To be or not to be a biobased commodity : assessing requirements and candidates for lignocellulosic based commodities

Resúmen

Lignocellulosic biomass is an underutilised renewable resource. Using this biomass for biobased applications is hampered by a lack of possibilities to efficiently link the biomass to markets which include both energy applications such as heat and electricity production, conversion to transport fuels and chemicals and materials. Siting conversion facilities near abundant biomass has the benefit of availability of low cost biomass, but the locations generally lack security of supply, availability of qualified personnel, and do not benefit from existing infrastructure and possibilities to add value to residues. Furthermore, the scale of conversion systems is limited by local cost of biomass supply. The development of real lignocellulosic commodities can connect biomass to markets and lower the opportunity costs of the commodities. The characteristics of real commodities are defined as follows: a commodity has to be easy to store, have a high (energy) density and be nutrient depleted. The commodity has to be uniform enough to be fungible. This will allow standardization of transport, contracting, insurance, conversion systems and development of functioning markets which includes high tradability and availability of financial instruments. Finally sustainability also has to be standardized. Several candidates as real commodities exist including wood pellets and pyrolysis oil. It is argued that only a few biomass commodities have to be defined that cover all lignocellulosic biomass types (wood, grass, straw, bagasse, processing residues, etc.) and also all applications such as heat, electricity, fuels, chemicals and materials. The standards have to be as wide as possible and avoid frivolous or unnecessary demands. To achieve this all stakeholders in the production chain (biomass producers, machine builders, regulators, insurers, bankers, transport, final users) have to be involved. This will require international collaboration else the potential lignocellulosic biomass will not materialize. The development of real lignocellulosic commodities can connect biomass to markets and lower the cost of biomass supply by lowering transaction costs. Commodities can contribute to efficient and circular use of biomass by giving biomass that would not have an efficient use (stranded biomass) a market.