Bioenergy accounts for the majority of renewable energy in EU and is the largest indigenous source of energy in EU. A new European Bioenergy report states that the most important feedstock is woody biomass, accounting for almost 70% and playing an increasingly important role in supporting climate-smart forest management and resilience.
Since its launch in 2007, the Statistical Report published by
Bioenergy Europe has been split into separate publications for the fourth time, each covering a different aspect of bioenergy.
The Statistical Report on Biomass Supply 2022 and its companion Policy Brief analyze the current state of forest management and various types of biomass feedstock.
Bioenergy works by releasing potential energy which stored in organic materials. The feedstock for most bioenergy is residues and waste such as twigs and wood chips from the forestry industry, agricultural residues from agriculture, organic waste from the food and beverage industry, and the collection of municipal waste.
In EU 2050 Policy Scenario, the amount of waste biomass is expected to at least double and the use of agricultural biomass is expected to increase at least quintuple. This is because the greater focus on recycled bio-economics has increased the availability of materials and the price of residues.
The most important feedstock, however, is woody biomass, which currently accounts for almost 70% according to Bioenergy Europe, while agricultural and waste biomass each account for about 15%.
For European forests, hot and dry summers, combined with mild winters and stronger winds, increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards that negatively impact forests, such as insect infestations and wildfires.
The sharp increase in cumulative area burned in 2021 indicates damage caused by an above-average fire season. The only way to mitigate the growing number of disturbance factors is to support the sustainable management of forests to actively reduce the risk factors that lead to these negative events.
In 2020, forests and other wooded land accounted for 45% of the total land area of Europe, and in addition to the increase in forest area, the density of forests in Europe is also rising.
In 1990, the average forest density was 133 m3/ha. By 2020, this figure had increased by more than 30% to 173 m3/ha. Declining forest resilience and increasing frequency of extreme events are major threats to forest survival, and action must be taken to protect these ecosystems.
A key tool for wildfire mitigation is the removal of forest residues to avoid the accumulation of excessive fuel loads.
This forest residue is woody biomass and is the most relevant bioenergy feedstock because it is unsuitable or unable to be used in other industries because it is split, crooked, rotting, diseased, too small, or with some other flaws.
Considering that woody biomass is the main resource for bioenergy, the recent European Parliament proposal for the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) on woody biomass (PWB) would affect 35.7% of this feedstock.
The adoption of RED III is welcome, but Primary Woody Biomass raises concerns. This means that up to 20.5% of renewable energy in the EU could be affected and destroyed.
Primary woody biomass, as defined in the proposal passed by Parliament, does not indicate a material's quality or end use, nor is it a valid basis for policy decisions.
Therefore, any restriction on primary woody biomass should be rejected and the new definition should be removed from the revised Renewable Energy Directive. Climate-smart, sustainable forest management should be promoted to help reduce the vulnerability of forests while maximizing the diversity of ecosystem benefits that European forests can provide, said Jérémie Geelen, market intelligence officer at Bioenergy Europe.
About Kingwood
Kingwood located in Zhongguancun Industrial Park of Liyang City, Jiangsu Province, China. It is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to developing low-carbon, renewable energy equipment and advanced feed mill industry. Established in 1999, Kingwood has been providing a one-stop solution in biomass engineering, animal feed engineering, and spare parts business for our valued customers. Services of Kingwood include consultation, design, manufacture, logistic, installation, commissioning, training, and after-sales service for biomass/feed production line. Kingwood currently has ISO9000 and ISO14000 systems, certified by CE, and has won many awards in the biomass equipment industry. Kingwood currently has a large CNC punching center, a pellet machine assembly, a testing center, a large embryo forging base, a production line auxiliary equipment manufacturing base, a pellet production test center, and so on. Products are subject to strict quality control from raw material procurement, spare parts processing, heat treatment, welding, and assembly to finished product shipment. Kingwood stands for quality, service, and reasonable price - core values to which the company is committed.
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