Sustainable Production and Consumption 28 (2021) 1522–1537

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Sustainable Production and Consumption

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/spc

Research article

Organic waste to energy: Resource potential and barriers to uptake in

Chile✩
James Ludlowa, Francisca Jalil-Vegab,c,∗, Ximena Schmidt Rivera d, Rene A. Garridoe,
Adam Hawkes f, Iain Staffell a, Paul Balcombeg
a
Centre for Environmental Policy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
b
Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Diagonal Las Torres 2640, Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile
c
Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI), Santiago, Chile
d
Equitable Development and Resilience Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Design and Physical Science, Brunel
University London, London, United Kingdom
e
Departamento de Ingeniería Geográfica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile
f
Sustainable Gas Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
g
Division of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Energy, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 requires a step-change in resource manage-
Received 28 March 2021
ment, and the utilisation of organic waste is currently an untapped opportunity in Latin America. This
Revised 19 July 2021
study carries out a quantitative and qualitative assessment of organic waste-to-energy potentials for the
Accepted 23 August 2021
Available online 29 August 2021 Chilean context. First, it produces a comprehensive quantification of organic waste, including annual crop
residues, horticulture residues, livestock manure and OFMSW by region; then it estimates the energy
Editor: Dr. Sandra Venghaus potential of these bioresources; and finally, it conducts a series of stakeholder interviews determining
Keywords: barriers to greater waste-to-energy utilisation. The results show that the total bioenergy potential from
Bioenergy potential waste is estimated at 78 PJ/yr (3.3% of annual energy demand), being livestock manure (41%) and annual
Bioenergy from waste crop residues (28%) the main sources, arising mostly from three regions. The stakeholder elicitation con-
Biomass cluded that financial, technical, and institutional barriers prevent waste utilisation, highlighting the needs
Agricultural residues to address elevated investment costs and high reliance on landfilling practices, which together with pub-
Municipal solid waste lic policies could enable the full exploitation of these resources to ensure energy security and resource
Waste-to-energy efficiency.
© 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction contexts, geographic and resource availability among regions, and

technological changes in the period. High upfront costs, deficiency
Many countries have targeted net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) in access to sophisticated technologies, lack of participation of
emissions by 2050 (Levin and Davis, 2020), which will require stakeholders, and public policy deficiencies have not allowed for
rapid transitions and nation-specific solutions that lean on their an appropriate implementation of relevant technologies for
strengths. Organic waste-to-energy (OWtE) technologies can pro- biowaste treatment (Silva-Martínez et al., 2020). On the other
vide low carbon energy whilst reducing waste to landfill (Silva- hand, the con- tinuing increase of electricity demands in the region
Martínez et al., 2020), but in Latin America and the Caribbean has forced local stakeholders to find ways to optimise existing
(LAC) countries the vast majority of organic waste is landfilled waste treat- ment options which could allow energy recovery
(Margallo et al., 2019). (Koldisevs, 2014). One such country is Chile, whose energy imports
During the last 40 years, local experiences with OWtE technolo- currently repre- sent approximately 65% of its primary energy
gies have varied amongst LAC countries regarding implementation (Simsek et al., 2019) and 90% of its fossil fuels (Comisión Nacional
strategies and applications among different sectors, due to de Energía, 2018a). However, Chile has a prominent
political silvoagricultural1 sector: the agri- cultural, livestock, and forestry
sectors account for around 2.9% of the country’s GDP (Oficina de
✩
Estudios y Políticas Agrarias, 2019). This sector generates large
Edited by: Dr. Sandra Venghaus.
∗ amounts of organic residues from the
Corresponding author at: Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad
Adolfo Ibáñez, Diagonal Las Torres 2640, Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Jalil-Vega). 1
Forestry and agriculture

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.08.017
2352-5509/© 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J. Ludlow, F. Jalil-Vega, X. Schmidt Rivera et al. Sustainable Production and Consumption 28 (2021) 1522–1537

production and export of products (Rodríguez-Monroy et al., most economically and environmentally viable as they can ex-
2018), but most is dumped or sent to landfill (Ministerio del Medio ploit economies of scale (Whitaker et al., 2018) without distort-
Am- biente, 2013). However, the utilisation of agricultural residues ing food markets (Searle and Malins, 2015). However, this is con-
for energy remains very low. A total installed capacity of 42 MWe tested with research regarding further social implications. For ex-
across eight biogas plants contributed to 0.4% of Chile’s electric- ample Montefrio (2012) argues that traditional agricultural prac-
ity supply in 2014. Two landfills in Santiago (Capital city) produce tices of indigenous people can be at risk by large global biofuel
83% of the nation’s biogas, while 15% is produced in wastewater demands. Furthermore, Raman and Mohr (2014) discuss that cur-
treatment plants, and 3% from manure and organic waste (Gaete- rent global biomass commodity chains consist on poorer countries
Morales et al., 2018). Biomass electricity which is mainly powered (Global South) exporting raw materials to the Global North, instead
with inputs from the forestry sector contributes 2% of the coun- of exporting higher-value biofuels, which they argue is what was
try’s total installed capacity, with around 500 MWe (Tapia, 2019). initially envisioned by early promoters of bioenergy.
A greater utilisation of waste-to-energy could contribute to cli- The utilisation of Organic Waste-to-Energy (OWtE) technolo-
mate change targets, waste reduction, increased energy security, gies provides the potential for utilising biowaste (household or-
resource efficiency, and air pollution reduction. ganic waste, forest and agricultural residues) as bioenergy sources,
In Chile, 24% of primary energy in 2018 came from wood without incurring in these issues (Silva-Martínez et al., 2020).
biomass (Comisión Nacional de Energía, 2018a). Firewood is pri- Bentsen et al. (2014) demonstrated that there are considerable
marily used for residential heating and cooking, while biomass is biomass resources that are technically available from agricultural
mainly used by cellulose and paper industrial sectors to self-supply residues alone. Municipal solid waste (MSW) production rates are
electricity (Román-Figueroa et al., 2017). However, the informal also expected to increase in around 8% globally from 2020 to 2025,
na- ture of Chilean firewood markets results in degradation of given increasing urbanisation rates (Ali et al., 2020).
forests and generates unwanted pollution (Schueftan et al., Each country has different resource and technology constraints
2016). Also, as a result of widespread use of firewood for and availabilities for OWtE, and present different barriers for up-
residential heating and cooking purposes, seven southern Chilean take, depending on geolocations, climate, policies in place, com-
cities were ranked amongst the 10 most polluted cities in Latin petition with other sources, etc. Ali et al. (2021) compare a set
America and the Caribbean in 2018 (IQAir AirVisual, 2018). The of energy policies in Pakistan and analyse their impact on bioen-
successful develop- ment of sustainable bioenergy depends firstly ergy development. The authors measure the effectiveness of these
on the identification of biomass resources, as well as policies in terms of sustainability, understood as energy equity, se-
information regarding availabil- ity, characteristics, and curity, environmental impacts, and economic aspects. They con-
geographical location. Secondly, the use of biomass should be clude that the share of bioenergy in the total energy mix is low,
managed and regulated carefully in order to guarantee sustainable and among other measures they recommend diversifying the cur-
outcomes (Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018). rent national scope on bagasse, to other bioenergy sources such as
Chile also produces 7.5 Mt/year of municipal solid waste agricultural and forestry residues, and municipal waste. They also
(MSW), the third highest producer per capita in South America (D- recommend setting targets to promote the use of underutilised
Waste, 2020), where most is sent to dumps or sanitary land- fill bioenergy resources in the country, and tailoring policies accord-
(SUBDERE, 2018a). This represents an under-exploitation of re- ingly. Welfle and Alawadhi (2021) appraise bioenergy opportuni-
sources, but also results in the release of methane due to biogenic ties, barriers, and challenges in the Arabian Peninsula. This study
decomposition, and the importance of managing these emissions firstly quantifies current MSW, crop residues, and indigenous re-
is gaining more and more prominence (European Commission, sources, and estimates potential bioenergy generation from them.
2020). Municipalities pay an average of $40 per ton of waste to be Secondly, the authors conduct a series of interviews and surveys
col- lected, transported, and disposed (Martínez Arce et al., 2010), to understand perceptions on bioenergy and barriers for its de-
so there is also a cost incentive to divert organic waste from ployment. They identified that the greatest barrier in the Gulf Co-
landfill, as well as resource efficiency, reduction of pollution due to operation countries is high availability of cheap fossil fuels and
waste transport, and environmental and social incentives. fossil fuel subsidies. Cross et al. (2021) analyse the effectiveness
Consequently, this research fills the knowledge gap of of support policies for bioenergy (including waste-to-energy) in
determin- ing national organic waste potentials for bioenergy, by the UK, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, through statistical tests
producing a comprehensive, up-to-date inventory and and stakeholder interviews. They conclude that wider factors that
characterisation of or- ganic waste in Chile, estimating the are country-specific have greater impacts in bioenergy uptake than
resource potential across dif- ferent regions. Furthermore, this specific policies, and that countries should develop their own pol-
study conducts a series of stake- holder interviews and a icy interventions to address their challenges. Some of the chal-
proceeding policy assessment to determine barriers, and potential lenges identified in LAC towards the adequate implementation of
regulatory solutions, to enable greater util- isation of bioenergy OWtE technologies are classified mainly as institutional, finan-
from waste. The underlying data output from this study may be cial, technical, and educational (Silva-Martínez et al., 2020), with
used by academia, industry, and policy makers to develop achieving economic feasibility of the projects being one of the
national and international decarbonisation pathways; energy, and main ones (Silva-Martínez et al., 2020) due to high technology,
waste valorisation policy; and to inform opportunities for production and maintenance costs involved. The cost from gener-
investment in energy from waste processes. ating biofuels or biogas from residues in the region are, in gen-
eral, still higher than the fossil fuels resources tariff currently in
2. Literature review the market (Silva dos Santos et al., 2018). All these studies show
that barriers for uptake of bioenergy from waste technologies are
Bioenergy comes in several forms and can be derived from highly dependent on each country’s conditions, in terms of avail-
many sources, but whilst the theoretical potential bioenergy re- able resources, policies, and economies.
source may appear high, several environmental, social, and eco- Other studies have assessed the potential of specific bio-waste
nomic constraints, which determine its sustainability credentials, streams for energy generation. For example, Chang et al. (2019) ap-
substantially reduce it (Levidow, 2013). For example, the poten- praise the bioenergy production potential form biomass waste
tial impact of bioenergy crops on afforestation and the avail- of rice paddies and forest sectors in Taiwan. They con-
ability of land for food significantly reduces available land for clude that current bioenergy levels can be more than tripled
bioenergy crops (Searle and Malins, 2015). With respect to feed-
stock, dedicated perennial crops using marginal lands may be
152
Table 1
Previous studies quantifying energy potentials from different organic waste and residue sources in Chile.

Refs. Main focus

Chamy and Vivanco (2007) Estimate biogas generation potential from residual or waste biomasses from different sectors (industrial, agriculture, wastewater
treatment).
Zaror et al. (2009) Estimate agricultural residue energy potential based on total arable landmass.
Bidart et al. (2013) Technoeconomic assessment to estimate gas-to- energy, waste-to-energy, and gas collecting potentials from MSW.
Bidart et al. (2014) Estimate electricity and bio syngas generation potential form manure and agricultural residues.

by converting biowaste to bioethanol and/or combusting it. the different residues physically and chemically, showing that all
Afolabi et al. (2021) assess Nigeria’s bioenergy potential from agri- had favourable properties for producing methane. The authors con-
food loss and waste, finding that generation potential is enough cluded that using the different residue streams with adequate
r
to supply national 2030 s bioenergy targets, and concluding with a technologies, the potential biogas production was enough to cover
set of recommendations for sustainable uptake of bioenergy gener- all the energy needs from the plant. Casas-Ledón et al. (2019) per-
ation from agrifood waste. Mai-Moulin et al. (2021) state that sus- form a techno-economic and environmental analysis of implement-
tainability criteria and regulation must be in place to ensure that ing small-scale gasification systems with internal combustion en-
bioenergy from waste actually represents an enhancement to sus- gines into sawmills in Chile, to understand potentials for forestry
tainability. residues for heat and electricity onsite generation. They conclude
With regards to Chile, many studies have considered the poten- that although the systems are not economically viable due to
tial for biofuels to contribute to the country’s sustainable energy high capital costs, they could bring good environmental benefits
future. Rodríguez-Monroy et al. (2018) describe Chile’s status re- and aid in the Chilean energy system’s decarbonisation. While all
garding non-conventional renewable electricity generation, focus- these studies show that many of the biowaste resources remain
ing on biomass. They found that while the country has a high un/underexploited, there is limited data available on the specific
potential for producing and utilising biomass and biofuels, there characteristics of agricultural and municipal waste across Chile,
is a low use of these sources of energy for electricity generation. which is required to estimate the bioenergy potentials. Further-
Moreover, the authors suggest that Chile should further develop more, several socio-economic and regulatory barriers may exist to
research in the production of liquid biofuels for use in industrial greater uptake of bioenergy from waste technologies, but these re-
processes and transportation systems in order to diversify its en- main so far unexplored.
ergy matrix, reduce its dependency on fossil fuels, and increase As highlighted in this review of the literature, previous stud-
its sustainability. García et al. (2011) describe Chile’s status regard- ies show that barriers for uptake of bioenergy from waste tech-
ing the production of liquid biofuels. They conclude that second- nologies are highly country-specific and should be addressed with
generation technologies for synthesising biofuels from forestry and tailored policy instruments that take into account each country’s
agricultural waste and residues are promissory for reducing the available resources, current policies, economies, and local barriers.
country’s dependence on liquid fuels, and reducing its GHG emis- The novelty of this work is that it firstly spatially quantifies and
sions. Bidart et al. (2014) perform a national assessment of energy characterises organic waste-to-energy potentials for the case study
generation potentials from manure and crop residues. They find of Chile, and secondly identifies barriers for deployment and sub-
that biomass is concentrated in a few zones and suggest imple- sequent tailored policy recommendations.
menting a bioenergy policy focused on specific regions, articulated
with local governments. The authors also conclude that produc- 3. Methods
ing electricity from manure and crop residues is more econom-
ically feasible than producing biogas, and that farms could pro- This study applies quantitative and qualitative methods to as-
duce heat and electricity for self-use, or for injecting into the grid, sess the energy potential and future exploitation of bioenergy
providing flexibility to energy projects. Seiffert et al. (2009) fo- from waste in Chile. Section 3.1 details the quantitative framework
cus more specifically on the potential for biomethane production, for estimating the energy potential from bioresources across the
concluding that approximately 84% of natural gas consumption in coun- try and its regions; while Section 3.2 describes the
2015 could be substituted with biomethane produced from the qualitative as- sessment framework that was carried out to identify
forest sector and wood processing industry. The idea of search- barriers and enablers to exploit bioenergy in Chile.
ing for and implementing affordable waste-to-energy (WtE) strate-
gies has been lately gaining momentum and fostering debate on 3.1. Energy potential from bioresources from waste – quantitative
whether specialised technologies, such as thermochemical or bio- assessment
chemical, could assist on supplying local energy demands (Silva-
Martínez et al., 2020). Table 1 shows previous studies that have The quantitative assessment framework starts with quantifying
quantified organic waste sources and estimated different energy the bioresources from waste considered in this study and their
generation potentials in Chile, describing their main focus. Find- data collection approach. After that, energy potential is estimated
ings from these four studies will be presented and compared with based on the methodological framework defined for each biore-
results from this current work in Section 4. source. To avoid bias toward specific technologies such as those
At smaller scales, several authors have investigated the po- based on biogas, this study uses embodied energy concept to es-
tential of biowaste-to-energy technologies for specific case stud- timate the energy potential of bioresources, from here on called
ies in Chile. Román-Figueroa et al. (2017) estimate the potential bioenergy potential. Following, a description of each bioresource is
for producing electricity from wheat straw residues in the Arau- presented, followed by the data collection and finally the method-
canía Region in Chile. They found that 5MWth fluidised bed gasi- ology to quantify the resources and further bioenergy potential of
fiers followed by a combined cycle of gas and steam were the each bioresource.
recommended technologies for this region, due to spatial disper-
3.1.1. Definition and data collection of bioresources
sion of residues. Montalvo et al. (2020) evaluate the potential for
In total, the Chilean mainland covers 75.6 million hectares
biogas production from a vineyard site waste. They characterised
(Paneque et al., 2011), with 21 million hectares used by the forestry
 Fig. 1. Distribution of land use in Chile by activity. Figure adapted from Paneque et al. (2011).

and silvoagricultural sectors. In the silvoagricultural sector, annual 3.1.2. Bioresources

crops (cereals) and perennial are the largest land users with 1.3
million hectares while forage consists of 0.4 million hectares, as
seen in Fig. 1.
Annually, Chilean households produce around 0.51 tonnes per
household of food waste, nearly 2.5 times more than in Europe
(Muñoz et al., 2018). The organic fraction of municipal solid waste
(OFMSW) is also considered as a bioenergy resource under
suitable conditions (Moya et al., 2017). This is particularly true in
countries with a high OFMSW like Chile, where over 50% of MSW
represent organic components (Muñoz et al., 2018). Landfilling, in
legal and illegal facilities, is still the main waste management
option for mu- nicipal waste in Chile. In addition to sanitary and
economic issues, waste disposal contributes to climate change,
adding 3.1% of total GHG emissions of the country (Sánchez
Ramírez et al., 2018). These are some of the drivers to explore
the valorisation potential, in this case as waste-to-energy, of
bioresources that could contribute to economic and social
development (i.e. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 12, 7
(United Nations, 2020)) reduce costs associated to waste
management and energy generation, and finally reduce or avoid
emissions associated to these activities.
Based on this information and data availability, this study ac-
counts for the following bioresources: at farm gate, annual crops
and horticultural residues, and livestock manure. OFMSW has been
included because of the low utilisation when considering the large
amount produced in the country. Although forestry residues and
wastewater sludge are a key component of the bioenergy poten-
tial of Chile, they were not considered as they are already used
for heating and electricity generation by their correspondent sec-
tors (Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018). Some studies have already
estimated the potential energy contribution of forest biomass
(Bertran Spichiger and Morales Verdugo, 2008), and the potential
of different bioenergy outcomes including electricity, biodiesel and
ethanol from forestry and agricultural wastes Paneque et al.
(2011). Following, a description of each bioresource and data
acquisition.
3.1.2.1. Livestock manure. the manure generated by six main ani-
mal species, including bovine for meat and dairy, equine, poultry
(chicken and turkey), ovine and goats, and swine. Inventory data
was obtained from Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias (2021b)
and Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias (2020), where infor-
mation about type of livestock raring by year and the
proportion of livestock age and gender were found to determine
annual stock (heads). This information was then used together
with data about manure, which was estimated using literature
(American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2005;
Einarsson and Pers- son, 2017; Riva et al., 2014).

3.1.2.2. Crop residues. consists of residues from annual crops (20

categories) and horticulture (21 categories of vegetables and 25
of fruits2). The inventory was built using data obtained from
national statistics (Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias, 2021a;
Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias, 2020) and FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019).

3.1.2.3. Organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). accounts

for the organic components of the municipal waste, which in
Chile is 58% on average (SUBDERE, 2018b). The total amount of
organic residues is determined using data from Ministry of the
Environ- ment (MMA, 2018) for the country and Sub secretary of
Regional and Administrative Development (SUBDERE, 2018b) per
region.
Biomass feedstock supply and quality is inherently variable
(Kenney et al., 2013) including interannual variability at the same
sites (Stephen et al., 2010), while bioenergy generators require
pre- dictable feedstock supply to justify capital expenditure..
Hence, to address this variability and ensure a comprehensive
and robust analysis, this study uses data spanning 10 years,
during the agri- cultural period between 2007/08 and 2017/18.
The energy poten- tial is then assessed based on an average
from the last 10-year

2
Residues from wine and pisco grape production are also included as part of the
fruit category. The inventory was built using data obtained from national statistics
(Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias, O., 2020). Estadísticas productivas.
Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias, ODEPA. and literature.
 Table 2
Chilean regions from north to south – official names, numbers, and abbreviations used in this study. A map of these regions is given later in Fig. 6.

Region Abbreviation Number Population Land area (km2)

Región de Arica y Parinacota Arica y Parinacota XV 226,000 16,873

Región de Tarapacá Tarapacá I 331,000 42,226
Región de Antofagasta Antofagasta II 608,000 126,049
Región de Atacama Atacama III 286,000 75,176
Región de Coquimbo Coquimbo IV 758,000 40,580
Región de Valparaíso Valparaíso V 1,816,000 16,396
Región Metropolitana de Santiago Metropolitana XIII 7,113,000 15,403
Región del Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins O’Higgins VI 915,000 16,387
Región del Maule Maule VII 1,045,000 30,296
Región del Biobío + Región de Ñuble Biobío & Ñuble VIII 2,037,000 37,069
Región de La Araucanía La Araucanía IX 957,000 31,842
Región de Los Ríos Los Ríos XIV 385,000 18,430
Región de Los Lagos Los Lagos X 829,000 48,584
Región Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Aysén XI 103,000 108,494
Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena Magallanes XII 167,000 132,297

period, including minimums and maximums to account for vari- logical losses. AF is obtained from the literature (see details in Ta-
ability and for the appraisal of projects that require a “minimum” ble S1 in the SI). Finally, LHV is the lower heating value of each
level of residues. Details of annual crops, horticulture, and live- waste stream.
stock manure calculations can be found in Table S1-3 in the Sup- Fig. 2 summarises the step-by-step methods to estimate the re-
plementary Information (SI). Due to lack of available information source and energy potential for each bioresource included in this
at the time of this study, OFMSW only considers data from 2017 study. For detailed methodology, see the Supplementary Informa-
(SUBDERE, 2018b). For details, see Table S6 in the SI. tion (SI).
It is also important to note that in the 10-year period consid- Tables S1–3 and S6 in the SI summarise data use for es-
ered in this study, geopolitical changes were implemented in Chile. timating the resource potential and bioenergy potential of an-
These changes refer to increasing the number of regions from 13 nual crops, horticulture, livestock and OFMSW. It should be
to 16. During 2006/07, two new regions – Arica y Parinacota (XIV) noted that some crop residues are already used as animal feed
and Los Ríos (XV)- were declared and implemented, re-structuring (Ji, 2015; Scarlat et al., 2015) and manure is widely used as a fer-
the geopolitical organisation of the country (MinInterior, 2007a, tiliser or soil amendment (de Groot and Bogdanski, 2013), whilst
b). Similarly, in 2017/18 a sixteenth region, Region Ñuble (XVI), other agricultural residues are used as raw materials for indus-
was created (MinInterior, 2017). Hence, regional data produced by trial uses (Ji, 2015) such as medicine and biomaterial production
Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies (ODEPA) have changed in (Scarlat et al., 2015). However, very little information exists on
structure across the period of this study, which is reflected in this current uses of residues in the Chilean context, and the informa-
analysis. To account for these changes, this paper considers the tion found is based on isolated initiatives of private companies, or
changes up until 2006/07 (15 regions). The last partition, Region general information stating that crop residues are burnt in fields
Ñuble (XVI), is aggregated with Region Biobío. Table 2 shows the (Gaete-Morales et al., 2018). Consequently, alternative uses are not
regions considered in this study with their number correspondence considered within this study.
and abbreviations.
3.2. Qualitative assessment framework
3.1.3. Bioenergy potential
To estimate the bioenergy potential (Ep) of each bioresource, The aim of the qualitative assessment of bioenergy potential is
first we need to estimate the feedstocks that are available for to investigate the socio-political, economic, and institutional con-
this purpose. This study follows the methodologies described by ditions under which relevant actors from the bioenergy supply
Riva et al. (2014) (see Fig. 2).Theoretical biomass potential (T hBP) chain operate. To answer the defined research question on barri-
is the maximum value produced and acts as the upper limit ers to bioenergy proliferation in Chile, the qualitative assessment
(Daioglou et al., 2016). The relevant product to ratio (RPR) refers was undertaken in two parts. An initial literature review was con-
to how much unused crop residue could remain after harvesting ducted to give insights on the topic within the Chilean context, and
a crop (Long et al., 2013), while B is the biomass production. The to study the methods deployed for information gathering in sim-
Technical biomass potential (T BP), is used for determining the live- ilar barrier analyses for the renewable energy sector. Having con-
stock manure and crop residues that could be realistically collected sulted other barrier analyses such as barriers to renewable energy
or recovered. In other words, it refers to the portion of the the- in the Caribbean (Blechinger et al., 2015); barriers to energy effi-
oretical biomass potential that would be available for energy ap- cient technologies in buildings (Dadzie et al., 2018); and barriers
plications, once current uses (Riva et al., 2014) and logistical fac- for the biogas sector in India (Mittal et al., 2018); semi-structured
tors, such as losses from collection and storage have been consid- interviews were found to be a commonly deployed data gathering
ered (Long et al., 2013). For these cases, N is the number of an- tool. This type of data collection offers a flexible approach based
imal heads, and L is the average manure generated by each live- on open-ended questioning (Dadzie et al., 2018) and places em-
stock type, per year. Similarly, in the case of crop and horticul-
phasis on the expertise and insights of the respondents, allowing
tural residues, Sustainably available biomass (SAB) accounts for the
the interviewer to pursue in-depth information around the topic
proportion of the theoretical biomass potential that realistically
(Zou et al., 2019).
could not be collected due to ecological reasons (Daioglou et al.,
2016), for example due to the threat of soil erosion or nutrient loss
3.2.1. Sampling
(Searle and Malins, 2015). Here, MC represents moisture content.
As in Zou et al. (2019) and Carleton and Becker (2018), pur-
The availability factor (AF) determines the technical and sustain-
posive sampling was conducted to assess prospective respondent’s
ably available biomass through accounting for technical and eco-
potential contribution to the knowledge about bioenergy potential
Fig. 2. Methodology for estimating energy potential from bioresources, adapted from (Avcıog˘lu et al., 2019; Daioglou et al., 2016; Long et al., 2013). Detailed
description in SI. [B: Biomass production, in this case crop production (t); RPR: Relevant Product to Residue ratios; ThBP: Theoretical Biomass Potential (t); MC: Moisture
Content (%); AF: Availability Factor also known as recoverability factor; SAB: Sustainably Available Biomass (t); EP: Energy potential of residue (MJ); LHV: Low Heating
Value (MJ/t); N: number of animal (heads); L: Average manure generated by each livestock type]

Table 3
Profile of the interviewees.

Respondenta Discipline Occupation

R1 Bioenergy R&D Academic, Bioenergy research

R2 Energy and Environmental Policy 2 interviewees (in the same interview): Office for Circular Economy, Ministry of the Environment
R3 Waste Management Municipal-level project manager in waste
R4 Waste Management Community-level waste manager
R5 Bioenergy R&D Decision-maker at a company that develops biogas installations in the agricultural sector
R6 Energy and Environmental Policy Sustainability professional at non-profit thinktank
R7 Energy and Environmental Policy Social science researcher with expertise in environmental policy
R8 Bioenergy R&D Professional working at a non-profit dedicated to development of bioenergy in Latin America
R9 Bioenergy R&D Decision-maker at company that develops bioenergy installations from energy crops
R10 Bioenergy R&D Director at a company working in bioenergy generation and co-generation
R11 Energy and Environmental Policy Professional from the Sustainable Energy Agency
R12 Bioenergy R&D Researcher at a biotechnology company
R13 Bioenergy R&D Decision-maker from a forestry and paper product company
R14 Waste generation Environmental manager at a recognised Chilean vineyard
R15 Waste Management Professional with experience with energy generation from landfill
R16 Energy and Environmental Policy Professional at the Environmental Impact Service
NR (8) No Response Eight identified stakeholders did not accept invitation to participate
a
Participants were presented with information about the study prior to interviews and gave permission for their responses to be used for qualitative analysis, MSc Thesis,
and this publication.

in Chile and barriers to development of this sector. The expertise interview questions have been included in Tables S8,9 in the SI, in
of the respondents was clustered into four broad disciplines: waste English and Spanish. In total, 24 stakeholders were invited to par-
generation; waste management; bioenergy researchers and devel- ticipate in the study, with 16 interviews conducted overall.
opers; and professionals working energy and environmental policy.
The invited interviewees were considered based on: (i) significant 3.2.3. Interview analysis
experience and knowledge of the discipline and (ii) knowledge of Our analysis of the semi-structured interviews was based upon
the discipline within the Chilean context. Table 3 lists the respon- deductive thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017). Thematic anal-
dents selected for the interview along with their roles in the ysis was selected because it offers an iterative, flexible frame-
sector. work for analysing interview data, which was desirable consid-
ering the mixed methodology of this paper. The deductive ap-
3.2.2. Semi-structured interview proach was favoured because it enables interview data to be
Interview questions were designed to: (i) contextualise the framed within a real-world context, which gives the data meaning
socio-political and regulatory conditions under which possible (Vaismoradi et al., 2013).
bioenergy projects must operate; (ii) identify where bioenergy Each interview was summarised following Braun & Clarke’s six-
projects are succeeding and failing, and why; (iii) identify policy phased framework for thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017), used
and governance mechanisms, voluntary or compulsory, that could to identify emergent themes from the interviews. These were or-
serve as solutions to the identified barriers. A set of guidelines ganised into Table 4, where a tally of references to themes by re-
including a list of questions was used to give thorough attention spondents is given. These themes were iteratively reviewed across
to issues identified during review of the literature. However, sup- several team meetings to ensure their coherence before the au-
plementary questions were added depending on the responses re- thors clustered the themes into four broader organising themes, or
ceived during the interview, thus remaining receptive to any addi- core themes. The naming and inclusion of some themes and core
tional relevant information that the interviewee had to offer. The
Table 4
A summary of social, technical, economic and institutional barriers to greater uptake of biogenic waste valorisation.
a
Theme Sub-theme Details Count

Social Awareness of technology Low awareness of technology 7

Culture No culture of separation, recycling of organic products 5
Culture of firewood for heating, cooking 5
Technical Technological barriers High incidence of technical difficulties in the country e.g. in biogas 9
Skills Need to develop expertise in bioconversion technologies 8
Economic Feedstock procurement Cost of collecting, storing and transporting feedstock before treatment 8
Seasonal and annual variability in feedstock availability 5
Investment cost & Low investment attractiveness Capital cost is prohibitively high 12
Limited access to finance and provision of incentives 12
Lack of competitiveness Influx of solar and wind has lowered electricity prices. Not competitive against 10
fossil fuels given low carbon price.
Lack of formal market for products Multiple revenue streams often needed to make bioenergy profitable, but lack 10
of market for heat and digestate
Cost of access to Infrastructure Access to distribution and transmission infrastructure 3
Institutional Policy-related challenges Limited policy support, market intervention or absent regulation for waste 10
management and energy recovery
Disconnectedness of stakeholders Limited cross-sectoral cooperation to develop sector (e.g. lack of national 7
strategy between different Ministries)
a
Count of references to 14 sub-themes given by respondents; these were used to defined core themes.

themes changed throughout this process. Once finalised, a detailed ble (21%) and La Araucanía (27%). Across 20 crop categories, three
analysis was then conducted on each theme and cross-referenced bioresources dominate: rice straw (30%), wheat (26%) and maize
with the literature, which formed the basis of the qualitative re- stalks (17%). More details in Fig. S2 and Table S5 in the SI.
sults and parts of the discussion. Bioresources from horticulture production contribute 24.2 PJ
with nearly 90% coming from fruit residues and the rest from veg-
4. Results and discussion etable residues (see Fig. S3 in the SI). Overall, five regions con-
tribute up to 90% of the potential bioenergy generated by horticul-
This section first presents the results of the quantitative as- ture residues, namely Coquimbo (18%), Valparaiso (13%), Metropoli-
sessment, starting with the estimations of bioenergy potential tana (18%), O’Higgins (23%) and Maule (17%). Olives, oranges and
(Section 4.1) followed by an analysis of the opportunities ant pre- wine grapes account for 54% of the bioenergy potential (see Fig. S4
liminary strategies for the use of these bioresources across the in the SI). Similarly, the bioenergy potential of vegetable residues
country (Section 4.2). After this, the results of the qualitative as- is driven by onions, corn and carrots, adding together 43% (see Fig.
sessments are presented and discussed (Section 4.3). S5 in the SI). Table S7 in the SI summarises bioenergy potential
from horticulture.
4.1. Bioenergy potential in Chile Fig. 5 shows the comparison of these results with the avail-
able literature for the Chilean context. Four studies were found
The total bioenergy potential from the assessed bioresources and able to use for the comparisons. Chamy and Vivanco (2007) es-
across Chile is estimated to be 78 PJ/yr. Putting this in context, to- timate the biogas potential for various waste resources including
tal final energy demand from all sectors in Chile in 2018 was 2380 MSW, wine, agricultural crops and livestock. Bidart et al. (2013) es-
PJ (Comisión Nacional de Energía, 2018b). The potential bioenergy timate the resource potential of energy from MSW in Chile for dif-
is thus 3.3% of total Chilean energy demand. It must be noted that ferent end-use applications, whereas another paper by the same
not all this bioenergy potential would meet demand due to con- authors (Bidart et al., 2014) estimates resource potential for live-
version efficiency losses. Nevertheless, with conversion efficiencies stock and crop residues. For OFMSW our results are bounded by
of ∼60% as per anaerobic digestion (AD) processes (Whiting and those from Chamy and Vivanco (2007) and Bidart et al. (2013).
Azapagic, 2014), this represents a substantial opportunity. For livestock, our estimate is similar to Chamy and Vivanco (2007),
The bioenergy potential varies widely across regions, as shown but substantially higher than Bidart et al. (2013) who do not in-
in Fig. 3. Regions with the largest bioenergy potential were clude poultry, which is a substantial contributor to our study, and
O’Higgins and Metropolitana, which together contribute 43% of to- key food source in Chilean diets. For agriculture, our study is 3.7
tal resource (see Table S1–4 in the SI), but only 4% of total land times larger than the other two estimates. It is not clear how
area. the Chamy and Vivanco (2007) estimate is developed, whereas
The main bioresource is livestock manure, contributing 41% Zaror et al. (2009) provide a simple estimate of agricultural residue
of total, followed by annual crops contributing 28%, horticultural energy potential based on total arable landmass. We suggest that
crops 23% and OFMSW 8%. Almost all residues mainly come from our figure includes a more comprehensive range of agricultural ac-
three regions, O’Higgins, Metropolitana and Maule, as indicated in tivities, including crops that have not been studied before such as
Fig. 4. These regions together contribute 59%, 41%, 57% and 53% to annual and horticultural, and estimates specific residue generation
livestock, annual, horticulture and OFMSW respectively. The other for each product and thus may represent a more comprehensive
key contributing region are Bíobío & Ñuble and La Araucanía which estimate than previous studies.
together produce ∼48% of annual crop residues.
Livestock manure has the potential to generate 31.9 PJ; 4.2. Regions with greatest potential for utilisation
O’Higgins region contributes 39% of the bioenergy potential, fol-
lowed by Metropolitana (16%) and Los Lagos (13%). Manure from As described previously, there is a large variation in biore-
chicken and dairy cows are the largest sources, generating nearly sources throughout the country with two regions producing 42%
70% of the bioenergy. Manure from swine is the third contributor of the total bioenergy potential. But in order to be cost-effective
with 19%. Fig. S1 and Table S4 in the SI show detailed results. for utilisation, those with large resource much also be matched
Residues from annual crops could produce 22.2 PJ, distributed with appropriate demand and a proximity to this demand, among
mainly in four regions – O’Higgins (18%), Maule (18%), Bíobío & other factors. The scope of this study does not include sufficient
Ñu-
Fig.3. Summary of bioenergy potential for each region in Chile, divided by the type of bioresource, ranked by total contribution. The inset figure (top-right) summarises the
total bioenergy potential per resource.

Fig.4. The contribution of each region to total waste bioenergy resource category, in the order to total contribution.

granularity to estimate proximities of specific waste generators As shown in Fig. 6a&c, the central and central-south regions
and consumers, but we utilise regional characteristics to infer the typically produce the greatest quantity of bioresources and possess
ar- eas with greatest potential for waste utilisation, namely land the largest bioenergy potential. Additionally, they have the lower
area, population and energy demand. Each region has different land areas, increasing the likelihood that resource may be closer to
combi- nations of land area, energy demand, bioresource the demand (see Fig. 6b). Fig. 7 shows the different regions bioen-
potentials of dif- ferent categories as shown in Fig. 6. ergy potential versus land area, where those with higher poten-
tial and smaller area may be favourable from a cost-effectiveness
Fig. 5. Comparison of results with other studies for OFMSW, Livestock and agricultural residues. Estimates are adapted into comparable units assuming anaerobic digestion
efficiency of 75%, biogas LHV of 22 MJ/m3 and methane fraction of 60%w/w. Source: (Bidart et al., 2013, 2014; Chamy and Vivanco, 2007).

perspective; for instance Maule, Metropolitana, and the O’Higgins regulatory framework and regional or national-level programmes.
regions present the most favourable scenarios, with the largest While such a legal framework was established for biogas in 2016
bioenergy potential (more than 50% of the bioenergy potential, see (Ministerio de Energía, 2017) and has long existed for liquid biofu-
Fig. 4) and some of the smallest areas. els (Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018), industry figures are still call-
The potential contribution of bioenergy to meet demand is ing for a law to guide the energy valorisation of solid biomass
compared against each region’s population density in Fig. 8. To (Tapia, 2019).
provide a fairer comparison in meeting demand, a conversion ef- Two interviewees believed the poor levels of public knowledge
ficiency is assumed from embodied energy in the biowaste to ei- of biomass and its role in Chile’s energy system (Tapia, 2019) dis-
ther biogas. It is assumed that MSW and manure are converted to advantaged the sector both at a project and policy level. Addi-
biogas via anaerobic digestion at 75% efficiency (Global Methane tionally, with no regulatory signal to promote the separation of
Initiative, 2014). Crop waste is assumed to be converted to syngas organic waste, there is currently no culture of organic waste re-
via gasification at 62% efficiency (Sikarwar et al., 2016). Resource cycling. South Korea has been able to achieve high food recy-
potential is compared against regional natural gas demand, imply- cling rates since a 2005 law that banned the landfilling of food
ing that demand for natural gas can be offset by the upgrading of waste (Jain et al., 2019). Chile’s Ministry of Environment has be-
biogas. gun to work closely with Canada through the Reciclo Orgánicos
Greater feasibility of utilisation or greater impact is implied programme (Reciclo Orgánicos, 2019) to give support to munici-
with a higher contribution to total demand (greater magnitude) palities to reduce the landfilling of organic waste, as well as with
and with higher population density (greater proximity). There are the Italian embassy to develop a strategy around the valorisation
only 4 regions with substantial natural gas demand, Metropolitana of organic waste (Molina Alomar, 2019).
(46 PJ/yr), Valparaiso (56 PJ/yr), Antofagasta (41 PJ/yr) and Mag- Four interviewees stressed the importance of educational initia-
allanes (53 PJ/yr). All other regions use less than 5 PJ/yr. Of the tives to promote buy-in. Note that there is strong national opposi-
4 high gas demand regions, only two produce substantial quan- tion to the installation of anymore landfill sites (Bergamini et al.,
tities of biowaste. Metropolitana has a potential energy contribu- 2017) which offers an opportunity for the promotion of waste con-
tion of 19% and with an order of magnitude higher population version technologies as a valuable alternative.
density than most other regions. Valparaiso also offers a potential Meanwhile, the cultural significance of firewood for cooking
large contribution with 5% of gas demand and population density and heating was also identified by three interviewees as a barrier
of 110/km2. to valorising residual biomass through lower-impact heating meth-
ods, particularly in Southern regions (Schueftan et al., 2016). How-
4.3. Qualitative assessment - barriers for uptake ever, one interviewee suggested that preferences are more influ-
enced by the low cost of burning unregulated firewood and people
In summary, 14 different key barriers were identified from the would adapt if economically incentivised.
interviews, categorised as either social, technical, economic, or in-
stitutional. In reality, there are various crossovers between cate-
gories, which are summarised in Table 4 and detailed within the 4.3.2. Technical barriers
present section. It was suggested by eight interviewees, and in the literature,
that the biogas (Salazar et al., 2016) and wider bioenergy sec-
tor’s progress has been hamstrung (Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018)
4.3.1. Social barriers by the need to secure trained personnel for design, construc-
According to seven interviewees, the awareness of biomass con- tion, operation and maintenance of bioenergy technologies. For
version technologies, especially amongst waste generators, had ex- ample, in the agricultural sector, where 90% of agricultural
been a barrier to uptake necessitating the establishment of a land is owned by small and medium sized family-owned
companies
Fig.6. Regional breakdown of total bioenergy potential (a) compared with total energy demand (b), and breakdown of bioenergy potential from specific categories of biore-
source (c).
 Fig.7. A comparison of the total regional waste bioenergy resource potential for each region versus the region’s land area.

ure rate of 18% of the 104 attempted biogas projects in Chile so far
suggests that improvements must be made (Sánchez Lizama,
2017). Similarly, evidence show that that over half of AD
equipment is not operating correctly (Universidad Austral de Chile
(2019).
To illustrate technical obstacles, one interviewee referenced the
incorporation of AD in dairy farming. Principally located in IX and
X regions where there is high incidence of rainfall, technical issues
related to the storage and processing of the very wet slurry, which
ultimately impacted the supply of feedstock to the digester. Fur-
thermore, much of the equipment is adapted from other uses to
lower costs, which can help explain the failures (Ávila Grothusen
et al., 2016).

4.3.3. Economic barriers

Feedstock. Eight interviewees emphasised that accessing a secure
feedstock supply ranked amongst the largest hurdles for bioen-
ergy development in Chile. This challenge is consistent with the
experience in most countries (Zandi Atashbar et al., 2017). Crops
are harvested in certain months and it is costly to collect, dry
Fig.8. Waste bioenergy resource potential for each region expressed as a percentage
of the regional natural gas demand, by land area. Resource potential assumes con-
and store residues (Lautala et al., 2015). Animal wastes cannot be
version of wet biomass (MSW and manure) via anaerobic digestion at a conversion exploited at all times since they are not always held in stables
efficiency of 75%, and dry biomass (horticultural and annual crops) via gasification (Ávila Grothusen et al., 2016), and collection of manure from pas-
at a conversion efficiency of 62%. tures is not technically nor economically feasible.
Two interviewees stressed that Chile’s complex geography cre-
ated unique challenges for the economics of bioenergy project de-
velopment. The distribution and heterogeneity of biogenic waste
(Domínguez et al., 2019), there is limited practical experience in
streams means that it is difficult to find suitable quantities of feed-
energy generation. To bridge this barrier, an understanding of
stock. Transport distances are an important indicator for economic
both the business case and how to implement such a project is
viability (Román-Figueroa et al., 2017), and with long transport
needed (Berg et al., 2013): Three interviewees said this was
distances, as well as insufficient and dispersed volumes of waste,
desper- ately lacking some years ago where there was greater
costs become prohibitive (Einarsson and Persson, 2017). Three in-
momentum within the sector, before the creation of the
terviewees also noted how unlike countries where crops are grown
regulatory framework. Government bodies attempted to rectify
for energy generation, Chile did not have surplus fertile land avail-
this through the provision of public training initiatives such as
able for growing energy crops. This observation was referenced in
Constructing Skills for the Op- eration of Biogas in Chile
(Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018).
(Universidad Adolfo Ibánez, 2018) and Specialised Training Course
in Biogas for Professionals (Acuña and Moraga Paredes, 2017),
which were supported by the Energy Min- istry to complement the Investment cost. Twelve interviewees identified the capital cost of
newly established regulatory framework. bioenergy technologies as prohibitive (Carrasco Allendes, 2015). In
However, the perceived risk of technical failure remains a bar- the case of biogas production, investment cost was identified as
rier to adoption according to three interviewees. Indeed, the fail-
US$3500/kW compared to only US$800-1048/kW for dispatchable Lack of formal markets for co-products. Nine interviewees agreed
gas-fired plants and US$970 for solar (Comisión Nacional de En- that for bioenergy projects to become economically viable, waste
ergía, 2019). Recent analysis shows important cost reductions for generators need to identify markets for all available co-products
biogas, although this remains someway behind gas and solar gen- of bioenergy from waste, including heat and digestate produc-
eration (Bnamericas, 2020). tion as well as electricity or biomethane. Exploiting these co-
As an example, in this work we assume gasification and anaer- products delivers essential environmental benefits (Tricase and
obic digestion technology efficiencies to produce biogas from or- Lombardi, 2012) by offsetting the use of alternative sources and
ganic waste streams. Chanthakett et al. (2021) assess different conforms with the principles of a circular bioeconomy (De Schoen-
gasification projects, obtaining payback periods between 8 and 18 makere et al., 2018) where energy and non-energy opportunities
years depending in the technologies and waste streams chosen. of residual biomass are exploited (Pfau et al., 2017).
Anaerobic digestion projects have been found to have lower pay- Digestate can replace the use of imported fertilisers, which cur-
back periods (3.8-9 years (Chowdhury, 2021; Huiru et al., 2019; rently contributes 14.5% of Chile’s GHG emissions from agriculture
Sganzerla et al., 2021)). (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019). A
Seven interviewees said that for decision-makers at municipal study found that maximum environmental benefits was obtained
or farm levels, where there are constrained budgets and compet- from an AD combined heat and power (CHP) plant where syn-
ing needs, it is hard to justify capital expenditures such as anaero- thetic fertiliser was substituted with digestate (Whiting and Aza-
bic digestors or biomass boilers. For example, one interviewee re- pagic, 2014). However, there have been issues regarding the cre-
vealed that the payback period of a biomass boiler at their vine- ation of a market for digestate (Universidad Austral de Chile, 2019)
yard extended beyond the company’s permitted payback period due to legal ambiguity regarding classification of digestate as a fer-
for capital expenditure. Economies of scale can help improve the tiliser. Since digestate is legally regarded as a by-product rather
viability of bioenergy projects, with respect to lowering capital than a commercial good, the creation of a consolidated market is
cost and diversifying feedstock supply. Several neighbouring waste not presently possible (Universidad Austral de Chile, 2019). Conse-
generators may direct their residues towards a centralised facility quently, digestate is sold very cheaply, at a price well below that
(Lauer et al., 2018), as is commonly practiced in Denmark (Al Seadi of compost-derived fertiliser (Carrasco Allendes, 2015).
et al., 2018). However, two interviewees argued that such Amid growing renewable power sources in Chile (Simsek et al.,
coopera- tion was not in-tune with Chilean commercial culture. 2019), several interviewees suggested an increased role for bioen-
Furthermore, as the government prepares to launch its first or- ergy in heat generation to improve project economics. In Chile’s
ganic waste strategy, there is a declared preference for industrial case, there are compelling socioecological arguments for directing
and domestic composting schemes (Molina Alomar, 2020b), which bioenergy technologies towards heat generation. This could simul-
have been shown to have lower capital cost and shorter payback taneously lower pollution (Schueftan and González, 2013) and al-
periods (Cueto Codorniú, 2017). leviate deforestation (Azócar et al., 2019). However, there is a
clear preference for firewood for heating, the most readily
Lack of competitiveness. Ten interviewees confirmed that a criti- available op- tion (Schueftan et al., 2016). Additionally, storing and
cal barrier for bioenergy development was the lack of competi- transporting the heat would imply prohibitive costs (Sartor and
tiveness versus other generation methods. In Chile, electricity gen- Dewallef, 2017) that would necessitate significant government
eration is selected via marginal economic dispatch (Rodríguez- support.
Monroy et al., 2018). In recent years, average power prices have Studies are being conducted to assess the viability of technolo-
fallen sharply due to influx of wind and solar technologies, (In- gies such as district heating to complement Chile’s broad biomass
ternational Energy Agency (IEA, 2018), enabling a more dynamic options (Stemmelen, 2018). This is being trialled in the worst-
electricity market while delivering more renewable energy than is affected cities such as Temuco and Coyhaique (EBP Chile, 2016),
required by quota. During solar auctions average prices as low as and although woody biomass would be the preferred feedstock,
US$32.5/MWh have been achieved with winning bids as low as district heating fuelled by agricultural waste such as straw is al-
US$21.48/MWh (Jäger-Waldau, 2019). This is considerably cheaper ready utilised in other countries (Al Seadi et al., 2018).
than the levelised cost of electricity for biomass of US$80/MWh Where there is no local heat demand, another commercial op-
(Revista Electricidad, 2019), which is also not needed to meet Re- portunity is the upgrading of the gas to produce biomethane.
newable Energy Quotas. Unlike the UK and Germany (Horschig et al., 2016), Chile does
Chilean energy law allows for the sale of heat and power to not have an extensive natural gas network (Edwards et al., 2015;
private clients, away from the regulated market where prices are Horschig et al., 2016), which may reduce economic viability in
higher, for generation over 500 kW. Two interviewees said that some regions, but alternatives include liquefaction or compression
bioenergy generators can generate immediate value by entering of small volumes e.g. for transport fuel (Ogden et al., 2018). Cur-
such an arrangement. However, this does depend somewhat on rently, the goal is that all public transport in urban areas is elec-
co- location of bioenergy generation to nearby businesses, as well tric in Chile by 2040 (Gobierno de Chile, 2020), whilst studies
as securing demand for co-products. are emerging on the use of renewable hydrogen (Fúnez Guerra
Two interviewees suggested the marginalist pricing system put et al., 2020) for use in a fuel-cell or to be blended with natural
bioenergy projects at a disadvantage, by disregarding the multiple gas. Given hydrogen’s synergistic relationship with solar and wind,
social and economic benefits generated such as reduced pollution, where Chile has considerable potential (Simsek et al., 2019), it is
job creation and a high plant factor (Berg et al., 2013). foreseeable that green hydrogen will leapfrog bio-based fuels.
While bioenergy generation is stimulated in other coun-
tries through guaranteed subsidy payments or tax credits Access to distribution and transmission infrastructure. Each energy
(Edwards et al., 2015), in recognition of these benefits, no such project is guaranteed access by law to the transmission and dis-
incentives are available in Chile’s liberalised electricity market tribution system. However, in practice, this is one of the most
(Simsek et al., 2019) apart from a US$5/kg CO2 carbon tax levied variable costs of the project due to geographical considerations
on utility-scale power generation from which bioenergy is exempt (Comisión Nacional de Energía, 2019), such as distances and com-
and is anyway insufficient to impact bioenergy projects, according plex geography, as well as the costs of land.
to three interviewees. Two interviewees explained that in the case of distributed
bioenergy projects, these geographical challenges are not only
more pronounced, but the projects ultimately have lower gener- Disconnectedness of stakeholders. Seven interviewees advocated
ation capacity than large thermal projects, meaning that this cost greater collaboration between government departments and
becomes a disproportionately large percentage of overall costs. indus- try to unlock the energy potential of Chile’s biomass
One interviewee estimated this to represent between 25 and 50% resources. Bioenergy involves a high degree of complexity due to
of project cost, depending on generation size. the broader range of stakeholders involved than most energy
When also factoring the need to secure land rights this creates technologies (Berg et al., 2013). Thus, so far actors from the
overwhelming obstacles for bioenergy projects that have Ministry of Agri- culture, the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of
electricity generation as an objective. Hence, it may be beneficial Energy, the Agri- cultural Innovation Foundation (FIA) and CORFO
to target a different outcome for bioenergy generation. have cooperated to promote the use of bioenergy technologies in
strategic sectors, such as in dairy production and forestry (Ávila
4.3.4. Institutional barriers Grothusen et al., 2016). The government strategies of Biogas in
Policy challenges. Ten interviewees cited inadequacies in national Dairy (Ministerio de Energía, 2020) and Promoting the
laws and regulations regarding waste management and valorisa- Development of Energy in Se- lected Agricultural SMEs show some
tion, both in the agricultural sector and municipalities. Given the state participation.
slim margins, for example, for small-scale dairy farms as cited However, Chile does not have a national strategy for bioenergy
by two interviewees, unsupported investment in waste conversion or the bioeconomy (Berg et al., 2013), unlike other OECD countries
technologies is not prudent. However, evidence shows that Chile such as Ireland and the UK (Berg et al., 2013), or like Brazil, Ar-
has one of the lowest expenditures on agricultural subsidies as a gentina and Uruguay (Rodríguez, 2017). Chile is one of the only
percentage of GDP globally (Domínguez et al., 2019), which could Latin American nations with no policies, strategies or commission
be extended if Chile wishes to create a more sustainable agricul- driving the creation of a bioeconomy. Furthermore, technologies
ture (Odepa, 2018). are scarcely mentioned in important policy documents such as En-
Six interviewees also suggested that the limited bioenergy ergy 2050 (Ministerio de Energía, 2015). Indeed, Energy 2050 is
development in Chile is explained by the lack of energy pol- credited by the IEA as an outstanding example for energy policy
icy oriented towards its promotion compared to other coun- formulation globally (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2018) but
tries. For example, Edwards et al. (2015) identified the link be- it contains scarce mention of biofuels, biogas or strategies for heat
tween growth of biogas in Germany and Britain and performance- decarbonisation.
based incentives directed at small-to-medium capacity generation. In general, the identified barriers are consistent with the chal-
Bangalore et al. (2016) suggest that adoption of biomass valorising lenges in the LAC region and, the development of technologies
technologies owed more to policy incentives than feedstock avail- that are economically feasible for the region are transcendental of
ability or technology. OWtE to thrive (Silva-Martínez et al., 2020). Considering that the
Seven interviewees said that Chilean biogas projects had suf- utilisation of organic waste to produce energy represents a part
fered from legal ambiguity before the creation of a regulatory of an integrated waste management strategy, particular analysis
framework (Ministerio de Energía, 2017), which established the should be carried out for evaluating which technology to use. Fur-
minimum safety requirements that biogas plants must meet for ther investigations are needed to accurate seek for the contribu-
design, construction, operation, maintenance, inspection and oper- tions these technologies can provide to reduce GHG emissions and
ation. However, this has not since triggered a noticeable increase for the viability to foster WtE technologies to promote sustainable
in installations. energy systems in the region.
Three interviewees also emphasised that Chile was a pioneer
in the integration of renewable energy, driving down solar and
5. Conclusions
wind prices to challenge fossil-based generation in competitive
auctions (International Energy Agency (IEA), 2018). Hence, one in-
This study estimates a total bioenergy potential, considering
terviewee questioned whether state expenditure on an area
primary energy content, from waste in Chile at 78 PJ/yr, represent-
(bioen- ergy) where Chile did not hold a competitive advantage
ing 3.3% of Chile’s total energy demand. The main source of waste
could be justified.
bioresource is livestock manure, contributing 41% of total, with an-
Meanwhile, to increase the availability of appropriate biore-
nual crop residues contributing 28%, horticultural crops residues
sources nationally, seven interviewees said the development of a
23% and OFMSW 8%. Three central and central-south regions -
governmental organic waste strategy should be prioritised, as the
O’Higgins, Metropolitana and Maule- have the highest bioenergy
laws are inadequate to promote activities to valorise biomass. Un-
potentials, with 40–60% of the national total. Additionally, La Arau-
til 2016, when Chile enacted the Extended Producer Responsibil-
canía produces 27% of annual crop residues. When comparing with
ity (EPR) Law, there was scarce regulation incentivising recycling.
literature, the results are within the range for OFMSW and live-
Still now biogenic residues remain absent from priority areas in-
stock manure; only the energy from agriculture shows 3.7 times
cluded within environmental law (Bergamini et al., 2017). Landfill
higher values than literature, however this study includes a larger
gas can legally be captured for CHP generation or biomethane up-
dataset, which is the main reason of the difference.
grading, but only a few sites have been fitted with this technology
Using a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with
(Rodríguez-Monroy et al., 2018). There has not been a suitable in-
relevant stakeholders, this research identifies the lack of a na-
centive to valorise the organic element of Chile’s municipal waste
tional strategy and limited cross-sectoral cooperation as two im-
(Molina Alomar, 2020a), and a strong incentive exists for private
portant obstacles for developing a bioenergy economy. It has
firms to send high volumes of municipal waste to Chile’s landfills
then been highlighted the considerable potential that waste biore-
(Bergamini et al., 2017). This must be changed to incentivise the
sources could offer in contrast with stakeholders’ statements, who
diversion of biogenic resources from landfill. Five interviewees be-
mainly remarked the difficulties of handling, storing and manag-
lieve the creation of an organics law disincentivising landfill will
ing bioresources such as manure, the high cost of investment, and
drive businesses and local planners to pursue energy valorisation
lack of clarity of government’s position on policy and support.
of bioresources. However, whilst such a law is mooted to arrive
Hence, there is a need for incentives or subsidies that address the
in 2020, it will likely not promote energy recovery technologies
high investment costs and financing options available for
(Molina Alomar, 2020b).
bioenergy projects, in addition to reducing reliance on landfilling
practices. It is recommended that this programme goes hand-in-
hand with fur- ther training initiatives in how to extract the
value from residual
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tífica y Tecnológica) grant 021812GL. X. Schmidt Rivera is sup- Chile, p. 82p.
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