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A new report issued by the Forest Products Asociation of Canada this week adds information, about Canadian biomass fuel from forest residue, to a report issued by FPInnovations in 2009 on biomass volumes in British Columbia’s coastal region.
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Canadian Potential
The Forest Products Association of Canada this week released a biomass fuel report, in partnership with FPInnovations, aimed at helping the forest products industry understand how to "build on its world-class forest management practices [ . . .] as an engine of growth in the bio-economy." Another report, released by the FERIC division of FPInnovations in May of 2009 also examined this topic but with specific focus on the coastal forests of British Columbia.
For its report, "Assessment of Economically Accessible Biomass", FPInnovations calculated the amount of forest biomass generated by timber harvesting operations on Vancouver Island and south coast mainland. Roadside residue volumes for the entire study area were calculated by applying the biomass ratio to the planned timber harvesting volumes for 110 supply areas. Comminution (grinding) and transportation costs were calculated, and volume reductions were made to account for accessibility and transportation costs.
That report concludes, "Of the 19.6 M m3 of annual harvest, about 10.3 M m3 is potentially available for biomass recovery after reductions for areas that have limited accessibility by semi-trailer chip vans, or that require water transport, or that have long haul distances.. The 10.3 M m3 generated about 250 000 ODt/year of roadside residues and 280 000 ODt/year of dispersed residue. [ . . . ] This study generally found biomass ratios between 3 and 6 per cent in contrast to the 20 per cent or more biomass ratios found in BC Interior and Alberta. Not only is the total volume of roadside residue lower than expected, the residue is distributed across a wide geographical area, with few opportunities to move biomass economically between the sites to achieve economies of scale."
Report author Jack MacDonald explained to Madison's Thursday that the study "identified a number of places on Vancouver Island and the south coast of the mainland where biomass could be hauled directly to pulp mills. [ . . . ] The lower amount of residue on the coast, as compared to the BC interior, is mainly due to old growth logging."
Now that this study of costing and productivity of forest residue is complete, MacDonald is in the process of tackling validation. Using software developed in eastern Canada and adapted for use in BC, MacDonald is creating a model to predict "what we will see."
In contrast, a separate report published by the Western Silviculture Contractors Association in October 2009 determined, "within the 1.8-million hectares of Wildland-Urban Interface recognized in the BC Ministry of Forests and Range Strategic Wildfire Threat analysis that there is 540-million m3 of biomass and that at least 30 per cent of that biomass may have no other commercial value."
The FPAC report, "Transforming Canada's Forest Products Industry", which involved more than 65 top Canadian experts, determined that integrating the production of bio-products into existing forestry operations would provide five times as many jobs as a stand-alone bio-operation.
The report points out, "There is an increasing opportunity to convert biomass – wood-fibre – into everything from electricity and heat to transportation fuels, bio-chemicals for solvents and plastics and next generation bio-materials. That potential is already being seized by countries around the world [ . . . ] such as the U.S., Europe and China. Those countries are retooling their economies to secure technology expertise, create employment, attract investments and capture fast-growing markets for more ‘natural’ products." Refer to the September 11, 2009 issue of your Madison's Lumber Reporter for information on global demand for green energy, in various forms, made from wood cellulose.
Focussed heavily on employment, the FPAC report explains, "The following charts highlight the positive impacts of integrating the traditional industry with the emerging technologies."
The report concludes, "The forest products industry is poised to contribute significantly to the greening of the economy – and become the source of everything from wood-framing, paper, clean energy, rubber, plastic and drugs. FPAC will build on this effort to explore new approaches to: managing the value chain; opportunities to develop cross-sectoral partnerships; completion of the carbon footprint analysis, and gauge the market potential for wood-fibre based bio-products."
