Biomass energy is one of those used to burn olive pits, crop residues, etc. In addition to being able to use these remains that are unusable, we generate renewable energy. In cities there is a large amount of waste that can be used to generate biomass energy.
Both in agro-industrial farms, olive groves, etc. The remains are used to generate this type of energy. However, the possibility of use scrub to generate even more energy. Could these bushes be used as a power source for biomass boilers?
Shrublands as a source of fuel
Enerbioscrub is a European project that took its first steps in June 2014 and is ending now, next December, after three and a half years of work. This is an initiative in which the following participate: the Ceder institute from Soria, or the Center for the Development of Renewable Energies (dependent on the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research -Ciemat- of the Ministry of Economy); the Association for the Energy Valorization of Biomass (Avebiom); the companies Gestamp and Biomasa Forestal; the Agresta cooperative and the Fabero City Council (León).
All these companies and institutions seek the objective of knowing if it is possible to take advantage of an economic and sustainable way the immense thickets that exists in the Iberian Peninsula as a source of fuel for the generation of biomass energy.
In Spain there are ten million hectares of scrubland (non-wooded forest land accounts for 18,5% of all forestry). According to the United Nations, about 20% of the world's forest area is scrub. All this amount of biomass that hardly gives ecological value to ecosystems could be used to generate this type of renewable energy.
Project objectives
Among the objectives of the project for the use of bushes as a source of biomass energy we find:
- Participate in building a low carbon economy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This is a good step to take in the face of the energy transition towards renewables.
- Reduce the amount of fuels present in forests, to reduce the probability of forest fires.
- Promote economically viable forest management in marginal areas, demonstrating that it can be an alternative that allows creating jobs in rural areas.
- Increase sustainable forest management policies and make profitable marginal forest masses.
This project tries to demonstrate that a scrub harvesting machine can be used. This is the main idea of the project: check if the machinery is capable of clearing and harvesting biomass at the same time.
In this way, by carrying out several tests, it is possible to know the feasibility and how economical this project may or may not be. Laboratory and pilot tests have also been carried out with the mass that was collected. Depending on the type of scrub, they are characterized and classified according to their ash content, minerals, thickness, etc. Once the bushes have been classified, they are burned in the boilers, both industrial and domestic, to know the efficiency and performance of the bushes as a source of fuel energy.
Project conclusions
After carrying out the necessary tests to know the viability and characteristics of the project, these conclusions were drawn:
- Forest clearing tasks to obtain bushes can generate biomass resources.
- If done in an orderly manner and knowing the dynamics of the ecosystems, clearing can be done in a sustainable way, without causing impacts on the rest of the flora and fauna.
- The biomass obtained from the bushes are of medium-high quality and can be used as an energy resource that competes with pellets and wood chips.
- For this to be carried out, it is necessary that public administrations take this matter seriously.
- It is necessary to take care of the masses that are obtained. Therefore, it is necessary to do more silvopastoral care and less repopulation. It is necessary to take care of the masses that we have before creating new ones.