Biomass in different biotopes – an extensive resource - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 89

fossil fuels was reduced, although there has been a political discussion around nuclear power in
many countries all the time. Nuclear power is not renewable, but in reality, no energy is renewable
as the sun is also burning out in a long time perspective, as it is in reality a big nuclear fusion
reactor. On the other hand - nuclear fuel is a limited resource. Today we only utilize a maximum
0.7% of the mined uranium - that is the percentage that is U 235 , the rest is just discarded. In the
future, it may be used as fuel in breeder reactors, or “generation 4 reactors”.
The positive fact is that the nuclear fission power is not giving any significant greenhouse gas
emissions, as they do not emit fossil CO 2 . This has led to that almost no fossil fuel is used in Sweden
for heating or electricity production. What the fossil fuels still are used for is for transportation,
where biomass could be very suitable for production of ethanol, biogas and bio-diesel.
In Scandinavia, Finland, Russia and the Baltic States forests dominate. Of Sweden's total land
area of 40.8 million ha 22.5 million ha is productive forests, 4.4 million ha wetlands, 0.9 million
ha mountains, 3.5 million ha northern mountain areas with bushes or alpine forests, 3.4 million
ha intensive and extensive agricultural land and 4.2 million ha natural reserves. The total forestry
inventory is estimated to be 2 900 million m 3 sk from which 39% pine, 42% spruce and 12%
birch (and similar hard wood/broad leaf trees). The average inventory in productive forests is
131m 3 sk per ha. The average annual growth is 5.3m 3 sk per ha, or assuming an average density
of 420 kg/m 3 5.3 2.2 tonnes DS/ha per year. This is the log wood. Branches, tops, stubs

and similar adds another 0.8 tonne/ha per year at least. This gives a total production of 3 tonnes
DS/ha per year. The split between different parts of trees is as follows at an average for pine
(spruce) respectively: log 69% (59%), branches and tops 16% (27%), stubs and roots 15% (14%).
Since the 1920s, the wood inventory has increased by some 80% in Swedish forests and the
growth is approximately 111 million m 3 sk per year in Sweden in productive forests, and 117
million m 3 sk including also the reserved areas. The possibility to improve growth in forests is
a much debated area. Holgen and Bostedt (2004) discuss if we should plant more broad-leaved
species instead of Spruce, and found that from an economic perspective this would be good. It
could also be argued that many broadleaf trees increase the pH in the soil while spruce normally
reduces pH. This can have positive effects for the growth of crops under the trees.
In Finland the situation is similar, although here much more peat is used aside of biomass. In
both Sweden and Finland the new production of peat is extensive, in the range 15-25TWh/y in
each country. Finland also has a significant share of nuclear power and hydropower. In Norway
hydropower is making up more than 100% of the electric power demand, while in Denmark
fossil fuel, mostly natural gas and coal, is dominating for heat and power production, and oil for
transportations. In Germany, fossil fuel from domestic brown coal is very important, but wind
power and solar power has been expanding a lot. Today more than 10,000 MW is installed as
solar power and 50,000MW as wind power. A decision was made in 2011 to close all nuclear
power plants within 10 years. This puts a strong push on using biomass much more efficiently
and by larger volumes. In Holland, agricultural waste is very important, although natural gas
is dominating as energy source. In the UK also natural gas is the dominating source for power
production, although oil for transportation. In Poland and the Baltic states coal is very important,
but the potential to use much more biomass is significant.
From this overall background, we will look more into the situation for producing biomass for
energy utilization in northern Europe. In table 5.1 biomass production is shown in northern Europe
including also Belarus and Russia, which are countries with similar climatic conditions and crops.
The data are from the World Bank data base (2011) for the years 2008 and 2009. Energy use is
for 2008 as the low economy 2009 caused a large reduction in energy use temporarily. In the first
column, we have the cereal production in each country first doubled, as straw is equal amount as
the grain measured. The heating value is assumed to be 5.4MWh/tonne, which is reasonable. In
the second column we have taken all agricultural and arable land minus the one used for cereal
production and multiplied this with 10 t dry matter/ha

× 0.42 =

5.4MWh/tonne. In the third column we
take the forestry area × 3 tonnes dry matter/ha × 5.4MWh/tonne. The 3 top dry matter per hectare
is calculated from an average 2.26 tonnes tree stem per ha in Sweden. This is for spruce approxi-
mately 59%(27%branches and top, 14%roots and stub) and for pine 69%stem (and 16%branches

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