Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union

<p>With the increasing challenge to shift our economic system from carbon to renewable energy carriers, the demand for biogenic resources is growing. Biogenic municipal waste, agricultural by-products and industrial residues are under-utilised but are increasingly gaining in value. To date, th...

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Main Authors: S. Günther, T. Karras, F. Naegeli de Torres, S. Semella, D. Thrän
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2024-01-01
Series:Earth System Science Data
Online Access:https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/59/2024/essd-16-59-2024.pdf
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author S. Günther
T. Karras
F. Naegeli de Torres
S. Semella
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
author_facet S. Günther
T. Karras
F. Naegeli de Torres
S. Semella
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
author_sort S. Günther
collection DOAJ
description <p>With the increasing challenge to shift our economic system from carbon to renewable energy carriers, the demand for biogenic resources is growing. Biogenic municipal waste, agricultural by-products and industrial residues are under-utilised but are increasingly gaining in value. To date, there is no continuous database for these resources in the EU-27 countries. Existing datasets that estimate resource potentials for a single point in time often lack validation. A reliable and continuous database is thus needed to support the growing bioeconomy.</p> <p>Spatial and temporal high-resolution data of biogenic residues serve as an invaluable resource for identifying areas with significant theoretical biomass potential and allows an in-depth understanding of dynamic patterns over time. This study elucidates the theoretical biomass potentials of 13 distinct biomasses from municipal waste, agricultural by-products and industrial residues quantified annually from 2010–2020. The spatial scope of the research covers the EU-27 Member States incorporating all entities represented at various levels within the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) as delineated by Eurostat, where possible. The regionalised data are subsequently validated against regional statistics from different countries. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of creating a time series of theoretical biomass potentials for the 13 selected waste types, by-products, and residues, and underscore the critical role of data validation when regionalising national or sub-national data to smaller NUTS entities. It could be shown that the values of small regions (NUTS 3) correlated well on average. When looking at individual regions in detail, regional characteristics such as the location of cultivation, waste management or reporting methods could lead to over- or underestimates of up to 100 %. Therefore, data at the regional level provide only limited reliability. In the case of industrial residues, regionalisation gave good results localising preference regions of high theoretical biomass potential, but more data on industrial production are needed to also estimate residual quantities at sub-national and local levels.</p> <p>The biomass potentials modelled in this study have been published in an open-access database, which is designed as an extensible tool, enabling the understanding of national and regional trends of theoretical biomass potentials in the European Union and of the reliability of the regionalised data.</p> <p>The estimated theoretical potential dataset can be downloaded free of charge from: <a href="https://doi.org/10.48480/g53t-ks72">https://doi.org/10.48480/g53t-ks72</a> (Günther et al., 2023).</p>
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spelling doaj.art-d3b23751cf3548678f6c33b5cef2beb92024-01-05T09:48:08ZengCopernicus PublicationsEarth System Science Data1866-35081866-35162024-01-0116597410.5194/essd-16-59-2024Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European UnionS. Günther0T. Karras1F. Naegeli de Torres2S. Semella3D. Thrän4D. Thrän5D. Thrän6Bioenergy Systems, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Leipzig, 04347, GermanyBioenergy Systems, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Leipzig, 04347, GermanyBioenergy Systems, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Leipzig, 04347, GermanyBioenergy Systems, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Leipzig, 04347, GermanyBioenergy Systems, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Leipzig, 04347, GermanyBioenergy, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH, Leipzig, 04318, GermanyFaculty of Economic Science, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany<p>With the increasing challenge to shift our economic system from carbon to renewable energy carriers, the demand for biogenic resources is growing. Biogenic municipal waste, agricultural by-products and industrial residues are under-utilised but are increasingly gaining in value. To date, there is no continuous database for these resources in the EU-27 countries. Existing datasets that estimate resource potentials for a single point in time often lack validation. A reliable and continuous database is thus needed to support the growing bioeconomy.</p> <p>Spatial and temporal high-resolution data of biogenic residues serve as an invaluable resource for identifying areas with significant theoretical biomass potential and allows an in-depth understanding of dynamic patterns over time. This study elucidates the theoretical biomass potentials of 13 distinct biomasses from municipal waste, agricultural by-products and industrial residues quantified annually from 2010–2020. The spatial scope of the research covers the EU-27 Member States incorporating all entities represented at various levels within the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) as delineated by Eurostat, where possible. The regionalised data are subsequently validated against regional statistics from different countries. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of creating a time series of theoretical biomass potentials for the 13 selected waste types, by-products, and residues, and underscore the critical role of data validation when regionalising national or sub-national data to smaller NUTS entities. It could be shown that the values of small regions (NUTS 3) correlated well on average. When looking at individual regions in detail, regional characteristics such as the location of cultivation, waste management or reporting methods could lead to over- or underestimates of up to 100 %. Therefore, data at the regional level provide only limited reliability. In the case of industrial residues, regionalisation gave good results localising preference regions of high theoretical biomass potential, but more data on industrial production are needed to also estimate residual quantities at sub-national and local levels.</p> <p>The biomass potentials modelled in this study have been published in an open-access database, which is designed as an extensible tool, enabling the understanding of national and regional trends of theoretical biomass potentials in the European Union and of the reliability of the regionalised data.</p> <p>The estimated theoretical potential dataset can be downloaded free of charge from: <a href="https://doi.org/10.48480/g53t-ks72">https://doi.org/10.48480/g53t-ks72</a> (Günther et al., 2023).</p>https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/59/2024/essd-16-59-2024.pdf
spellingShingle S. Günther
T. Karras
F. Naegeli de Torres
S. Semella
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
D. Thrän
Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
Earth System Science Data
title Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
title_full Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
title_fullStr Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
title_full_unstemmed Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
title_short Temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the European Union
title_sort temporal and spatial mapping of theoretical biomass potential across the european union
url https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/59/2024/essd-16-59-2024.pdf
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