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Consumption of woody biomass for energy at pulp and paper manufacturers worldwide rose to 75 million tons in 2009, equivalent to approximately 1,400 TBTU (trillion British Thermal Units), reports the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ), Seattle, Wash., USA. The global pulp and paper industry has substantially increased its use of woody biomass for energy the past few years, which has consequently reduced dependence on fossil fuels, WRQ notes. From 2006 through 2009, energy generated from biomass has gone up 51%, last year accounting for 18% of the total energy consumption by this industry sector, according to an analysis done with FisherSolve (Fisher International).

While the biggest increases in woody biomass have occurred in Latin America and Asia/Oceania, mills in North America and Europe are still the largest users of biomass material, according to WRQ. Not surprisingly, the leading biomass-consuming countries by volume are regions with large areas of forests, including Canada, the U.S., Brazil, and Sweden. Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, pulp mills in Finland, New Zealand, Australia, France, and Germany have consumed fairly small volumes of biomass up to now.

As a percentage of total energy usage, the share of energy generated from biomass has, on a global basis, increased from 16% in 2006 to 18% in 2009. Norway and Sweden took the lead in biomass usage at 42% and 38%, respectively, followed by Canada, Brazil, and New Zealand. At the other end of the spectrum are China, Australia, Japan, Spain, and Germany, all of which are countries where pulp mills on average used less than 10% renewable energy at their plants last year.

Another interesting development is that with the increased usage of bark and wood fiber for energy, pulp mills have expanded their external sourcing of the biomass. In 2006, 53% woody biomass was purchased in the open market; in 2009, this share increased to 69%. Pulp and paper mills in Latin America and Asia/Oceania were generally less reliant on purchased biomass than plants in Europe and North America. More information is available on the WRQ web site.