Green and sustainable biomass supply chain for environmental, social and economic benefits

Bioenergy is a clean and renewable source of energy that can reduce global depency on fossil fuel, and it is a sustainable, economically viable, and socially acceptable. Bioenergy production aligns with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly or indirectly. Bioenergy feedstocks are spatio-temporally distributed and, therefore, design of a green and sustainable Biomass Supply Chain (BSC) is pivotal for effective commercialization of bioenergy. The BSC starts with biomass harvest and includes collection, processing, storage, and transportation as intermediate processes and ends with biomass delivery at the conversion facilities. All these processes are spatially interlinked. Cost-effective bioenergy generation requires an effective and efficient BSC model. The absence of such model is the major cause of failure of bioenergy plants. With this backdrop, this paper reviewed literature related to BSC, and its elements. The elements are then linked with emissions, economy, and socio-cultural aspects to draw a wider picture of bioenergy for sustainable development. The challenges associated with bioenergy are elucidated with in-depth discussion. The analysis shows that green and sustainable BSC can be a major tool to achieve UN SDGs in many ways. On the contrary, present situation of BSC is challenging from multiple perspectives: environmental, socio-cultural, economic, policy, institutional as well as technological challenges. To achieve global deployment of bioenergy with net zero emissions target, use of advanced and emerging tools and techniques like artificial intelligence, machine learning, remote sensing & GIS, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is recommended.