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Bioenergy from Georgia's Forest
The value of forest biomass currently used as pine pulpwood has trended downward for the past seven years. Pulpwood can also be competitive as a raw material for many energy systems at current low values. If stumpage rates (the price paid for standing timber) remain low or continue to decrease, a tremendous opportunity will exist for energy systems to use this resource. Forest biomass availability The following report was prepared by General Bioenergy, Inc. for the Georgia Forestry Commission: Biomass Wood Resource Assessment on a County-by-County Basis for the State of GA (pdf, 57 pages). This report estimates the amount of forest biomass available each year by county and type of biomass. Forest biomass considered merchantable and currently used for other products is not addressed by the report. Types of forest biomass Forest biomass types typically considered for use by energy systems include urban wood waste, mill residues, logging slash, and unmerchantable trees. However, some merchantable trees are also considered. Currently, the lowest value forest biomass harvested from Georgia forests is pine pulpwood from first thinnings of pine plantations. These thinnings involve harvesting approximately one half the trees and one third the wood volume from these plantations. The smallest and poorest quality trees are harvested at this time. This operation has a higher harvesting cost per ton than other harvests. Therefore the stumpage (price of standing timber) paid to the landowner is the lowest of all forest resources harvested. The Georgia Forestry Commission has included the amount of timber harvested each year during first thinnings of pine plantations as a potential biomass source for energy. The relative proportions of forest biomass types available for energy are shown in the chart below. Current use of forest biomass The total amount of forest biomass produced by “unmerchantable” sources and first thinnings of pine plantations and any current uses of these biomass sources are shown in the table below. As you can see a total of 20 million dry tons of biomass is available for additional energy use when reasonable recovery rates are assumed. This amount will increase as harvesting systems improve for biomass. You should notice that Georgians already use 15.6 million dry tons of biomass for energy. Much of this use is by the forest products industry in industrial processes.
Additional biomass use and sustainability Georgia had 33.2 billion cubic feet of merchantable timber growing on commercial forestlands in 2004 (most up-to-date inventory). Pine wood volume increased 15% from 1997 to 2004. This is an annual increase of 5.5 million dry tons. Estimates of timber use are made by the Timber Product Output surveys. These TPO estimates indicate that the total annual receipt of roundwood by Georgia forest product mills in 2003 was 1.17 billion cubic feet or 3.5% of the standing inventory. Timber growth in stands of Georgia pines are commonly measured in the 8 – 10% range. Hardwood growth rates are somewhat less. However, the data clearly indicates that Georgia’s forest industry is not utilizing the potential of Georgia’s pine forests. The tree-length forest harvesting systems typically employed in the southern United States can easily adapt to collecting harvesting residues. The specific logistics and economics of harvesting these logging residues for biomass energy purposes is being studied by the University of Georgia School of Forestry and Natural Resources. This study is being partially funded by the Georgia Traditional Industries Research Program and the Langdale Forest Products Company. Results show that significant amounts of logging slash can be economically recovered by incorporating a chipper into a standard tree-length timber harvest operation. Although the study is on-going, initial results are listed in the publication Harvesting Forest Biomass by Adding a Small Chipper to a Ground-Based Tree-Length Southern Pine Operation by Westbrook et.al.
The Georgia Forestry Commission and forest biomass The Georgia Forestry Commission's (GFC) role is to educate all Georgians on forest biomass and its critical importance as an economic driver and viable alternative fuel source for the state and the country.
Resources Forest Inventory & Analysis Factsheet for Georgia and 2004 Forest Inventory and Analysis data
Integration of a Forest Energy Industry with the Traditional Forest Products Industry in Georgia (pdf) |
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