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The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Approach

The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Rapid Appraisal (RA) consists of a set of easily applicable methodologies and user-friendly tools which allow countries to get an initial indication of their sustainable bioenergy potential and of the associated opportunities, risks and trade-offs.
The BEFS RA tools assist policy makers/technical officers to understand:

  • energy, agriculture and food security in the context of their country;
  • viable sustainable bioenergy options; and
  • bioenergy options which require more in-depth analysis, e.g. through the 

    BEFS Detailed Analysis

    .

Modules

This module covers key environmental and socio-economic indicators, the identification of main food staples and cash crops, along with energy production and demand (household level, transport sector, industry).

This module of the RA assesses the selected feedstock for bioenergy. The output is an initial indication of quantities of feedstock available from crop and livestock residues, forest harvesting and wood processing residues, as well as crops. Profitability of different crops is also taken into consideration.

Crop residues and livestock residues

The Agricultural residues component encompasses tools to assess the availability of crop and livestock residues. Crop residues are suitable feedstock for the production of briquettes and pellets (solid biofuels), while manure is suitable for the production of biogas. These biofuels can be used for heating and cooking or for electricity generation through
gasification or combustion.

Woodfuel and wood residues

The Woodfuel and wood residues component includes three tools: Forest Harvesting, Wood Processing Residues and Forest Plantations. These tools facilitate the assessment of the potential for additional harvesting of fuelwood from production forests and the availability of forest harvesting residues and wood processing residues.

Crop production

The Crop production tool is used to assess the potential for additional production of oilseed, sugar and starch crops. The approach used to estimate the amount of these crops that could be available for bioenergy production, takes into account the countries needs for food, feed and other non-bioenergy purposes.

At this stage, the energy end use options that the country is interested in are selected and analysed. The Rapid Appraisal covers the following energy end-use options:

  • pre-treatement: biomass residues;
  • intermediate or final products: briquettes, pellets, charcoal;
  • heating and cooking: biogas community;
  • rural electrification: gasification, straight vegetable oil (SVO), combustion;
  • heat and power: CHP (cogeneration), biogas industrial;
  • transport: ethanol and biodiesel.

A techno-economic and socio-economic analysis is conducted for each of these options.

The analysis covers technology, economic profitability and financial viability. The socio-economic analysis covers labour implications and smallholder inclusion. For each option considered, feedstock requirements are checked against the outputs of the Natural resource assessment. Based on the results of the techno-economic and socio-economic analyses, the preferred options for intermediate or final products, heating and cooking, rural electrification, heat and power, and transport are screened against the Country status.

Pretreatement
Intermediate or final products
Briquets
Pellets
Charchoal
Biogas for community purposes
Gasification
Straight vegetable oil (SVO)
Combustion
Heat and power
CHP (cogeneration)
Biogas for industrial uses
Transport
Ethanol and Biodiesel
Molasses
2g Ethanol
Cover of the introduction manual
Manual
BEFS Rapid Appraisal - Introduction to the approach and the manuals
2014

This manual provides an overview of the BEFS Rapid Appraisal and of the overall BEFS Approach, of which the BEFS Rapid Appraisal is a part. The BEFS...