Energy availability and environmental issues are of growing concern; nations are striving to use energy more efficiently while at the same time decreasing the negative impacts on the environment. / The objectives of this study are to: (1) establish a supply price for ethanol derived from switchgrass, (2) establish an accounting budget for carbon dioxide during feedstock production and processing into ethanol, and (3) determine the cost/tonne of CO$ sb2$ using this strategy. / Total cost of production of the feedstock for cycles of 5, 10, 15, and 20 years are $357.06/ha ( $32.73/ODT), $337.81/ha ( $30.96/ODT), $331.52/ha ( $30.39/ODT), and $328.47/ha ( $30.11/ODT) respectively. Thus, the approximate cost of producing one litre of ethanol from switchgrass is $0.47/litre. / Overall, the switchgrass-ethanol system is a net carbon sink for all four cycles, and each hectare of swithgrass sequesters between 1.9 and 6.8 tonne of CO$ sb2$ per year. However, this process is not indefinite, and will stop once the soil organic matter reaches an equilibrium. / The current price for gas is $0.24/litre (excluding taxes and profit margins). According to the price differential existing between ethanol and gasoline and the CO$ sb2$ emissions difference between both systems, the cost of sequestering CO$ sb2$ ranges between $83/tonne and $129/tonne, with the adoption of this specific strategy. At the macro level, Quebec and Canada's total carbon dioxide emissions reached 70 million tonnes and 461 million tonnes respectively, in 1991. Thus, displacing fossil-based energy sources (gasoline) with a renewable energy source (ethanol from switchgrass) to reduce those emissions by 20 % by the year 2010, incurs a cost ranging between $1.16 billion and $1.8 billion for Quebec, and between $7.7 billion and $11.9 billion for Canada. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22816 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Tayara, Ahmad |
| Contributors | Henning, John (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Agricultural Economics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001462545, proquestno: MM05640, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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