Bioenergy from wood plantations in Mexico. Survey and assessment of the energy potential

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (Riunet)

[EN] Mexico as many other countries is a net fossil fuels consumer. In 2011, fossil fuels in Mexico represented 76% of the overall energy consumption. One of the main fossil resources is the natural gas (12% of all the energy consumption), which is an important fuel inside the industrial sector (representing a 38.4% of the consumption in this sector). On 2011 the importations of natural gas increased by 20%, this might cause a lack of energy security in Mexico, which is represented in the National Energy Strategy of Mexico till 2026. The use of solid biomass for energy provision presented in this thesis may firstly, help with the lack of energy security in Mexico, due to the importations of the natural gas, and secondly, curtail the environmental problems arising from CO2 emissions, and finally, encourage economic development of the rural areas. The technical economic energy potential of Mexico for Eucalyptus is estimated in 161.7 PJ per year. The CO2 emissions that biomass from Eucalyptus might be avoided compared to natural gas may sum up to 55.06 million tons in 7 years. Also, some economic results of this study show up that If a wood plantation of 500ha with a distance of 10km from the principal heat demand, will have a NPV of 73,433.56¿ and the IRR would be 13%. All the wood plantations closer from 100km to the heat demand are profitable. Finally the methodology developed in this Thesis, is expected to apply to other countries with similar environmental and economic conditions as Mexico.