Socio-Economic Impacts of a Lignocellulosic Ethanol Refinery in Canada

Abstract

There has been a strong public debate on the sustainability of feedstock used in the production of biofuels. Some of the main concerns have been the impacts of biomass production on food security, the local economy, and working conditions in feedstock production and conversion chains. This chapter assesses the socio-economic impacts of lignocellulosic biomass production and conversion, using case studies from a lignocellulosic biorefinery and indicators from a hypothetical thermochemical biorefinery in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The production of second-generation products, like lignin, ethanol, pyrolysis oil, and upgraded products using forest residues and pulp wood, can generate economic benefits and employment in the forestry sector that suffers from the declining demand for paper and timber. These impacts are important on national and regional levels, but even more on a local level. Villages and communities are often highly dependent on the nearby forests, paper mills, or saw mills, and the decline of these sectors will have significant impacts on the local economy. On a microeconomic scale, for each biorefinery, the challenge is to produce sufficient added value materials at economical costs.