Environmental Sustainability of Heat Produced by Poplar Short-Rotation Coppice (SRC) Woody Biomass

As demonstrated for some time, the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can also take place using agroforestry biomass. Short-rotation coppice (SRC) is one of the sources of woody biomass production. In our work, the supply of woody biomass was considered by examining four different cutting shifts (2, 3, 4 and 5 years) and, for each, the Global Warming Potential (GWP) was evaluated according to the IPCC 2007 method. Regarding the rotation cycle, four biomass collection systems characterized by different levels of mechanization were analyzed and compared. In this study, it was assumed that the biomass produced by the SRC plantations was burned in a 350 kWt biomass power plant to heat a public building. The environmental impact generated by the production of 1 GJ of thermal energy was assessed for each of the forest plants examined, considering the entire life cycle, from the field phase to the energy production. The results were compared with those obtained to produce the same amount of thermal energy from a diesel boiler. Comparing the two systems analyzed, it was shown that the production and use of wood biomass to obtain thermal energy can lead to a reduction in the Global Warming Potential of over 70% compared to the use of fossil fuel.