Biomass prospective and forest strategy

Manager: Edi ASSOUMOU

Bioenergies meet the environmental and energy independence requirements in France and Europe. Their development is nonetheless subject to a number of uncertainties. So the price and the volatility of raw materials are increasing and there have been considerable research efforts to develop technologies that are environmentally friendly. Furthermore, their competitiveness vis-à-vis fossil energies is strongly dependent on the regulatory context. Finally, other industries, the food-processing industry, paper industry, wood panels, are in competition with one another regarding the use of earth and resources.

A thesis carried out by Paul HUGUES under the supervision of Edi ASSOUMOU was introduced on this subject at the end of 2011. It is realized in partnership with Sofiprotéol, an industrial and financial company of French oil and protein industries. Paul HUGUES will attempt to answer these questions in light of the long-term prospective analysis. His thesis is based on a bottom-up optimization model of the MARKAL/TIMES family. A clever updated representation of the French bioenergy sector was carried out, the result of the approach developed in the Valerbio project of which the CMA was partner (IFP/FCBA/INRA/CMA). Issues regarding developing “advanced” technologies, the resource constraint on this development after 2020 and the impact of future European directives were tackled. The second section of the thesis takes into account externalities – greenhouse gas emissions, non-renewable energy consumption, and eutrophication – as well as the creation of jobs in the different industries. This thesis should be defended in December 2014.

In the context of this research an article called “The French bioenergy sector: Technologies and resources to meet demand in 2050” was published in the Revue de l'Energie n°614, July/August 2013.  To find out more...