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Energy & Fuels 2008, 22, 190–198
Production of Mallee Biomass in Western Australia: Energy Balance Analysis† Hongwei Wu,*,‡ Qiang Fu,‡ Rick Giles,§ and John Bartle§ Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin UniVersity of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia, and ReVegetation Systems Unit, Natural Resources Branch, Nature ConserVation DiVision, Department of EnVironment and ConserVation, Locked Bag 104 Bentley DeliVery Centre 6983, Western Australia ReceiVed May 28, 2007. ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed July 30, 2007
In Western Australia (WA), mallee eucalypts are being developed to provide woody crops for wheatbelt farmers as part of a strategy to tackle a range of conservation issues including dryland salinity. If mallee crops prove commercially viable, a considerable centrally harvested biomass supply could be available for conversion to renewable energy and other industrial products. This study presents a systematic analysis of overall energy balance of mallee biomass production in WA. Mallee biomass production achieves strong energy gain with an energy ratio (the ratio of total energy outputs and total nonrenewable energy inputs) of 41.7 and an energy productivity of 206.3 GJ/(ha year). This performance by a perennial woody crop is considerably better than that achievable by annual energy crops, i.e. canola (rapeseed) for biodiesel in the same region, where energy ratios are typically
