Can degraded trees serve as sustainable feedstock for forest bioenergy production?

退化的树木可以作为森林生物能源生产的可持续原料吗？

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05755
• 负责人: Thiffault, Evelyne
• 金额: $ 2.35万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=713787
• 关键词: degraded; trees; serve; sustainable; feedstock

The use of whole trees for bioenergy production stirs controversy due to potential negative impacts on climate; this has brought some policymakers to consider banning them as a bioenergy feedstock. A special case of whole trees is trees of marginal fibre quality, such as defective, decaying or dying trees, together referred here as degraded trees. The long-term focus of the program is to improve fundamental knowledge about dynamics of forest biomass feedstocks from Canadian forests for an optimized utilisation of forest bioenergy providing the greatest benefits to the atmosphere. Over the next five years, the program will focus on degraded trees that are unwanted by conventional wood product industries due to their low fibre quality. It aims to test to what extent degraded trees can be part of a sustainable mobilisation of forest resources for climate change mitigation. The program will study biomass carbon dynamics in ecological systems on one hand, and biomass carbon recovery into energy products in technological systems on the other hand, determining the fate of the content of degraded trees during forest site processes and biomass-to-bioenergy conversion. These results will then be integrated within forest bioenergy systems and larger forest management systems. The short-term objectives are to: 1- assess the carbon dynamics of degraded trees through time as found on forest sites (ecological systems); 2- assess the bioenergy conversion potential and carbon recovery into energy products of wood from degraded trees (technological systems); 3- assess the carbon balance and climate change mitigation potential of degraded trees as feedstocks for bioenergy systems, as part of larger forest management systems. The proposed project will focus on two species of degraded trees typical of Canadian eastern forests:, and which currently have little or no use for conventional wood products due to low fibre quality : i) balsam fir defoliated by the spruce budworm in boreal regions of Quebec; ii) American beech attacked by the beech bark disease in south and western Quebec. My research program addresses two major and interlinked challenges of the 21st century, energy transition and climate change mitigation. The three projects of this program are designed to significantly contribute to fundamental knowledge on carbon cycling of woody material in ecological and in technological systems, and relationships between these systems and the atmosphere. It will also provide info to Canadian stakeholders who need the best data possible to appraise energy production scenarios that truly contribute to GHG emissions reduction and climate change mitigation. This program will allow the training of several HQPs in an interdisciplinary mindset, contributing to a new generation of professionals and scientists that can holistically address societal issues such as climate change and energy transition.

由于对气候的潜在负面影响，使用整棵树进行生物能源生产引发了争议；这使得一些政策制定者考虑禁止它们作为生物能源原料。整棵树的特殊情况是纤维质量处于边缘的树，如有缺陷的、腐烂的或垂死的树，在这里统称为退化树。