One major drawback of biomass fuel is its bulky nature and the resulting high cost of transporting the fuel to the facility where the energy is being produced. Hence, supply chain of biomass residues plays a crucial role in determining the financial viability of bioenergy production. Transporting biomass for energy purposes more than 50 miles (80 km) is not considered economically feasible in most conditions. In the wood energy scenario, the maximum distance is more often restricted to distances of less than 200 km between production and consumption (via road). A study was done to determine logging residues and agricultural residues production for the 64 parishes in Louisiana and to compare the three different modes of transportation (freight) for wood biomass, namely rail, road and water. The average annual production for logging residues in the state from 2000 to 2010 was estimated around 3,073,978 bone dry tons (BDT) and for agricultural crop residue it was approximately 6,773,985 BDT annually (2005- 2011).
The greatest production of logging residues was in the western and northern parishes of Louisiana, away from the population centers. The road network was the most extensive means of transportation. For long distances (greater than about 150 km), the Mississippi/Red River complexes could provide a very cheap source of transportation, followed by rail, but they had their own set of logistical problems. The river or rail networks were limited for the major logging residues producers (such as Winn, Vernon, Bienville, Union, etc.) and utilizing parishes.
For agricultural residues, north-eastern and central parishes like Morehouse, Madison, Franklin, East Carroll and Pointe Coupee were the major producers. Soybean, rice, corn and sugarcane constituted the majority of the agricultural residue production. All the major agricultural parishes were in close proximity to ports in the state, which opened them to the waterway system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07102012-010652 |
| Date | 12 July 2012 |
| Creators | Kizhakkepurakkal, Anil Raj |
| Contributors | Sasser, Charles E., Reams, Margaret Anne, Wascom, Michael W., de Hoop, Cornelis F., Shupe, Todd Finley |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07102012-010652/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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