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AbstractThis study compared the economic and environmental impacts of torrefaction on bioenergy supply chains against conventional pellets for scenarios where biomass is produced in Mozambique, and undergoes pre‐processing before shipment to Rotterdam for conversion to power and Fischer‐Tropsch (FT) fuels. We also compared the impacts of using different land quality (productive and marginal) for feedstock production, feedstocks (eucalyptus and switchgrass), final conversion technologies (XtY and CXtY) and markets (the Netherlands and Mozambique). At current conditions, the torrefied pellets (TOPs) are delivered in Rotterdam at higher cost (7.3–7.5 $/GJ) than pellets (5.1–5.3 $/GJ). In the long term, TOPs costs could decline (4.7–5.8 $/GJ) and converge with pellets. TOPs supply chains also incur 20% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than pellets. Due to improved logistics and lower conversion investment, fuel production costs from TOPs are lower (12.8–16.9 $/GJFT) than from pellets (12.9–18.7 $/GJFT). Co‐firing scenarios (CXtY) result in lower cost fuel (but a higher environmental penalty) than 100% biomass fired scenarios (XtY). In most cases, switchgrass and the productive region of Nampula provide the lowest fuel production cost compared to eucalyptus and the marginally productive Gaza region. Both FT and ion in Mozambique are more costly than in Rotterdam. For the Netherlands, both FT and power production are competitive against average energy costs in Western Europe. The analysis shows that large‐scale bioenergy production can become competitive against fossil fuels. While the benefits of TOPs are apparent in logistics and conversion, the current higher torrefaction costs contribute to higher biofuel costs. Improvements in torrefaction technology can result in significant performance improvements over the future chain. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

This article searches the effects of tourism development onemission pollutants in Malta using (1) the autoregressivedistributed lag approach and (2) two datasets which are annualdata from 1971 to 2018 and quarterly data from 1990Q1 tı2018Q4 as per data availability. Findings confirm that tourism,energy usage, and carbon dioxide emissions are in a long-termequilibrium relationship; carbon emissions converge rapidlytowards the long-term equilibrium path through tourism andenergy consumption channels. Findings also reveal that growthin tourism results in significant changes in energy consumptionand, therefore, in CO2emissions. Tourism has positive effects oncarbon emissions in shorter periods. Still, these effects turn out tobe harmful in the more extended periods beyond the peak pointof carbon emissions which correspond to 1,063,213 milliontourists. Therefore, this study strongly confirms the existence ofan inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesisfor Malta.

The chemical and petrochemical sector is by far the largest industrial energy user, accounting for 30% of the industry's total final energy use. However, due to its complexity its energy efficiency potential is not well understood. This article analyses the energy efficiency potential on a country level if Best Practice Technologies (BPT) were implemented in chemical processes. Two approaches are applied and an improved dataset referring to Europe has been developed for BPT energy use. This methodology has been applied to 66 products in fifteen countries that represent 70% of chemical and petrochemical sector's energy use worldwide. The results suggest a global energy efficiency potential of 16% for this sector, excluding savings in electricity use and by higher levels of process integration, combined heat and power (CHP) and post-consumer plastic waste treatment. The results are more accurate than previous estimates. The results suggest significant differences between countries, but a cross-check based on two different methods shows that important methodological and data issues remain to be resolved. Further refinement is needed for target setting, monitoring and informing energy and climate negotiation processes. For the short and medium term, a combination of benchmarking and country level analysis is recommended.

Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of droughts are expected to increase. To improve resilience to droughts, proactive drought management is essential. Economic assessments are typically included to decide on the drought risk-reducing investments to make. The choice of both methods and scope of economic assessments influences the outcome, and thus the investment choice. This paper aims to identify how comprehensively economic assessments are applied in practice. Through a systematic literature review, 14 actual economic assessments are identified and their methods are evaluated based on seven criteria for economic assessments as derived from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The results show that in practice, economic assessments rarely address all criteria. Applying a limited number of criteria reduces the scope and narrows the approach, possibly leading to the underestimation of drought risk reduction approaches' related benefits. Applying the seven criteria in practice will improve the results of economic assessments of drought risk reduction measures, allowing for optimal investment selection. Based on the different criteria, a Framework for Economic Assessments of Drought Risk-Reducing Applications (FEADRRA) is proposed. Applying the criteria of the framework can support decision-makers in drought risk management and in carrying out the most fitting drought interventions.

SUMMARY SOLAR CELL POWER PLANTS Extensive research and development activities are currently being conducted ali över the world in the area of utilizing renewable energy resources. The interest of the utilization of local renewable energy resources for devoloping countries has been enhanced by the dramatic increase of oil prices in the early seventies. Öne of the most promising renewable resources is the solar energy. The recent developments in the solid state industry accompanied by a parallel increase in energy prices and the environmental restrictions as well as the need for reliable sources of energy lead to the consideration and assessment of new sources of energy which can secure the needs of public with a minimum impact on the environment. An important candidate is the photovoltaic (PV) source of energy, where the solar radiation is directly converted into electricity that can either be residentially used as a local self-sufficient source such as telecommunication, vaccine refrigeration, lighting, battery charging and water pumping applications ör interconnected to available AÇ public grid. in this work about the photovoltaic systems that are connected to the grid, the voltage obtained from the array is converted to three phase sinusoidal voltage by a static inverter vvhich supplies the public grid and the system is simulated. A utility - interactive PV system (Figüre 1) consists of a variety of subsystems: a PV array subsystem, a power conditioning subsystem, a utility interconnection subsystem, and control subsystem. The PV array subsystem converts solar energy into direct current (DC) electrical povver and delivers it to the power conditioning subsystem (PCS) through the DC interface. The array subsystem also provides protection and necessary electrical isolation between the PCS and the array, and may include experimental instrumentation for monitoring the performance of the array. The utility interconnection subsystem, through the alternating current (AÇ) interface with the PCS, provides synchronization with the utility and, if necessary, acts to electrically isolate the PV system from the utility. The control subsystem, operating through the PCS, oversees the performance of the entire PV system. it also enables overall coordination of the system protection, communicates status information to the utility dispatch center, and, if desired, provides an information and tracking VIIfeedback loop with the PV array. in central PV stations, the PCS may also processes operational commands from the utility dispatch center. in operation, the PCS converts DC power from the array into AÇ povver, provides optimum amount of power to be extracted from the PV array for any given insolation and environmental conditions, matches frequency and phase of the voltage desired by the utility, and provides. protection not only for its internal components but also for the equipment external to the PCS..i, UTILITYCONTROL AND rı^MTi,TINFORMATION SIGNALS CONTKOL ^ SUBSYSTEM rJ^IS PVPOWER CON-UTILITY^- ARRAY-*- DITIONING -+.INTERCON.*~ SOLAR l SUBSYSTEMSUBSYSTEM SUBSYSTEM UTILITY ENERGY4 4 Figüre 1. Block Diagram of a Utility-Interactive Photovoltaic System To achieve a compatible integration of the PV system with the utility, it is essential that the design of the PCS accommodate the dynamic range of interactions between the PV system and the utility grid. These arise from changes in both grid conditions and the output of the PV array. The proper and safe interconnections of PV subsystems require not only the identifications of their mutual functional constraints, but also a knovvledge of how to select ör design the PV subsystems vvithin such constraints. These constraints, therefore, are important in the selection ör evaluation of a PCS that is suitable for central station PV systems. A solar celi (SC) generator possesses a line of maximum povver, and it is most desirable that the operation of the load line should be close to the maximum povver line of the generator. in such a case, good matching exists between the generator and the load for the best performance of the system and maximum utilization of the solar cells. The VIII-Toperating points of the photovoltaic system can generally be accomplished by either carefully selecting the I-V characteristics of the load to be connected to the SC generator, ör incorporating an electronic control device (a maximum-power- point-tracker (MPPT)), which provides the necessary impedance matching the SC generator and the inclusion of a MPPT in PV systems depends on several factors: load type and profile; climatic conditions; the fractional cost of the MPPT and its efficiency; and the gain in energy. An electrical circuit design can be simulated before it is actually built, and necessary changes may be done without touching any hardvvare. Any design that is thought to be complete can be checked easily. Building an electrical circuit is the most practical way to check it, but it is expensive and time consuming. it is useful to simulate the design carefully by using a computer program. Figüre 2 shows the PV system simulated by using PSpice which is a member of the Spice (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) family of circuit simulators. The solar celi is a semiconductor device that converts the solar radiation directly to electrical energy. The celi is a nonlinear device and can be represented by the I-V terminal characteristics, Figüre 3, ör by an approximate electrical equivalent circuit as shown in Figüre 4. The solar celi is an electrical celi of low level voltage and power, therefore the cells are in series and in parallel combinations in order to form an array of the desired voltage and power levels. The I-V equation of a single celi is given by: I = İL - Is [exp[(q/nkT). (V + RsI) - l] ] where İL is the light generated current, Is is the saturation current, kT/q is the thermal voltage, n is the perfection factor, Rs is the series resistance of the celi. For each characteristic curve there is an optimum operating point with respect to the power. Proper load selection allows the maximum power to be transferred. in this work, to convert the DC voltage into three phase sinusoidal voltage, a three-phase bridge inverter is used. The power circuit of a three-phase bridge inverter using thyristors is shown in Figüre 5, where commutation and snubber circuits are omitted for simplicity. The inverter consists of three half bridge units where the upper and lower thyristors of each unit are switched on and off alternately for 180° intervals. The three half-bridges are phase-shifted by 120°. The inverter output voltage wave shapes are determined by the circuit configuration and switching pattern. These waves are rich in harmonics. IX-T* *T`U_ -mrrru. rv» <D-^ PU ARRAY INUERTER UT ILIT V QRID INPUT FILTER OUTPUT FILTER Figure 2. Block diagram of the PV system simulated by using PSpice Figure 3. Characteristics of a solar cellRs I î I * * l IU<2pİ İDippSRCLoad) iii»»l Figüre 4. Solar celi equivalent circuit The inverter is provided with a filter, to make the output voltage (nearly) sinusoidal. in this study, a band-pass filter is chosen, as it is a simple and economical solution for the system. The transformer coupling to the grid supplies the filtered output voltage of the inverter into the grid. The model of ali components of the system is constituted by using their equivalent circuits and the system is simulated completely step by step. 178

Abstract The present analysis was conducted as the first study to investigate the biochemical methane potential of four different agro-industrial wastewaters originating from chocolate, slaughterhouse, gum, and beet sugar industries under the same anaerobic fermentation conditions. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has specifically attempted to pinpoint a hybrid programming strategy for making a quantitative description of the anaerobic biodegradability of these waste streams. Thus, considering the scarcity of the literature in this field, a comprehensive study was conducted to evaluate the amount of bio-methane obtainable from the investigated organic wastes and to predict their kinetics using three different sigmoidal microbial growth curve models (modified Gompertz equation, transference function (reaction curve-type model), and logistic function) within the framework an original MATLAB®-based coding scheme. The results showed that methane productions started immediately after 4 h of incubation for all substrates and reached their maximum rates of 118, 116, 108, 34 mL CH4/g VS/day, respectively, for wastewaters from chocolate, slaughterhouse, gum, and beet sugar industries. The corrected mean steady state methane contents were 61.7%, 73.4%, 62.8%, and 62.1% in the respective order. The highest methane yield (943 mL CH4/g VS) was obtained from the slaughterhouse wastewater, and this value was 1.32, 1.58, and 4.56 times higher than those obtained in the anaerobic digestion of chocolate, gum, and beet sugar wastewaters, respectively. Among the three kinetic models tested, the logistic function best explained the behavior of the observed data of all substrates using a Quasi-Newton cubic line search procedure (R2 = 0.987–0.996) with minimum number of non-linear iterations and function counts. Deviations between the measured and the outputs of the best-fit kinetic model were less than 4.3% in prediction of methane production potentials, suggesting that the proposed computational methodology could be used as a well-suited and robust approach for modeling and optimization of a highly non-linear biosystem.

In this paper we evaluate two approaches for estimating CO2 emission reduction from electricity savings: one based on average CO2 intensities of electricity generation and another that relies on marginal CO2 intensities. It is found that the average CO2 intensity approach has a significant shortcoming when it comes to scenario-based approaches for CO2 emission reduction. This shortcoming lies in the chicken-egg problem created, where larger future electricity savings are actually big enough to change the CO2 intensity in such a way that it cannot be used anymore to estimate the CO2 emission reduction. We show that in these cases the marginal approach is preferred. To correctly apply this approach, it is important to determine the CO2 intensity of the future power mix which will not be built in order to avoid under or overestimation of the CO2 savings calculated. We propose a seven-step approach which can be used in scenario-based potential studies as guidance for estimating the CO2 emission reductions from not only electricity savings but also renewable electricity and mitigation options that consume electricity such as electric cars and heat pumps. Using our approach would avoid a disconnection of the CO2 reduction potential with the underlying reference scenario. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

SUMMARY INVESTIGATION OF HEAVY METAL EMISSIONS OF COALS DURING COMBUSTION FROM HOT WATER BOILER AND STOVE Coal is likely to become an increasingly important fuel for electrical energy production during the next two decades. This trend appears inevitable due to the decreased emphasis on the construction of nuclear plants and relatively minor short-term impact usually projected for alternate energy sources (solar and geothermai). The emissions of environmental concern from coal fired plants may be divided into four categories: (1) SO2 and SO3 (2) NO and NO2 (3) organic compounds and (4) inorganic compounds. The organic and inorganic compounds include both gas phase emissions (such PAH emissions and mercury vapor) and particulate emissions (e.g. soot and fly ash). While the chemistry associated with the formation and ultimate fate of coal sulphur and nitrogen has been fairly well-defined, until recently the chemical nature and fates of the remaining trace elements during and following combustion have attracted considerably less interest. The control of particulate emissions has been of concern for many years, but with emphasis being placed primarily on the visible stack emissions from the combustion facilities. Recent research into the nature of the inorganic emissions from coal-fired power plants, however, has given reason for renewed concern. These results indicate that particulate emissions may be greatly enriched in certain trace elements, and that these trace elements may be in chemical for physical forms, which have an enhanced impact upon man. To understand the complex chemistry involved in the trace element enrichment process during coal combustion one must know something of the chemical/or physical nature of these elements in coal. The majority of trace elements in coal are associated with the inorganic mineral matter present in all coals. This mineral matter consists primarily of clays (aluminosilicates), quartz (SİO2), carbonates, sulphides, sulphates and oxides. The trace elements may also be associated with the coal macerals, having been present in the original vegetation from which the coal was formed. While many trace elements, have primarily either organic or inorganic associations some trace elements show an affinity for both fractions. During combustion the mineral matter undergoes both decomposition and transformation reactions which may result in the release of the more volatile elements. The ultimate fate of the trace elements will largely depend oncontent and initial concentration of the trace elements in the coal combustion temperature of the facilities particle size of the ashes, operation temperature of the control systems. In recent years, attention has been directed rather more to the elemental composition of the dust rather than to its nuisance value with some stress on the trace elements likely to be present-particularly the heavy metals. Whereas the coal before combustion has on elemental composition broadly similar to soils and crustal rocks-and hence similar to the natural dust content of the atmosphere the combustion process acts to concentrate a number of elements into the ash and dust by a concentration factor of five or six. Beyond this, a number of the more volatile elements re-condense after combustion preferentially on to the finer particles-because of their greater specific surface area enhancing the concentration of these elements by on even greater factor. Elements may be divided into two groups on the basis of their concentration dependence upon particle size: those, which show no enrichment in the smallest particles, and those, which are enriched. The primary interest is with the enriched elements, since they are most likely to have a significant environmental impact. Results of analyses of fly ash as a function of particle size at laboratory indicate that the elements Mn, Ba, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, Nd, As, Sb, Sn, Br, Zn, Se, Pb, Hg and S are volatilized to a significant extent in the combustion process. The elements Mg, Ti, Na, K, Mo, Ce, Rb, Cs and Nb appear to have a smaller fraction volatilized during coal combustion, or have significant variations in behavior between plants. The remaining elements, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Sr, La, Sm, Eu, Tb, Py, Yb, Y, Sc, Zr, Ta, Na, Th, Ag and In, are either not volatilized, or may show minor trends which might be related to the geochemistry of the mineral matter. The most important phenomenon of the trace element distribution is that of the vaporisation-condensation, which is present in all stages of combustion process. That is why the combustion temperature has the most relevant role to play in the distribution of trace elements in combustion products, the ideal situation is to have an exact knowledge of the chemical form of the elements and the operating temperature of the boiler and of the control systems. Thus, it should be possible to determine the fate of the trace elements fairly exactly. The analytical results provide firm evidence that a volatilization-condensation process account for the trace element enrichment observed in the fly ash emitted from coal-fired power plants. The enrichment process results from condensation of volatilized material preferentially upon the smaller fly ash particles. A relationship in which the concentration is proportional to D`2 usually applies for particles larger than 1-15 um in diameter. For smaller particles, in situations where other particle formation mechanisms become, important, or where the thickness of the condensed material becomes appreciable, a more detailed approach appears to more correctly describe the concentration dependence upon particle size. In some cases, the concentration of volatilized elements becomes independent of particle size for particles as large as several microns in diameter. Some mechanisms have been postulated to explain these observations. xiIf the combustion conditions are always maintained the same and the coals used come from the same coal basin, which mean similar properties and rank of coal, a prediction of the trace elements destination in the final products, through correlations and the mathematical models, will be possible The volatilized elements, which condense upon, fly ash before particulate collection devices are often emitted into the atmosphere in greater abundance by a factor of up to 10 or more than elements not volatilized. These elements include As, Sb, Pb, Cd, V, Mo, Zn, Ga, Cr and U. These elements would typically have a 10-10 greater probability of pulmonary deposition upon respiration. Elements which are totally volatilized during combustion and which do not condense on particulate matter before the pollution control devices will often be emitted to the atmosphere in approximately 10 or greater abundance than elements not volatilized during combustion. These elements include the hologens, Hg, significant partions of the Se, B and perhaps-other elements such as Pb and Sb. These elements have 10 -10, or even greater, probability of pulmonary deposition upon respiration respiration than elements not volatilized during combustion. Further, these elements may be enriched by two to three orders of magnitute in the low temperature coal ash compared to their crustal abundance, leading to enrichment factors of 10 or greater for pulmonary deposition relative to the crustal abundance. The situation for the elements which are primarily in the gas phase at stack temperatures is similar to organic compounds, which include numerous mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which also rapidly become associated with the fly ash after leaving the stack by either condensation or adsorption processes. There are still several major gaps in existing knowledge of the trace element chemistry during coal combustion processes. When these gaps are filled, it should be possible to predict (at least semiquantatively) the extent of trace element emissions for a certain coal in a given coal-fired power plant. As noted above, the major affecting the trace element emissions from coal-fired power plants is the volatility, of the element during the combustion process. This necessarily involves a more complete understanding of volatilization from complex mineral phases and the fate of `organically-associated` species during combustion. In addition to the volatility of trace elements, the particle size distribution plays a major role in determining the emission rates for elements, which condense before the particle collection devices. Shifting the size distribution to smaller sizes will increase the emission rates due to a drop in collection efficiency for nearly all devices for 0.1-1.0 jim diameter particles. The size distribution may be altered by the combustion conditions. Research is necessary to determine the size distribution of particles resulting from the bursting or fracturing process and the dependence on combustion conditions and coal composition. Since the major parameters are likely to be the heating rate and composition of the particle, this process may be amenable to quantative treatment Regardless, it is important to determine if increased combustion xutemperatures necessarily increase the abundance of submicron particles if so, this factor would have to be considered in evaluating the advantages of increased combustion temperatures (e.g. increased plant efficiency, lower emission rates for other pollutants, etc.). Research must also address questions concerning the rate particle growth during combustion. Other problems involve the nature of the diffusion and crystal growth of trace species in ply ash particles after formation. Increased efforts should also be applied to the development of techniques for actual sampling of the high temperature combustion region. Ideally, these techniques should analyze major, minor and trace species in the gas phase and the particle size distribution well in to the condensation nuclei range, as well as elemental concentrations in the particulate matter as a function of particle size. Knowledge of the size distributions and compositions of the particulate phase through a combustion facility will be vital 10 a complete understanding of the combustion process and fly ash formation. The impact of new combustion and pollution control technologies must be care fully evaluated. And, there is an obvious need for more extensive and careful measurements of trace element emissions and particle size distributions from the various types of coal- fired plants. For example, particulate sampling methods need to be developed which avoid the loss of components with high vapour pressures. To increase the usefulness of these measurements, the coal should be analyzed, and the affinities determined for important trace element. Attempts should also be mode to determine the particle size distribution before the pollution control devices, and in the plume after most species emitted in the gas phase have become associated with the particles. There is also a need to understand the chemical and physical processes which the rates and temperatures at which the volatile species become associated with fly ash. A drop in the operating temperatures of pollution control devices may significantly reduce the emissions of these species. The correlation of these data with plant design and combustion conditions con provide both valuable emprical data on other factors affecting trace element emission rates and the means of greatly limiting the atmospheric discharge of trace element. To emphasize the effect of domesting heating to the air pollution in Turkey, concentrations of heavy metals in gas phase and in particular phase emitted from some kinds of lignite which are combusted extensively using the boiler and the stove have been studied. Gas sampling was carried out by passing the flue gas, sampled by a pump, through a thimble to remove the solid particles and extracting the trace elements in impingers including 0.1 N nitric acid. The stack particulates were sampled isokinetically using Andersen Universal Stack Sampler for the boiler and the small system for the stove and collected in the thimble for both stove and boiler. xmAll samples were chemically analyzed using a number of techniques including atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Datas of the coal combustion have been compared with each other and limit values of `Air Quality Assurance Regulation`. xiv ÖZET Hava kirliliğinin ülkemizde, özellikle bazı büyük şehirlerde giderek arttığı ve tehlikeli sonuçlar meydana getirdiği görülmektedir. Bu noktada dikkatler gerek enerji üretimi ve gerekse endüstriyel ve evsel gereksinmeler için yaygın olarak kullanılan kömür üzerine çekilmelidir. Kömürlerin yaygın olarak kullanılması diğer kirleticilerle birlikte ağır metallerinden atmosferdeki taşınımını arttırmaktadır. Bu çalışmada 80 000 kcal/h kapasiteli, TSE belgeli, elle yüklemeli, ızgaralı, üstten yanmalı ve iki kapaklı sobada çeşitli kömür örnekleriyle yanma deneyleri gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kazan deneylerinde %37 nemli Yeniköy Ağaçlı, nemi %20 civarına getirilmiş Yeniköy Ağaçlı-Güney Afrika harman, nemi %20 civarlarında bulunan Yeniköy Ağaçlı-Sibirya harman kömür örnekleri, soba deneylerinde %37 nemli Yeniköy Ağaçlı, nemi %20 civarına getirilmiş Yeniköy Ağaçlı-Güney Afrika harman, nemi %21 civarlarına getirilmiş Yeniköy Ağaçlı, nemi %15 civarına getirilmiş Yeniköy Ağaçlı kömür örnekleri kullanılmıştır. Yanma deneylerinde gerçekleştirilen emisyon ölçümleri sonucunda her kömür için ağır metallerin toz ve gaz fazdaki atmosferik yayınımlarına yanma sistemlerinin ve kömür cinslerinin etkileri araştırılmış ayrıca elde edilen sonuçlar Türk ve Alman yönetmeliklerinde (Hava Kalitesinin Korunması Yönetmeliği ve TA-Luft) sınır değerlerle de mukayese edilmiştir. ıx 132

Fossil fuel substitution with biomass is one of the measures to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This paper estimates the cost-effectiveness of raising industrial steam and producing materials (i.e. chemicals, polymers) from biomass. We quantify their long-term global potentials in terms of energy saving, CO2 emission reduction, cost and resource availability. Technically, biomass can replace all fossil fuels used for the production of materials and for generating low and medium temperature steam. Cost-effective opportunities exist for steam production from biomass residues and by substitution of high value petrochemicals which would together require more than 20 exajoules (EJ) of biomass worldwide in addition to baseline by 2030. Potentials could double in 2050 and reach 38-45 EJ (25% of the total industrial energy use), with most demand in Asia, other developing countries and economies in transition. The economic potential of using biomass as chemical feedstock is nearly as high as for steam production, indicating its importance. The exploitation of these potentials depends on energy prices and industry's access to biomass supply. Given the increasing competition for biomass from several economic sectors, more resource efficient materials need to be developed while steam production is already attractive due to its high effectiveness for reducing CO2 emissions per unit of biomass.