Kraxner F., Leduc S., Fuss S., Schepaschenko D. G., Shvidenko A. Z. Sustainable Forest-Based Bioenergy in Eurasia
1 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz, 1, Laxenburg, 2361 Austria
2 Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change,
Torgauer Str. 12-15, Berlin, 10829 Germany
3 Mytischinski Branch of N. E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University
(Moscow State Forest Univeristy)
Pervaya Institutskaya str., 1, Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, 141005 Russian Federation
4 Federal Research Center Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center, Russian Academy
V. N. Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch
Akademgorodok, 50/28, Krasnoyarsk, 660036 Russian Federation
E-mail: kraxner@iiasa.ac.at, leduc@iiasa.ac.at, fuss@mcc-berlin.net, schepd@iiasa.ac.at,
Abstract
How to cite: Kraxner F.1, Leduc S.1, Fuss S.1, 2, Schepaschenko D. G.1, 3, Shvidenko A. Z.1, 4 Sustainable forest-based bioenergy in Eurasia // Sibirskij Lesnoj Zurnal (Sib. J. For. Sci.). 2018. N. 1: 16–25 (in English with Russian abstract)
DOI: 10.15372/SJFS20180102
© Kraxner F., Leduc S., Fuss S., Schepaschenko D. G., Shvidenko A. Z., 2018
This study analyzes the Russian forest biomass-based bioenergy sector. It is shown that presently – although given abundant resources – the share of heat and electricity from biomass is very minor. With the help of two IIASA models (G4M and BeWhere), future green-field bioenergy plants are identified in a geographically explicit way. Results indicate that by using 3.78 Mt (or 6.16 M m3), twice as much heat and electricity than is presently available from forest biomass could be generated. This amount corresponds to 3.3 % of the total annual wood removals or 12 % of the annually harvested firewood, or about 11 % of illegal logging. With this amount of wood, it is possible to provide an additional 444 thousand households with heat and 1.8 M households with electricity; and at the same time to replace 2.7 Mt of coal or 1.7 Mt of oil or 1.8 G m3 of natural gas, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels by 716 Mt of CO2-equivalent per year. A multitude of co-benefits can be quantified for the socio-economic sector such as green jobs linked to bioenergy. The sustainable sourcing of woody biomass for bioenergy is possible as shown with the help of an online crowdsourcing tool Geo-Wiki.org for forest certification.
