Forest growers FAQ’s

Q: Who can buy my residues?

Energy contractors are the first step in the residue to energy chain. They purchase residues from forest growers and process the residue into a fuel. They then sell the fuel to industries with a wood fuel demand, such as the wood processing industry.

There are five energy contractors currently operating who can buy and process forest residue for energy.

• Central Wood Recyclers, Tokoroa
• Materials Processing, Hamilton
• Plateau Bark, Kawerau
• Wastepro Solutions, Rotorua
• Wholesale Landscapes, Nelson

For a list of contact numbers click here

Q: Who can use my residues?

Currently residues are mostly used by the wood processing industry (sawmilling, pulp and paper mills and panel mills). Potentially anyone with a heat demand could use residues as a boiler fuel. Institutions, such as schools and hospitals, and industries, such as the dairy industry, have a potential need for biomass fuel.

A list of heat plants is given in the appendices of the Heat Plant Database developed by the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand (BANZ). The appendices list heat plants greater than 100 kW_th. The list includes factors such as boiler type, capacity, output type, fuel type, annual energy use and many more.

Q: How much are my residues worth?

The cost of woody residues can be calculated using the BKC tools and calculators. There are separate tools to calculate recovery costs, volumes and transport costs.

• Residue recovery costing tool - determines the delivered cost of forest residue for a complete recovery operation. Example: a delivered cost of residue would be $38.54/tonne under the following conditions: $10/m³ purchase price, hogged and stored for one month at landing, 50km on-highway transport.
• Landing residue calculator - estimates the amount of in-forest residue left at a landing site after a harvesting operation. Example: the volume of residue available at landing would be 8.4% of the merchantable volume under following conditions: hauler-based extraction, manual log making, average crop quality. That is 46 m³/ha based on 550 m³/ha of merchantable volume.
  
• Cutover residue calculator - estimates the amount of in-forest residue left on cutover after a harvesting operation. Example: the volume of residue available on a cutover would be 19.9% under the following conditions: hauler-based extraction, average crop quality. That is 109 m³/ha of residue left on cutover, based on 550 m³/ha of merchatable volume.
  
• Residue transport cost calculator - determines forest residue transportation costs using various transportation options. Example: the cost of transport would be $18.50/tonne under the following conditions: semi-trailer with bin, 50km on-highway.
• Supply curve tool - generates supply curves showing the cost of residues versus volume extracted for a number of locations throughout New Zealand.

Q: What effect will removing residues have on site productivity?

Currently most residues used for energy are landing residues. Removing residues from landings will have no negative effect on the next crop. In fact there are several advantages. For more details see this  link. If residues are removed from cutover then possible effects include reduced soil productivity, soil compaction, and reduced crop nutrition. For more details follow this link.

For more information on any of these topics talk directly to an expert at the bioenergy call centre: (0800-246363). Alternatively you can visit the main FAQ's section of the BKC portal.