ABSTRACT
To enable the protection of forests against rural fires are foreseen a set of measures for planning and intervention, reduction their risk and impacts. Forest residues collecting centers are being created in Portugal, to reduce undesired thermal charge in nature and for biomass further valorization.
Keeping this in mind, one of the strategies is the energy recovery from these residues in biomass power plants that were built in strategic locations. The biomass is mostly natural residual forest, agricultural and garden wood and green materials The present work aims to study its environmental impact.
The Life Cycle Assessment methodology, using SimaPro 9.3.0.3 PhD software, was applied to identify the burden of this process and the environmental categories most relevantly affected.
Data achieved showed the importance of the valorization of residual biomass for energy production, reduction the impact categories of abiotic depletion due to fossil fuels, global warming, human toxicity and eutrophication.
