Ecological and economic aspects of electric energy production using the biomass co-firing method: The case of Poland

The article describes the most important aspects related to electric energy production using the method of biomass co-firing with lignite and coal in Poland. We emphasise the potential of biomass co-firing for electric energy production in the country. We also describe the current use of the method in Poland and present the most important technological and economic aspects of its use in Polish coalfired power plants. In the article, we use the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impact of electric energy production from coal using the biomass co-firing method. We present the analysis of data obtained from large coal and lignite coal-fired Polish power plants. The LCA describes the current environmental impact of energy production and potential ways of limiting it by the extended use of the biomass co-firing method in the analysed power plants. The performed simulation also confirms the possibility of limiting negative environmental impact of electric energy production by extending the use of this method. We also describe the negative aspects of the biomass co-firing with coal and indicate the direction of changes aimed at improving the efficiency of the method in electric energy production. The last part of the article contains conclusions related to the presented research that summarise the analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.