REGULAR RECYCLING OF WOOD ASH TO PREVENT WASTE PRODUCTION RECASH A LIFE ENVIRONMENT DEMONSTRATION PROJECT LIFE03 ENV/S/000598

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1 SEMINAR REPORT 23/09/2003 REGULAR RECYCLING OF WOOD ASH TO PREVENT WASTE PRODUCTION RECASH A LIFE ENVIRONMENT DEMONSTRATION PROJECT LIFE03 ENV/S/ STATE OF THE ART SEMINAR JYVÄSKYLÄ SEMINAR REPORT Authors Pirkko Vesterinen, VTT Processes Publicity: Public VTT PROCESSES

2 PREFACE The project RecAsh, Systems for recycling wood-fuel ash as a method to prevent waste, will be funded by the EU LIFE Environment programme. The project is co-ordinated by The Regional Forestry Board of Värmland-Örebro (RFB-ST). The project partners come from different regions of Sweden and Finland. The project will include several demonstrations of wood ash recycling, in which a group of companies will be involved. The State of the Art Seminar was organised in Jyväskylä, Finland on September 1 st The different stakeholders of the RecAsh project were invited to participate. The purpose of the seminar was to give the participants an overview of the history, motivation and present status of ash recycling in Sweden and Finland. This way the project partners and co-operation companies get a better starting point for the project. The current seminar report summarises the main points of the presentations given during the State of the Art Seminar. The seminar participants are listed in the appendix. Figure 1. Seminar audience. 1

3 CONTENTS WELCOME AND OPENING Markku Paananen, Jyväskylä Science Park & Lars Andersson, Regional Forestry Board of ST...3 ASH ISSUES, STUDIES AND SOLUTIONS IN SWEDEN Hillevi Eriksson, National Board of Forestry...3 ASH ISSUES, STUDIES AND SOLUTIONS IN FINLAND Klaus Silfverberg, Finnish Forest Research Institute...6 DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SWEDEN AND FINLAND Discussion...8 A VIEW OF ASH PRODUCER POWER PLANT Hannu Harju, Jyväskylä Energy Production Ltd....9 A VIEW OF ASH AND BIOSLUDGE PRODUCER PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY Ole Nickull, M-real Corp PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT PARTNERS...11 BENET-network / Jyväskylä Science Park, Markku Paananen...11 VTT Processes, Tuulikki Lindh...12 Regional Forestry Board of Värmland-Örebro, Stig Emilsson...13 Regional Forestry Board of Västra Götaland, Stig Emilsson...14 Regional Forestry Board of Mellannorrland, Sören Hägg...15 Sveaskog AB, Jakob Hirsmark...16 Värmland County Administration Board, Lars Furuholm...17 RECASH PROJECT OVERVIEW Lars Andersson, Regional Forestry Board of ST & Markku Paananen, Jyväskylä Science Park...17 APPENDIX: List of participants

4 WELCOME AND OPENING Markku Paananen, Jyväskylä Science Park & Lars Andersson, Regional Forestry Board of ST The use of bioenergy is increasing all over the Europe, and especially in Sweden and Finland. This brings about the question of biomass ashes, whether they should be treated as wastes or would it be possible to recycle them in a technologically and economically feasible way. There have been several more or less theoretical studies carried out both in Sweden and Finland. Now it is time to combine the experiences of these two countries and implement the knowledge into practice. This is the main target of the RecAsh project: to show the feasibility of ash recycling system by demonstrating the whole chain from the boiler through ash treatment to the spreading into forests. ASH ISSUES, STUDIES AND SOLUTIONS IN SWEDEN Hillevi Eriksson, National Board of Forestry The interest for using ash in the forestry has a long history in Sweden. Already in the early 20 th century, wood ash was tried as a fertilizer for peatland. However, this practise was never used in large-scale commercially. During the 70 s and 80 s, the awareness increased about soil and water acidification and the apparent negative effect on many fish species and other organisms in streams and lakes that followed acid deposition, especially in the Southern and South-Western Sweden. At the same time, the interest in using harvest residues as bioenergy grew, and it has grown even further in the 90 s due to the climate change problem. Consequently, many scientists and others feared that base cation losses and soil acidification would be further pronounced due to the intensified harvesting. These fears were also confirmed in budget studies in which base cation input was compared to base cation output for various sites and harvesting systems. It was suggested that ash recycling could be a way to compensate for the extra losses caused through the branch removal. During the 80 s and 90 s, much research has been conducted that has clarified the effects of ash application on soil, soil water and runoff water chemistry, on flora, on soil micro-organisms and fauna, etc. The research has largely quantified how soil acidification can be counteracted with ash and clarified what restrictions should be applied to avoid negative effects on the forest ecosystem. However, on common mineral soils, no positive effect on growth should be expected. The studies also revealed some negative growth effects in weak soils. These are probably temporary, but we have to address them further in our policy in the coming. It has been concluded that stabilised 3

5 ash is better than loose ash in several aspects, and that when keeping the ash amounts below 4 t/ha, there are little problems caused by the ash spreading. Over the same time, the Swedish society has become more recycling-minded. In the 90 s, the EU Waste Directive has further contributed to increase the motivation for ash recycling. There are about 1.5 million hectares of actively drained peatland in Sweden. In addition, further areas have been drained by roads etc. In case whole-tree harvesting is applied on these areas, ash recycling may be important also for maintaining tree growth. The sulphur deposit in Southern Sweden still causes on-going acidification. Even though the sulphur load has decreased substantially, it still is above the critical level. The trees can manage with this deposit, but the fauna especially in lakes and streams suffer from acidification. This makes a certain difference between Sweden and Finland: in Finland historic acidification is a less severe problem. In the future, also nitrogen balance may become a problem; currently the nitrogen deposition compensates the losses at least in Southern Sweden where so far whole-tree harvesting is applied most frequently. In 2000, whole-tree harvesting was conducted on ca ha. In the same year, about tonnes of ash were recycled to about hectares. Of this amount, about half was spread by SVO (2 t/ha) and the rest by other actors like Sveaskog and some district heating plants (3 t/ha). Thus, the average dose was about 2.5 t/ha. In the SVO project, lime was spread into forests together with ash. Almost half of the nutrients removed with harvest residues were recycled with the ash, however, to a much smaller area than it was extracted from. The annual ash quantities in Sweden are about the following: Source Amount (1000 ton/a) Quality Energy plants Pulp and paper industry Recyclable wood ash Non-recyclable wood ash Other Recyclable wood ash Non-recyclable wood ash Sawmills 100 Recyclable wood ash The demand list for green electricity, as formulated by the largest environment NGO in Sweden, includes a requirement for ash recycling. The cost for depositing the ash has increased, both because of a depositing tax and because of raised fee in many communities. Still, the current attitude of ash producers is largely in waiting mode, partly because of lack of knowledge and partly because of the remaining extra costs for recycling. However, the National Board of Forestry in Sweden believe that it will make a difference if they clearly state that whole-tree harvesting is not sustainable without ash recycling from now and onwards. 4

6 Quite many both EU level and Swedish legislative decrees and policy statements regulate ash recycling. These include e.g.: EU Waste Directive (1975, 1991) EPA/NFB policy on ash recycling (1994) => authorities prefer ash recycling in whole-tree harvesting NFB recommendations (1998, 2001) Law on Environmental Protection => more positive view on ash recycling Law on Waste Tax (2000) => about 200 SEK/ton of ash deposited (about 22 /t), which makes ash recycling almost economic. The National Forestry Board has published recommendations for ash recycling: If whole-tree harvesting is done only once at a site, there is no demand for ash spreading, provided that the needles are left evenly distributed in the forests. As the forest residues are normally collected with needles, or the needles are left in piles, in practice this recommendation does not apply. The ash to be spread should mainly originate from wood. There are limit values for maximum contents of hazardous substances in the ashes. The ash dose should be at most 3 t/ha in ten years. Ash stabilisation treatment is needed for less reactivity. The ash spreading should be registered at the local forestry board. The target of the National Forestry Board is, at short term, that the areas for ash spreading are of equal size than the whole-tree harvesting areas. In the longer term, the target is that the areas on which whole-tree harvesting and ash recycling have been conducted are largely the same. The intention is to continuously adapt the regulations providing that our forestry is sustainable and do not contribute to acidification. Discussion: What is the preference between ash recycling and (natural or artificial) forest fires? Balanced harvesting system may be better; preventing forest fires improves the soil. Did the environmental impact assessment (EIA) lead to new regulations? Yes, previously more concern was given on organic matter losses from whole-tree harvesting. However, the EIA did not support this concern. Who are the Swedish ash gurus? Helen Arvidsson, Helene Lundqvist and professor Mats Olsson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Uppsala; Lars Högblom and Eva Ring from Skogforsk, Uppsala. 5

7 ASH ISSUES, STUDIES AND SOLUTIONS IN FINLAND Klaus Silfverberg, Finnish Forest Research Institute There has been lot of loose ash research in Finland before the granulation was invented. As all the physical properties are not similar, the results are not totally applicable with current ash use. However, the best available wood ash report is dated already in 1935 (Malmström), and the contents of it are still mostly quite valid. The ash fertilisation research in Finland has been focused on peatlands, because: there was shortage of wood after the World War II therefore, the stem volume productivity was of high priority the authorities provided subsidies for forest drying to increase growth there were lots of suitable drained areas for ash-fertilising In Finland, one wood ash dosing was 3 16 t/ha, which is much more than in Sweden. With this dosing, a considerable increase in forest volume was achieved. Several variables have been studied in research on ash fertilising: tree stand growth foliar analyses vegetation peat analyses micro organisms berries, mushrooms leaching heavy metals carbon balance Field experiments have been carried out since 1937, a special peak in studies was during the early 80 s. In total, some 200 experiments have been done, started on drained peatland. As the primary goal in ash fertilising has been to get more stemwood, also a lot of experiments have concentrated on this question. For example, in one long-span study, the stemwood volume was increased with ash fertilising by over 300 m 3 /ha in 50 years compared to no-ash option. However, this was an extreme case, not all studies revealed as huge results. The impact on the growth is quite slow during the first years after fertilisation; on the other hand the effect is long-lasting. The more ash (also peat ash) is spread in the forest, the better the effect on the stand volume is. This is a clear difference if compared with artificial fertilisers, as by over-dosing with commercial fertilisers it is possible to damage the trees. Many experiments were carried out in 50 s on nutrient poor soil sites, 6

8 in which draining would not be allowed nowadays. In these soils, nitrogen was the main limiting factor, but the commercial fertilisers were of PK (phosphorus-potassium) type. The weight losses of cellulose sheets seemed to be much greater in ash treatment areas. All in all, the long-term environmental effects of ash fertilising on drained peatlands are well-known in Finland. Also the recent studies on young stands have given similar results. Leaching research has studied phosphorus concentration in drainage waters. The results have shown no rapid leaching if compared with zero-level fertilising. In laboratory tests ash dosing of 5 t/ha on peat soil increased nutrient leaching: nitrogen oxides, NO times phosphorus, P 9.06 times potassium, K 83.4 times calcium, Ca 2.37 times magnesium, Mg 2.74 times manganese, Mn 25.6 times Ash fertilising also resulted in decrease in cadmium (Cd) contents. On the other hand, there were also some harmful effects. Sphagnum diminished radically with peat ash, and completely with wood ash, probably due to the high ph of wood ash. There appeared to be also some impacts on the carbon balance. CO 2 emissions slightly increased, but at the same time methane emissions disappeared, thus resulting in positive net effect on greenhouse gases. These studies considered only the peat. Much of the increased peat CO 2 increase has been captured by the increased stem volume. This study was carried out only once, 50 years after the fertilisation. Cadmium should not be any serious problem when a normal amount of ashes is used. Mineral soils have been less studied in Finland. This is mainly due to the motivation of the Finnish research, acidification not being such a big problem as in Sweden. Growth increments in mineral soils seem to be insignificant. Also the huge amount of peatlands in Finland increase their importance. Mineral soil is used for ash spreading only in cases when peatlands are too far. Discussion: Are there any figures about the situation today? Mainly just guesses: the annual forestry statistics provide summaries of fertiliser use, but probably make no difference between ash and artificial fertilisers. What are the differences in drained sites in Sweden and Finland? They are better in Sweden, because in Finland also non-productive sites have been drained to make them at least a bit productive. 7

9 Are there any commercial activities going on? Yes, a lot, developing several products. For example in Kouvola region (South-Eastern Finland) where there is a lot of forest industry they are very active. DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SWEDEN AND FINLAND Discussion The amounts of ashes in pulp and paper industry are significant, still only a very little share of it is recycled. In Sweden, altogether tonnes were spread in 2000, of this some portion originated from pulp and paper industry. Sveaskog recycled about tonnes of forestry residue ashes from Borås district heating plant. Also some trials with pulp and paper industry ashes have been carried out, but not in larger scale. According to plans, however, Sveaskog will spread tonnes of p&p ash in 2003, in 2004 the amount will be around tonnes. The differences in acidification status between Sweden and Finland provide a different motivation for ash spreading in these countries. In Sweden, there is more demand because of the acidification. In addition, in Sweden the richer peatlands have been drained, causing biodiversity problems and requiring more concern. Today, new draining is almost forbidden. Some of the drained peatlands should even be brought back to natural condition. It can be summarised, that in Sweden the main reason for ash fertilising is acidification, especially in the southern parts. Therefore the ash is spread on mineral soils. In Finland, on the other hand, the main motivation has been the need to increase stem volume and forest productivity, thus resulting in ash spreading on peatlands. The situation can change also in Sweden, due to increased harvesting. With more activities in Swedish forests, there will be more ash fertilising recommended, also on drained forests. With their history and present status of ash fertilising, Sweden and Finland complete each other quite well. There is wide range of research, experiences and knowledge available in these two countries. As artificial fertilising is being diminished, there is a clear niche for ash fertilising. In addition, waste problem is becoming more acute due to the increasing taxes, thus providing good basis for ash recycling concepts. In Finland, the ash spreading companies may get some subsidies for their activities. In Sweden, on the other hand, the ash producers are willing to pay for the ash recycling, at least as much as the waste tax and deposit fee are. Hopefully, this project results in some changes in attitudes, so that the ash producers will pay even a bit more for the recycling. Based on the waste directive, it can be assumed that the deposit fees will increase even further, which also will affect on the willingness of ash producers to pay for the recycling service. 8

10 In Finland, the energy production ashes and their deposit on industrial landfills are tax free for the time being. There has been some discussion about introducing landfill tax also for private landfills, but it has not yet been adopted. The dosing limits and the maximum loads of heavy metals are different for agricultural and forest use of ash fertilising. The real economy of recycling ashes can only be found through the economy of scale. In the Swedish small-scale trials the costs have been quite high. For example, in the experiments of Sveaskog, the costs were about 500 SEK/t (about 55 /t), which is somewhat more than the combined deposition fee and taxes depending a bit on the region in question. In any case, the planning and spreading costs will not be covered by the savings in deposition fees and taxes. Some good will is needed to adopt the ash recycling concept, or the fees and taxes should be raised. In big cities the deposit fees are higher, so the economic basis for ash fertilising is better there. In Southern Sweden, the district heating plants require in their fuel supply contracts, that the fuel supplier must take back the ashes. A VIEW OF ASH PRODUCER POWER PLANT Hannu Harju, Jyväskylä Energy Production Ltd. Jyväskylä Energy Production Ltd. is a private company jointly owned by Jyväskylä Energy Ltd. (40%) and Fortum (60%). The company owns and operates the Rauhalahti power plant, which was built in A 300 MW bubbling fluidised bed retrofit was commissioned in The plant is mainly fuelled with peat (about 65%) and wood (about 35%). Coal, oil and REF have minor shares, altogether less than 3%. The ash production of the Rauhalahti plant is about t/a, of which 20% is bottom ash (fine sand) and 80% is fly ash from electric filter, i.e. dust. In springtime, there are sometimes dust problems with certain directions of wind at the landfill area. Since 1986, the ashes have been used for landscaping at the nearby Green Valley area (Viherlandia garden centre and Adventure Park for children). These areas will be full in the near future, so there is an urgent need for new solutions. There are several options to choose from: landfilling to the waste dump area building a new landfill area use in road construction use as noice barriers and landscaping forest fertilising use as building material 9

11 The above mentioned options also include some problems: the ashes may be poisonous and soluble in water the slow output of ashes variation in the peat/wood ratio in ashes (100%/0%; 70%/30%; 0%/100%; etc.) environmental licences dust problem handling and logistics economics For some substances, the ash contents have been over the recommended limit values (Dutch reference values). Therefore, it may be so that the plant will have to continue landfilling. A VIEW OF ASH AND BIOSLUDGE PRODUCER PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY Ole Nickull, M-real Corp. In 2002, the forest industry produced about tonnes of wood ashes. This amount was mainly landfilled, only about 10% of it was used in fertilisation. Another important waste stream of forest industry is formed by different sludges. The total sludge amount is about t/a, of which about half is fiber sludges. The current sludge disposal practices are mainly incineration with support fuel, but also use in landscaping and as soil conditioner. In some M-real mills, the sludges are not at all incinerated, resulting in vast amounts to be landfilled. In the future, sludge landfilling in municipal landfills will not any more be possible, so new solutions will be needed. In other M-real mills the sludges are incinerated, in which cases the new waste incineration directive state strict purification and measuring requirements. The current situation would be improved by increased use of ashes in fertilising purposes with or without an addition of biosludge from the waste water purification plants. The problem is, how this could be implemented in a cost-effective way. 10

12 Figure 2. Mr. Ole Nickull, M-real Corp. PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT PARTNERS BENET-network / Jyväskylä Science Park, Markku Paananen BENET is a Bioenergy centre of excellence. It is more like a brand, or name of a form of co-operation. The BENET member organisations cover a wide range of bioenergy knowledge: Jyväskylä Science Park management, development VTT Processes research, studies, surveys Central Finland Forestry Centre forestry expertise Central Finland Rural Advisory Centre forest owner deputy POKE, Learning Centre of North-Central Finland field experiments, training Jyväskylä Polytechnic / Institute of Natural Resources education, training Saarijärvi District Heating consulting Elomatic Ltd. engineering, design 11

13 There are several advantages that can be achieved by this kind of co-operation, e.g.: the network can manage larger projects than any of the members alone the collective know-how covers the whole bioenergy value chain the network creates partnership and improves co-operation it is cost-effective to concentrate the management of public projects marketing costs of expert services are lower the information exchange between the organisations has become more intensive increase in social stock has been achieved VTT Processes, Tuulikki Lindh VTT Processes has capabilities to carry out research and analyses on wood based ashes and other fuel ashes from power and heating plants, gasifiers and industrial boilers. The analysis facilities cover fuel characterization, but also properties which affect on ash utilisation possibilities, like heavy metal contents, solubility and granulation properties. Ash research is being carried out in several research areas of VTT Processes, e.g. in Energy Production research area in Jyväskylä and Espoo, and in Pulp and Paper Industry research area in Jyväskylä. The fouling and corrosive behaviour of fuel ash can be assessed on the basis of ash characteristics and composition. The knowledge of ash composition helps for example in assessing possible limitations in ash utilisation, in assessing the sorting of ash to different ash streams, like fly as, bottom ash, etc., and in sorting of harmful particles from fly ash with help of different fields of electric filter. The ash utilisation options are also studied at VTT Processes. This research covers e.g. excavation, like the use of ash in road construction, and possibilities of ash fertilising, especially the use of wood originated ash as forest fertiliser. Some studies have been done about the amounts of ash products in the Finnish forest industry. In Jyväskylä, VTT Processes has studied the utilisation of ashes and other by-products of pulp and paper industry, such as biosludge from the waste water treatment of the mill. A granulation method and the concept of wood ash and biosludge use for forest fertilising have been developed. This concept enables improved energy generation due to removing wet biosludge from the bark boiler fuel feed. In addition, the nutrients are returned back to the forests. This research was carried out in co-operation of VTT (Saara Isännäinen and Tuulikki Lindh), the Finnish Forest Research Institute, and the Regional Environment Centre of Pirkanmaa. The companies involved included Metsämannut Ltd., M-real Corp. and 12

14 Kemira Ltd. The main financier was Tekes, the National technology Agency of Finland. Co-financing was provided by the companies and VTT. The project results showed that in greenhouse tests the birch saplings fertilised with ashbiosludge granules grew well. Harmful dissolving of heavy metals was not found in the laboratory irrigation tests. The main conclusion was that ash and biosludge together are suitable especially for mineral soil forests, due to the nitrogen content of biosludge. Plain wood ash is more suitable for acidic, peatland forests. In the created concept ash-biosludge granules are produced in a movable mixer, stored for short period in containers, and brought to forest for spreading by tractor. The costs of granule production and spreading were estimated to be about /ton of granules, when the transport distance is about 50 km. Thus, the savings compared to landfilling were substantial. The produced granules contained about two thirds of biosludge and were covered by ash. It was noticed that the ash quality, especially the calcium content, affects on the agglomeration process. The ash-biosludge granules were found to endure moderate handling. Discussion: What doses are planned to be spread? About 3 ton of ash per hectare. What quantities of elements in the biosludge do not come from forests? The organic compounds come 100% from forests, but the sludge includes also some additional sodium chemicals. Is there any leaching or soil water sampling on long-term balance point of view; will there be salt effect if there is too much sodium in water? These studies have been included. The local water authorities are involved in the project. The experiments have environmental licences and the effects on the water will be studied. What spreading method is used? At this stage tractor and disc. The idea is to at least start with similar equipment as is used in agriculture. Regional Forestry Board of Värmland-Örebro, Stig Emilsson The Regional Forestry Board of Värmland-Örebro (RFB-ST) is the regional forest authority of two counties, Värmland and Örebro, in Central Sweden. The regional forestry boards are responsible for extension and implementation of national forest legislation and policies. The total area of the two counties is about 2.9 million hectares, of which about 70% is forest land. The counties have 0.5 million inhabitants. The number of forest owners is 13

15 about , mostly quite small ones. The area covers five climate zones, and the altitude varies between 45 and 700 meters above sea level. The annual turnover of RFB-ST is about 10 million euros. The number of employees is 110. The head office is located in Karlstad, and there are nine regional offices. RFB-ST provides considerable contractual services. The announced clearcutting area in the region was ha in Forest fuel was announced to be harvested from hectares, but the actual figure is estimated to be much less, about ha. The quantity of forest fuels was about tons of dry matter, which corresponds 217 GWh. In recent years, the ash production has been about tonnes/a, mainly coming from district heating plants (50%) and forest industry (45%). The remaining 5% of ashes come from sawmills. Major part of these ashes (66%) is still landfilled. 30% is used for production of soil or coverage of old landfills. Only a small portion of the ashes are used for fertilisation. About 1600 tonnes (4%) was spread to forest land in Västra- Götaland, and only 11 tonnes of ashes were spread on arable lands, these ashes coming mainly from small district heating plants. The future of continued ash spreading to forests and arable land is still open. In the mid-90 s, ash and limestone (2 + 2 t/ha) was spread on 1970 ha counteract acidification. Since then, only some experimental ash spreading has been carried out in the region of RFB-ST. Instead, the ashes for fertilising has been transported to Västra- Götaland. Regional Forestry Board of Västra Götaland, Stig Emilsson The Regional Forestry Board of Västra Götaland (RFB-VG) is the regional forest authority of the county Västra Götaland in South-Western Sweden. RFB-VG is of about the same size as RFB-ST. The head office is located in Borås, and there are seven district offices. About 55% of the region of Västra Götaland is forest land, and 80% of the forests are privately owned. About persons in the region are directly employed in forestry. Västra Götaland has bigger problems with acidification than more northern regions. Since 90 s, RFB-VG has tried to counteract soil acidification, first by spreading lime, later ash and limestone (2 + 4 t/ha). In 2002, lime and wood ash was spread on more than ha of forest land. The total ash quantities in the region amount to almost t/a. Of this, over tonnes are suitable for spreading to forests. In 2002 almost tonnes of ash were applied on forest land in the region. Within two years, almost t/a will be applied. 14

16 There are several wood ash related projects going on in Västra Götaland. These projects include e.g.: spreading of wood ash and lime (2 + 4 t/ha) on 500 ha of forestland in September 2003, production of information folders, constituting a demonstration area, monitoring the effects of ash spreading on nature conference on December 9 th 2003 in Borås, and implementing a contact database of wood ash related actors. Regional Forestry Board of Mellannorrland, Sören Hägg The Regional Forestry Board of Mellannorrland (RFB/MN) is situated a bit more north than RFB/ST and RFB/VG. It covers the regions of two counties: Jämtland and Västernorrland. The head office is in Sollefteå, and the region is divided into five districts with totally 17 offices and 85 employees. The region of RFB/MN has different country types, from high mountains above tree limit to coastline of the Baltic Sea. The forest area in the region is about 4.3 million hectares, of which 43% is privately owned, the rest is owned mostly by companies, 6% by public. The number of private owners of over 5 ha forests is about the population of the whole region is about The annual clearcutting area in the region is about ha. There used to be no forest residue harvesting from the clearcutting areas, but the area for forest residue harvesting has increased the laterst years, and is now about ha, maybe even ha. This is mostly located around the city of Östersund but also Sundsvall. The forest industry in the region of RFB/MN is very large. The use of roundwood is about 12 million solid cubic meters per year, part of which is imported from Northern Russia. The annual amount of imported roundwood is estimated to be almost 2 mill. solid cubic meters. This has lead to tough competition on roundwood. In this region, the ash spreading is in practice at zero level. Only some trials and tests have been done. Especially in Västernorrland there are still some cesium remaining from the Tjernobyl accident, causing difficulties in ash use in some regions. Discussion: Is acidification a problem in this region? It is not the main problem, though there are some acid lakes. The situation should be investigated in more detail. There is most likely need for ash recycling also in this region. 15

17 Are you planning to fertilise peatlands to increase volumes for forest industry? Today s answer must be no. The viewpoint in Sweden is a bit different. Draining and fertilising peatlands is not an option in Sweden at present. Wet forest land and peatlands are instead considered to have high environmental values. This is the official point of view at present. Instead to some extent previously drained peatland areas are recovered. Also in this region some lakes and wetlands have been regularly limed against acidification, but it has to some extent been criticised for being unnecessary. The negative budgets could most likely be valid also in this region, concerning not only nutrients, but as well basic substances which are taken away more than returned. Sveaskog AB, Jakob Hirsmark Sveaskog is a state-owned Swedish forest company. It is Sweden s largest forest owner with 4.6 million hectares of forest land, of which 3.46 mill. ha is productive and 3.19 mill. ha in use. The forest operations are conducted under the Sveaskog name, but the company group also includes sawmill operations and carton board manufacturing under the name AssiDomän. About 70% of the net growth in the Sveaskog s forests is harvested. Last year the net sales of the company was MSEK (about 905 M ) and the operating profit was MSEK (136 M ). The company has about employees. The environmental targets of Sveaskog include preserving biodiversity, reducing emissions from fossil fuel combustion and limiting the negative impact on water and land ecosystems. The use of bioenergy and recycling of ashes are ways to reach these targets. The bioenergy sector of Sveaskog is currently in a growing phase: in 2002, the forestry residue fuels amounted 400 GWh, in 2003 they are expected to comprise 700 GWh, and in 2005 even 900 GWh. These figures do not include the share of industrial by-products, which is about 500 GWh/a. The ash handling activities concerning this projectare organised by the bioenergy department of the forestry operations at Sveaskog. As a significant forest fuel supplier, Sveaskog can use ash recycling as competitive advantage. The ash recycling has mainly been focused on South-Western Sweden. The normal dose is 3 t/ha, somewhat less in poorer pine stands. Spreading has been carried out preferrably in early spring and autumn. The growing period has been avoided to minimise mechanical forest damages. One ash spreading entrepreneur spreads stabilised and crushed ash to over hectares. Some experiments have also been done with pelletised ash. Sveaskog is now starting ash recycling in Central Sweden, where ashes, from e.g. a bubbling fluidised bed boiler at AssiDomän s Frövi carton board mill, will be spread to 16

18 forest. The ash recycling targets of Sveaskog aim at spreading ash to each forest once in years, resulting in healthier forests and waters. Värmland County Administration Board, Lars Furuholm The Värmland County Administration Board is located in Karlstad, Central Sweden. In the region, there are some acid lakes, which are limed worth about 3 million euros per year. The responsibilities of the County Administration Board cover e.g. nature conservation. The main tasks related to this include giving environmental permits, representing the government s view in the region, and carrying the overall responsibility for biodiversity. The main tools which the Board has are legislative, for example the Environmental Code. The Board provides consultation on different subjects, such as combustion technologies and ash qualities. One aim of the Board s project tasks is to minimise the ash deposition to landfills. RECASH PROJECT OVERVIEW Lars Andersson, Regional Forestry Board of ST & Markku Paananen, Jyväskylä Science Park The Regional Forestry Board of ST is the co-ordinator of the RecAsh project, with Lars Andersson as the project manager. The motivation behind starting the RecAsh project is the lack of knowledge and regulation in ash recycling operations. The project target is to create conditions for a regular recycling of wood ash to forest land. The project focuses on regional, national as well as international levels, aiming at starting ash recycling in larger scale and more permanent manner than currently. The environmental gains to be reached with the project include: prevention of waste the wood ash will be returned to forest soils instead of being deposited in landfills; sustainable conditions for increased production of renewable energy (no waste, no CO 2 emissions); maintained nutrient balance and buffering capacity in forest soils (circulation closed, ash nutrients returned); and maintained quality of water in terms of acid alkalinity and low aluminium contents. 17

19 The vision is that the knowledge collected and distributed through the project will remove the critical obstacles which prevent ash recycling from being regular treatment of wood ash today. As a result, wood fuel combustion will become sustainable in the long term and significantly contribute to tackling the problem of climate change, and the amounts of wood ash at landfill sites will be reduced. The main tasks of the project are: 1. Case study of regular ash recycling system 2. Ash recycling handbook 3. Developing quality criteria for recyclable ashes 4. Regional demonstrations of ash recycling 5. National demonstrations and seminars 6. European seminars (with demonstrations) 7. Education of participants and other stakeholders 8. Dissemination of the results 9. Project management and reporting to the Commission The total budget of the project is about 1.7 M. The RecAsh project situation today ( ) is such that no formal decision has yet been made by the Commission. Before that, no press releases or other such publicity are allowed, but it is possible to start working on the project. The kick-off meeting will take place on September 17 th in Stockholm. When developing something new, three phases can be identified: 1. finding your way 2. bringing ideas into practice breakthrough 3. striving the real potential With those phases in mind, RecAsh project can be positioned somewhere between stages 1 and 2. 18

20 APPENDIX: List of participants Andersson Lars Regional Forestry Board of ST Sweden Emilsson Stig Regional Forestry Board of ST Sweden Eriksson Hillevi National Board of Forestry Sweden Erkkilä Ari VTT Processes Finland Furuholm Lars Värmland County Administration Board Sweden Harju Hannu Jyväskylä Energy Production Ltd. Finland Hirsmark Jakob Sveaskog Ab Sweden Hägg Sören Regional Forestry Board of MN Sweden Isännäinen Saara VTT Processes Finland Knuuttila Kirsi Jyväskylä Science Park Finland Laine-Ylijoki Jutta VTT Processes Finland Lindh Tuulikki VTT Processes Finland Marjaniemi Mauri Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland Finland Nickull Ole M-real Corp. Finland Paananen Markku Jyväskylä Science Park Finland Pirkonen Pentti VTT Processes Finland Silfverberg Klaus Finnish Forest Research Institute Finland Taipale Raili VTT Processes Finland Uusi-Penttilä Pauliina Jyväskylä Science Park Finland Vesterinen Pirkko VTT Processes Finland Österbacka Jan Ekokem Ltd. Finland 19