Blog entries from shaun

Växjö - a bioenergy fairytale for New Zealand?

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:50:05 +0100

I’d like to tell you a fairy story. It goes like this: Once upon a time, in a far off country, there was a place called Växjö. The people of Växjö were mainly poor farmers. The soil was thin, boggy and stony, the forests were thick and the winters were hard. But the people of Växjö were very hard-working, and dreamt of a better life. Bit by bit, they strRead More...

From Slash to Cash! Recovering Forest Residue for Profit

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:44:26 +0100

On 2nd June I attended a workshop near Jönköping in Sweden on the logistics and economics of forest residue recovery. Gustav Melin, CEO of Svebio, the Swedish Bioenergy Association, opened the workshop.

130 people from 28 countries turned up. In 2005 Sweden has 39% renewable supply, 28.6% (113.4 TWh) was bioenergy. In Read More...

Elmia Woods Slash to Cash Conference

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:11:09 +0100

Well almost home (Changi Airport, Singpore) and just time for one last post. How to describe the last three incredible days? Imagine the thrill of discoveri ng the leading edge in sustainable (economic, environmental and social) residue recovery. The big debate for the Swedes is nutrient balances. Looks like the economics is pretty much done and dusted. They are even investigating stump removal for biomass harvesting, although this may be a few years off - main problems are quality, cost and Read More...

Bioenergy – Direct Heat for Therapeutic Purposes

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Swedish wood combustion technology has pinnacled with the floating sauna (refer pictures - sorry for size, working on how to upload bigger ones). Instructions for use:

Another busy day. Met Peter Heydorn at 0730h in EbelRead More...

Bioenergy in Jutland, Denmark

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Busy day - visited two biomass boiler manufacturers (Passat and Weiss), a gasification plant, two a wood district heating plants and a straw fired district heating plants. All the district heating plants had Weiss boilers, ranging from 3.5 MW to 5.0 MW. We discussed technology transfer. The wood for the second plant comes from a 25 km radius. The straw comes from one farmer, and they use 6000 500kg bales a season. One kg of straw is 4 KWh. Electricity here is about 55 centRead More...

Bioenergy - residential space heating

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Drove to Karlskrona with Rebecca Heap, who was my local guide to woody biomass. En route we stopped to investigate residential wood energy use in Småland. Outside his rural house Lars was cutting firewood for his home boiler. Over the course of a winter Lars would use 40-50 m3. However his house has little insulation and on the top floor has only 5 cm boards with no insulation, so he estimates the average modern rural Swedish house would use 20-30 m3 a year. He pays SEK 250 per m3 (for birch - Read More...

Bioenergy - Ljunbgy and W2E

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

On 20 May Met Hans Gulliksson of Energikontor Sydost at Evedal. Hans wanted to show me a small district heating plant near Ljunby west of Växjö that was having an open day. We drove though pleasant spring fields, in a rather open agricultural environment as contrasted with the more densly forested areas in Småland. So the parallels with the New Zealand countryside were greater. In fact, three farmers are behind this plant. One has been the driving force and it has been five years on the drawingRead More...

Bioenergy at VEAB (Växjö Energi AB)

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The bioenergy adventures just don't stop! Went to Sandviksverket to see a 104 MW circulating fluid bed biomass boiler on a CHP plant that can chew through up to 50 tonnes of fuel per hour. 50% moisture (which seems to be standard). Right now it's running at 20 MW, because of recent warm weather. Much warmer and they will have to take it offline and start up a smaller, older one.

Lotta, the VEAB (check out http://www.veab.se/) chemicaRead More...

Bioenergy - sawmill

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

19/5/09

This morning I visited JGA Wood, a sustainable sawmill. The JGA plant is 30km from Växjö. Clas, a fourth generation member of JGA's family owners, met us.

The first thing that struck me was the huge area of logs, awaiting processing. Mainly spruce, with some pine. These log stacks look black from a distance - almost as though they have been creosoted! However, then you see the sprinklers over the top, sprayinRead More...

Bioenergy region of Vaxjo

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

I arrived in Sweden last night but unfortunately my luggage didn't! With a 40 min connection in Frankfurt something had to give, I suppose. Never mind, after four hours sleep in Stockholm (thanks Michael and Paul) I was on the 05:20 a.m. to Växjö where I was greeted by my gracious guide Suzana from Växjö Kommun (council). First up we visited a district heating plant using 100% wood processing residue from a local sawmill.

Silve Piejko showed me aroRead More...

Bioenergy

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0100

One thing that strikes me is how the Nordic countries especially Sweden and Finland have their heads around innovation in bioenergy. Anyone wondering about how this works should take a look at http://www.biofuelregion.se/dokument/43_120.pdf because it is a great example of many stakeholders co-operating for innovation and economic growth. Shaun

The bioenergy blog

sbowler@bluefin.co.nz — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0100

Welcome to my random thoughts on bioenergy in New Zealand and Scandinavia. I'll be making some observations about how bioenergy markets and technology are emerging both in New Zealand and in the Nordic countries. And what possibilities there may be for co-operation and sharing bioenergy knowledge between Oceania and Scandinavia.

For those interested in bioenergy technology in New Zealand, visit www.bkc.co.nz. For those interested in the same in Read More...