Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Harvested Wood Products Substitution in China

Geng, Aixin; Chen, Jiaxin; Yang, Hongqiang

doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b06510

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Secondly, in assessing the climate change mitigation potential of forest growth and wood use at a regional, national or global scale, a current practice is to apply averaged displacement factors to large segments of the HWP production [27][28][29][30][31][32] . Most studies using this approach conclude that GHG benefits from substitution globally surpass those which would result from the growth of existing forests, thus inciting to increase harvesting.…”

Section: Openmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Sathre and O'Connor 9 report displacement factors ranging from −2.3 to 15 tons of carbon emission reduction per ton of carbon in wood products, depending on specific applications in building construction, with an unweighted average value of 2.1 tC/tC. Many authors put forward comparable weighted estimates with slight differences owing to the country and application sector concerned [27][28][29][30][31][32] . However, as evidenced by Fig.…”

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Wood Utilization As a Materialmentioning

confidence: 99%

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GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

Leturcq

2020

Sci Rep

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A common idea is that substituting wood for fossil fuels and energy intensive materials is a better strategy in mitigating climate change than storing more carbon in forests. This opinion remains highly questionable for at least two reasons. Firstly, the carbon footprints of wood-products are underestimated as far as the “biomass carbon neutrality” assumption is involved in their determination, as it is often the case. When taking into account the forest carbon dynamics consecutive to wood harvest, and the limited lifetime of products, these carbon footprints are time-dependent and their presumed values under the carbon neutrality assumption are achieved only in steady-state conditions. Secondly, even if carbon footprints are correctly assessed, the benefit of substitutions is overestimated when all or parts of the wood products are supposed to replace non-wood products whatever the market conditions. Indeed, substitutions are effective only if an increase in wood product consumption implies verifiably a global reduction in non-wood productions. When these flaws in the evaluation of wood substitution effects are avoided, one must conclude that increased harvesting and wood utilization may be counter-productive for climate change mitigation objectives, especially when wood is used as a fuel.

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Section: Openmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Wood Utilization As a Materialmentioning

confidence: 99%

GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

Leturcq

2020

Sci Rep

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“…Many authors put forward comparable estimates with slight differences owing to the country and application sector concerned. Examples are weighted averages of 3.48 tC/tC and 1.36 tC/tC, respectively, for construction and furniture production in China [24]; 1.5 tC/tC for overall material substitution in Germany [42]; 1.2 tC/tC for timber in France [18]; 1.0 tC/tC for sawn wood in Finland [43], etc. However, as evidenced by fig.4b, the pertinent displacement factor values may be very different when definition (1) is applied at a definite moment or on average over a certain time horizon.…”

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Wood Utilisation As a Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondly, when assessing the climate change mitigation potential of forest and wood use at a local, regional, national or global scale, a current practice is to apply "displacement factors" (DFs) to large segments of the HWP production [e.g. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. "Displacement factors" (or "substitution coefficients") are averaged differences between the absolute value | | of the carbon footprint of non-wood products and that | | of functionally equivalent wood products, normalised for convenience to the carbon mass content of the wood products [25]:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

LETURCQ¹

2020

Preprint

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Background: A currently held idea is that substituting wood for fossil fuels and energy intensive materials reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This is supported by the values usually attributed to the displacement factors that normalise the emission reduction to the wood carbon mass (typically, 0.5 tC/tC for fossil fuel substitution, 2 tC/tC for building material substitution). These values are based on the “carbon neutrality” assumption of harvested wood, which is claimed valid as long as forests are sustainably managed, but holds true in static conditions only. Harvesting disturbs forest growth and wood carbon storage for a long term. Therefore, the carbon footprint of harvested wood and related displacement factors must be assessed as time-dependant quantities, and the effect of substitutions should be appreciated relatively to specific time horizons. In this study, the meaning, values and use of the displacement factors are reconsidered according to this new line of thinking. Results: When taking into account the forest carbon dynamics, the presumed values of the displacement factors under the carbon neutrality assumption are achieved only in steady-state conditions, a very long time after harvest. Shortly after harvest, and even for time horizons comparable with climatic deadlines, the transient values of these factors appear much less than the steady-state values, and may even be negative. This is especially the case for the substitution of wood for fossil fuels which first increases the carbon emission for the same energy released. An additional weakness of the ordinary concept of displacement lies in possible misevaluations of carbon benefits from substitution, especially when large sectors of wood products are concerned or when the market conditions are disregarded. Corrective measures are proposed for this. Conclusions: The use of inadequate constant values of displacement factors under the carbon neutrality assumption and the supposition that wood substitution for other fuels or materials is always possible and effective leads to overestimations of carbon benefits. These overestimations erroneously incite the increase in harvesting and wood utilisation, which may be counter-productive for climate change mitigation objectives, especially when wood is used as a fuel. Keywords: Forest carbon, Harvested wood products, Carbon accounting, Carbon neutrality, Sequestration parity, Energy and material substitution, Displacement factors, Climate change mitigation.

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“…Therefore, carbon storage should be taken as a negative value in the life cycle carbon emission of furniture, which can reduce the total carbon emission (Huang 2013). Geng et al (2019a) found that replacing non-wood materials with harvested wood products (HWP) can effectively reduce GHG. This means that the use of wood furniture can also bring some help, although in the construction industry, HWP is more effective in replacing greenhouse gas intensive materials in construction and furniture production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review on carbon reduction analysis during the design and manufacture of solid wood furniture

Zhu

Wang

2021

BioRes

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Reducing carbon emissions is the direction various industries will head in the future. Solid wood furniture products that occupy important market shares have high carbon reduction potential. This article briefly describes the carbon footprint of the solid wood furniture production process. In addition, it analyzes the feasible carbon reduction technologies applicable during the design and manufacturing process through the potential emission reduction-oriented approach, ranging from the upstream raw materials to overall power consumption. The primary carbon reduction potential points entail the high efficiency and reuse of primary materials, the reduction of auxiliary materials, and the optimization of solid wood processing based on spraying and dust removal. In this study, the carbon reduction design of solid wood furniture primarily covers the design methods, material selection, structural design, and packaging design. The carbon reduction manufacturing technology was analyzed from a process, equipment, and management aspect. It is hoped that this study can provide a reference for the future strategic design of solid wood furniture companies, which will promote low-carbon development in the wood furniture industry.

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Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Harvested Wood Products Substitution in China

Cited by 27 publications

References 29 publications

GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

GHG displacement factors of harvested wood products: the myth of substitution

A review on carbon reduction analysis during the design and manufacture of solid wood furniture

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