Transcript No Slide Title

Woodfuel supply chains present and future
Ian Tubby
PPG Woodfuel Officer
Forestry Commission England
Presentation overview
• Where woodfuel fits into the energy mix
• How woodfuel is currently used, and FC
involvement in the sector
• Suggest what could happen in the future
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Energy Demand Rises 2% pa
The Energy Hierarchy:
Conservation, Efficiency, Renewable
Electricity
Heating
Road Transport
80% Carbon reductions by 2050
15% Renewables by 2020
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Barriers to progress
• Many woodlands not managed for 50+ years
• Engaging with woodland owners - 80,000 owners 43
Woodland Officers.
• Small skills base in both forestry contractor and boiler
installer sectors
• Small number of boilers in use
• Fuel quality poorly understood, boilers need specific
moisture contents and chip sizes to work
• High capital cost of boilers and fuel processing kit,
uncertain and sometimes confusing grants for both fuel
producers and end users
• Public perception of forest management
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Wood Fuel Strategy for England
• Published in March 2007
• Describes six aims
• Not rule out support to any development,
but prioritise the development of local heat.
Regional examples/case studies
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Current markets
• Most common application is heat production using
woodchips, logs or pellets
• Typical scale is between 50 - 1000kW (around 3000
installations at present)
• Generally a single boiler in a single building
• Growing interest in and application of ‘district heating’
systems - 1 boiler serving many buildings
• Creation of many small markets each using 10s or
100s of tonnes suits scattered distribution of privately
owned woodland
• Many estate or farm based business starting with self
supply
• Energy Supply Companies - sell heat not woodchip
Woodchip for fuel
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Typical boiler installation
Don’t forget firewood
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Power generation
• 16 biomass fired powerstations up and running in the UK,
roughly half use wood, stimulated by Renewables
Obligation
• ~30 planned of which 11 will use wood
• IF all go ahead this will require 30 million tonnes of
biomass. Many planned plants located on the coast, ready
for imports
• In 2005 Cofiring market used 1.5million tonnes of biomass
(and 52million tonnes of coal)
• Concern over what this market will do to non fuel
markets….
• ….but some wood processors have invested or are looking
to invest in power and/or heat generation equipment
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Fuel prices
• Gas and oil both around 4p per kWh
• Wood chips for heat 2.3p - 3.0p per kWh (£80 £105 per tonne delivered)
• Wood pellets for heat 3.9p per kWh (£185 per
tonne delivered)
• Wood chips for power generation £20 - 35 per
tonne delivered
• Logs £120 a tonne delivered? Very variable,
often sold by the ‘load’
• Domestic house uses around 20,000kWh a
year or about 6 tonnes of seasoned wood
• Prices vary around the country and are very
sensitive to delivery distance
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Lets not forget
TIMBER
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Anderwood cottages, New Forest
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Wood Fuel Strategy for England
•Deliver at regional/sub-regional level,
supported by a national core of research &
development, advice and advocacy.
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But cutting down trees is bad isn’t it?
Wildlife Link Statement 2009
Endorsed by 13 NGOs
including RSPB, Wildlife Trusts,
Woodland Trust, Friends of the
Earth, Butterfly Conservation
Amounts to 8.3million people
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Research and development
• FC funded research has focused on:
• Systems and equipment evaluation, chippers,
harvesting heads, time studies
• Attitudes of woodland owners to woodland
management - how can we unlock the potential?
• Case studies of fuel supply businesses and boilers
• Development of CEN fuel quality standards - very
technical but could ultimately improve consumer
confidence
• Brash baling, site selection decision support
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Biomass Energy Centre
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Established in 2006
Telephone and enquiries answering service
Covers all aspects of fuel production and end use
Around 70,000 page hits each month and 120
enquiries
• Currently lists 300+ fuel suppliers this helps give
confidence to the end user
• Access to FR research team and experts and
practitioners in both public and private sector
• BEC stand in FC tent at APF
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Confidence, Confidence, Confidence
Biomass Heating A Practical Guide
for Potential Users www.carbontrust.co.uk
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Wood Fuel Strategy for England
•Manage more existing woodland as a
priority but use other woodfuel sources to
add support and flexibility to the system
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Annual increment
(Million cubic metres)
Unharvested resource
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7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Unutilised
Annual harvest
Conifer
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Broadleaf
Total
Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS)
• Woodland Planning Grant
• £1k /Plan minimum
• Woodland Improvement Grants
• Woodland Assessment Grant
• Woodland Regeneration Grant
• Woodland Management Grant
• Woodland Creation Grant
• Advice from 43 Woodland Officers
- 80,000 owners?
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www.forestry.gov.uk/ewgs
Improved infrastructure
•No management for years
•Access tracks absent or unfit
for modern vehicles
•Access unlocks the resource
for all markets, not just fuel
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Increasing the resource
E. Nitens 6 years old,
unthinned
Pictures courtesy of John Purse, PrimaBio
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SRF viability in Britain
•Defra funded trials in
England
•FC conducting trials in
Scotland
•Growth rates,
establishment, water use,
economics, public
perception
•Native and non native
species
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Wood Fuel Strategy for England
•Maintain high environmental quality in all
activities
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Sustainability criteria
• Driven by EU Renewable Energy Directive but to be
developed on a national basis
• For government and society, no point in using biomass if
this leads to deforestation and environmental damage
• For the industry, demonstrating sustainability gives public
confidence and ensures future resource availability
• Need to balance need to regulate international supply
chains against admin burden on small scale domestic
suppliers
• UK Forestry Standard provides a framework for sustainable
forest management.
• Evidence of compliance already available in the form of
felling licences and management plans
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The Future
• Tough decisions to make on land use, energy supply
technologies, energy consumption levels
• We import: 70% of our coal, 23% of our gas, 7% of our oil
• We can’t grow enough biomass to meet all of our energy
needs
• Steam turbine power stations and internal combustion
engines 30 - 40% efficient
• Do we try and increase efficiency?
• Or reserve oil and biomass for production of plastics and
building materials and use wind and nuclear for power
generation?
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Heat
• Likely to see continued volatility
in gas and oil markets
• Continued growth of small to
medium scale heat projects
based around farms and
estates
• Rate of growth may depend on
level of Renewable Heat
Incentive due in April 2011
• Development of more Energy
Supply Companies
• Continued interest in stoves
• Increase in use of particulate
and NOx abatement kit
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Fuel Poverty
‘Completely out of money for
gas, Billen took apart a shelf
unit to use as fuel in her
fireplace. “I figured I needed it
more for heat than storage”.’
Guardian 17th Jan 10
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Power generation
• International trade in biomass for power
generation likely to increase
• Power generators becoming interested in
forestry?
• CHP - Steam turbines, 4:1 heat to power ratio
• Several manufacturers developing technology in
the 25 - 500kWe
• Carbon Capture and Storage on ‘carbon negative’
biomass plant?
Waste wood resource
• 5 million tonnes from
construction & demolition
• 4.4 million tonnes from other
industry
• Separation
• Contamination
• Regulation
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Liquid fuels
• A handful of plants exist
• Choren in Frieberg
• Produces ‘SunDiesel’,
synthetic fuel from wood
• In future, do we want to use
biomass to produce liquid
fuels?
• Mass flow – 5 tonnes of dry
wood to produce 1 tonne of
diesel
• Probably of limited interest to
woodland owners in the UK
Picture taken fom http://www.optfuel.eu/uploads/regular/powerplant.jpg
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In Summary
• Woodfuel industry is small but market opportunity
significant
• Needs of existing markets to be taken into account when
trying to stimulate new markets
• Attractive financial return to woodland owner needed to
mobilise unmanaged woodland
• Which ever energy and material technologies are
adopted, forestry is likely to play a significant role
• Wider stakeholder support crucial
• We need to improve awareness, access and markets
today to benefit tomorrow!
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Bye and…...
Thank you!
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