The Role of Sustainable Biomass Energy Sources by 2050 in the Energy Future World Market vs. Global Changes, Challenges, Directions

Dear Colleagues,

Since the beginning of the global crisis, including the war and pandemic, the world has been experiencing a severe energy crisis, with nations all over the world being impacted by extremely high and unstable prices, particularly fossil fuels. Recent trends in the energy market have been tested in this environment. The energy market experienced extreme price volatility over the previous two years. For example, during the pandemic, when demand was reduced, and supply shrank, the ensuing increase in demand outpaced supply. 

On the other hand, if we want to see a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative world in the future, all governments and businesses must actively reduce carbon emissions today. Finding renewable energy solutions that can counter the climate threat this century is one of our most important environmental, social, and economic challenges, but we must move quickly. Bioenergy is a flexible renewable energy source that can be used in all industries and frequently uses end-user technology and existing transmission and distribution networks. However, there are limitations to increasing the supply of bioenergy and potential trade-offs with sustainable development objectives, such as avoiding local conflicts with other land uses, particularly for food production and biodiversity protection. The contribution of biomass energy to the global energy system is substantial and increasing. Energy from biomass can significantly lower carbon emissions, especially in hard-to-decarbonize industries like manufacturing, heavy transportation, and aviation. However, land-intensive bioenergy frequently generates large amounts of carbon emissions during production, harvesting, and transportation. Furthermore, land-intensive bioenergy scales only through enormous amounts of land, a resource whose availability is fundamentally constrained. Land-intensive bioenergy makes the most sense as a transitional element of the global energy mix because of the land constraint, the intrinsically low energy yields per land area unit, and the rapid technological advancement in competing technologies. It will play a significant role over the next few decades before fading, probably after the mid-century. It will take a unique combination of policies and incentives to manage an effective trajectory for land-intensive bioenergy that promotes appropriate use in the short term while minimizing lock-in in the long term.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Energy Agency, the U.K. Committee on Climate Change, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the European Union, and numerous other top academic and governmental bodies around the world have acknowledged and continued to support the use of biomass as a climate change mitigation measure. Nearly 50 million households in Europe already have access to low-carbon heat and electricity thanks to sustainable bioenergy, but if we want to meet E.U. climate targets, its use will need to more than double by 2050. In addition to increasing the use of sustainable bioenergy to meet 2030 targets, it is crucial to consider how it will develop, be used, and be invested in.

This Special Issue aims to invite colleagues to submit their recent research on assessing and discussing sustainable biomass renewable energy challenges, gaps, future directions, and implications by 2050 to meet energy demand, reduce GHG emissions, and maximize profit and waste minimization. The scope of this Special Issue covers but is not limited to the following topics:

1. Analyzing the impacts of the current world situation on global biomass energy supply and demand
2. Analyzing the effect of pandemics on biomass energy sources and production
3. Biomass energy management and cost during the current world crisis
4. Sustainability pillars assessment of biomass supply chain
5. Climatic change analysis of biomass resources
6. Biomass renewable energy and Blockchain role
7. Policy, strategies, technology, and investment considerations for sustainable biomass renewable energy sources
8. Simulation modeling, optimization approaches, and multicriteria decision makings of biomass renewable energy supply and production optimization

Dr. Seyed Mojib Zahraee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Biomass and Bioenergy
• Sustainability
• Energy Demand and Crisis
• Pandemic and Challenges
• Optimization