Metla uutiskirje

Metla Bulletin

October 22, 2012
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ENERWOODS – energising the cultivation and procurement of woody biomass through Nordic cooperation

“Europe needs forest bioenergy to reach the targets set for resource efficiency and reduced emissions. Transferring from the use of fossil natural resources to renewable resources is a huge opportunity for Europe. To make the green economy a reality and allow the use of renewable resources to continue to grow in the future, we need to take action” stated MEP Tarja Cronberg in her opening speech at the ENERWOODS Thematic Day, organised at Metla House in Joensuu on 4 September 2012.

Photo: Metla/Johanna Routa.

Metla in charge of the logistics package for ENERWOODS

The joint Nordic project ENERWOODS aims to strengthen the role of Nordic forestry in supplying cost-efficient and sustainably produced biomass to renewable resource-based energy production systems. Metla is in charge of coordinating the extensive research project’s logistics package. Among other goals, the aim is to survey the existing supply chains and make assessments of various transportation methods that combine long-distance transportation solutions and the options for just-in-time deliveries of energy wood. In addition, the possibilities of substituting carbon sequestration processes and fossil fuels within the Nordic countries’ forest energy systems will be investigated.

Energy wood logistics researchers convened on 3 September for a seminar held in Joensuu. The theme of the day was just-in-time deliveries of forest biomass. The seminar brought together researchers from various Finnish research institutes and the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden Skogforsk. 4 September was a thematic day, focused on forest energy production, and was attended by more than 40 stakeholders from the forestry sector, including researchers, energy producers, forest industry representatives, self-employed forest machine operators and manufacturers of forest machinery. The participant feedback on the event’s content was positive.

Forest bioenergy explored from all angles throughout the Thematic Day

Antti Asikainen, Professor at Metla, provided an overview of future forest machine trends and workforce needs. It is estimated that the use of timber and energy wood will increase significantly in the near future due to the efforts to replace non-renewable raw materials and energy sources with renewable ones. “At the same time, harvesting will become increasingly dependent on machinery, leading to increased numbers of forest machines and forest machine operators in the coming decades – regardless of whether the EU only partially achieves its targets for increasing renewable energy,” Asikainen predicted. As a result, the availability of the workforce and the required investments in machinery will pose a great challenge.

ENERWOODS – wood based energy from Nordic forests

The ENERWOODS project aims to strengthen the role of Nordic forestry in supplying cost-efficient and sustainably produced biomass for renewable resource-based energy production systems.

Achieving the project goal requires:

  • significantly increasing forestry output through the selection of the right forest management methods, tree species, seed sources, clones, etc.
  • longer transportation distances and growing storage needs
  • a cost-efficient compromise between the substitution of carbon sequestration processes and fossil fuels from the perspective of land use
  • finding the right balance and scale for various forms of forest use, and
  • effective practical implementation of research results.

Providers of funding:

The supply management and quality control of extensive biomass resources will also pose challenges in the future if the use of forest biomass in energy production is to increase as planned. Researcher Perttu Anttila from Metla gave a presentation on the controlling of moisture content in the energy wood supply chain. It requires new measurement methods, models for predicting the drying rate of energy wood, and logistics-related planning.

Boreal forest ecosystems have significant potential for energy production. “Intensive silviculture can help achieve a significant increase in the production of biomass for energy production purposes if attention is paid to cycle time, forest stand density, fertilisation and seed source selection,” Professor Emeritus Seppo Kellomäki noted in his presentation.

Presentations were also given by Researcher Antti Kilpeläinen, from the Finnish Environment Institute, on the life cycle assessment of wood chip production; Professor Leif Gustavsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden, on the greenhouse gas emission balance in forest energy chains; and Researcher Lars Rytter, Skogforsk, on the possibilities of cultivating various tree species in the Nordic countries to meet the increasing needs of biomass production.

As a conclusion to the Thematic Day, an outing was arranged to visit the Joensuu deep-water harbour’s fuel terminal. The participants got to witness the use of wood crusher machines to crush tree trunks, the making of chippings from logging residue and the loading of delivery trucks with wood chip, organised by Sekera Oy. They were also introduced to the manufacture of material processing machines by Mantsinen Oy.

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Photos: Erkki Oksanen, Metla, unless otherwise stated