Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia

This study reports the site variations in life cycle energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass from nine sites in Western Australia based on the latest field data and additional fertilizer application to compensate for nutrients exported from the sites. Across the sites, the energy and carbon f...

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Main Authors: Yu, Yun, Bartle, J., Mendham, D., Wu, Hongwei
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Chemical Society 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45958
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author Yu, Yun
Bartle, J.
Mendham, D.
Wu, Hongwei
author_facet Yu, Yun
Bartle, J.
Mendham, D.
Wu, Hongwei
author_sort Yu, Yun
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study reports the site variations in life cycle energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass from nine sites in Western Australia based on the latest field data and additional fertilizer application to compensate for nutrients exported from the sites. Across the sites, the energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass range from 299 to 451 MJ/dry tonne and from -2.0 to 31.5 kg of CO2 equivalent (CO2-e)/dry tonne, equivalent to 5.8–8.7% of energy and -0.3–5.5% of carbon embedded in the biomass product at farm gate, respectively. Compensating for nutrient export clearly increases biomass energy and carbon footprints because of the increased fertilizer applications. Overall, the results show that mallee biomass production is close to being renewable and carbon-neutral. Selecting sites with a low initial soil carbon and achieving a high biomass yield can increase the soil carbon during biomass production, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of the produced biomass.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:27:56Z
publishDate 2015
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-459582017-09-13T14:26:10Z Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia Yu, Yun Bartle, J. Mendham, D. Wu, Hongwei This study reports the site variations in life cycle energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass from nine sites in Western Australia based on the latest field data and additional fertilizer application to compensate for nutrients exported from the sites. Across the sites, the energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass range from 299 to 451 MJ/dry tonne and from -2.0 to 31.5 kg of CO2 equivalent (CO2-e)/dry tonne, equivalent to 5.8–8.7% of energy and -0.3–5.5% of carbon embedded in the biomass product at farm gate, respectively. Compensating for nutrient export clearly increases biomass energy and carbon footprints because of the increased fertilizer applications. Overall, the results show that mallee biomass production is close to being renewable and carbon-neutral. Selecting sites with a low initial soil carbon and achieving a high biomass yield can increase the soil carbon during biomass production, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of the produced biomass. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45958 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b00618 American Chemical Society restricted
spellingShingle Yu, Yun
Bartle, J.
Mendham, D.
Wu, Hongwei
Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title_full Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title_fullStr Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title_short Site Variation in Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Mallee Biomass Production in Western Australia
title_sort site variation in life cycle energy and carbon footprints of mallee biomass production in western australia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45958