Carbon payback period and carbon offset parity point of wood pellet production in the South-eastern United States

Abstract

This study examines the effect of methodological choices to determine the carbon payback time and the offset parity point for wood pellet production from softwood plantations in the South-eastern United States. Using the carbon accounting model GORCAM we model low-, medium-and high-intensity plantation management scenarios for a single stand level, an increasing stand level and a landscape level. Other variables are the fossil-fuel reference system and the electrical conversion efficiency. Due to the large amount of possible methodological choices and reference systems, there is a wide range of payback times (