Northern
WoodHeat Symposium, Joensuu
5-9 June 2005
The
presentations given at the Northern WoodHeat
Symposium, Joensuu 5-9 June 2005 are
summarised below. Click on the title to read the
presentation summary -
each one can also be downloaded in full.
Day 1
Day 2
Forest
Machinery Session
Day 1
Cornerstones of
Efficient Supply of Forest Fuels
Professor
Penti Hakkila, VTT
Processes
The use of
forest chips (wood chips) is a key development in wood energy. This
presentation outlines the necessary conditions for the use of forest chips as
a viable fuel. Throughout the supply chain, the production cost of forest
chips has to be minimised. However, forest chips
also have to fulfill customer needs in terms of value-for-money heating and
year-round security of supply. Stages of the supply chain are examined, and
means of economic and technical improvement proposed. Three improvement
strategies are suggested: a centralized system where all the activities in the
terrain, at the landing and at the plant are close together thereby reducing
the logistic cost; large scale production reducing the marginal production
cost ; baling which could among other things save
time spent on handling. The context for the interest of forest industries and
governmental policy is also discussed.
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the whole presentation please click here
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Scotland’s energy policy is a response to both EU targets to increase
renewable energy production and to the Kyoto protocol target to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The development of bioenergy
and woodenergy in particular is well suited to the
situation in Scotland. Around a third of the electricity delivered in Scotland
is used for heat which emphasises the importance of technologies such as wood
energy which can produce heat directly. The population in the Highlands of
Scotland is scattered - wood energy would therefore be an environmentally
friendly and economic solution to energy demands, suppressing the high cost of
electricity transmission and enhancing the local economy.
The
development of wood energy in Scotland is supported by different sources of
funding available to communities and individuals, and to businesses and
suppliers. It is also supported by Forestry Commission Scotland which promotes
woodfuel development through various avenues
including research programmes and a
Woodfuel Usage Survey. Finally
woodfuel development is stimulated by several
development projects which aim increase the knowledge and interest in wood
energy.
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Introducing wood fuels to the geothermal and treeless Iceland: realistic or
just plain stupid?
Loftur
Jonsson, Iceland
Iceland has few forest resources, and enjoys cheap and clean heating from
geothermal energy. However, wood energy utilisation has become relevant for
remote areas where the cost of power supply is high, and the markets for
Iceland’s existing forest resources are poor. Whilst wood energy in Iceland is
not a solution as a whole, it has the potential to complement the main
electricity and heating production by geothermal sources, and to provide a
useful and sustainable additional output for Iceland’s forest industry.
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the whole presentation please click here
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Woodfuel
supply chain modelling in Iceland using GIS
Bernd Moeller, Aalborg University/LBHI
A
case study of the
Hallormsstađur
Forest in Iceland was used to develop a wood fuel supply chain model based on
GIS utilisation. This model could be helpful in analysing the feasibility of
an area for woodfuel supply. The model consists of
mapping of two kinds of data for each potential area: energy demand and forest
resources. The combination of these data enables calculation of, among other
things, transportation cost and thus selects the best sites for a possible
afforestation programmes or
woodfuel harvest sites. However, there are limitations to the model:
these include the lack of both geographical forest data (existing maps are
spatially imprecise) and energy consumption data by individual household and
industries (there is no direct link between size of building and consumption).
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the whole presentation please click here
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Feasibility Study Iceland
Timo
Tahvanainen and Lauri
Sikanen, Metla
This
presentation is the first report on the
Regional Wood Energy
Feasibility Study, carried out in Hallormstadir
in
Iceland. The goal
of the study is to promote the sustainable use of forestry and forest
resources for the benefit of Hallormstadir area.
Goals and guidelines were identified
for the
establishment of a wood energy supply chain in this area
as well as possibilities and restrictions for the use of forest energy and
forest fuel resources.
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the whole presentation please click here
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Day 2
Woodfuel
in Scotland
Fiona
McPhie, Highland Birchwoods
In the North
of Scotland, the population is widely scattered, and the electricity
transmission infrastructure is inadequate to cope with distributing additional
energy to new households. Yet, a large amount of the requirement for
electricity is for heat. Woodfuel is therefore a
highly appropriate energy source as it produces heat directly. The Highlands
have a considerable potential woodfuel resource as
there is a large reservoir of low grade timber which lacks viable markets.
The current
wood energy situation in Scotland is in its early stages, but already there is
a growing demand for woodfuel. There are a number
of woodfuel research and development projects;
these include
Northern
WoodHeat, H&I Woodfuel
Development Programme and the North Sea
Bioenergy pellets project. Funding opportunities
for people wishing to install woodfuel heating
systems are provided by the Scottish Community and Householder Renewable
Initiative and the Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company. Northern
WoodHeat in Scotland will be setting up four
supply chains in different geographical areas where harvesting, extraction,
drying, chipping, transport, logistic and boiler trials will be carried out.
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the whole presentation please click here.
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Possibilities
and limitations of woodfuels in Scotland
Lauri
Sikanen and Dominik
Roeser, METLA
This
presentation outlines the possibilities and limitations of
woodfuel use in Scotland concentrating mainly on
the case study of the Wick District Heating Scheme
in Caithness. The foundations for a viable woodfuel
industry in Scotland already exist: there are existing timber harvesting
professionals and systems which create a supportive base for
woodfuel harvesting. Further, there is a strong
will for development of woodfuel supply chains at
the local scale, as promoted by the Forestry Commission as land owners and
Highland Council as decision makers. However, there are also some factors
which may limit the development of woodfuel supply
chains. The large distance between the possible
woodfuel harvesting sites and the small volume of
wood required need to be considered in particular during the firewood supply
chain feasibility study. There is a not a strong tradition of
woodfuel use in Scotland, and raw material
production is seldom the landowners’ objective. Another challenge is to
overcome the high moisture content of the wood by integrating drying into the
supply chain.
To
download the complete presentation please click here
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Heat Energy
Entrepreneurship
in Finland
Asko
Puhakka
,
North
Karelia Polytechnic
This
presentation discusses models of heat entrepeneurship
in operation in Finland. One such model is where an
entrepreneur or a group of entrepreneurs invests in and owns a heating plant
and also takes care of the fuel supply and maintenance work. The
owners then sell
heat energy to the customer as a comprehensive service and the price for the
heat could be set in relation to the energy unit (€/MWh).
Another possibility could be that the
local
authority or the customer owns the heating plant. In this case, energy
entrepreneurs could manage the fuel supply and technical maintenance work.
Whilst local authorities may have environmental incentives to adopt the latter
system, they still need to know the investment cost, the repayment period and
the interest rate.
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the complete presentation please click here
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E-Trade of Woodfuel
Timo
Tahvanainen, Metla
Mottinetti
is a Finnish marketing service which uses Internet to sell
woodfuel. Mottinetti
ensures the link between the firewood user and the firewood producer. It
offers security to the customer with the guarantee of quality service and
delivery terms. It also offers security to the
producers by supplying them with a ready market and constant demand. Finally,
it is also adapted to a large range of customers and sells an assortment of
types of woodfuel.
The
development of this service is ongoing, and it is progressively replacing the
previous small Finnish firewood market.
To download
the complete presentation, please click here.
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Cost structure of supply chains in Finland- METLA Finnish Forest Research
Institute
Juha
Laitila, Metla
This
presentation details how The National Wood Energy Technology
Programme has conducted a comparison of the
procurement cost (in €/m3 or €/MWh) of the three
main sources of forest fuel i.e. logging residue from final felling, stumps
from final felling and small diameter trees from early thinning. The
comparison includes each step of the supply chain. First of all, extraction is
studied - the cost of slash piling of the logging residue is compared to stump
uprooting and felling/bunching of thinnings. Then,
the chipping operation cost at road side is compared to chipping at the power
plant. Finally, the cost of transportation is calculated as a function of the
transport distance and load volume. The results of the study reveal that the
procurement cost of the trees from early thinning, 2 €/m3, is by far the
highest because of the high logging cost. The procurement costs of logging
residues and stumps from final felling cost respectively 0.7 and 1.3 €/m3. In
all cases, large scale operations reduce the cost of employment and machinery
and justifies chipping at the plant.
Finally, matching
the right
type of
supply chain
to the right site requires
GIS-based
studies and cost analyses.
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the complete presentation, please click here
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Enertree
- A decision support tool for forest energy utilisation
-Karri Passanen, Metla
“Enertree”,
developed by METLA
the Finnish Forest Research Institute,
is a decision support tool for forest energy utilisation. It is aimed at all
kinds of forest landowners and will help them to manage their forest
resources, and to address multicriteria decisions.
Environmental consequences are integrated using ecological indicators, and the
profitability of the solutions are calculated
through economic indicators.
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the whole presentation please click here.
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Moisture in
woodfuels and drying of wood chips
Mikko
Helin, North Karelia
Polytechnic
High moisture
content of wood chips reduces their heating value, and can cause problems with
boiler function, therefore it is necessary to find
efficient ways of drying chips. Air-drying can be done using either unheated
or heated air. Solar energy or integrated heating combining chip drying with
the heat from the boilers are two possibilities. Benefits from drying wood
chips are more significant if there is already a building for the dryer as
this requires a smaller investment.
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the whole presentation please click here.
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Woodfuel
and the local economy
Lasse
Okkonen, North Karelia
Polytechnic
This
presentation gives an overview of the calculation of the economic impact of a
new activity for a region; the particular case of a
woodfuel supply chain is investigated.
As a general
rule, the economic impact is the sum of the direct (jobs and income), indirect
(employment and income changes occurring in other businesses or industries in
the region that supply inputs to the project industry) and induced
(effect of the household spending in the local economy) economic impact. To be
more accurate the multiplier effect, i.e. the additional activities generated
by the new one, has to be taken into account.
The economic
impact generated by the development of a woodfuel
supply chain at local scale is one of the steps of the decision making
process. The relevant indicators for evaluation of the benefits of a small
scale woodfuel plant are those measuring the
effect on employment and income. Significant gains can be expected in these
fields without displacing conventional large scale energy supply systems.
Neither should they damage the supply-chains of competing activities.
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the whole presentation please click here.
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Bioenergy
Solutions - Thermia
Thermia
is a Finnish-Swedish group which produces central heating boilers, bio energy
systems and heat pumps.
Thermia manufactures boilers for all fuels; oil,
gas, wood, pellets, wood chips and also electricity. This presentation focuses
on Bio heating systems which combine boilers and fuel storage. This allows
easy maintenance and the volume of the silo determines the fuel fill interval.
To download
the whole presentation please click here
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Forestry
machinery Session
Bundles
of Energy from the Forest –a Finnish Success Story
Ari
Saarenmaa, John Deere Forestry
John Deere is
a Finnish forestry enterprise which has a strong interest in the use of forest
by-products - logging residues - to produce
fuelwood. Finnish policy in response to the EU
energy policy and the Kyoto protocol requires an increase in the level of
renewable energy production. As a consequence, the economic benefits expected
from bioenergy such as wood energy are increasing
and John Deere has decided to explore this promising new market. Attention is
focused on the design of new forest machines and harvest methods to combine
producing sawlogs for timber production and
bundling residues for fuelwood production.
To download
the complete presentation please click here
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KESLA Oy
Kesla
is a Finnish forestry enterprise which produces forest machines, trailers,
harvesters, chippers and timber loaders.
To download
the whole presentation please click here
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Naarva
grip - Janne
Haikio, Pentin
Paja Oy
Pentin
Paja Oy is an
engineering, manufacturing and sales company,
specialising in forest construction equipments, sold under the brand
name Naarva. An important area of their operation
is also maintenance and installation services for the local industrial plants.
This
presentation focuses on the machine “Naarva-Grip”
which is a combination of felling head and grapple and which could
especially be useful for the harvest of several small trees at the same
time during thinning operations for woodfuel
utilisation.
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the whole presentation please click here
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