South Carolina’s sawmills have been burning wood residue for years because it provides a cheaper form of energy for internal use, Orangeburg County Clemson Extension Service agent Beth Richardson says.

“The forest industry in the U.S. is much further along than other countries in getting this fuel off the ground,” Richardson said. “Forestry has been way ahead in that area.”

But while biomass has been advertised as way to increase the value of timber residue, she says “There is an extra cost involved to collect the biomass residue because it’s not standing timber.”

Richardson says wood residue has to be chipped into a specific pellet size in order to fit burners, although biomass also takes the form of grass and other agricultural products.

“There is a relatively new process developed at North Carolina State University, called torrefaction, that makes forestry energy as efficient as coal,” Richardson said. “But you have to go through an extra process in order to get it to that state.”

Tim Adams, director of the S.C. Forestry Commission Resource Development Division, says the wood scraps left by logging operations are an untapped resource in the state.

“Logging residues include the tops and limbs of the waste wood,” Adams said. “Other sources include urban wood, the refuse that includes trees taken from yards. Small, five-inch diameter trees that aren’t commercially viable and rotten trees could also be used for biomass purposes.”

Adams says a logger would have to add a chipper and alter the logging process in order for wood residue to be used economically.

“The boon to the logging industry is, instead of importing fuel, it keeps the dollars in South Carolina,” Adams said. “This would have a multiplier effect.”

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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