IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i2p666-d1026649.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Utilizing Locally Available Bioresources for Powering Remote Indigenous Communities: A Framework and Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy B. Trombley

    (Energy and Resources Institute, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Kamaljit K. Sangha

    (Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Alan N. Andersen

    (Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Suresh N. Thennadil

    (Energy and Resources Institute, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia)

Abstract

We establish a framework to examine the feasibility of using local vegetation for bioenergy power systems in small-scale applications and remote settings. The framework has broad application, and we present a specific case here to demonstrate the process. Our case study is the Tiwi Islands in northern Australia, where a large Acacia mangium plantation is a potential source of biofuel feedstock. Two types of technology were considered: 1. Bio-oil from pyrolysis in diesel generators and 2. Direct combustion coupled with a steam turbine. The biomass was characterized and found to have adequate properties for an energy crop, with a lower heating value of about 18 MJ/kg and entire tree ash content of 2%. Measurements from trees that were damaged from wildfires had similar results, showing potential value recovery for a plantation after unplanned fire. In comparison to a petroleum diesel-based generator, the bio-oil system was 12% more expensive. The direct combustion system was found to be the most economical of those explored here, costing as low as 61% of the bio-oil system. Additional social and environmental benefits were identified, including local employment opportunities, improved energy security and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings of high techno-economic potential of bioenergy systems, especially through direct combustion, are widely applicable to on-demand renewable energy supply in remote communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy B. Trombley & Kamaljit K. Sangha & Alan N. Andersen & Suresh N. Thennadil, 2023. "Utilizing Locally Available Bioresources for Powering Remote Indigenous Communities: A Framework and Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:666-:d:1026649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/666/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/666/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Longden, 2019. "The impact of temperature on mortality across different climate zones," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 221-242, November.
    2. Mainali, Brijesh & Silveira, Semida, 2013. "Alternative pathways for providing access to electricity in developing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 299-310.
    3. Kumar, R. & Strezov, V. & Weldekidan, H. & He, J. & Singh, S. & Kan, T. & Dastjerdi, B., 2020. "Lignocellulose biomass pyrolysis for bio-oil production: A review of biomass pre-treatment methods for production of drop-in fuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    4. Morató, Teresa & Vaezi, Mahdi & Kumar, Amit, 2020. "Techno-economic assessment of biomass combustion technologies to generate electricity in South America: A case study for Bolivia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Thomas Longden & Simon Quilty & Brad Riley & Lee V. White & Michael Klerck & Vanessa Napaltjari Davis & Norman Frank Jupurrurla, 2022. "Energy insecurity during temperature extremes in remote Australia," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 43-54, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. McMaster, R. & Noble, B. & Poelzer, G., 2024. "Assessing local capacity for community appropriate sustainable energy transitions in northern and remote Indigenous communities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee V. White & Bradley Riley & Sally Wilson & Francis Markham & Lily O’Neill & Michael Klerck & Vanessa Napaltjari Davis, 2024. "Geographies of regulatory disparity underlying Australia’s energy transition," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 92-105, January.
    2. Prashamsa Thapa & Brijesh Mainali & Shobhakar Dhakal, 2023. "Focus on Climate Action: What Level of Synergy and Trade-Off Is There between SDG 13; Climate Action and Other SDGs in Nepal?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-32, January.
    3. Mohammed, Y.S. & Mustafa, M.W. & Bashir, N., 2013. "Status of renewable energy consumption and developmental challenges in Sub-Sahara Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 453-463.
    4. Liu, Xuan & Hu, Ye & Xiao, Yan, 2017. "Risk management for rural energy industry of Sichuan Province in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1029-1044.
    5. Mara Hammerle & Paul J. Burke, 2022. "Solar PV and energy poverty in Australia's residential sector," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(4), pages 822-841, October.
    6. Kumar, R. & Strezov, V., 2021. "Thermochemical production of bio-oil: A review of downstream processing technologies for bio-oil upgrading, production of hydrogen and high value-added products," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Lei Han & Jinling Li & Chengtun Qu & Zhiguo Shao & Tao Yu & Bo Yang, 2022. "Recent Progress in Sludge Co-Pyrolysis Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-12, June.
    8. Zhi Xu & Zhaohui Guo & Huimin Xie & Yulian Hu, 2022. "Effect of Cd on Pyrolysis Velocity and Deoxygenation Characteristics of Rice Straw: Analogized with Cd-Impregnated Representative Biomass Components," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Andrade Díaz, Christhel & Albers, Ariane & Zamora-Ledezma, Ezequiel & Hamelin, Lorie, 2024. "The interplay between bioeconomy and the maintenance of long-term soil organic carbon stock in agricultural soils: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    10. Kedar Mehta & Mathias Ehrenwirth & Christoph Trinkl & Wilfried Zörner & Rick Greenough, 2021. "The Energy Situation in Central Asia: A Comprehensive Energy Review Focusing on Rural Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-27, May.
    11. Parisa Heidarnejad & Hadi Genceli & Nasim Hashemian & Mustafa Asker & Mohammad Al-Rawi, 2024. "Biomass-Fueled Organic Rankine Cycles: State of the Art and Future Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-30, August.
    12. José Ramos Pires Manso & Rosa M. Martínez Vázquez & Juan Milán García & Jaime de Pablo Valenciano, 2023. "Renewable Energies and Blue Economy: New Trends in Global Research," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-15, May.
    13. Tao Peng & Wenbin Zhang & Baiyao Liang & Guanwu Lian & Yun Zhang & Wei Zhao, 2023. "Electrocatalytic valorization of lignocellulose-derived aromatics at industrial-scale current densities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    14. Chen, Dengyu & Cen, Kehui & Cao, Xiaobing & Chen, Fan & Zhang, Jie & Zhou, Jianbin, 2021. "Insight into a new phenolic-leaching pretreatment on bamboo pyrolysis: Release characteristics of pyrolytic volatiles, upgradation of three phase products, migration of elements, and energy yield," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    15. López-González, A. & Domenech, B. & Ferrer-Martí, L., 2018. "Lifetime, cost and fuel efficiency in diesel projects for rural electrification in Venezuela," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 152-161.
    16. Tanveer, Waqas Hassan & Abdelkareem, Mohammad Ali & Kolosz, Ben W. & Rezk, Hegazy & Andresen, John & Cha, Suk Won & Sayed, Enas Taha, 2021. "The role of vacuum based technologies in solid oxide fuel cell development to utilize industrial waste carbon for power production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    17. Liu, Huiyu & Zhang, Jun & Shan, Rui & Yuan, Haoran & Chen, Yong, 2024. "Mechanistic insights into Ga-modified hollow ZSM-5 catalyzed fast pyrolysis of cassava residue," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    18. Thirunavukkarasu, M. & Sawle, Yashwant & Lala, Himadri, 2023. "A comprehensive review on optimization of hybrid renewable energy systems using various optimization techniques," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    19. Aberilla, Jhud Mikhail & Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro & Stamford, Laurence & Azapagic, Adisa, 2020. "Design and environmental sustainability assessment of small-scale off-grid energy systems for remote rural communities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    20. Ke, Linyao & Wu, Qiuhao & Zhou, Nan & Xiong, Jianyun & Yang, Qi & Zhang, Letian & Wang, Yuanyuan & Dai, Leilei & Zou, Rongge & Liu, Yuhuan & Ruan, Roger & Wang, Yunpu, 2022. "Lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis for aromatic hydrocarbons production: Pre and in-process enhancement methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:666-:d:1026649. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.