By Rubina Obaid
Biomass carbon calculator for measuring emissions in the supply chain and enabling the industry to identify the possible emission reduction to efficiently tackle climate change.
Drax plays a significant role in contributing to an effective transition towards a low carbon economy to enable zero carbon emission and lower-cost energy future. One of the largest biomass producing firms in the world is committed to manage and mitigate climate change risks and exploring opportunities for moving towards more environment-friendly green energy sources to become carbon negative by 2030. Drax aims to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it is emitted, creating a negative carbon footprint for the group. In order to make progress on this ambition Drax recently opened a public consultation on a new biomass carbon calculator and seeking views from a wide range of experts that include academics and non-governmental organizations from the energy industry to ensure the accuracy of the methodology.
The calculator will help in calculating wood pellet supply chain greenhouse gas (GHG) lifecycle emission according to the Renewables Obligations of UK and European Union directives. Biomass is considered as an environment friendly source of energy production and sustainable energy solution, only when it is going to precisely evident that it delivers considerably less carbon emission on a lifecycle basis throughout the supply chain. Drax says in its consultation documents ” It is therefore important that the lifecycle emission of biomass are calculated and reported both accurately and transparently. Carbon emission reduction at Drax power station has the most significant impact. Therefore, as the part of commitment to support UK’s climate neutrality targets Drax is also taking the responsibility to ensure that the supply chain for the sustainable biomass pellet which are used to generate renewable electricity is of minimum carbon emission.
Drax group’s head of climate change, Rebecca Heaton said that, “It is vital that Drax and the rest of the biomass industry has the clearest possible picture of emissions in the production and transportation of the pellets by using actual supply chain data to help raise the quality of carbon accounting for biomass and that is why we are encouraging people from different sectors. We are calling on academics, scientists and regulators for constructive participation in the consultation to help further improve the modeling for this new calculator and create a higher industry standards for emissions reporting.”
According to Drax the new calculator has been designed to address numerous issues with the available GHG compliance tools that also include over reliance on typical values and inconsistencies between collected supply chain data along with calculator input fields. The calculator requires to enter actual supply chain data for the calculation of carbon intensity of the biomass supply chain. The data inputs must have to be aligned with the standard units of measurement used throughout the industry. The calculator also allows the users to simultaneously model up to 20 different feedstock groups and 10 different distribution routes for a single biomass production plant. For better methodology Drax is also looking forward to the stakeholders regarding improved methodology, accuracy, scope and usability of its newly launched calculator.
Reference link:
https://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/17024/drax-opens-consultation-on-biomass-carbon-calculator
