KEY ISSUES: SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT
Bioenergy
The plantation products and paper industry is both a producer and user of renewable energy. A large proportion of the renewable energy produced by the paper sector is obtained from the black liquor (lignin) that is extracted from wood when it is separated into its constituent fibres through chemical pulping processes. Some recent studies have suggested that the potential for power production from black liquor may be even higher if gasification and combined cycles are used.
The sector also uses a significant volume of other biomass to produce energy. This includes wood waste generated from the paper production process and from other wood processing facilities (including sawmills and panel board mills). A further 40 per cent of sectoral energy requirements are met by natural gas. The sawmilling sector uses bio-energy in the form of sawmill waste as a source of heat for kiln drying timber.
Plantations therefore have the capacity to supply significant amounts of renewable energy through biomass generation which will be capable of creating greenhouse or renewable energy credits.
BioFuels from plantations
Ethanol can be produced from biomass grown in plantations and is called bioethanol. Ethanol can be blended with gasoline to create E85, a blend of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent gasoline. E85 and blends with even higher concentrations of ethanol, E95, for example, qualify as alternative fuels under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct). Vehicles that run on E85 are called flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) and are offered by several vehicle manufacturers globally.
Methanol is another potential alternative. CSIRO has studied the potential for methanol to be produced from plantations. CSIRO has devised a computer model to show that trees planted over the next 50 years could produce enough methanol to replace, over time, liquid fuels currently produced from crude oil and its derivatives.
Supporting strategies
A3P's Sustainability Action Plan commits members to:
- Encourage the development of policy that assists production of bio-energy including from all forms of plantation and recovered material.
- Pursue opportunities for increasing production of bio-energy including through partnerships and joint ventures.
- Thirty per cent increase in bio-energy produced directly or through commercial arrangements by 2015 (from 2006 levels).
Timber Information
Free technical information on the source, selection, properties and other atributes of plantation timber based products available for use in building and construction applications.