TY - JOUR
T1 - Feasibility study on the production and consumption of wood pellets in Iran to meet return-on-investment and greenhouse gas emissions targets
AU - Nabavi, Vahid
AU - Azizi, Majid
AU - Tarmian, Asghar
AU - Ray, Charles David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - At the Paris Agreement in 2015, Iran pledged a 4% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and bio-fuels like wood pellet are an option. To estimate the volume of waste woody biomass the International Energy Agency model was employed and results show that a total opportunity of 754,840 m3 of woody by-products. An economic feasibility study of wood pellet production was performed by calculating the economic indices and analyzing their sensitivity using COMFAR III software for three scenarios in annual capacities of 48,000, 75,000 and 120,000 tons. The costs of wood pellet production for each plan are 104.29, 107.63, and 106.92 €/Mt, respectively. Acceptable IRR (45%–124%) and NPV (7–14 Million Euro) support the feasibility of wood pellet production in Iran. Standard VDI 2067 used to calculate specific cost of generating energy with wood pellet fuel against domestic water boilers using diesel and natural gas fuels. Results showed that the cost of generating energy is higher by wood pellet (43.5 €/Mwh, against gasoline, 25.9 €/Mw, and natural gas, 22.3 €/Mwh) due to the high initial investment in the wood pellet-fired boilers compared to established fossil fuels and the low price of diesel and natural gas in Iran.
AB - At the Paris Agreement in 2015, Iran pledged a 4% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and bio-fuels like wood pellet are an option. To estimate the volume of waste woody biomass the International Energy Agency model was employed and results show that a total opportunity of 754,840 m3 of woody by-products. An economic feasibility study of wood pellet production was performed by calculating the economic indices and analyzing their sensitivity using COMFAR III software for three scenarios in annual capacities of 48,000, 75,000 and 120,000 tons. The costs of wood pellet production for each plan are 104.29, 107.63, and 106.92 €/Mt, respectively. Acceptable IRR (45%–124%) and NPV (7–14 Million Euro) support the feasibility of wood pellet production in Iran. Standard VDI 2067 used to calculate specific cost of generating energy with wood pellet fuel against domestic water boilers using diesel and natural gas fuels. Results showed that the cost of generating energy is higher by wood pellet (43.5 €/Mwh, against gasoline, 25.9 €/Mw, and natural gas, 22.3 €/Mwh) due to the high initial investment in the wood pellet-fired boilers compared to established fossil fuels and the low price of diesel and natural gas in Iran.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2019.10.140
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2019.10.140
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075402306
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 151
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -