Bioenergy International No 80, 4-2015 5 INTERNATI NAL BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL Holländargatan 17 SE-111 60 Stockholm, Sweden Tel: +46 8 441 70 80 E-mail: info@bioenergyinternational.com Twitter:BioenergyIntl www.bioenergyinternational.com PUBLISHER Kjell Andersson kjell.andersson@svebio.se EDITOR IN CHIEF Alan Sherrard alan.sherrard@bionergyinternational.com SALES, MARKETING & CO-EDITORS Dorota Natucka dorota.natucka@bioenergyinternational.com Jeanette Fogelmark jeanette.fogelmark@bioenergyinternational.com Xinyi Shen xinyi.shen@bioenergyinternational.com SUBSCRIPTION 7 issues 125 EUR. Order: info@bioenergyinternational.com PRINTING Exaktaprinting, Malmö, Sweden OWNER SBSAB/Svebio Holländargatan 17 SE-111 60 Stockholm, Sweden ABOUT BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL Bioenergy International is produced in cooperation with the European Biomass Association, AEBIOM and published 7 times a year. COVER PHOTO Dr Torben A. Bonde, Kinetic Biofuel, has every reason to be pleased. The straw briquette in his hand may very well be the answer to how Denmark will achieve its 2020 manure-based biogas target and Danish farmers gain profitability using a readily available but under-utilised residue (photo Alan Sherrard). No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher. Whilst every reasonable effort is made to check accuracy, all articles and information are published in good faith. Readers are advised to verify statements and facts direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher cannot, under any circumstances, accept any responsibility. Opinions expressed should not be construed as being those of the publisher. SI units and ISO 4217 currency codes are used as a matter of preference. THE 101 ON WHY BIOMASS COUNTS A self-serving headline for a biomass to energy journal, perhaps. After all, we have vested interests in advocating the environmental, economical, sustainable use of biomass for energy. That is not to say that we ignore health and environmental impacts of this ”alternative fuel source” by default as some biomass critics may suggest. The pretentiously simplistic purpose of this journal since our first issue in 2001 is to inspire by the power of good examples. Fourteen years on and this issue is no different in this respect. Packed with examples of people, businesses, agencies, researchers and policy-makers doing things that bring the benefits of biomass forward. In doing so biomass is given a value and by giving it a value there is interest in managing and renewing it to ensure that there is more of it to go around. It is the ”more it is used the more there is” paradox. Take cereal straw, an agricultural residue with a ”fantastic ligno-cellulosic structure” as Dr Torben A. Bonde, from the Danish company Kinetic Biofuel, described it in our feature article. Pre-treat it with a ”mechanically induced steam explosion” and suddenly it is a perfect drop-in co-substrate for a manure-based biogas plant, boosting the biogas yield, improving the digestate as fertiliser while utilising two existing residue streams. One can combust it in bales burners, pelletise it for animal bedding or convert it to a ”sunliquid”. It does not matter which, as all are adding value, prompting the obvious question: If Danish, Lithuanian, German or any farmer opted for cereal varieties with longer straw now that it has a value, how many more million tonnes of straw would be readily available annually for energy purposes without a single ha more land or dedicated energy crop needed? Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and North Carolina State University recently concluded in a study that wood pellets from the southeast US could meet EU sustainability demands and projected future demands could actually promote increases in forest area and forest carbon storage in the US, which is not a great surprise to anyone familiar with forestry and the forest industry. It’s a forestry “Biomass 101” if you will. What is perhaps more of a surprise percent of the 800 million wooded acres (324 million ha) in the US are in private according to a 2014 report by the Family Forest Research Center, a joint venture US Forest Service and the University of Massachusetts. Nearly two-thirds of owned by 22 million individuals and families, not forest companies as one may serious concern though is that these private family forest acres are under threat thousands being lost or altered every year, cleared for suburban development pastures, divided up into smaller and smaller parcels through generations, sold to bills, or devastated by wildfires, insects or disease. That is why the joint initiative by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), the American Wood Council (AWC), the Forest Resources Association (FRA) and the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) to set the record straight is such a welcome and needed move: ”America’s foresters and forest products producers use the greatest carbon capture technology ever devised: trees. Because of this, we grow far more than we harvest. Now we are adding to our sustainability efforts by powering our businesses with sustainable, carbon neutral bioenergy.” Biomass counts, not just for forest owners in the US, farmers in Europe or for EU 2020 renewable energy and climate targets. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency - IRENA - 2nd annual renewable energy and jobs review, over 2.99 people were employed directly or indirectly in biofuels, biomass or biogas jobs you’re based in the US then you’re one of 4 million in the “biobased products contributed US$369 billion to the US economy in 2013 according to a just-published USDAcommissioned report to Congress. Comforting to know we’re all working in a with its two feet firmly connected to the ground. prise is that 56 vate hands ace between the these acres are ay expect. A at with and paso pay ever e addcarfor EU enewable En- .99 million s in 2014. If industry” that ublished USDAa growth sector Alan Sherrard
Bioenergy no 4 july 2015
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