IEA Bioenergy - Task 25

(Source: ExCo41 Progress Report)

The most important items of the Task 25 work program are summarized below (for a more detailed account see the Task Proposal for Task 25).

National research programs

An important prerequisite of the co-operation in this Task is to have an overview of the national and international (e.g. EU and OECD) research programs on bioenergy and GHG. A questionnaire will be elaborated and sent out to national and international funding agencies as well as to other possible sources of research funds. The feedback will be summarized in a report that will be made available to all these agencies.


Update of the WWW Homepage

The Task XV homepage developed in 1996 (http://www.joanneum.ac.at/IEA-Bioenergy-TaskXV) will be redesigned and extended in order to include the most recent developments, as well as information about those countries that join the new Task and hence have not yet been directly involved in Task XV.


Bibliography Update

Results and conclusions that have already been achieved will form a basis for the work in the new Task. It is intended to update the 1996 bibliography compiled within Task XV during 1998. This bibliography will cover existing publications, unpublished reports, databases and other written or electronically available information. A directory of researchers and research groups active in the field, including short descriptions of past, ongoing or future projects will be included as well.


Model improvement and dissemination

Models developed for assessing GHG balances will be improved and extended mainly within the national or international (e.g. EU) research programs. However, where possible and desired such models should be made more user-friendly and - taking into account copyright and other restrictions - provided to a broader circle of analysts, thus meeting some already existing demand. Models could be made available via the Homepage of the Task or through the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC) of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which is specialized on dissemination of CO2-related data packages and computer models.


Case studies

Each country is expected to have greater interest in specific biomass production and utilization schemes and hence selection of case studies should account for that. For instance in some countries the most important short-term source for biomass is seen to be wood chips from the timber industry, pulp and paper industry, precommercial thinning and logging residues. By contrast, other countries put more emphasis on liquid biofuels from herbaceous crops. A standard methodology for GHG balances of bioenergy systems has been elaborated within Task XV, allowing for a comparison between bioenergy systems and traditional fossil fuel and other energy systems used as a reference. Within Task 25 it is planned to assess case studies using this standard methodology. Two goals are considered especially important: Firstly, the case studies will show whether the methodology can be readily used for various different fuel chains, or whether adjustments are necessary in order to cover all major effects. Secondly, comparisons among fuel chains shall be made in order to allow conclusions and recommendations. These recommendations could indicate that some biomass routes are preferable to others from a GHG emissions perspective, but could as well concern improvements of existing systems. Case studies could also assess ongoing projects built upon the concepts Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which are based on voluntary co-operation between countries to reduce GHG emissions. Especially AIJ has been discussed intensively over the last few years, both from a technical and political point of view. AIJ is often considered to offer a high potential for GHG mitigation with respect to forestry and bioenergy projects. There are questions still to be resolved; for example, how CO2 emission reductions should be measured and verified, how credits and debits should be allocated, and how carbon accumulated or sequestered within a project should be dealt with after the project lifetime.


Sensitivity and scenario analyses

The sensitivity of results (both for fuel cycles investigated within the predecessor Task XV and for selected case studies) to assumed data and parameters will be examined to identify database weaknesses and to make recommendations for optimization within future projects. Scenario analyses will include the examination of different mixes of bioenergy systems. The results of the scenarios can be used to guide the selection of appropriate bioenergy strategies to meet GHG objectives. Studies in Task XV have shown that the results for GHG balances are very sensitive to the assumed reference scenario. The reference scenario does not only imply an (often fossil) reference energy system that provides the same amount of energy, but one also needs to consider the alternative land use in absence of the bioenergy project. Projects that might look attractive from a GHG emissions point of view (in absolute terms) might look less (or more) attractive if the reference land use (e.g. afforestation, continued agriculture or forest destruction) is taken into account. In many cases there are trade-offs between maximized fossil fuel substitution and maximized on-site carbon sequestration per unit of land. In the new Task, attention will be given to this question.


Activities according to participants' short-term needs

Depending on scientific and other discussions and short-term priorities in the participating countries, certain topics can be addressed in the new Task to provide guidance from a GHG balance perspective. The work program of the Task will be flexible enough to deal with such short-term requests. An outstanding example is the involvement of Task XV/25 in the ongoing work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to develop and improve a module within the IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories ("Harvested Wood Products Module", will be used to assess national GHG balances of wood flows originating from conventional forest management). This involvement has been a direct consequence of statements made and other work undertaken by Task XV experts following Task XV workshops.


Accompanying activities

• Organize workshops on a regular basis (1-2 per year)
• Publish the key results from the Task in reviewed scientific journals
• Provide easy-to-read summaries of the results to decisionmakers (politicians, utilities, ...), with the goal of gaining a maximum in net GHG emission reductions from bioenergy projects
• Facilitate exchange of scientists (e.g. sabbaticals), models, databases, literature and other information>
• Produce annual and semi-annual summaries of the work performed in the Task and, upon completion of the Task, a final report.

Co-operation with other Tasks and international programs

For the work in this Task the collaboration with other related programs within and outside the IEA will be continued or initiated:

• The Task will continue to contribute to IPCC/OECD/IEA work on GHG inventories in the "forestry and land-use change" sector and to other IPCC work.
• The collaboration with the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme will be continued and deepened.
• collaboration with Task 18 ("Conventional Forestry Systems for Bioenergy") will be sought.
• ISO 13600 - Technical Energy Systems: Within this project international standards for energy and emissions balances are currently being developed. ISO has expressed collaborative interest in order to improve methodologies for the assessment of bioenergy systems on a full fuel-cycle basis.
• Other institutions that might be interested in a co-operation are, for example: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), European Forest Institute (EFI), Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC).