Mobilisation of Agricultural Residues for Bioenergy and Higher Value Bio-Products: Resources, Barriers, and Sustainability

The purpose of this inter-country study is to explore further mobilisation of agricultural residues for bioenergy and biorefineries (fuel driven and non-fuel driven) applications, and provide an assessment of potential opportunities, barriers and sustainability issues. The study assesses different uses of agricultural residues in Denmark (for energy and biofuels), the U.S. (for advanced/second generation biofuels) and Canada (for potential use for bio-chemicals and bioenergy). The respective agriculture residue supply chains are at different stages of development, and each country is taking a slightly different approach with respect to the scope of their evaluation and sustainability assessment. Denmark has adopted a national scale assessment using the GBEP indicator framework, while Canada is evaluating the suitability of several sustainability schemes, including GBEP, ISO 13065, Prosuite and LEEAFF, to study a lignocellulosic supply chain under development in a high crop yielding region of the country. In the U.S., there are efforts (McBride et al. 2011) to further develop indicators building off the approaches proposed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels 2010), Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP 2011), Council on Sustainable Biomass Production, and several other national and international efforts. McBride et al. (2011) identify major environmental categories of sustainability to be soil quality, water quality and quantity, greenhouse gases, biodiversity, air quality, and productivity, and propose a minimum number of indicators that fit into those categories.