Biomass System Perspective Framework

The Institut de l’énergie Trottier (IET) of Polytechnique Montréal invites you to a webinar for the launch of the final report of the Biomass and carbon neutrality project, titled A Biomass System Perspective Framework for a Net-Zero Future, and of the Biomass System Perspective decision support tool.

Biomass resources can play a strategic role in Canada’s energy transition as the country’s vast forest and agriculture lands and the diversity of conversion technologies make biomass part of potential decarbonization pathways for several end-use sectors, such as industries, buildings, road transport, marine, rail or aviation. Biomass use, therefore, must be accurately assessed to ensure that projects will deliver the expected climate benefits and that we avoid situations where efforts to decarbonize different sectors could be counterproductive to climate change mitigation.

The research and consultations carried out during this project were designed with the aim of advancing the systemic understanding of the biomass sectors to better assess biomass contribution to Canada’s climate objectives.

The final report of this project explores first the factors that impact the benefit of biomass use in terms of climate change mitigation, the methods used to track biogenic CO2, and those employed to evaluate biomass uses.

The second part of the report describes the proposed approach for project evaluation in Canada’s transition to net zero and the structure of the first version of the Biomass System Perspective decision-support tool.

Adopting a biomass system perspective when evaluating potential new projects shifts the focus from a project-level evaluation to a systemic perspective by considering alternative options, either for resource use and conversion or for end-use decarbonization.