Geographic distribution of economic potential of agricultural and forest biomass residual for energy use: Case study Croatia Boris  Cosi  c a, * , Zoran Stani  c b , Neven Dui  c a a Department of Energy, Power Engineering and Environment, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lu ci ca 5, 10002 Zagreb, Croatia b HEP e Obnovljivi izvori energije d.o.o., Ulica grada Vukovara 37, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia article info Article history: Received 8 March 2010 Received in revised form 28 August 2010 Accepted 6 October 2010 Available online 7 December 2010 Keywords: Biomass Forestry residues Wheat straw Corn stover Energy potential abstract This paper provides methodology for regional analysis of biomass energy potential and for assessing the cost of the biomass at the power plant (PP) location considering transport distance, transport costs and size of the power plants. Also, methodology for determination of an upper-level price of the biomass which energy plant can pay to the external suppliers has been proposed. The methodology was applied on the case of Croatia and energy potential of biomass in the Croatian counties was calculated, using different methodologies, for wheat straw, corn stover and forestry residues, types of biomass considered economically viable at the moment. Results indicate that the average energy potential of wheat straw is 8.5 PJ, corn stover 7.2 PJ and forestry residues 5.9 PJ. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase domestic industry development, secure and diversify the supply of energy, biomass as a renewable energy resource plays an important role for reaching these goals in the industrial countries [1e 7]. Because of its widespread non-commercial use, biomass is covering more than 10% of the total world primary energy supply of 479 EJ [8]. Compared to other renewable energy sources biomass has the ability to store feedstock and use it when it is required [9]. Due to diversity of biomass residues and different products that can be obtained, there are several processes that allow transforming biomass in high energy fuels that are easy to transport and handle [10,11]. Furthermore, using biomass for production of energy can significantly contribute to the job creation and economic devel- opment of rural economies and slow down migrations from these areas to cities [12e17]. Because of that, detailed and accurate esti- mation of the different biomass resources and their energy potential is needed. A number of studies for estimating the potential of agricultural [18e21] and forestry residues [22e25] based on the yield, forest area, residues coefficient (i.e., straw to grain ratio), and availability factors (i.e., mechanisation losses, fraction of the residue that can’t be removed from the area) have been published. Potential of agri- cultural and forestry residues in those studies was calculated for the regions [26e28], countries [29e32] or worldwide [33,34] and in the most cases, geographic information system (GIS) has been used to calculate the potential of agricultural and forestry residues [35,36]. In order to provide fast and precise assessment of the potential, regional distribution and economic performance of the biomass, based on the location which is the key factor for the economic viability and environmental performance, the new methodology has been proposed. Because economic benefit is the major incentive for selection of the energy plant location and biomass fuels, this paper focuses on the competitive advantage of the agricultural and forestry residues in relation to energy plant location in order to increase understanding which part of the resource base is economically attractive for use in energy plants. In the case of the biomass feedstock, the greater the output of the plant, the greater the biomass required and the greater the average distance required to transport the biomass [37]. At the end all this results with the increase of the energy plants fuel costs and electricity generation costs. These costs can be minimised by * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ385 1 616 8242; fax: þ385 1 615 6940. E-mail addresses: boris.cosic@fsb.hr (B.  Cosi c), zoran.stanic@hep.hr (Z. Stani c), neven.duic@fsb.hr (N. Dui c). URL: http://www.powerlab.fsb.hr/bcosic, http://www.powerlab.fsb.hr/neven Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy 0360-5442/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2010.10.009 Energy 36 (2011) 2017e2028