A cost analysis of alternate biomass supply systems

Forest biomass represents a viable supplement for our nation’s future energy needs. The intensive culture of Populus hybrid was financially evaluated under a rotation length of 4 years and a tree spacing of 0.6 m by 0.8 m. Four plantation strategies (control, fertilization, irrigation, and fertilization-irrigation) were employed on favorable and unfavorable growing sites. The various strategy/site combinations produced average annual yields ranging from 7.9 to 10.8 ovendry tonnes (ODt) per hectare. Production costs ranged from $28.71/ODt for control on the better site to $103.62/ODt for irrigation on the unfavorable site. Alternate harvesting and storage strategies were linked to the plantation strategies to determine the least-cost approach for supplying biomass to a conversion center. These additional strategy requirements more than doubled the final delivered costs of biomass from the control strategy.

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