How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential
How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential
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DOI：
10.1111/gcbb.12655
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发表时间：
2019-10-26
影响因子：
5.6
通讯作者：
Edmondson, Jill L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Grafius, Darren R.;Hall, Stephen;Edmondson, Jill L.
生物燃料为减少对化石燃料的依赖提供了一个全球性的重要机会;然而，其可持续性只能在个别情况下进行有意义的探索。这取决于多种因素，包括：生命周期温室气体排放、空气质量影响、粮食与燃料的权衡、土地使用变化对生物多样性的影响以及能源转型的社会经济影响。一个可以解决许多这些问题的解决办法是在非农业用地上当地生产生物燃料。城市地区推动全球变化，例如，它们占全球能源使用量的70%，但其资源生产潜力在很大程度上被忽视;然而，未充分利用的城市绿地可以在消费点附近用于生物燃料生产。这可以避免农业用地中的粮食与燃料土地冲突和长途运输成本，为城市居民提供生态系统服务效益，并提高城镇的可持续性和复原力。在这里，我们使用地理信息系统，以确定适合生物燃料生产的城市绿地，使用排除标准，在10个英国城市。然后，我们对三种不同的生物燃料的生产潜力进行建模：芒草，短轮伐期矮林（SRC）杨柳和SRC白杨，在确定的绿地内，并外推到英国规模。我们证明，大约10%的城市绿地（3%的建设用地）可能适合生物燃料生产。我们估计这将通过供热、发电和热电联产（CHP）运营来满足能源需求。我们的研究结果表明，如果充分利用，到2030年，城市生物燃料生产可以满足英国气候兼容能源情景中热电联产系统中近五分之一的生物质需求，对其他可比国家和地区可能具有类似的影响。
Biofuel provides a globally significant opportunity to reduce fossil fuel dependence; however, its sustainability can only be meaningfully explored for individual cases. It depends on multiple considerations including: life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, air quality impacts, food versus fuel trade-offs, biodiversity impacts of land use change and socio-economic impacts of energy transitions. One solution that may address many of these issues is local production of biofuel on non-agricultural land. Urban areas drive global change, for example, they are responsible for 70% of global energy use, but are largely ignored in their resource production potential; however, underused urban greenspaces could be utilized for biofuel production near the point of consumption. This could avoid food versus fuel land conflicts in agricultural land and long-distance transport costs, provide ecosystem service benefits to urban dwellers and increase the sustainability and resilience of cities and towns. Here, we use a Geographic Information System to identify urban greenspaces suitable for biofuel production, using exclusion criteria, in 10 UK cities. We then model production potential of three different biofuels: Miscanthus grass, short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and SRC poplar, within the greenspaces identified and extrapolate up to a UK-scale. We demonstrate that approximately 10% of urban greenspace (3% of built-up land) is potentially suitable for biofuel production. We estimate the potential of this to meet energy demand through heat generation, electricity and combined heat and power (CHP) operations. Our findings show that, if fully utilized, urban biofuel production could meet nearly a fifth of demand for biomass in CHP systems in the United Kingdom's climate compatible energy scenarios by 2030, with potentially similar implications for other comparable countries and regions.