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In 2008, a number of Southern African countries cultivated about 900,000 ha of Jatropha, with a number of biodiesel plants ready for production; however, none of the projects succeeded. In 2014, KiOR advanced biofuel Energy Company in the USA announced bankruptcy due to incompetent technology. Studies disclose that the reasons for biofuel plants failure are not only due to lack of incentives and unclear policies but also due to lack of economic feasibility and low production yields. This paper aims to review the techno-economy assessment of second-generation biofuel technologies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize specific techno-economic indicators such as production cost, technology efficiency and process life cycle analysis for advanced biofuel technology and to narrate and illustrate a clear view of what requires assessment to deploy a feasible advanced biofuel technology. This study also reviews assessment of biomass supply chain, feedstock availability and site selection criteria. The review also elaborates on the use of different processes, forecasting and simulation-modeling tools used in different techno-economic analysis studies. The review provides guidance for conducting a technical and economic feasibility study for the advanced biofuels energy business.

The aim of this review is, therefore, to evaluate the techno-economic feasibility studies for the establishment of viable industrial scale production of second-generation biofuels. It does so by grouping studies based on technology selection, feedstock availability and suitability, process simulation and economies as well as technology environmental impact assessment.

In conclusion, techno-economic analysis tools offer researchers insight in terms of where their research and development should focus, to attain the most significant enhancement for the economics of a technology. The study patterns within the scope of techno-economics of advanced biofuel reveal that there is no generic answer as to which technology would be feasible at a commercial scale. It is therefore important to keep in mind that models can only simplify and give a simulation of reality to a certain extent. Nevertheless, reviewed studies do not reach the same results, but some results are logically similar.

The originality of this article specifically illustrates important technical and economic indicators that should be considered when conducting feasibility studies for advance biofuels.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the alternative future scenarios for the international biomass market until the year 2020 and identify underlying steps needed toward a vital working and sustainable biomass market for energy purposes.

Two scenario processes were conducted for the study. A heuristic, semi‐structured approach, including the use of preliminary questionnaires as well as manual and computerised group support systems (GSS), was applied in the scenario processes.

The scenarios estimated that the biomass market will develop and grow rapidly as well as diversify in the future. The scenario analysis shows the key issues in the field: global economic growth including the growing need for energy, environmental forces in the global evolution, the potential of technological development in solving the global problems, capabilities of the international community to find solutions for the global issues, and the complex interdependencies of all these driving forces.

Further research is needed involving analysis of the probabilities of the technological and commercial elements in each scenario. It is also important to conceptualise the scale and directions of biomass trade streams and determine the influences of the scenarios from the viewpoints of different actors.

The results of the scenario processes provide a starting point for further research analysing the technological and commercial aspects of the scenarios and foreseeing the scales and directions of biomass streams.

In this study, scenario processes supplemented by a GSS are applied for investigating the future development of the biomass market.

We present a computable general equilibrium model of the interface between the Great Salt Lake (GSL) ecosystem and both the international and regional economy that impacts the ecosystem. International trade is accounted for in the simplest of terms, involving the export of each of the ecosystem's main commodities and importation of a composite good, as well as equilibrium balances in the savings-investment and current accounts. With respect to the ecosystem, the model treats the various representative species as net energy maximizers and bases population dynamics on the period-by-period sizes of surplus net energy. Energy markets – where predators and prey exchange biomass – determine equilibrium energy prices. With respect to the regional economy, we model five production sectors (at the aggregate industry level) – brine cyst harvesters, the mineral-extraction industry, agriculture, recreation, and a composite-good industry – as well as the household sector. By performing dynamic simulations of the joint ecosystem–regional economy model, we isolate the effects of period-by-period stochastic changes in salinity levels and an initial shock to species-population levels on the ecological and economic variables of the model.

In the absence of new policies, global trends in energy supply and consumption are unsustainable all around. Today, roughly 2.6 billion people use fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung to meet most of their daily energy needs for cooking and heating. There are 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, equal to over a quarter of the world population. The purpose of this paper is to present pro‐poor solutions for addressing the crippling impacts of current global energy use on the world's poorest people.

The paper lays out scenarios for global energy demand and greenhouse‐gas emissions and highlights the impact of these trends on developing countries. Based largely on publications and research from the International Energy Agency, it shows that better targeted subsidies, capacity building, integrated policy approaches and improvements in data collection can help to alleviate the impacts of current energy use on health and the environment.

Decisive action is needed to expand energy access and to arrest the potential impacts of climate change in poor countries. It is demonstrated here that investments in programs that are tailored to promoting development and addressing climate change simultaneously can be successfully deployed.

There is an urgent need for policymakers in rich and poor countries to join together and tackle the global energy and climate challenges, and, as this paper shows, pro‐poor foresight is needed to ensure that these challenges are met in an equitable and sustainable way.

One way of overcoming logistics barriers (poor transportation, handling and storage properties) towards increased utilisation of biomass is to introduce a pre‐treatment process such as torrefaction early in the biomass‐to‐energy supply chain. Torrefaction offers a range of potentially beneficial logistics properties but the actual benefits depend upon how the supply chain is configured to address various elements of customer demand. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework for torrefaction configuration in a supply chain perspective for different types of customers.

Sophisticated pre‐treatment processes are yet to reach the commercialisation phase. Identification of possible supply chain configurations is in this paper done through a conceptual approach by bringing together knowledge from related research fields such as unrefined forest fuel, pellets and coal logistics with prescriptions for configuration derived from the subject area of supply chain management (SCM).

A framework that explicates different elements of supply and demand of torrefaction is proposed, and exemplified by three distinct supply chains. Depending on demand, torrefaction serves different purposes, bridging gaps in place, time, quality and ownership. Furthermore, different supply chain configurations will pose different requirements on torrefaction in terms of producing different product quality, durability, energy density and hydrophobicity of the pellets.

The proposed framework entails a set of propositions, but requires further development through empirical studies using complementary research methods such as interviews or surveys and quantification through techno‐economical or optimisation from a supply chain perspective.

This paper provides a framework that can inform decisions makers in biomass‐to‐energy supply chains, in particular at torrefaction plants, on upstream and downstream implications of their decisions.

The findings have implications for biomass‐to‐energy supply chains in general, and in particular, the paper provides a supply chain perspective of pre‐treatment processes, where previous research has focused primarily on technical aspects of torrefaction.

The purpose of this paper is to design a contract to coordinate the biomass molding fuel supply chain consisting of a supplier with uncertain supply and a producer with cyclical demand as well as improve the profit of this supply chain.

In this paper, the supply chain model was build and all the variables and assumptions are set. Stackelberg game model was used to analyze and solve the problem. Furthermore, the authors give numerical examples and result analysis on the basis of data coming from field study and online information about a real biomass fuel supply chain.

The wholesale price with shortage penalty contract the authors proposed can coordinate the supply chain. And as the dominator of the supply chain, the producer can realize the redistribution of profits within the supply chain by determine the contract parameters.

This one-to-one supply chain is a basic of complex supply chain system. Multi-to-one, one-to-multi and multi-to-multi supply chain can be studied in the future.

The results obtained in this paper can be used as a reference for enterprises in biomass energy supply chain to make contracts and realize the long-term co-operations among supply chain members.

The design of a biomass supply chain is a problem where multiple stakeholders with often conflicting objectives are involved. To accommodate the aspects stakeholder, the supply chain design should incorporate multiple objectives. In addition to the supply chain design, the management of energy from biomass is a demanding task, as the operation of production of biomass products needs to be aligned with the rest of the operations of the biomass supply chain. The purpose of the paper is to propose a mathematical framework for the optimal design of biomass supply chain.

An integrated mathematical framework that models biomass production, transportation and warehousing throughout the nodes of a biomass supply chain is presented. Owing to conflicting objectives, weights are imposed on each aspect, and a 0-1 weighted goal programming mixed-integer linear programming (WGP MILP) programming model is formulated and used for all possible weight representations under environmental, economic and social criteria.

The results of the study show that emphasis on the environmental aspect, expressed with high values in the environmental criterion, significantly reduces the level of CO₂ emissions derived from the transportation of biomass through the various nodes of the supply chain. Environmental and economic criteria seem to be moving in the same direction for high weight values in the corresponding aspect. From the results, social criterion seems to move to the opposite direction from environmental and economic criteria.

An integrated mathematical framework is presented modeling biomass production, transportation and warehousing. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, such a model that integrates multiple objectives with supply chain design has not yet been published.

This paper examines, based on certain criteria, the most feasible sustainable energy technology (SET) for rural Bangladesh. The criteria used for the appropriateness of SET for rural Bangladesh are: (a) availability of energy resources, (b) degree of technological complexity of the proposed technology, (c) cost effectiveness, (d) balance between supply of and demand for energy, (e) contribution of the particular energy technology to reducing greenhouse gas emission, and (f) major constraints associated with accepting the recommended technology. The paper describes the theoretical part of the author's Ph.D. thesis where fundamental work has been done. The study applies the criteria to three main energy technologies‐ biomass, solar and wind‐ and finds that none of these technologies are suitable on their own. However, among the three proposed energy technologies, biomass might be the best possible option which can make a positive contribution to alleviate energy poverty in rural Bangladesh. Findings of this study are useful for development policy makers and researchers.

This paper aims to provide a view on the implications of large‐scale increases in demand for biomass production on water storage behaviours. In climates of high variability in rainfall, the pressures on farmers to build up on‐farm surface water supplies to the detriment of communities and businesses downstream is already present. Therefore, the added water storage pressures that arise from future demands for biomass need to be investigated.

This viewpoint presents a review of the issues surrounding the forecast for demand for agriculturally produced biomass and the increased demands on surface water storage created. The paper then presents the problem of unfair and unsafe water storage in agriculture through a review of the surrounding literature and policy in place in Australia.

The paper finds that if predicted skyrocketing future demand for biomass production for energy eventuates, then surface water on‐farm storages would be placed at increased risk as farmers experience pressure to store more water than they are entitled to. Increased demands from biomass production could mean that surrounding communities suffer increased threat from unfair water sharing in times of drought, and unsafe water storage in times of flood.

Policy should be developed rapidly to address the current unsustainable water storage management practices of farmers and sustainable biomass production. Water management behaviour certification should be introduced immediately to counter the risk of over storage in light of the demands of the future.

The paper provides an overview of the issues surrounding unfair and unsafe on farm water storage in dams in climate extremes placed in the context of a new and emerging demand on farmers to produce in an unsustainable manner.

Second-generation biofuel is regarded as a sustainable alternatives to fossil energy in transportation where electricity is not feasible. The main purpose of this study is to analyze how large-scale second-generation biofuel based on wood may affect the competitiveness of more mature bioenergy technologies such as bioheat through competition in the biomass market. The impacts on forest industries are also included.

An economic model for the energy and forest sectors based on partial equilibrium modeling is used to quantify the impacts of four different locations of biofuel production in Norway.

The results show that there are regional variations in biomass price effects depending on local raw material availability and costs of transport and import. Technologies allowing for a larger variety of wood biomass qualities will face lower biomass prices than technologies using only one species as raw material, causing less reduction in the production of bioheat and forest industrial products. For Norway specifically, the paper concludes that even if there is a potential for both increased bioheat generation and large-scale biofuel production, the production of second-generation biofuels based on domestic wood resources will cause a 5-20 percent reduction in bioheat generation depending on the scale of biofuel production.

This study demonstrates how impacts on biomass markets from establishment of biofuel production vary quite substantially with location, production level and choice of feedstock. One main finding is the quite large biomass cost impact that is seen in the model runs when introducing large-scale biofuel production. Increased biomass costs reduce the profitability and this must be taken into account when establishing a biofuel installation.

The originality of the paper is the analyses of biofuel impacts with a detailed model for biomass supply as the bioenergy and forest sectors.