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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.
To
download the whole presentation please click here
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here.
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.
To download the whole presentation
please click here.
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click here
To return to top of page click
here.
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).
To
download the whole presentation please click here
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click here
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click
here.
To return to top of page click
here.
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
To
return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the complete presentation please click here
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the complete presentation, please click here
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click
here.
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click
here.
To return to top of page click
here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click
here.
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here.
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
To return to top of page click
here.
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
To return to top of page click
here.
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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here.
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.
To
download the whole presentation please click here
To return to top of page click
here
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