Bioenergy potential from crop residue biomass in Araucania Region of Chile

The volatility of fossil fuels prices, air pollution and climate change, have led many countries turning to renewable resources of energy, especially biomass, for production of heat and electricity. Residual biomass fuels used in the production of heat and electricity are wheat, oat and barley straw, corn stover and wood chips from forest residuals and the wood industry. The focus of this study was to estimate how much sustainably removable residue from wheat straw there was in Araucania Region of Chile and how much electrical energy could be produced. The methodology used for estimating wheat straw residual was based upon the relationship between unused post-harvest biomass, marketable biomass, and volume and potential annually available. Results of this study indicate an annual average production of over 0,622 million tons of wheat straw in Araucania Region. Quilquén district is the one with the most production, with 0,27 million tons of wheat straw. Technical potential of wheat straw, per generation from Quilquén, in a plant of 5 MWth generation capacity, is of 3.17 MWel with the technologies of cogeneration through fluidized bed combustion and 4.89 MWel with the technologies of turbine power generation, and the fluidized bed gasifiers and combined gas and steam.