woodchip and pellet forestry

[Michael Low]

I am wondering if people can give me an inside view of the wood pellet and woodchip industry on the logging and forestry level.
In our state of VT a lot of schools and municipal buildings are switching to boiler heating systems that run off ‘sustainable’ biomass from our local forests in the form of pellets and woodchips.
It looks to me like a lot of clearcutting, with virtually no biomass left on site for rebuilding the soils and the fertility base for subsequent forest growth.
Is this industry good for loggers in the state? Does it pay well? Who is benefiting from this switch from gas to wood pellets/ chips?
It looks like the high energy inputs, fossil fuels and environmental impacts are just being re-shuffled and somehow the end product is presented as clean and renewable.
Just want to hear others perspectives on this issue. Is it really as bad as it looks?
Thanks,
Michael Low

[Carl Russell]

Michael, you pretty much have it nailed. The VT Dept. Forests & Parks, wants to back it badly, as it equates to financial investment in the forest industry. Capital investment in secondary processing is job security for foresters, who will need to be employed as this type of harvesting will require regulation to ensure sustainability(?).

There is a lot of talk about how markets like this will increase the value of traditionally low quality material, thus making it more lucrative to harvest low-grade while improving the forests. These markets will not raise the value enough to change the nature of this type of harvesting which will still require economy of scale and volume production to be cost effective.

I do think that facilities such as schools etc. should be heated this way. I also like the idea of there being other local markets for low grade material. However I have very little faith in modern communities. Most people don’t ask the questions that you have. Most people see the forests as wasted material waiting for a better use.

I think this trend will be one of the hardest to manage impacts on our forests. In this area our forests are all still recovering from being over-impacted from pasturing less than 100 years ago. The big selling point is how these markets will help to “clean” up our forests. There is an acceptance that dying or downed trees are “waste”.

Even if our hillsides are not clear-cut, they will be managed at low stocking which will not be beneficial to soils, water quality, nor wildlife.

Carl

[Scott G]

I am a strong advocate of appropriately scaled woody biomass systems, both thermal & co-gen.

The key in that statement is appropriately scaled. Small installations that are close to the resource is paramount. For example, our facility is a hot water system that heats the building where my office is as well as the road and bridge department. Total area that is heated ~ 95,000 sqft. Our next door neighbor, Gilpin County, heats their 25,000 sqft road & bridge shop/office with the same type of system we have. Both are wood chip/hot water systems. Our system consumes about 700-800 green tons a year. Our forest management treatments typically generate 20-40 green tons per acre as a result of active management. As you can see it doesn’t take many acres to keep it fed, especially when you consider we have ~35,000 acres under management. Our return intervals run about 20-30 years in this area, so we won’t even begin to touch the area we have before it is time to go back for re-entry into previous treatments. All of this management is structured to maintain the optimal basal area for that unit as well as leaving enough woody debris for coarseness and nutrient cycling.

I am also an advocate for small-scale pellet systems used for thermal. Nothing would make me happier than to remove propane tanks and replace them with 1 ton grain silos for bulk pellet delivery. Our biggest issue currently in this region is having the infrastructure in place to accomodate bulk delivery. As soon as that piece of the puzzle is put into place I could envision many of these coming on line as the numbers are currently a slam dunk for pellets over propane.

I am absolutely opposed to large electrical generation plants, i.e. 30 megawatts and larger. Thermal applications with biomass approach 85% efficiency on average where electrical generation is only in the 30% range. You need to have cogeneration capability (heat and electric), with a use for the process heat, if you are looking at electrical generation in order to make it pencil out on its own.

Large plants have to reach too far out for their supply. Here in Colorado to accomodate a 50 megawatt plant, or worse yet, a cellulosic ethanol plant, you would have to reach out 200-250 miles for supply and that would not even be on a sustainable yield basis. Conversely, the two small pellet plants we have (had) would not need to reach out more than 60 miles and that would be on a sustainable yield basis; local money, local forests, local jobs into perpetuity…

It is important to not lump “Biomass Energy” into one context when it comes up for discussion. Different applications, different forests, and different regions all come into play. It can be a sustainable form of energy that does pencil out carbon neutral if applied correctly.

There is no ‘Silver Bullet’ when it comes to renewable energy. There are, however, a lot of ‘Silver BBs’ such as wind, solar, biomass, etc. and when used collectively in a wise fashion they can make a huge difference. Better than the alternative currently drifting around destroying the ecosystems of the Gulf…

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