Energies, Vol. 19, Pages 1068: Quantifying and Mapping Biomass Resources in Ireland: A Holistic Assessment of Primary and Secondary Feedstocks
Energies doi: 10.3390/en19041068
Authors:
Carmen Girón-Domínguez
Hadil Alaydi
Mohammad Sameti
Wriju Kargupta
George Bishop
David Styles
Jesko Zimmermann
Jorge Díaz Huerta
Réamonn Fealy
Helena McMahon
James Gaffey
European bioeconomy policies stress the need for responsible, efficient feedstock use and timely, comprehensive data on ecosystems and bioeconomic activities. This paper addresses the data gap by: (i) providing holistic county-level (sub-NUTS3) biomass maps for the Republic of Ireland (RoI), covering primary feedstocks (PFs) and secondary feedstocks (SFs, i.e., by-products and waste); (ii) identifying feedstock uses during the study period. In total, 221 feedstocks were mapped: 85 solid PFs (approx. 43 million tonnes dry matter (tDM) nationally) and 136 solid SFs (approx. 6 million tDM nationally), plus 6 liquid PFs (approx. 18 thousand million m3 nationally) and 8 liquid SFs (approx. 39 thousand million m3 nationally). The mapping indicates that environmentally sustainable bio-based value chains (BBVCs) requiring large amounts of solid or liquid SF should prioritise processing sites near major feedstock sources in the southeast and southwest of the RoI. The northwest and east coast have the lowest availability, while the west and midlands have the most variety in quantity and type of feedstock. Counties with abundant feedstocks do not necessarily have high feedstock diversity, except for Cork. Granular sub-NUTS3 mapping of quantities and fate provides a powerful foundation for future feedstock strategies and empowers stakeholders to design innovative BBVCs.