Design of biomass co-firing system considering resource distribution and transportation optimization

Biomass resources have huge potential to secure energy supply in next decades with carbon neutral emissions. However, the resources itself are widely scattered diffusely throughout the country, and the capacity of utilization plant highly depends on the quantity of primary resources available. The study focuses on the equilibrium between resource supply and energy demand in Tohoku area in Japan, considering geographical distribution and transportation paths. Woody biomass and agricultural residues are introduced in the study as a co-firing fuel supplied to three coal power stations in Tohoku area. The biomass energy system is modeled and analyzed using both geographic information solver and the roadway condition data. In particular, resource supply such as biomass resource collection, preprocessing before transportation, storage, long distance transportation, and energy conversion to electricity, is modeled and introduced to the system. As a result of the model analysis, a supply curve of biomass resources is obtained, which shows a relationship between procurement cost for power supply and annual electricity production at coal power stations. The supply curve shows that an electricity of 4.3 × 10⁸ kWh/yr can be supplied with the procurement cost of 10 JPY/kWh, and the maximum electricity reaches 12.7 × 10⁸ kWh/yr with the procurement cost of 14 JPY/kWh.