Biomass for energy
Growing and using wood for energy
Wood is a well-established energy resource, and its potential to help meet renewable energy targets is widely recognised. However, the potential of wood to meet the requirements of different types of energy customers, both technically and cost-effectively, is less well appreciated. This is because:
- The range of physical and chemical properties of different types of woody biomass is large. These properties will have a great impact on both delivered costs of suitably processed woodfuel, and on the suitability of such fuels for different processes of energy conversion.
- The UK's potential to grow trees quickly is not widely recognised, despite many precedents for short rotation forestry around the world. Some species, when grown correctly, appear to have the potential to produce large volumes of high-value fuelwood with a very few years. If grown as single stems, there is potential for low-cost mechanised harvesting of such wood.
Prima Bio has experience in these fields, and is involved in demonstrating and promoting the role that purpose-grown hardwoods can play in providing woodfuel in the UK.
Current work includes a set of trials of eucalyptus species and hybrids, designed to show the potential of this approach to produce fuelwood in UK. Many other hardwood species, both native and exotic, also appear to have potential.
See here for more information on the characteristics of some eucalyptus species, and their establishment requirements. The establishment practices used in afforestation with Eucalyptus nitens in Spain illustrate how some of the issues can be addressed in practice, and at modest cost.