Ambitious Research into Wood for Transport Fuels

WOOD: CARS RUNNING ON TREES Scientist Elspeth MacRae is at the forefront of Think Big biofuel - research that could end our dependence on oil. The head of bioproduct development at government research company Scion says New Zealand could easily be self-sufficient in transport fuel from trees. It's just a matter of timing.

"A lot depends on who is going to take the risk to plant and how much is going to be redirected from current planting." Research into fuel from wood started in New Zealand at the time of the late 1970s oil crisis, and while the product from Scion has not powered one single car, there are no serious technical barriers to producing large volumes of ethanol from wood and plant waste.

One Scion scenario shows that by establishing 1.8 million hectares of energy forests, an area roughly equivalent to the current plantation forest estate, the country could substitute 65 per cent of imported fuel with biofuel by 2035. By using some of the lowest value marginal land and low-value logs from existing forests the country could save $4.8 billion a year on assumed oil prices of $120 to $140 a barrel.

To read more CLICK HERE

(Source New Zealand Herald)

MAF Forecast for Forestry Optimistic

Figures for projected wood export prices are quite positive for the next 2-3 years in the recent MAF publication "Situation and Outlook for Agriculture and Forestry 2010". Last week we quoted MAF's Murray Sherwin, vouching for the log export gains as a good outcome for the NZ industry, given overall international economic conditions, mainly the lack of a rebound in housing starts in NZ, Australia and the US. The forecast prices in the table below, taken from the SONZAF publication look for the export scheme to remain unbeat for the next few years. The wildcards for exporters to deal with will still be exchange rates and shipping rates.

Register Now for Logging Costing Workshop - Whangarei

Every month these FICA Logging Costing Workshops have been a hit with regional groups of contractors. The content follows a mix of Mark Blackburne's list of 'must'-know' key costing issues for logging contractors - in addition to some excellent references to the newly revised handbook for logging costing knowledge - the Business Management for Logging book.

The whole handbook was revised recently and includes an excel worksheet to make it easy to do some costing case studies for you own business - once you've been on the course. See the attached PDF for details of the Whangarei workshop. In most instances we have had husband and wife teams attending these workshops so that they are both on the same page when it comes to improving costing skills. Be sure to register fast - just return the completed form by fax to FICA - these workshop fill up quickly!

Date: Friday, 23rd July
Location: Kingsgate Hotel, 9 Riverside Drive, Whangarei (Tel 09 438 0284)
To download the registration PDF CLICK HERE

Australian Woodchip Exports Recovery

Australia has increased chip exports of both Eucalyptus and pine in 2010, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. Export of wood chips from Australia is on the rebound, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. After last year’s ten-year low, shipments so far in 2010 are up 38 percent for pine chips and 12 percent for Eucalyptus chips. In addition, an estimated 100,000 tons of wood pellets will be shipped to Europe this year.

Total wood chip exports from Australia fell 32 percent in 2009 to their lowest levels in 10 years. Softwood chip shipments were down by almost 26 percent from 2008, reaching a low of 790,000 tons last year, as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly. Exports of hardwood chip exports were down by 41 percent, to four million tons. This year, export volumes have picked up and shipping schedules for the coming months would indicate that the shipments in the 1H/10 will be substantially higher than last year and could very well be back to almost the same levels as the average for the past five years.

During the first four months this year, conifer chip exports were up 38 percent as compared to 2009, with Japan and China being the only two destinations. Eucalyptus exports were 12 percent higher than last year with increased shipments to Japan and Taiwan, while exports to China were down substantially. After having increased almost 300 percent from 2008 to 2009 when they reached an all-time-high of 670,000 tons, shipments to China have plunged 86 percent to date reaching only 23,000 tons for the period January through April 2010.

The negotiated Australian conifer chips price for Japan in the 1H/2010 settled in late April at US$151/BDU (FOB Portland), which was up US$19/BDU from 2H last year. The Eucalyptus Globulus benchmark chip export price for 2010 is A$207.40/odmt. Australia hardwood chip prices delivered to Japan are now up 35 percent from a year ago in US dollar terms. According to data from Japan Pulp and Paper Association, Australian Eucalyptus chips are currently the costliest imported hardwood fiber to Japan, as compared just a year ago, when they were among the least costly, as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly.

A new development in Australia is the interest in the exportation of wood pellets. One company has been taking steps to ship wood pellets to the fast expanding biomass energy market in Europe. The first shipments departed in late 2009 for an energy company in the Netherlands, and 20,000 tons has been shipped to Europe so far this year. The three-year contract, totals an estimated 300,000 tons of pellets. There are plans for continued investments in pellet production capacity in Australia, but because of high transportation costs to Europe, a source for a long-term reliable supply of low-cost fiber to manufacture pellets must be found. This has, to date, been quite a challenge.

Global timber market reporting is included in the 50-­page publication - Wood Resource   Quarterly. The  report, established in 1988 and with readers in over 25 countries, tracks sawlog, pulpwood, lumber and pellet  prices in key regions around the world and also includes regular updates of  the latest developments in international timber, pulp, lumber and biomass markets.

(Source: Wood Resources International LLC)

EECA helps Business with Green Solutions

The search for cleaner business practices is driving the producers of commercial waste to develop new revenue streams that in turn can help improve the environmental footprint of commercial users of fossil fuels, Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee says. “With help from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Business Programme companies like Southern Pine Products, which once spent $180,000 a year on waste disposal, are now making money from the repackaging and sale of their waste as heating fuel.

“This is a great example of lateral thinking with the potential for bottom line and environmental benefits for all sorts of businesses. “There is huge potential for businesses to be making cost savings through better use of energy – EECA estimates around $2 billion of the business sector’s $9.3 billion annual energy costs is wasted through not exploring better options. “Most businesses can shave at least 20 per cent off their energy costs, sometimes far more with smarter energy use,” Mr Brownlee said.

Southern Pine Products manufactures a range of timber products, including medium density fibreboard which creates a huge amount of waste dust. That dust had been costing $15,000 a month to dispose of, which led the company to explore other options.

With assistance from EECA, Southern Pine installed a briquette press to turn the MDF dust into boiler fuel. Southern Pine found a customer for the briquettes in Moffatts Flower Company, a nearby commercial flower grower with two hectares of greenhouses heated by two boilers. Moffatts too had taken advantage of an EECA grant; to convert its coal-fired boiler to run on wood fuels.

Southern Pine now supplies about 10 per cent of Moffatts’ boiler fuel needs, while Moffatts’ switching from coal to wood fired heating has reduced its CO2 emissions by 3,100 tonnes a year while saving the company $98,000 a year in fuel costs.

“The Southern Pine and Moffatts example is but one of a growing number of success stories resulting from the business community’s willingness to consider alternative operating methods based on the simple premise of being more environmentally aware,” Mr Brownlee said.

Wood Pellets - Future Forestry Export Potential

MAF's annual forecast for NZ's primary industries makes specific mention of wood pellets as a sleeper products with good future potential.

All around the world, there has been a dramatic increase in production capacity and demand for wood pellets, and global trade has been increasing. North American production capacity has increased by 500 percent in the last six years, and European production and demand are growing, as is demand in North Asia. Worldwide, it is estimated that wood pellet use is currently some 11 million tonnes annually.

In New Zealand, wood pellets are still a relatively new product and demand for them is in the early stages of development. Even so, current domestic manufacturing capacity is estimated at 150 000 tonnes a year, perhaps less than a third of the potential productive capacity. Domestic demand is primarily for home heating, although a growing number of larger users – schools and other public facilities, as well as commercial users of process heat – are now also moving to the fuel.

In March, Prime Minister John Key officially opened New Zealand’s latest, and largest, wood pellet fuel plant, Nature’s Flame, owned by Solid Energy. The Taupo plant will initially produce around 40 000 tonnes of pellets a year, mainly for export to Europe. Wood pellet fuel is in demand from power stations to reduce emissions and from the Italian home heating market.

Depending on how demand grows, the new Taupo plant is configured to allow for a staged expansion over the next three to four years, to a planned output of 300 000 tonnes a year. Current production is from sawmill and timber processor waste, but when demand increases the plant will be able to process all feedstock including whole logs from New Zealand’s planted forest estate.

(Source: MAF Situation and Outlook for Agriculture and Forestry, June 2010

Gorse to Pines Cost-Saving Project Approved for Rotorua

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has approved funding for a trial to convert gorse- covered hills behind the Rotorua airport to pine forest in an effort to reduce the amount of nitrogen leaching into Lake Rotorua. Mature gorse leaches nitrogen at a high rate into waterways, and with 864 ha of gorse known to be in the Rotorua catchment, about 43 tonnes of nitrogen enters the lake from mature gorse each year, contributing to the lake’s problems.

The council has reached an agreement with the Maori-owned block’s trustee to convert the 18.5 ha of land to pine forest for the trial – which could become a template for future nitrogen-saving conversions on other Maori trust blocks with significant gorse issues in the catchment. Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Sustainable Farming Advisor John Paterson said gorse was a well-known cause of nitrogen leaching into waterways. The 50 kg of nitrogen per hectare leaching from established gorse was comparable with the amount leached by intensive land use, such as dairying. “Virgin bushland and pine forest has a very low leaching rate of about three to four kg per hectare, so this conversion could save about 90 percent of the nitrogen leaching. It is also much better than converting gorse back to pasture,” Mr Paterson said.

A Masters student will be working on the project, and also undertaking a three year study into the best ways of converting land from gorse into forestry. Test plots will determine the best methods of limiting the initial ‘spike’ of nitrogen released when the gorse is removed, so that the conversions will be as efficient as possible.

The $145,000 cost of the project is about a quarter of other nitrogen removal projects, Mr Paterson said. “If this initial conversion is successful we will approach other owners of the largest blocks of gorse-covered land with similar plans. This project will also add to the existing scientific knowledge about nitrogen leaching from gorse, and establish best practice for future conversions.”

National takes chainsaw to afforestation grant scheme

Budget documents show that the NZ Government will downscale the Afforestation Grant Scheme by $2m per year over the next three years before eventually ceasing it, says Labour Forestry spokesperson Stuart Nash. The Afforestation Grant Scheme is a contestable fund designed to encourage the planting of new forests. More >>

New Biological Control Agent Approved

A new biological control agent was recently approved in New Zealand to Control Gum Leaf Skeletoniser. The Environmental Risk Management Authority has approved an application from the New Zealand Forest Research Institute (Scion) to release the parasitic wasp Cotesia urabae to control the gum leaf skeletoniser Uraba lugens in New Zealand.

The gum leaf skeletoniser is an Australian moth that became established in New Zealand around 2001. Its larvae feed on the leaves of eucalypts and several other ornamental species, producing the typical leaf ‘skeleton’. It is currently found in Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty; however, climate studies suggest that it will spread as far as Southland.

Scion made the application on behalf of the Gum Leaf Skeletoniser Stakeholder Group (part of a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s (MAF) Sustainable Farming Fund project). There are almost 25,000 hectares of eucalypt forests in New Zealand. Eucalypts and other ornamentals are also widely used for shade and shelter in public areas.

Buy and Sell

... and finally ... Clean can be funny too ... !

A woman came home, screeching her car into the driveway, and ran into the house. She slammed the door and shouted at the top of her lungs, 'Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!' The husband said, 'Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?' 'Doesn't matter,' she said. 'Just get out.'


One day, a man came home and was greeted by his wife dressed in a very revealing negligee. 'Let’s spice things up she said How about you tie me up,' she purred, 'and you can do anything you want.' So he tied her up and went golfing.


Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them, 'I must tell you all something. We have a case of gonorrhea in the convent' 'Thank God,' said an elderly nun at the back. 'I'm so tired of chardonnay.'

That's all for today - got any good jokes to share - we would welcome them! Enjoy the rest of your week
Cheers

John Stulen