Bioenergy production on the rise

Lisa Hrabluk
Canwest News Service
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The future of Canada's forests may lie in applying new technologies to a very old use.
Fuel and heat -- trees have long provided both, but wood-produced energy is attracting interest from researchers, investors and consumers. It even has a new name -- bioenergy.
It includes three main product lines: biomass, which uses the wood waste from milling and logging operations to produce electricity and heat; pellets, a wood product that is used in specially designed heating systems; and biofuels, which extracts cellulosic ethanol from wood waste for use as an additive in gasoline and diesel.

For a sector reeling from mill closures, heightened competition from South America and Asia and slumping sales in the U.S., bioenergy may be an important part of Canada's forestry future. Across the country, mill towns are building bioenergy projects, such as a co-operative pellet plant in Miramichi, N.B., a village-wide heating system in Ouje-Bougoumou, an indigenous Cree community in northern Quebec, and a possible biorefinery in Hearst, Ont.

The growth of the bioenergy industry may be a cause of concern for some large forestry companies, which will now have to contend with rising demand and prices for fibre.
Some companies, however, see an opportunity to transform themselves from pulp companies into diversified forestry companies, producing a range of specialized products, including energy.
"Our commitment to increase our environmental performance has two big drivers behind it," said Shawn Wasel, director of environmental resources, for Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc.

"Environmental performance is closely tied to economic performance."
The company, which operates a pulp mill in northern Alberta, was the first Canadian forestry company to go carbon neutral, doing so last year. To achieve that, Alberta-Pacific produces its own power by burning wood waste, selling the excess power to the Alberta electricity grid and expanding its poplar tree plantation, which acts as a carbon sink, sequestering carbon dioxide.
Mr. Wasel says the company will continue to integrate environmental performance into its business plan, by exploring bioenergy projects and by seeking environmental certification for its wood products.

One of Canada's most significant projects is Ottawa-based Iogen's plans to develop the country's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Saskatchewan. The company's partners include Royal Dutch Shell ($46 million), Goldman Sachs and Co. ($30 million) and Petro-Canada ($15.8 million).

The plant also has applied for funding under the federal government's NextGen Biofuels Fund, which will fund up to 40 per cent of costs to establish a large-scale commercial biofuel facility.


© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Boreal forest and climate change

By WERNER KURZSat. Apr 19 - 6:14 AM

Recent media reports have suggested that logging is destabilizing the Canadian boreal forest and making it more susceptible to fire and insects, which could cause a catastrophic emission of greenhouse gases. The boreal forest is indeed under threat from climate change. Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation are already having impacts on the severity of forest fires and insect infestations. But these impacts are the result of global climate change, not local logging activities.

Natural disturbances dominate the carbon dynamics of the boreal forest. Fires in the boreal and taiga regions burn an average of 0.7 per cent of the forested land per year. But only 0.2 per cent of the managed boreal forest is harvested each year. The notion that this harvesting will result in the release of a major portion of the carbon stored in the rest of the boreal forest is not supported by science.

About 85 per cent of the area annually burned in Canada’s forests is the result of lightning strikes, and there is no scientific evidence that logging increases the area annually burned in the boreal forest. In fact, many insects prefer older stands that are less able to resist attack. This is the case for the current mountain pine beetle infestation in British Columbia, where fire suppression and a lack of harvesting led to large areas of mature pine forests. With warmer winters, the beetle was able to survive and spread well beyond its historic range. Although this infestation will lead to significant amounts of carbon release as trees decompose, salvage harvesting some of this wood to replace the harvest of live trees or using the material for bioenergy as a substitute for fossil fuel will reduce overall carbon emissions.

Forests play two important roles in the global climate system: First, they remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in trees, litter and soil carbon; and second, they provide timber, fibre and energy to meet human demands. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the UN organization that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore – concluded that "a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit." If logging were to stop in Canada’s boreal forest, then society’s demands would be met using materials with a higher carbon footprint than products from sustainably managed forests.

Sustainable forest management seeks to find the balance between many competing interests. Under a changing climate, the complexity of forest management has increased. We need to take into account not only the role of forests in storing carbon, but also how they respond to a changing climate and how we need to manage them differently to both mitigate climate change and adapt to the climate of the future. There are no simple solutions. Addressing these issues will require ongoing rigorous scientific analyses, consultation with many stakeholders and actions that are guided by scientific facts.

Dr. Werner Kurz is a senior research scientist with Natural Resources’ Canadian Forest Service, the lead scientist for Canada’s national forest carbon monitoring, accounting and reporting system and a member of the IPCC. For more information, go to carbon.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/FAQ_e.html.

Martin gets on board for Sault passenger train

Posted By Corina Milic

Updated 10 hours ago - The Sault Star

Northern Ontario's new economic engine could run on train tracks, according to Tony Martin.
The Sault MP and seven other members of the MP Rail Caucus rode the rails Thursday to lobby on behalf of rail transportation in and out of northern centres like Sault Ste. Marie.

"The politicians present expressed a real commitment to rail as a critical transportation link," said Martin in a press release.

He said investment in northern rail lines including both passenger and freight, from Hearst, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury will be good for local economies and the rest of Canada.
"Our newly revitalized Algoma Steel and St. Mary's Paper will benefit from alternatives for transportation."

Traveling Saulites could also benefit from rail transportation, which is not an option most northern Ontarians have.

Yvette Tiplady said she wishes there were more choices for getting to and from the city. A Greyhound bus ride from the Sault to Toronto before Christmas left the retiree stranded in Espanola for two days. But unfortunately, the bus is currently the only affordable choice for many residents who cannot drive, she said.