Sustainable biomass production for energy in Sri Lanka

The present study concentrates mainly on the estimation of land availability for biomass production and the estimation of sustainable biomass production potential for energy. The feasible surplus land area available for bioenergy plantation is estimated assuming two land availability scenarios (Scenarios 1 and 2) and three biomass demand scenarios (IBD Scenario, SBD Scenario and FBD Scenario). Scenario 1 assumes that 100% of the surplus area available in base year 1997 will be suitable for plantation without considering population growth and food production and that 75% of this surplus land is feasible for plantation. Scenario 2 assumes that future food requirement will grow by 20% and the potential surplus area will be reduced by that amount. The incremental biomass demand scenario (IBD Scenario) assumes that only the incremental demand for biomass in the year 2010 with respect to the base year 1997 has to be produced from new plantation. The sustainable biomass demand scenario (SBD Scenario) assumes that the total sustainable supply of biomass in 1997 is deducted from the future biomass demand in 2010 and only the balance is to be met by new plantation. The full biomass demand scenario (FBD Scenario) assumes that the entire projected biomass demand of the year 2010 needs to be produced from new plantation. The total feasible land area for the scenarios IBD‐1, 1BD‐2, SBD‐1, SBD‐2, FBD‐1 and FBD‐2 are approximately 0.96, 0.66, 0.80, 0.94, 0.60 and 0.30 Mha, respectively. Biomass production potential is estimated by selecting appropriate plant species, plantation spacing and productivity level. The results show that the total annual biomass production in the country could vary from 2 to 9.9 Mt. With the production option (i.e.1.5 m X 1.5 m) spacing plantation with fertilizer application) giving the highest yield, the total biomass production for energy under IBD Scenario would be 9.9 Mt yr‐1 for Scenario 1 and 6.7 Mt yr ‐1 for Scenario 2. Under SBD Scenario, the corresponding values are 8.2 Mt yr ‐1 for Scenario 1 and 5.0 Mt yr ‐ 1 for scenario 2. Finally, FBD Scenario leads to a total biomass production of 6.2 Mt yr ‐ 1 for Scenario 1 and 3.0 Mt yr – 1 for Scenario 2. The total investment for bioenergy plantation is estimated, and the barriers and policy options for biomass production for energy are also presented in this study