Forestry

Ernslaw Bio-Energy's new mobile wood chipper means the Central Otago company is well-placed to take advantage of an expected increase in the use of wood-chip boilers.

The company bought the $250,000 German-made Heizohack HM10-500 KT chipper and the John Deere 7530 tractor which powers it in 2008 with the help of a business grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.

Fitting a variable-speed drive to a fan motor for a boiler has already saved Juken Nissho's Wairarapa mill $20,000 on a $50,000 investment made a year ago.

Wood fuel is a clean and renewable energy source. Burning wood fuel has a low net greenhouse effect as the CO2 given off is absorbed by the growth of the next crop. Wood fuel is playing an increasingly important role in
generating energy.

Wood fuel includes any woody biomass suitable for energy production, such as branches, bark and stem wood. The focus of these guidelines is on residues from landings - currently the largest unused source of woody biomass.