Biomass production systems
Blas MOLA-YUDEGO
Summary
The use of wood from plantations are an important feedstock for energy that can help meeting renewable energy targets in the expected shift towards a more sustainable energy supply infrastructure. In recent years it has been underlined that an increasing amount of dedicated land for fast growing species will be needed in order to fulfill the ambitious objectives of energy policy. Plantations for energy offer several advantages concerning production levels, rural development, wood logistics, etc… At the same time, they present important challenges, and due to their nature on agricultural land, they competed with food production. This session reviews their present role, advantages and disadvantages from different points of view.
Objectives
The main objectives of this session are:
- To review the concept of fast growing plantations for energy.
- To review the most common management operations for tending fast growing plantations.
- To review the yield levels from different short rotation management systems for energy.
Materials
Slides [PDF]
The role of plantations [video]. What are biomass production systems? Fast-growing plantations play a very important role as a source of biomass for energy or other industries, such as traditional forest based or the emerging biomaterials. There are different plantation systems in the world, with different characteristics and main markets. In Brazil, a plantation can deliver 50 times more than native forests, whereas in Central Europe, this ratio can be 10 times. In Northern Europe, mainly willow and poplar based systems have been established, the first for energy and the latter for pulp, among other uses.
Harvesting of willow plantations [Youtube]. These area a collection of video produced by Salixodlarna, mainly in Sweden and using their own harvesting methods.
Tasks
Prepare the assignment concerning a biomass production system for energy.