Science Centres: Energy

Investigating bioenergy options

Can bioenergy for heat, power, and transport fuel significantly enhance New Zealand’s energy options, assessed in terms of price, security of supply, and environmental outcomes?

As we outlined in the previous issue of Climate-Energy Solutions Update, bioenergy is the energy derived from the conversion of plant material to provide heat, power, or liquid fuels. It comes in many forms, from bioethanol and biodiesel to solid fuels, and can be generated from many sources including plantation forestry, short rotation crops, forage crops, grasses, oils, algae, solid wastes, and effluents.

The Scion-led project, Bioenergy options for New Zealand, will assess the potential use of bioenergy in this country in detail. The team will produce a set of spatial maps of bioenergy resources, develop scenarios to assess the full lifecycle costs, and assess the uncertainties and risks associated with various options. This information will be fed into the bioenergy part of the ‘Energyscape’.

The work will also identify bioenergy-related research gaps: what research investment is required to exploit the best options?

The research team comprises experts from Scion, CRL Energy, Landcare Research, Diversa, Waste Solutions, University of British Columbia, Procede Group Netherlands, TNO Netherlands, and Process Developments.

The work is worth $1 million and will be complete by June 2008.