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Energy linked to future value of wood fibre |
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Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 |
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FIRST NATIONSCIVIC CENTREUSWILLIAMS LAKE
The convergence of food, fuel and fibre is being driven by an increasing world-wide demand for green energy, and a subsequent increasing demand for its feedstock from agricultural products like corn, and also from wood fibre in both the tropics and northern forests, Roberts told a crowd of 400 on the second day of the three-day BioEnergy Conference at the Civic Centre.
In the U.S., biofuel production (mostly from corn) has jumped to six billion gallons in 2007 from 2 billion in 2000. The U.S. has set a target of production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, nearly 60 per cent of that which is supposed to come from cellulosic fibre, expected to come mostly from wood fibre.
In Europe, which already is promoting the use of biofuels, production targets are being increased as well. While Canada has been slower to adopt targets, momentum is building, led by provinces like British Columbia.
It puts Canada's forest sector at the middle of the shift.
"Canada's forests will likely be a more valuable resource than people think," said Roberts, managing director of CIBC Word Markets.
However, it's much harder to pinpoint how, and whether, the forest sector can benefit.
Roberts noted there are significant constraints including transportation costs, as any wood fibre outside of a 50-mile outside a bioenergy or biofuel plant "really" cuts into a company's margins. "This is not a slam dunk," he said. From a public point of view, given the public-ownership of B.C.'s forests, employment is an issue, with the pulp and sector supplying 13 times more jobs per cubic metre of fibre than bioenergy, added Roberts. "Politicians do, and should, care about that," he said.
While energy can be produced simply by burning wood waste or residues in plants, the financial payback is not as high to companies as from higher, value-added products such as biochemicals.
The long-term solution, then, will likely be a big refinery that produces one or two commodity products with one or two niche products that "turbo charge" its revenue stream, said Roberts.
So far, in the Northern Interior, most bioenergy is produced by pulp mills with the exception of an energy plant in Williams Lake.
There are several plants proposed in the region, including in Mackenzie.
Wood residue from sawmills -- a sixth plant is under construction south of Prince George -- is also being used to produce wood pellets, mostly for export to the U.S.
Canadian researcher David Layzell says that while there is a huge potential in bioenergy and biofuels in Canada, there are significant challenges to boosting production.
Increasing bioenergy output to 20 per cent of Canada's consumption, up from the current five per cent, would require 1-1/2 times the country's existing round wood output, he noted. As a result, to grow the sector need to look to unused wood residues, intensive forestry, wood residue from forest fires, crop residue and manure.
Domtar official Bill Adams warned that in areas with pulp mills there is no surplus hog fuel -- waste like sawdust and bark -- to fuel energy plants. He said any additional fibre will need to come from wood waste in the forest and beetle-killed timber.
He also noted that the government will need to introduce bioenergy incentives as they have in Europe to foster the new sector.
Dan George, executive director of the First Nations Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative, said First Nations could be interested in bioenergy projects but said that companies would need to approach them in a respective manner. He suggested getting First Nations involvement at the start, not after the fact, and taking time to develop trusting relationships.
He said First Nations interest in the forest land is not a result of the beetle epidemic, but because of their claims to right and title.
Virtually all of the beetle-attacked are in B.C.'s Northern Interior has unresolved treaty claims,
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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