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| 1 |
ID:
111407
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
As opposite in Portugal, the wood pellets market is booming in Europe. In this work, possible reasons for this market behavior are foreseen according to the key indicators of biomass availability, costs and legal framework. Two major constrains are found in the Portuguese pellets market: the first one is the lack of an internal consumption, being the market based on exportations. The second one is the shortage of raw material mainly due to the competition with the biomass power plants. Therefore, the combination of the biomass power plants with pellet production plants seems to be the best option for the pellets production in the actual Portuguese scenario. The main constrains for pellets market has been to convince small-scale customers that pellets are a good alternative fuel, mainly due to the investment needed and the strong competition with natural gas. Besides some benefits in the acquisition of new equipment for renewable energy, they are insufficient to cover the huge discrepancy of the investment in pellets heating. However, pellets are already economic interesting for large utilizations. In order cover a large amount of households, additional public support is needed to cover the supplementary costs of the pellets heating systems.
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| 2 |
ID:
132631
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2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Municipal solid waste (MSW) collection and disposal is a major urban environment issue in the world today. MSW management solutions have to be technologically feasible, legally and socially acceptable and environmentally and financially sustainable. European policy is pushing for a rational management of natural resources; a promising technological perspective today is waste valorisation, a process that involves sorting at the source, combined with material recycling and waste-to-energy conversion. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the Portuguese MSW management system, criticize the environmental policy issues for MSW management in Portugal and identify weak points in the criteria used for the technologies selection. Portugal is facing multiple problems with MSW management and is attempting to tackle them by passing legislation in order to improve the performance of waste management systems. At the technological level, gasification increasingly presents as an efficient and viable alternative to incineration. Gasification is a waste-to-energy conversion scheme that offers an attractive solution to both waste disposal and energy problems. Waste gasification by plasma has been validated but the economic viability of this technology must be proven before to be accepted by the industry.
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