

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/92748