Evaluating Competing Uses of Biomass for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

生物质(植物物质和有机废物)是世界上最大的可再生能源，约占全球一次能源供应量的10%。对温室气体排放和化石燃料枯竭的担忧导致人们对生物质能源和材料的利用越来越感兴趣。到目前为止，国家政策主要侧重于利用生物质生产运输燃料。这种狭隘的关注忽略了生物质的其他潜在用途，如作为化学原料、航空燃料或碳储存介质的制热和发电。以前的研究表明，生物质资源虽然丰富，但很可能不足以满足全球能源需求。因此，迫切需要确定生物质利用的优先事项，并使这些优先事项成为国家政策的基础。该计划将确定在不损害其他环境目标的情况下，哪些生物质用途最有潜力减少温室气体排放。*生物质的不同用途之间的优先次序由于可能的产品路径的绝对数量而变得复杂：不同的生物质来源可以利用各种转化技术进行转化，以生产大量不同的最终产品。这项工作将对围绕生物质能源和产品的气候影响的现有文献进行关键评估，并确定哪些生物途径以最高的信心实现温室气体减排。它将进一步解决这些不同路径的货币成本问题，并构建一个框架，以评估这些路径对当地空气和水质量等其他环境指标的影响。*这项工作对加拿大来说是一个关键时刻，加拿大拥有世界上最大的生物质资源，但最近才开始制定一项关于生物质使用(生物经济)的国家战略。预计结果将指导政府和行业决策者制定更连贯的生物质资源发展政策。**

Biomass (plant matter and organic waste) is the world's largest renewable energy source, accounting for approximately 10% of global primary energy supply. Concern over greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel depletion has led to a growing interest in the use of biomass for both energy and materials. To date, national policies have focused primarily on using biomass to produce transportation fuels. This narrow focus overlooks other potential uses of biomass, such as to generate heat and electricity, as a chemical feedstock, aviation fuel, or carbon storage medium. Previous studies have shown that biomass resources, while substantial, will likely be insufficient to meet global energy demand. As a result, there is an urgent need to set priorities for biomass use, and for these priorities to form the basis of national policies. This program will establish which uses of biomass have the greatest potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, without compromising other environmental goals. ******Prioritizing among different uses of biomass is complicated by the sheer number of possible product pathways: difference sources of biomass can be transformed using a wide variety of conversion technologies to produce a large number of different end products. This work will provide a critical evaluation of existing literature surrounding the climate impact of biomass-based energy and products, and identify which bio-based pathways achieve greenhouse gas reductions with the highest level of confidence. It will further address the monetary costs of these different pathways, and construct a framework to evaluate the impact of these pathways on other environmental metrics such as local air and water quality. ******This work comes at a critical time for Canada, which has among the world's largest biomass resources, but has only recently begun developing a national strategy surrounding uses of biomass (the bioeconomy'). Results are expected to guide both government and industrial decision makers toward more coherent policies for the development of biomass resources. **