Rapidly growing: Wood energy and wood heating technology as an economic factor.
Fossil fuels are not an infinite resource and are becoming increasingly expensive—all while environmental awareness continues to grow. Heating with wood energy, on the other hand, is sustainable, carbon-neutral, and cost-effective. This makes the sector a market that is—in the truest sense of the word—growing rapidly. Learn more at INTERFORST about wood as the number one renewable energy source in the heating market.
Through its Wood Energy and Wood Heating Technology section, INTERFORST covers every aspect of the topic: from cultivation on short-rotation plantations, to the storage and transport of energy wood, to the various wood heating technologies. The event showcases innovative technologies and systems, the latest scientific findings, and a wealth of practical knowledge. An overview of the topics:
Short-rotation plantations as a source of wood energy
In order to produce and utilize wood as a renewable raw material in the shortest possible time, fast-growing trees are planted on short-rotation plantations, or SRPs for short. This approach is permitted in most European countries only on farmland, and depending on the length of the rotation period, either agriculture-like mowing techniques or forestry harvesting techniques are used. The biomass produced can, for example, be used as raw material in the paper, pulp, and wood-based materials industries, but is mostly utilized as wood chips for energy production. If a KUP is used exclusively for energy production, it can also be referred to as an energy forest.
Energy forest
Energy forests are managed using a short rotation cycle of three to ten years. They play an important role in energy production and are comparable to firewood coppice forests. In the past, these were typically planted with linden, maple, and hornbeam; today’s energy forests consist primarily of high-yielding, fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow hybrids—varieties that sprout again after harvest and can thus be harvested three to four times without replanting. Because they are grown from clones, poplars carry an increased risk of fungal diseases. For this reason, plants for energy forests are carefully screened for resistance traits, establishment reliability, regenerative capacity, and production yield.
Processing, Storage, and Transportation of Energy Wood
In principle, all types of wood can be used as energy wood—that is, for energy production through combustion. However, there are numerous higher-value uses for wood. For this reason, energy wood typically consists of low-grade forest assortments, waste wood, and industrial wood residues, as well as tree species grown in short-rotation plantations or silvopastoral systems. At INTERFORST, you’ll learn everything about the harvesting, transport, and storage of energy wood—and, of course, about the right machines and tools, such as large chippers, chipper cranes, and mobile chippers, as well as shredders, crushers, log splitters, and saw-splitters, all the way through to screening systems.
Wood-burning technologies
Whether wood-fired heating systems, wood gasification systems, or combined heating technology:
There are various wood-fired heating technologies available for the use of pellets, wood chips, and firewood, offering efficient solutions for both industrial and residential buildings. When selecting the right wood-fired heating technology, the following aspects should be taken into account during the planning phase, and the necessary conditions should be established:
- Is there enough space for the heating system?
- How much space is available for storing the fuel?
- How much should or can be invested in a new heating system?
- Can we assume that approval will be granted without any issues?
- Is a reliable fuel supply guaranteed?
Efficient Use of Wood
There are many ways to use wood—one of the best known is as a building material, with softwood being the primary choice. Hardwood, on the other hand, is more commonly used for thermal applications—at least for now. The goal is to use new processes and methods to transform even low-quality hardwoods with small trunk diameters into durable wood products. Making more out of less is the new guiding principle. This ensures that wood is used as efficiently as possible and can also be recycled later on.
In the production of particleboard, intelligent material combinations not only reduce weight but also conserve the raw material itself. Lightweight panels with a core layer of foamed polymers require only half the amount of wood during production while offering nearly identical technical properties. But there is also significant potential for savings in pulp production for paper manufacturing thanks to various high-yield processes, because the raw material can be used much more efficiently. The fast-growing plantations mentioned earlier primarily supply wood chips for the heating market or can be harvested from an energy forest for electricity generation.
Equally promising: the use of wood in the production of plastics and adhesives. To this end, carbohydrates, hydrocarbons, and aromatics are extracted from wood and woody annual plants, which can replace petrochemical-based raw materials. Here, too, it is essential to think innovatively and develop new, appropriate methods—to ensure the optimal use of wood as a resource.
In wood utilization, the goal is to achieve a circular economy, meaning that wood is used as efficiently as possible through reuse and waste prevention. In cascade utilization, valuable trunk wood is first used in the construction and furniture industries. This is followed by several recycling steps that keep the wood in use for as long as possible and ultimately lead to its use for energy. In this way, the forestry and timber industry, with its various stakeholders, embodies what other sectors strive for: it is a true circular model.