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Title: Comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO2 emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy’

Journal Article · · Environmental Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7];  [8];  [8]
  1. NCASI, Roanoke, VA (United States)
  2. NCASI, Montreal, QC (Canada)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. NCASI, Cary, NC (United States)
  6. Utrecht Univ., Utrecht (Netherlands)
  7. CORRIM - The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, Corvalis, OR (United States)
  8. SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The use of wood for bioenergy production results in a worse climate outcome than from using coal. However, many of the assumptions on which their primary wood bioenergy scenario is based are not realistic and therefore are not informative. Assumptions of uncharacteristically long rotations for southern pine plantations, no utilization of wood for longer-duration products, and a single harvest over 100 years understate the carbon performance of current forest management practices. We provide references that support realistic modeling of forest carbon dynamics that are reflective of current practice and therefore more informative.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1492519
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-6A20-72297
Journal Information:
Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 12; ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (14)

What Drives Land-Use Change in the United States? A National Analysis of Landowner Decisions journal September 2008
Modeling the impacts of wood pellet demand on forest dynamics in southeastern United States journal September 2017
Short-rotation woody crops for bioenergy and biofuels applications journal August 2009
How is wood-based pellet production affecting forest conditions in the southeastern United States? journal July 2017
Environmental implications of harvesting lower-value biomass in forests journal January 2018
Potential greenhouse gas benefits of transatlantic wood pellet trade journal January 2014
Climate, economic, and environmental impacts of producing wood for bioenergy journal April 2018
Tree Nutrition and Forest Fertilization of Pine Plantations in the Southern United States journal February 2007
Bioenergy production and forest landscape change in the southeastern United States journal August 2016
Biomass market dynamics supporting the large-scale deployment of high-octane fuel production in the United States journal April 2018
What Drives Land-Use Change in the United States? A National Analysis of Landowner Decisions journal January 2008
Responsiveness of Rural and Urban Land Uses to Land Rent Determinants in the U.S. South journal November 2000
Will U.S. Forests Continue to Be a Carbon Sink? journal January 2018
Carbon Emissions and Sequestration from Fertilization of Pine in the Southeastern United States journal October 2012

Cited By (1)

Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO 2 emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy’ journal December 2018

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Table 1(p. 4)table Table 1

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09 BIOMASS FUELS
biomass energy
forest management
CO2 emissions