Thermochemical biomass conversion systems have the potential to produce heat, power, fuels and other products from forest biomass at distributed scales that meet the needs of some forest industry facilities. However, many of these systems have not been deployed in this sector and the products they produce from forest biomass have not been adequately described or characterized with regards to chemical properties, possible uses, and markets. This paper characterizes the producer gas, biochar, and activated carbon of a 700 kg h −1 prototype gasification system and a 225 kg h −1 pyrolysis system used to process coniferous sawmill and forest residues. Producer gas from sawmill residues processed with the gasifier had higher energy content than gas from forest residues, with averages of 12.4 MJ m for forest residues. Biochars produced have OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2013, 6 165 similar particle size distributions and bulk density, but vary in pH and carbon content. Biochars from both systems were successfully activated using steam activation, with resulting BET surface area in the range of commercial activated carbon. Results are discussed in the context of co-locating these systems with forest industry operations.
Forest operations generate large quantities of forest biomass residues that can be used for production of bioenergy and bioproducts. However, a significant portion of recoverable residues are inaccessible to large chip vans, making use financially infeasible. New production systems must be developed to increase productivity and reduce costs to facilitate use of these materials. We present a comparison of two alternative systems to produce biomass fuel (i.e., ''hog fuel'') from forest residues that are inaccessible to chip vans: (1) forwarding residues in fifth-wheel end-dump trailers to a concentration yard, where they can be stored and then ground directly into chip vans, and (2) grinding residues on the treatment unit and forwarding the hog fuel in high-sided dump trucks to a concentration yard, where it can be stored and then reloaded into chip vans using a frontend loader. To quantify the productivity and costs of these systems, work study data were collected for both systems on the same treatment unit in northern Idaho in July 2009. With standard machine rate calculations, the observed costs from roadside to loaded chip van were $23.62 per bone dry ton (BDT) for slash forwarding and $24.52 BDT À1 for in-woods grinding. Results indicate that for harvest units with conditions similar to the test area, slash forwarding is most appropriate for sites with dispersed residues and long-distance in-woods grinder mobilization. For sites with densely piled roadside residues, in-wood grinding is likely to be a more productive and less costly option for residue recovery. Forest operations for timber harvest, precommercial thinning, fuels management, and other vegetation treatments generate large quantities of treatment residues (also called ''slash''), including tops, limbs, cull sections, and unmerchantable roundwood. These by-products are a promising source of biomass for the production of energy, fuels, and products because they are widespread, renewable, and can be used to produce products that offset the use of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Jones et al. 2010). Use of forest residues can also improve the financial feasibility of some silvicultural prescriptions by reducing site preparation costs and can improve air quality in areas where open burning is a common method of residue disposal (Gan and Smith 2007, Jones et al. 2010). The most prevalent use of forest residues is as hog fuel for combustion boilers used in the generation of heat and electricity. In this article, the term ''hog fuel'' denotes woody biomass fuel produced from forest residues, fuelwood, and wood waste by all methods of comminution, including grinding, chipping, and shredding. Combustion of hog fuel and other by-products by the forest industry accounts for more than 50 percent of all biomass energy in the United States (US Department of Energy 2011). In some regions, electric utilities, industrial boilers, and institutions with wood-fired heating systems represent additional hog fuel demand outside the forest sector.
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