Search Results (9)

Chile is among the leading global exporters of pulp and paper, supported by extensive plantations of Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus spp. This review synthesizes recent progress in the valorization of forestry biomass in Chile, including both established practices and emerging bio-based applications. It highlights advances in lignin utilization, nanocellulose production, hemicellulose processing, and tannin extraction, as well as developments in thermochemical conversion technologies, including torrefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification. Special attention is given to non-timber forest products and essential oils due to their potential bioactivity. Sustainability perspectives, including Life Cycle Assessments, national policy instruments such as the Circular Economy Roadmap and Extended Producer Responsibility (REP) Law, are integrated to provide context. Barriers to technology transfer and industrial implementation are also discussed. This work contributes to understanding how forestry biomass can support Chile’s transition toward a circular bioeconomy. Full article

The cost of transportation of raw materials is a significant part of the procurement costs in the forestry industry. As a result, routing and scheduling techniques were introduced to the transportation of raw materials from extraction sites to transformation mills. However, little to no attention has been given to date to the material reception process at the mill. Another factor that motivated this study was the formation of large waiting queues at the mill gates and docks. Queues increase the reception time and associated costs. This work presents the development of a scheduling and reception system for deliveries at a mill. The scheduling system is based on Trucking Appointment Systems (TAS), commonly used at maritime ports, and on revenue management concepts. The developed system allocates each delivery to a timeslot and to an unloading dock using revenue management concepts. Each delivery is segmented according to its priority. Higher-segment deliveries have priority when there are multiple candidates to be allocated for one timeslot. The developed scheduling system was tested on a set of 120 daily deliveries at a Portuguese paper pulp mill and led to a reduction of 66% in the daily reception cost when compared to a first-in, first-out (FIFO) allocation approach. The average waiting time was also significantly reduced, especially in the case of high-priority trucks. Full article

Globally, greater than 30% of waste is disposed of in some form of landfill, and it is estimated that annual waste-related emissions will increase by up to 76% by 2050. Emissions arising from fossil fuel-derived products and waste disposal in landfills have prompted the development of alternative technologies that utilize renewable resources. Biomass feedstock is being investigated globally to produce renewable fuels and chemicals. Globally, crop-based biomass and waste biomass are the major feedstocks for chemical production, and the market value of crop-based biomass is expected to increase at the fastest rate. South America, Europe, and North America are currently the global leaders in renewable or bio-based chemical production. In South Africa (SA), the country is still heavily reliant on landfilling as a waste solution. Wastes from agricultural production processes in SA are considered promising feedstocks for beneficiation opportunities to produce bio-based chemicals. The second-generation (2G) agricultural feedstocks that can be used in SA include fruit waste; sugarcane by-products and waste; forestry, timber, pulp, and paper waste; and invasive alien plants. Fermentation, or “green chemistry” technologies, can be used to convert various feedstocks into bio-based chemicals. Bio-based chemicals may be used as drop-in substitutes for existing petrochemical products, for use in end-user industries such as automotive and transportation, textiles, pharmaceuticals, consumer and home appliances, healthcare, and food and beverages. Bioethanol, specifically, can be used in transport fuel, as feedstock for power generation, as an energy source for fuel cells along with hydrogen, and as feedstock in the chemicals industry. Bio-butanol, an olefin derivative, can be used as a drop-in replacement for petroleum-based butanol in all its applications. Different monomers of bio-based chemicals can be used to produce biopolymers, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), and polylactic acid (PLA), which are subsequently used to produce bioplastics. A total of 25 bio-based chemicals and the technology used to produce them are summarized in this paper. Overall, bioethanol remains the dominant sugar platform product globally. Drawing on global trends, the potential options for the South African market include bioethanol, n-butanol, acetic acid, and lactic acid. It is estimated that the conversion of 70% of the lignocellulosic biomass available in SA would meet 24% of the country’s liquid fuel requirement as a bioethanol equivalent. The most feasible sources of lignocellulosic biomass or waste for beneficiation in SA are generated by the agricultural sector, including sugarcane by-products and waste. Taking into consideration the abundance of lignocellulosic biomass, adequate market segment sizes, and socio-economic factors, it is apparent that there are potential opportunities to investigate the co-production of bioethanol with lactic acid or other bio-based chemicals on an industrial scale. Full article

Forest based power plants are alternatives in the diversification of domestic energy supply in Brazil, given the growing demand for electricity in recent decades. Evidences of space-time clusters contribute to the understanding of regional development associated with correlated activity. Therefore, this paper analyzed the space-time conglomerates for Brazilian forest-based power plants, from 2000 to 2019. The data used were from the Generation Information System of the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL)-SIGA. It detected the existence of clusters by means of scan statistics via space-time permutation, considering the high level of conglomeration. The results show the Center-South region of Brazil with the highest concentration of conglomerates, with black liquor and forest residues being the most used energy resources. The clusters with the highest installed power were in the early 2010s, with the black liquor plants. The regions with the formation of fast-growing forest plantations promoted the existence of conglomerates associated with the pulp and paper and steel industry complexes. It is concluded that there was a conglomeration of forest power plants in the central-south region of Brazil, in which they help in decision-making and guidance of public policies for forestry projects for energy. Full article

Currently, due to the calamity of unplanned harvesting, the amount of biomass from wood products has increased. Forests occupy 33.7% of the total area of the Czech Republic; therefore, wood and non-wood forest products are important renewables for the country. Wood biomass consists mainly of branches and bark that are not used in the wood or furniture industry. However, it can be used in bioenergy, including wood processing for fuel. As spruce production in the Czech Republic increased from the planned 15.5 million to almost 36.8 million trees in 2020, the price of wood biomass can be expected to be affected. This study aims to develop a predictive model for estimating the decline in the price of wood biomass for wood processors, such as firewood or sawdust producers, as well as for the paper industry. Wood biomass prices are falling with each additional million m³ of spruce wood harvested, as is the decline in wood pulp, which is intended for the paper and packaging industries. The proposed predictive model based on linear regressions should determine how the price of wood biomass will decrease with each additional million harvested spruce trees in the Czech Republic. This tool will be used for practical use in the forestry and wood industry. The linear regression model is suitable for practical forestry use due to its simplicity and high informative value. The aim of the research is to model the dependence of the prices of firewood in the form of wood briquettes and pellets for domestic and industrial processing, as well as the prices of wood pulp on the volume of unplanned logging. It is a guide for the practice of how to use excess spruce wood from unplanned mining in the field of alternative processing with a sustainable aspect for households or heat production for households. The intention is to carry out modelling in such a way that it does not include prices of higher quality wood assortments, which are intended for the woodworking industry. Full article

The conflicts that arise between natural resources consumption and the desire to preserve them make the multicriteria decision theory necessary. Brazil, one of the 10 largest timber producers globally, uses optimization models that represent the growth of forests integrated with decision support systems. Brazilian forest plantation managers often face conflicts when continuously seeking efficiency gains (higher productivity at lower costs) and efficacy (higher profits with minimum social and environmental impacts). Managers of leading producing countries on timber, pulp, and fiberboard constantly interact to fine-tune industry processing demands vis-a-vis the demands of highly productive fast-growing forest plantations. The decision process in such cases seeks a compromise that accommodates short-term industry productivity optimization and long-term forestry production capacity. This paper aims to apply a forest management decision support system (FMDSS) to a case study that represents the challenges that industrial plantations in Brazil usually face. A vertically integrated pulp company situation was simulated to provide a real scenario. In this scenario, forest managers tend to shorten the rotations due to Brazil’s usually high-interest rates; meanwhile, industrial managers tend to ask for longer ones due to the positive correlation between age and wood density. Romero^®, a Forest Management Decision Support System, developed by following the multi-criteria decision theory, was used to process the case study. Expressly, the hypothesis that mill managers initially have, that older ages rotation could improve mill production, was not confirmed. Moreover, mill managers lean towards changes in the short term, while the case study shows that changes in rotation size and genetic material take time, and decisions have to be made involving both interests: forest and mill managers. Full article

Monitoring employment in the European wood-based bioeconomy requires reliable, consistent, and comparable statistics across subsectors and over time. Statistics concerning employment in wood-based industries—the main component of the forest-based bioeconomy—must be processed carefully to cope with differences in definitions and estimation methods. In addition, specific methods must be applied to estimate wood-based employment in sectors including also non-wood activities. In this study, we first delineate the boundaries of the wood-based bioeconomy, and then create a harmonised time series on employment for the identified sectors. Finally, we estimate the share of wood-based employment along the value chain in all sectors using wood. According to the results, forestry and extended wood-based value chains employed 4.5 million people in the EU-28 in 2018. Employment in wood-based value chains decreased between 2008 and 2013 in the aftermaths of the financial crisis. Continuously decreasing employment—most apparent in the manufacture of solid wood products and pulp and paper—results from increasing productivity and a decreasing demand for graphic paper. Further, most of the wood-based employment in the EU takes place in downstream parts of value chains, although the weight of the primary sector is still high in some Eastern European countries. Full article

In the context of global climate change, energy conservation and greenhouse effect gases (GHG) reduction are major challenges to mankind. The forestry-pulp and paper industry is a typical high energy consumption and high emission industry. We conducted in-depth research on the energy flows and carbon footprint of the forestry-pulp paper industry. The results show that: (1) The main sources of energy supply include external fossil fuel coal and internal biomass fuel black liquor, which supply 30,057,300 GJ and 14,854,000 GJ respectively; in addition, the energy produced by diesel in material transportation reaches 11,624,256 GJ. (2) The main energy consumption processes include auxiliary engineering projects, material transportation, papermaking, alkali recovery, pulping and other production workshops. The percentages of energy consumption account for 26%, 18%, 15%, 10% and 6%, respectively. (3) The main sources of carbon include coal and forest biomass, reaching 770,000 tons and 1.39 million tons, respectively. (4) Carbon emissions mainly occur in fuel combustion in combined heating and power (CHP) and diesel combustion in material transportation, reaching 6.78 million tons and 790,000 tons of carbon, respectively. (5) Based on steam and electricity consumption, the indirect carbon emissions of various thermal and electric energy production units were calculated, and the key energy consumption process units and hotspot carbon flow paths were further found. This research established a theoretical and methodological basis for energy conservation and emission reduction. Full article

The continual growth of pulp and paper industry has led to the generation of tremendous volumes of fly ash as byproducts of biomass combustion processes. Commonly, a major part of it is landfilled; however, updated environmental regulations have tended to restrict the landfilling of fly ash due to rising disposal costs and the scarcity of suitable land. The pulp and paper industries are therefore urgently seeking energy-efficient mechanisms and management for the beneficial use of fly ash in an ecological and economical manner. This paper offers a comprehensive review of existing knowledge on the major physicochemical and toxicological properties of pulp and paper mill fly ash to assess its suitability for various bound and unbound applications. The current state of various methods used for the valorization of pulp and paper mill fly ash into more sustainable geomaterials is briefly discussed. This paper also presents promising and innovative applications for pulp and paper mill fly ash, with particular reference to agriculture and forestry, the construction and geotechnical industries, and the immobilization of contaminants. It was identified from a literature review that modified pulp and paper mill fly ash can be environmentally and economically advantageous over commercial coal-based fly ash in various sustainable applications. Full article