The Contributions of Biomass Supply for Bioenergy in the Post-COVID-19 Recovery

Circular Economy Research in the COVID-19 Era: a Review and the Road Ahead

The onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a major crisis that has severely impacted numerous economic, environmental, and social aspects of human life. During the pandemic, the potential of the circular economy (CE) has gained increasing attention as a prospective remedy for numerous sustainability problems. This systematic literature review charts CE research in the COVID-19 era. To this end, 160 journal articles were selected from the Scopus database. The performance indicators of the literature were determined and described through a bibliometric analysis. Moreover, the conceptual structure of CE research was identified via a keyword co-occurrence network. Based on bibliographic coupling, the focus of CE research in the COVID-19 era revolves mainly around five thematic areas, including: (1) waste management; (2) digitalization and sustainable supply chain management; (3) the impact of COVID-19 on food systems; (4) sustainable development goals, smart cities, and bioeconomy; and (5) closed-loop supply chains. Overall, this review contributes to enriching the literature by determining the main thematic areas and future research directions that can help to advance the transition to the CE and reduce the impact of COVID-19 and similar disasters in the future.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Biomass Supply Chains: The Case of the Canadian Wood Pellet Industry

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global economic activity in all sectors, including forest industries. Changes in demand for forest products in North America over the course of the pandemic have affected both primary processors and downstream industries reliant on residues, including wood pellet producers. Wood pellets have become an internationally traded good, mostly as a substitute for coal in electricity generation, with a significant proportion of the global supply coming from Canadian producers. To determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry, economic and market data were evaluated, in parallel with a survey of Canadian manufacturers on their experiences during the first three waves of the pandemic (March 2020 to September 2021). Overall, the impact of the pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry was relatively small, as prices, exports, and production remained stable. Survey respondents noted some negative impacts, mostly in the first months of the pandemic, but the quick recovery of lumber production helped to reduce the impact on wood pellet producers and ensured a stable feedstock supply. The pandemic did exacerbate certain pre-existing issues, such as access to transportation services and labour availability, which were still a concern for the industry at the end of the third wave in Canada. These results suggest that the Canadian wood pellet industry was resilient to disruptions caused by the pandemic and was able to manage the negative effects it faced. This is likely because of the integrated nature of the forest sector, the industry’s reliance on long-term supply contracts, and feedstock flexibility, in addition to producers and end-users both being providers of essential services.

Bioeconomy for Resilient Post-COVID Economies

In the creation of this Special Issue, the editors identified circular bioeconomy, i [...]