About 130 people from 29 countries took part in the Elmia Slash Bioenergy Conference. The event featured one day in the field and one day in the lecture theatre. need rules in traffic, you definitely need rules in the production of forest biomass.” Jens Otterstedt, vice president of business bioenergy, and it is not possible to have sus- tainable bioenergy production without legis- lation. 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 acci- dents and problems. Getting from point A to point B would be very insecure. And like you development for Swedish forest products producer Sveaskog, provided his company’s outlook on biomass. Sveaskog, which is owned by the government, is Sweden’s larg- est forest owner, with about 15% of the coun- try’s forestlands under its control. It is also a leading supplier of timber, pulpwood, and biofuel. “European biomass demand for en- ergy will more than double until 2020, bio- mass 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 de- mand. However, he added, “the Swedish ex- ample shows that the challenge can be met.” Throughout the day, speakers represent- ing academia, the Swedish Research Insti- tute, biomass and biofuel producers, and consultants with expertise in a number of areas related to biomass, biofuels, and for- estry all presented their views on the bio- mass 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 tradi- tional forest products, Sweden could supply the EU with biomass for power for only one and a half years. • AD INDEX Brandt – Bandit Division Bioscan Tech Buhler, Inc Combustion Expert Distribution Cardinal Energy Unlimited Firefly AB Hurst Boiler Jeffrey Specialty Equipment Kerry-Die Products Ltd Liebherr Canada Ltd Peterson Pacific Rawlings Mfg Silvana Import Trading, Inc Teaford Canada Vermeer Canada West Salem Machinery 30 CanadianBIOMASS 32 25 20 14 13 2 18 9 8 18 7 31 24 22 28 5 14 AUGUST 2009
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