Carbon CredentialsCarbon Credentials
Renewable Plantation Forestry
Renewable plantation forestry is recognised as a method of removing atmospheric carbon pollution and is a growing component of the global effort to combat climate change.
The solid wood sectors are an energy user and producer of renewable energy from forest and sawmill residues. Sawn timber stores carbon while in use and has significantly lower global warming potential than competing building materials such as concrete and steel.
BioForest
She-oak plantation material will be processed as a renewable biomass substitute for traditional energy sources such as coal in a process known as co-firing.
Co-firing raw plantation biomass represent ‘net zero' carbon emission for the energy produced and as such are an attractive fuel source for traditional thermal power generators; in order to reduce net carbon pollution and to meet renewable energy targets.
Ethanol Technologies
In conventional ethanol production, energy consumption is high due to the need to distil the ethanol from the fermentation broth at the end of the process. This step also produces large amounts of liquid effluent.
The Ethtec process reduces the energy consumption by replacing the conventional distillation step with a low-energy phase separation technology, which also allows for recycling of the water component back to earlier phases - eliminating liquid effluent.
The process uses approximately half the energy per litre of ethanol produced, compared with modern vapour recompression distillation processes and there are further energy savings by eliminating the need for liquid effluent treatment.
The Ethtec technology also provides the capability for the plant to be a net exporter of energy by combusting in a cogeneration process the lignin and flocculated solids produced at the end of the process. This would produce "green electricity" as an added bonus. Alternatively, and subject to prevailing markets, the lignin and/or flocculated solids can be utilised as agricultural fertilizer or for the production of other value-added products.