A growing interest in biomass and biofuels provided the organizers of the world’s largest forestry trade fair with an opportunity to move into new territory. Jönköping, Sweden, was the place to be in early June for anyone interested in the bioenergy business. The lakeside city in the south-central part of the country played host to the first ever Elmia Slash Conference, where over 130 people from 29 different countries came to learn about this rapidly growing business from a Swedish perspective. Sweden is revered as one of the world’s leaders in bioenergy, and with good reason. The Swedes have been producing bioenergy for over 30 years. Today, almost 30% of the energy consumed by the country is derived from this sustainable resource, and most of this biofuel comes from the forest. The conference was held in conjunction with the world’s largest forestry trade fair, Elmia Wood, which takes place every four years at a managed forest near Jönköping. Many of the attendees at the slash conference were in Jönköping for the trade fair, which, for the first time, included a specific bioenergy section. For those attending both the Slash Conference and the trade fair, it was an opportunity to learn about the entire product chain, from harvesting the wood in the forest to using bioenergy as an end user. Field trip On day one of the Slash Conference, attendees hit the road for a trip to four different sites in the region. The first stop was in Nässjö, for a tour of one of the country’s oldest biopowered heat and power plants. Last year, a new 12 MW boiler with fluegas condensation was added to the facility, which operates almost entirely on wood fuels such as forest residues, bark, and sawdust. The total heat production from the plant is approximately 150 Gwh, and the electricity production is around 35 Gwh. The next stop in nearby Bodafors was at the opposite end of the scale in terms of output, providing the attendees with the opportunity to see what a smaller plant can achieve. With a boiler capacity of 2 MW, this plant uses wood chips to supply heat to approximately 150 customers, mainly single-family homes. Getting the biomass from the forest to the power plant can prove to be a challenge, but in the city of Sävsjö, the group visited a new terminal that is helping to make the process more efficient. Owned by the city and a local transportation company, the facility was opened in 2008 and is designed to handle a number of forest products, including wood fuels, pulpwood, and saw logs. On the biofuel side, raw material is trucked to the terminal, where it is chipped and then loaded onto trains for shipment to heat plants in larger urban areas. During the first half of 2009, 85,000 tonnes of biofuels and pulpwood moved through the terminal. That is the equivalent of 1,300 truckloads. The group’s final stop for the day was an ash recycling site in a forested area near Markaryd. Here, the group met with staff from Askungen Vital, a family-owned business that works with a large number of heat plants and forest companies. Askungen Vital takes the ash used from burning clean wood fuels in a heat plant and recycles this product into fertilizer for use in the forest. Moving inside Day two of the Slash Conference was held in one of the lecture theatres at the Elmia Conference Centre in Jönköping. It was a full agenda, with 14 speakers presenting their views on the biomass industry in Sweden with many discussing how the “20/20/20 by 2020” target set by the European Union (EU) might be met. The EU plan calls for 20% of the EU’s energy to be produced from renewable sources, a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency, all by 2020. Gustav Melin, president of Svebio, which is the Swedish Bioenergy Association, kicked off the day with the opening remarks and an overview of the country’s bioenergy sector. He told the audience that with 28.6% of Sweden’s total energy consumed coming from biomass, the sector was inching closer to the oil industry, which currently meets 31. 3% of the country’s energy consumption needs. The other major contributors to Sweden’s domestic consumption of energy are nuclear power and hydro power, each of which account for about 15% of domestic consumption. In addition to the environmental benefits of using biomass for power, Melin said that bioenergy creates sustainable employment for the country, with 1 Twh of biofuel equal to approximately 250 to 300 jobs. On a larger scale, he explained that an increase of 80 Twh of biofuel would create 24,000 new jobs plus about another 8,000 jobs in the equipment manufacturing sector. Melin also stressed the importance of having legislation to govern the biomass industry. “We have rules for how to trade Bioenergy, and it is not possible to have sustainable bioenergy production without legislation. It would be like no rules in traffic, and you know what would happen if you had no rules in traffic. There would be lots of accidents and problems. Getting from point A to point B would be very insecure. And like you need rules in traffic, you definitely need rules in the production of forest biomass.” Jens Otterstedt, vice president of business development for Swedish forest products producer Sveaskog, provided his company’s outlook on biomass. Sveaskog, which is owned by the government, is Sweden’s largest forest owner, with about 15% of the country’s forestlands under its control. It is also a leading supplier of timber, pulpwood, and biofuel. “European biomass demand for energy will more than double until 2020, biomass prices will increase, and biomass trade will grow substantially,” Otterstedt explained. He also said it would be a “huge challenge” to mobilize the biomass required to meet the demand. However, he added, “the Swedish example shows that the challenge can be met.” Throughout the day, speakers representing academia, the Swedish Research Institute, biomass and biofuel producers, and consultants with expertise in a number of areas related to biomass, biofuels, and forestry all presented their views on the biomass industry. Albin Andersson, energy coordinator for Södra Skogsenergi, which operates five pulp mills, 10 sawmills, and 12 value-added wood processing facilities in Scandinavia, put the EU’s “20/20/20 by 2020” goals into perspective with his sobering comments on volume. He told the audience that “it will take roughly 3,000 Twh annually to meet the EU’s goals and almost all of this will need to come from biomass.” However, he noted that according to his calculations, all of the roundwood in Sweden would be equivalent to 5,000 Twh. He explained that this means if all of the country’s roundwood went to biomass and was not used for traditional forest products, Sweden could supply the EU with biomass for power for only one and a half years. •