The main solid wood fuel used in the Finnish plants was forest chips, the consumption of which decreased by 3% year-on-year to 7.3 million cubic metres. Finland's consumption fell by 9% in the combined heat and power production, but increased by 12% in the generation of heat. Together with the forest chips burned in small-scale housing, total consumption reached 8 million cubic metres, as Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
“More than half, or 3.9 million cubic metres, of the forest chips consumed by the plants were manufactured from small-sized trees, that is pruned small-diameter stems and unpruned small-sized trees. The second most common source, 2.4 million cubic metres, was logging residues. The use of stumps as raw material for forest chips came to 0.8 million cubic metres,” says Senior Research Scientist Esa Ylitalo of Natural Resources Institute Finland.
Plants consumed 1% less forest industry by-products and wood residues than in the previous year, a total of 10.1 million cubic metres. The main material used in burning was bark, accounting for almost 70% of by-product wood.
The consumption of solid wood fuels was highest in the Central Finland region, where most of the forest chips were also burned. Most of the by-product wood from the forest industries was burned in South Karelia.
