Forest Dendromass as Energy Feedstock: Diversity of Properties and Composition Depending on Systematic Genus and Organ

Abstract

Exhaustion of fossil fuel resources, shrinking forest areas, with accompanying deterioration of their quality and striving (also of the society) to make forests perform their ecological function, with simultaneous development and propagation of the biomass conversion technologies—all of this necessitates research of forest biomass diversification. It is a consequence of the fact that its properties and composition depend not only on the genus but also on the plant organ, and they each time determine its usability as a raw biomaterial in a wide range of thermal, physical, or chemical conversion processes. This study reviewed and analysed selected qualitative and quantitative features of forest dendromass, taking into account the genus and a plant organ/morphological part, followed by a group of trees (coniferous and deciduous) and without the latter differentiation. The study involved an analysis of data covering 15 selected qualitative-quantitative features of forest dendromass within three main and nine additional plant organs/morphological parts and 21 genera (5 coniferous and 16 deciduous) typical of the temperate climate.

Energy Efficiency of Conifer Cones and Seed Extraction Residue Biomass

“…The content of VM in the cones of the examined tree species was considerably lower than that reported by Patel et al [51], and it was similar to that noted in bark [52]. The observed differences in the content of FC and VM in the analyzed seed extraction residues can be attributed to differences in their anatomical structure [8].…”

“…In drying cabinets, cones are dried under controlled conditions to open up the scales (woody seed scales are deflected away from the cone axis). Dried cones have a low moisture content, and therefore they can be used as solid biofuel [8]. In the present study, spent spruce cones and larch cone stems were characterized by significantly lower moisture content than Scots pine cones and woody scales of larch cones.…”

“…These discrepancies could be attributed to different cone-drying processes in other seed extraction plants. Due to their low moisture content, seed extraction residues are better suited for energy generation than other types of forest biomass [8,10,11,43]. The moisture content of seed extraction residues is similar to that of processed solid biofuels, such as pellets and briquettes derived from forest waste biomass [7,[44][45][46].…”

“…Solid biofuels have the largest share of renewable energy production, which exceeded 40% in the EU and 64% in Poland in 2022 [2]. Solid biomass for energy generation is derived mainly from forests and the timber industry [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], and it consists of sawmill waste such as branches, woodchips, bark, and sawdust [10,11]. Forest residues account for around 1% of waste biomass used in energy generation [12].…”

Changes in Commercial Dendromass Properties Depending on Type and Acquisition Time

“…Because of the high species and type diversity of production residue generated at wood processing sites, as well as at logging sites [21], the quality of commercial solid biomass produced there has to be evaluated. There is a lack of precise information in this regard, and this is very important from the point of view of logistics companies, biomass producers, and end users of these solid biofuels.…”