Assessing the Sustainability of Biomass Use for Energy Production: Methodology for Involving Stakeholders in Decision Making

Abstract Developing sustainable biomass-based bioeconomy applications depends not only on the technoeconomic feasibility of the selected production pathways but also on the management of a multistakeholder system, with, quite often, conflicting stakeholder interests. Developing such applications and their complete lifetime is a long-lasting process, where multiple sectors and actors are involved in diverse levels of decision making. Choosing suitable strategies that will ensure stakeholder engagement in the decision-making process just from the beginning, and where the main actors’ active role will be encouraged through the integration of their views into the final project blueprint, will be a key element of sustainability for any potential project. Therefore a methodological framework for the management of this complexity is presented in this chapter, where the simulation of the proposed methodology for case studies of specific lignocellulosic biomass-based energy applications and its integration in the education of specialists will also be discussed.