Biomass Supply Chain Management: Perspectives and Challenges

In India, biomass is abundant renewable energy source available in terms of about 686 MT gross agricultural residues annually with surplus of 234 MT for bioenergy production. Biomass-based bioenergy is having major emphasis for potential solution in renewable energy programmes across India. The bioenergy and biofuel produced from biomass is reliable which provide eco-friendly energy source under clean development mechanism but it also depends on many reasons which also includes primarily as biomass assessment and supply chain management. Biomass supply chain is the association of material between the initial source and the end-user. Characteristic of biomass supply chain is typically comprised of some distinct processes as harvesting, collection, transportation, pretreatment, storage and end use, which is crucial for success of bioenergy production. There are several issues in this aspect especially for transportation and storage such as seasonal availability, production cost and efficient conversion technologies. Research and development is essential to optimize the biomass supply chain management for maximise the utilization capacity with minimizing the inputs. The information presented in this paper would be useful for biomass supply chain management-based energy programmes in India. In this facet, multi-biomass approach is sustainable in present scenario for more advantageous with relatively available renewable energy alternative.