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Cold hardy Eucalyptus forestry in Galicia (V): Biomass in 100 months!

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Eucalyptus nitens: Biomass & Bioenergy woods from Galician planted forests (I)

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado Contact GIT Forestry Consulting SL / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado, Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro and Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting SL, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo
GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

At this stage, if you have not heard about the new trends of forestry and planted forests as Vital Allies of the Planet to help tackle the effects of climate change, you are not fully aware that the range of expected products and services sourced from them is way beyond of the purely physically tangible timber. These are times where positive externalities are being incorporated into forestry businesses at unprecedented scale.

Besides their role as carbon sinks, happening no matter what and regardless of the final destination of the organically grown, renewable and recyclable timber produced in planted forests, these days are the days of renewable biofuels, and timber, as the first fuel (firewood) ever used by human beings, is one of the familiar pieces of the puzzle in development.


100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy  in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 1: 100 month old organic & renewable Eucalyptus woody biomass for energy harvested in Galicia (NW Spain). Also known as firewood harvest trial! (Click image to enlarge)

The main difference from days past to nowadays is that the occasional small scale firewood harvest for domestic use or charcoal is no longer the objective. The objective now is bioenergy production facilities using woody biomass as fuel, and refined technologies to convert such biomass into heat and/or electricity. This means, besides other less efficient fuel sources, the achievement of a stable and sustainable feedstock of woody biomass for energy sourced from purpose made energy crops. Why? Because that way it is relatively predictable, be it for volumes and allocation of biomass supply, delivery timings to bio-energy power plant, expected power output, and costs of heat or electricity unit produced using this renewable and carbon neutral non fossil fuel.

For such scenarios, the existence of trees able to be cultivated in short rotations, with fast enough growth rates to produce a noticeable output of timber (or, if you rather, calories stored in timber) per cultivated hectare, with predictable yield outputs, as low production costs as possible for the timber crop, and as high ROI as possible for timber crop investment, is paramount.


Cold hardy Eucalyptus biomass energy crops in Galicia, Spain / 100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy  in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Cultivo energetico de Eucalyptus nitens en Galicia / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 2: 100 month old Eucalyptus nitens woody biomass before harvesting. You can see the trees in their whole size, and also a happy forester seeing they behave as expected in fast growth terms for this site! (Click image to enlarge)

So, which multi-purpose trees can have the best potential as woody biomass sources in humid Atlantic climates? Those more efficiently already converting light, water and nutrients into organic, renewable and predictable timber, from sea level to the snowlands. And certainly, very few other than plantation grown Eucalyptus can well match that description!

With a wide scale tree cultivation history spanning over 50 years, Northwestern & Northern Spain are some of the most productive timber hubs in Atlantic Europe, precisely thanks to Eucalyptus. In fact, Galician Eucalyptus timber harvest output currently means 1 out of each 4 logs harvested yearly in Spain.


Cold hardy Eucalyptus biomass energy crops in Galicia, Spain / 100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy  in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Cultivo energetico de Eucalyptus nitens en Galicia/ Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 3: Tree Inventory detail showing Eucalyptus nitens fast growth potential (+20 cm DBH- Diameter at Breast Height, 100th month). (Click image to enlarge)

Over 10 different eucalypt species are grown as timber crops in the area, and the range of products sourced locally from these trees is as wide as high quality Eucalyptus solidwood for carpentry and furniture making, raw material for board and panel manufacture, or excellent raw timber for cellulosic pulp and paper production.

Eucalyptus timber use as biomass for energy is something not that new wherever these trees are cultivated. Each of the industrial lines mentioned do already use eucalypt wood as carbon neutral fuel. In fact, all timber based industries do convert part of the incoming raw timber into fuel, be it as non useful for sawmilling pieces of logs, be it as non suitable for board or panel fractions going to the co-generation boiler, be it as suboptimal for pulping fractions chipped and fed to the stove. In addition, some of them also use organic residues from the industrial process, rich in those chemical compounds of wood non useful for pulp, as biofuel. So, in varied forms, wherever an eucalypt based timber industry exists, Eucalyptus biomass is already used as biofuel. A renewable one.


Cold hardy Eucalyptus biomass energy crops in Galicia, Spain / 100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Cultivo energetico de Eucalyptus nitens en Galicia/ Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 4: Sliced Eucalyptus nitens firewood log piece at DBH in its 100th month. Forester boot as size reference. (Click image to enlarge)

So, do Eucalyptus bio-energy crops already exist? Surely, in many places. In as many ways as silvicultural management regimes are applied to these planted tree crops. The diversity of possibilities is large. And the implications of each management regime producing biomass for energy are also diverse.

Purely 100% biomass for energy Eucalyptus timber crops are possible. Different designs for planting and plantation tending are possible. Combined pulpwood plus biomass for energy Eucalyptus timber crops are also possible. In fact, those are the most common variant of Eucalyptus cultivation in planted forests around the world. Combined multi-product planted forests yielding Eucalyptus biomass for bioenergy, plus logs for pulpwood or chipwood for pulping or board industries, plus high value logs for solidwood or veneer lines are also possible!


Eucalyptus Energy Crops in Galicia, Spain: Eucalyptus nitens biomass dry weight output by tree fractions study by Cesar Perez Cruzado et al / Cold hardy Eucalyptus biomass energy crops in Galicia, Spain / 100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy  in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Cultivo energetico de Eucalyptus nitens en Galicia / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 5: Chart for Eucalyptus nitens dry biomass fraction weight and output estimation, developed by our good friend César Pérez Cruzado & collaborators (UXFS-USC) after much tree sampling and much wood laboratory work.

All of them are possible, and they all have their basement on two basic concepts. The first one is simple and well visible in the photo-thread of this article: the trees can grow very fast, shortening production cycles and ROI periods whatever the industrial line the main product of the planted Eucalyptus forest aims to.

The second concept is as old as forestry and the refining of silviculture of planted Eucalyptus forests: you can manage the stocking of your trees along their cultivation cycle in order to be able to extract timber from your tree stand along time, and at once letting the remaining trees achieve whichever desired log size and properties you may want. And, the good part, using the right tools developed by foresters, you can estimate and predict which are the amounts of raw timber, or its equivalent as any product (be it volumes of woodchips, pulp or board; be it dry weight of biomass in each of its fractions; be it power output of each of those fractions per tree or per hectare depending on when they are harvested... whatever necessary!!).


Eucalyptus Energy Crops in Galicia, Spain: Eucalyptus nitens Stand Density Management Diagram, a tool for silvicultural management of Eucalyptus planted forests by Cesar Perez Cruzado, Roque Rodriguez Soalleiro et al / Cold hardy Eucalyptus biomass energy crops in Galicia, Spain / 100 month old organic renewable Eucalyptus nitens biomass logs for bioenergy  in Galicia, Northwestern Spain / Biomasa para energia renovable con Eucalyptus nitens de 100 meses de edad en Galicia, Spain / Cultivo energetico de Eucalyptus nitens en Galicia / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

Fig. 6: Eucalyptus nitens Stand Density Management Diagram (SDMD) for Galicia (NW Spain). A very handy tool to estimate overall timber volume in a given plantation for a whole range of tree stocking after basic tree measuring. Also developed by Pérez Cruzado, Rodríguez Soalleiro & collaborators (UXFS-USC).

So, if you put in the same mix a given suitable timber tree, relatively well transferred experience in its cultivation for a given area, a wide array of visible different and diverse ways to grow the trees for different products but always with biomass and bioenergy as part of the equation, good forestry science based knowledge of the potential yield of these trees both from the point of view of productivity per surface unit regardless of how they are grown, and good forestry science based knowledge of the yield of the trees as producers of different fractions of biomass for energy... and you add to that some logistics for delivered cost of supply... and some biomass boiler parameters...

Exactly: you can predict bioenergy outputs from this type of woody biomass for a whole region... and their cost depending where the boilers are! Neat, eh? Galicia rocks!


Also at Eucalyptologics...

Cold hardy Eucalyptus nitens plantation as source of information on silviculture, wood properties, tree genetics and stand dynamics / Plantacion de eucalipto nitens resistente a la helada como fuente de informacion sobre silvicultura, propiedades de la madera, genetica forestal y modelos de crecimiento / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


Cold hardy Eucalyptus nitens & Eucalyptus globulus frost damage assessment methodology by GIT / Método GIT para evaluacion de daños por helada a Eucalyptus nitens, Eucalyptus globulus y otras especies de eucalipto resistentes al frio / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


Snow in a 10 year old cold hardy Eucalyptus nitens cultivated forest at 800 m above sea level in Galicia (Northwestern Spain)/ Nieve en bosque cultivado de Eucalipto nitens (Eucalipto de las heladas, Eucalipto brillante) a 800 metros de altitud en Galicia (Noroeste de España) / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


Eucalyptus nitens coppice in Galicia, Spain / Rebrote de cepa en eucalipto nitens en Galicia, España / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


Eucalyptus nitens flower buds blooming in Galicia, Spain / Shining Gum / Flores de Eucalipto nitens en Galicia, España / Eucalipto brillante / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


Eucalyptus nitens timber crops in Lugo, Galicia, Spain / Cultivos de eucalipto nitens en Lugo, Galicia, España / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro & Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo


High Value Eucalyptus nitens Model Forest for veneer and sawnwood in agroforestry regime / Bosque Modelo de Eucalyptus nitens para chapa y aserrio en regimen de silvopastoreo / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado, Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro and Javier Folgueira Lozano / GIT Forestry Consulting SL, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo



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Contact GIT Forestry Consulting / Contact Eucalyptologics / Contacto GIT Forestry Consulting / Contacto Eucalyptologics / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado, Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro, Javier Folgueira Lozano y Asociados / GIT Forestry Consulting SL, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

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EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Eucalyptus Blog / Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide / Forestry Engineering, Eucalyptus Seed, Eucalyptus Plants, Eucalyptus Wood, Eucalyptus Honey, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Eucalyptus Forests, Eucalyptus Plantations, Eucalyptus Timber, Eucalyptus Lumber, Eucalyptus Furniture, Eucalyptus Veneer, Eucalyptus Plywood, Eucalyptus MDF Board, Eucalyptus Cellulose, Eucalyptus Paper, Eucalyptus Biomass, Eucalyptus Energy, Eucalyptus Floristry, Eucalyptus Foliage, Eucalyptus Garden / Ingenieria Forestal, Semilla de eucalipto, Plantas de eucalipto, Madera de eucalipto, Miel de eucalipto, Aceite Esencial de eucalipto, Bosque de eucalipto, Plantacion de eucalipto, Muebles de eucalipto, Tablero de eucalipto, MDF de eucalipto, Celulosa de eucalipto, Papel de eucalipto, Biomasa de eucalipto, Energia de eucalipto, Ramillo Verde Ornamental de Eucalipto, Jardin de Eucalipto / Gustavo Iglesias Trabado, Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro, Javier Folgueira Lozano y Asociados / GIT Forestry Consulting SL, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain / Eucalyptologics, information resources on Eucalyptus cultivation around the world / Eucalyptologics, recursos de informacion sobre el cultivo del eucalipto en el mundo

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© 2007-2010 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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