**5. Technological Biomass Potential**

The efficiency of conversion technology is determined as one of the most impacting factors of the technological biomass potential. The primary energy (often mentioned in MJ) going into conversion gets reduced according to the type of technology used, the output energy type (unit of Watt) and the efficiency of the process [81]. Efficiency indicates how much useful energy we can ge<sup>t</sup> from an energy source according to the conversion technology. Some of the Australian forest biomass research studies have included a sensitivity analysis to determine the efficiency of the conversion [48,79]. Variations in the efficiency of 10% in a combusting co-firing plant are tested with results reflecting on emission resulting from burning the biomass [79]. Variation (15–20%) in the efficiency of a Fisher–Tropsch synthesis is tested together with transportation distance to confirm if the supply of biomass supports the demand [48]. A conversion efficiency of 30% was used for a combined heat and power plant in the literature [77] and 25% for direct combustion by a Tasmanian research study [76] stating this lower-cost solution with smaller plant sizes (5 MW) tend to be more profitable in comparison with different biomass-based technologies for electricity generation. As expected, efficiency is the most common technological criteria to evaluate the bioenergy system. No further measures of energy ratio or energy balance were included.

Woo et al. (2018) determined the potential capacity of power facilities based on transport distance and moisture content by performing location-allocation network analysis. By supplying the required demand, they identify the most optimal locations to put power facilities with the least cost contribution from transport. The resulting capacity of the facility then relies on the amount of biomass that lies within the distance threshold and is economically transportable (available biomass potential). No conversion technology or efficiency was selected and no sensitivity analysis was performed. The methods can be used, however, for the design and planning of future facility locations and allocation of resources, providing that different capacities and technologies (including conversion efficiency) be tested to determine the lowest cost and emission solution.
