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CASE STUDY: ENVIRONMENTAL FEASIBILITY

The sourcing of biomass fuel is key to its environmental credentials. Source the fuel from too far away and the pollutants simply from transporting the fuel outweigh any emissions savings gained from using biomass over a more conventional fossil-fuelled system.  For this reason a demonstrative case study was set up using the Transportation Emissions Tool to look at the current biomass supply routes for Findhorn Ecovillage. Delivery data was obtained for the Soillse district which consists of 6 houses. The average delivery was 4 tonnes and roughly 6 deliveries are currently made per annum. 

Currently there are 3 main suppliers to Findhorn and they are located as follows:

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Further details on the routes are as follows:

Route 1 - Forres to Findhorn: 8.5km by road. 
Route 2 - Keith to Findhorn: 47.5km by road. 
Route 3 - Belfast to Findhorn via Cairnryan: 90.6km by boat. 416.5km by road. 
Route 4 - Belfast to Findhorn via Larne and Cairnryan: 64.5km by boat. 453.7km by road. 

These routes were simulated for a 4 tonne cargo using the Transportation Emissions Tool and the following results were produced:
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It can be seen from the results that as biomass is sourced further away from the consumer the emissions can considerably increase. It is a somewhat linear profile, which is fairly predictable, but it can also be seen that shipping is a more efficient way to freight cargo as per the differences between Routes 3 and 4.

If the emissions incurred by burning the fuel load are considered each batch (4 tonnes) would produce approximately 6600kg of CO2. Multiplying the emissions from Route 4 by 6 deliveries per annum and this value is approximately equal to the emissions of burning one batch – whereas it would take 326 trips, approx. 54 years of fuel deliveries, to reach the same emissions if the biomass was to be sourced from Forres (Route 1). This is therefore a useful demonstration of how biomass’ environmental credentials can be affected by the distance associated with freighting the cargo from source to consumer. 

The Future

There is also the possibility that current biomass supplies to Findhorn become exhausted. This would be due to the supplier sourcing their own biomass unsustainably – which admittedly is the case at the moment (2015). Therefore other options could be considered in the future using the tool to see how the emissions would look if the biomass fuel was to be sourced from further away. 


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