Enhanced forest biomass utilization
'Forest Power' project
The provinces of Botnia-Atlantica area, Nordland, Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Central Ostrobothnia have considerable wood reserves which are not utilized to the full extent by the local industry and households at the present time. Some of this reserve can be used as a renewable source for energy and as a replacement for fossil fuels to battle climate change. The new EU RES-directive dated 23.01.2008 sets the share of the renewable energy of the total energy consumption in European Union at 20 %. Forest Power will promote this EU target by helping to increase the share of sustainable and renewable energy sources from the forests in Bothnia-Atlantica area up to the highest level in the EU. This will be accomplished through intensive research, development and extension work.
It is of vital importance to find new and more economical ways of wood procurement to provide users with higher volumes of wood based fuels directly from the forest in various operational environments. These include harvesting and extraction of energy wood fractions from sapling stage cleanings to residue and stump removal from clear cuts. The emphasis is not only on new technologies but on previously untested new applications. The underlying factor is economics at all stages and for all parties involved. Also new business models will be identified and tested.
Another focus will be on the energy conversion processes in terms of energy efficiency, problem free operation and low emissions at small and medium size heating plants. Within the foreseeable future the present stringent legislation regarding particle emission included in the EU directive on air quality for large scale combustion appliances will be extended to small scale units (1-2 MW). This imposes a major challenge for the local heat communities. Forest Power will aid local energy co-operatives with best practices guidelines and give recommendations on the use of variable fuel stocks in optimization of small-scale combustion units.
In parallel, the state-of- the-art techniques for up-grading biomass fuels into briquettes will be demonstrated and validated into the current fuel assortments. It has been shown that these refinement processes are beneficial in many aspects, especially in small scale energy production and may also contain effective measures in the abatement of particle emissions.
The project aims of Forest Power are to increase the value and quality of products and services within the forest fuel supply, feed-stock conversion and combustion chains. It also aims to increase the general knowledge about the renewable forest energy sources and utilization within the Bothnia Atlantica area.
