ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Powerwood Canada Corporation is in the process of developing their 50 ton per hour capacity (360kn tons per annum) biofuel plant in Northern Alberta, Canada. The output will be the next generation of biofuel as it has very similar characteristics to coal having a high calorific value, is moisture resistant And can be used as a direct drop in replacement for coal in power generation and yet is a carbon neutral fuel!

In recent years society has come to realise that global warming and climate change is a fact and is impacting dramatically on the population both physically and economically. Addressing climate Change is the world’s most urgent and vital challenge. Governments throughout the world are trying to address these challenges in a variety of different ways by promoting the use of biofuels, sustainable energy projects such as solar and wind, electric vehicles, and the introduction of Carbon Emission Taxes. These are all promising initiatives; however, we need to act very quickly in order to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Reducing and eventually eliminating our reliance on burning fossil fuels will help in this endeavour. However, the entire carbon output of all industry is dwarfed by the amount of carbon released by poorly managed forestry a recent report concludes: “decaying wood releases around 10.9 gigatons of carbon worldwide every year, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions. Co-author of the study professor David Lindenmayer from the Australian National University (ANU) says it’s the first-time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the Global Carbon Cycle.

"Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” professor Lindenmayer said. “we know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But up until now, we didn’t know what happens when those trees decompose. It turns out, it has a massive Impact.”

Ref: https://scitechdaily.Com/deadwood-releasing-10-9-gigatons-of-carbon-every-year-more-than- All-fossil-fuel-emissions-combined/amp

Powerwood Canada Corporation are developing their plant in Alberta to help address the carbon reduction plans put in place by the federal government of Canada and reinforced by provincial laws. Whereas Alberta Forestry oversees and manages the sustainable forests in Alberta extremely well and efficiently, unfortunately the region is frequently affected by wildfires. This is largely due to the vast temperature changes in the region combined with older trees and the practise of leaving thinning’s and waste on the forest floor during and post harvesting. In 2020 alone in Mackenzie County, Northern Alberta some 1,500 acres of forest was destroyed by wildfire! These trees have been left standing and will decay releasing both methane and carbon into the atmosphere contributing further to global warming!

A similar problem, although not yet prevalent in Alberta, which does affect neighbouring provinces such as British Columbia is the vast areas effected by “pine beetle” and other “bugs” that attack Forestry causing the deterioration and destruction of vast areas of forestry. Nature could, in the past, be relied upon over time to address this issue as these beetles cannot be destroyed by insecticide and are normally killed only by sustained (two weeks plus) of extremely low temperature (below 32 Degrees Celsius) which owing to global warming is not occurring. Thus, vast areas of “bug infested” forestry is destroyed and left to rot releasing carbon and other harmful greenhouse gasses.

Powerwood Canada Corporation (PWC) have the solution! Not only by creating the next generation carbon neutral biofuel but by harvesting and utilising the fire damaged and bug infested timbers PWC can reduce the carbon and GHG release and also reduce the risk of further wildfires. In fact, the Powerwood Canada Corporation solution of turning fire damaged and bug infested timbers into a second-generation coal replacement biofuel addresses many of the local environmental issues whilst dramatically reducing the release of carbon and harmful green house gases into the atmosphere. If society addressed the issues of forestry and “dead wood” by utilising the Powerwood Canada Corporation solution this would undoubtedly enable countries to achieve their ambitions of reaching zero carbon emissions and help us all address climate change both quickly and efficiently.

DAVID PETERS, CHAIRMAN/DIRECTOR

It is unquestioned today by the overwhelming majority of scientists that the rise in emissions of heat trapping greenhouse gases (GHG) over the last decades has had a considerable negative influence on climate change.

To counteract further rising temperatures the world needs to work together and redouble our efforts to reduce the burning of carbon-based fuels and increase the capacity of the natural “carbon store-houses”, mainly forests and wetlands, which have been dramatically reduced due to the irresponsible clearing of forests and draining and developing of wetlands. This degradation of soils accounts for one third of all the CO2 added to the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution!

The vicious circle - wildfires and beetle-infestation

The role of forests as oxygen- powerhouses and CO2-sinks is in great danger through the devastating increase in wildfires and insect- infestation that destroy vast areas of living forests, leaving them burned to stumps or dead. Left to rot and decompose over the decades this results in formerly climate- positive forests becoming deadwood that emits large amounts of CO2 and and the even more pollutive Methane gas being released into the atmosphere and the forest losing its carbon storage capacities.

The scope of the damage

An new study from the Australian National University has for the first time been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle: it found that decaying deadwood releases around 10.9 giga-tons of carbon worldwide every year, roughly the equivalent of 115% of the total volume of fossil fuel emissions.

Wildfires

On the average in Canada wildfires burn 2.5 million hectares per year, nearly half the size of Nova Scotia (or the size of Wales). Over the last five years there was a significant increase, which was mainly due to earlier spring snow melts which extended the number of weeks of dangerously dry conditions.

In 2019 the wildfires in Alberta alone destroyed 800,393.32 hectares, 5.5 times the size of the City of London, which is over 3.5 times more land-area than in the five-year average.

(Picture of wildfire)

Beetle Infestation

A study by the US Department of Agriculture shows that Bark-beetles negatively affect the capacity of forests as carbon-stores. These bugs account for 61% of the total tree loss over the last 19 years. As the climate warms further, the beetle’s habitat is expanding, which will likely lead to millions of more dead trees.

The mountain pine beetle, a small tree-devouring insect, has deforested over 130,000 km² in British Columbia, the size of England.

The five-millimetre insects bore through the bark of the trees, feed on the nutrients that are transported in the phloem from the roots to the leaves, the trees turn a tell-tale red and essentially starve to death, resulting in releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

A recent study in “Nature” has shown that the beetle plague has turned the British Columbia forests from a carbon sink into a massive carbon emitter. The scientists estimate that 990 mega tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2020, five times more than Canada‘s annual emission from transportation!

Meanwhile the beetles have reached Alberta, and have made it as far as Banff, Jasper and Kananaskis.

How the Powerwood Canada Corporation Canada plants can help mitigating the problem

The steam-or vapor-explosion technology, which is used in the Powerwood Canada Corporation Plants, is a thermo-mechanical process to break down the structural components of cellulose, which ruptures the rigid structures of the woody biomass fibers. The high temperature and pressure makes it possible to use all kinds of waste wood as feedstock, burnt wood as well as bug-infested trees.

For the first plant, the Peace River Plant, the vast areas of the wild fire damaged forests will be used, this way not only making use of the burnt tree stumps that otherwise would decay and pollute the atmosphere, but also making room for reforestation. Agreements with the owners of the forest-rights close to Paddle-Prairie, have already been secured. The amount of the supply of the burnt timber of the Paddle-Prairie area alone will be sufficient for 10 years of feedstock, with the adjacent burnt forest stretching for miles further north providing feedstock for decades.

For the beetle infested forest areas in British Columbia the first talks and discussions for location, government support, transport etc. have already been commenced. Given the vastness of the infested areas ( the size of England) it is planned to develop several locations.