Residues 2 Riches Times have changed Biomass is not free, but we do get a lot more energy out of it than we put in. These, and other topics in this first FPInnovations-Feric column on effi cient biomass harvesting. By Mark Ryans T here is no doubt that the use of forest bio- mass is expanding across Canada. I have been researching forest biomass since 1978, albeit on an on-and-off basis as forest bioenergy has been a hot-and-cold topic for the forest industry over the past 30 years. However, if you had asked in 2005 whether my organiza- tion would have a national program on forest feedstocks in 2008 involving over 10 research staff and activities in almost every corner of Canada, I would have said that you were smok- ing some other type of biomass. Among all the doom-and-gloom scenarios and the wide-spread structural changes that the forest industry is going through, there are a few bright spots. One fact is that the forest industry is well positioned within an emerging bioecono- my, and it is already a leader in reducing carbon emissions and producing green power. Today, the immediate use of biomass is to produce heat and power, but forest biorefi neries are the way of the future. These will take many forms, large and small, but a pulp and paper mill is an ideal complex to produce not only electricity, steam, and hot water for heating, but also chemicals and liquid transportation fuels. Unfortunately, change is usually accompa- nied by pain, or at least a more complicated business environment. The conventional sourc- es of low-cost, homogeneous hog fuel have dried up, caused by reduced shifts, shutdowns, or permanent closures of local sawmills. More- over, woodrooms are a thing of the past at most pulp mills. Therefore, simple hog-fuel supply chains, currently comprising bark from a saw- mill to a pulp mill’s power boiler will, for the most part, change to a more heterogeneous and complex forest-origin supply. The past situation of one-on-one business relationships or ownership of the “waste” with- in the same company will change to multiple sources of sawmill and forest-origin biomass, involving numerous forest contractors and lo- cations. The need for an all-season supply will FOREST-ORIGIN BIOMASS IS ENERGY EFFICIENT IINPUT ENERGY - 3% 0.1% 0.7% ENERGY VALUE OF CHIPS 97.4% 1.8% With only 3% of the energy value of chips required to collect, process, and haul roadside biomass, the energy balance of slash harvesting looks pretty good. put similar constraints on the biomass supply business that we are accustomed to in our con- ventional forest operations. New and decades- old forest management issues will have to be addressed, such as ownership of residues, im- pacts on forest productivity, etc. In many juris- dictions, new business relationships will need to be established. MYTH BUSTING The main purpose of this column is to discuss the development of effi cient supply chains for forest-origin biomass. Before getting into the details, we need to address two common myths regarding forest biomass. Myth #1. It takes more energy to deliver forest biomass than it is worth. I remember a particular criticism by Reed Inc’s VP of our ENFOR-funded projects at one of the old Canadian Pulp and Paper Association (CPPA) woodlands conventions. From men- tioning ENFOR, Reed, and CPPA, some of the readership will be able to deduce that this was many years ago during the fi rst oil crisis. It was also a very troubling time for world economies and the Canadian forest industry. His criticism was, “Why would we want to use a litre of fuel that we want and need to deliver something (biomass) that we don’t want and don’t need?” Times have changed, and the value of forest CanadianBIOMASS 29
Canadian Biomass December 2008: Page 29
