Residual Forest Biomass in Pinus Stands: Accumulation and Biogas Production Potential

Alexandros Eftaxias, Evangelia Anna Passa, Christos Michailidis, Christodoulos Daoutis, Apostolos Kantartzis and Vasileios Diamantis
Additional contact information
Alexandros Eftaxias: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GR67132 Xanthi, Greece
Evangelia Anna Passa: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GR67132 Xanthi, Greece
Christos Michailidis: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GR67132 Xanthi, Greece
Christodoulos Daoutis: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, GR68200 Orestiada, Greece
Apostolos Kantartzis: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, GR68200 Orestiada, Greece
Vasileios Diamantis: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, GR67132 Xanthi, Greece

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-11

Abstract: Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant resource that can be valorized for the production of bioenergy. However, studies aiming to quantify the amount of biogas production potential per km forest road are scarce in the literature. In this study, fresh pine needles, pine needle litter, pine branches, and pine bark were digested in batch reactors under mesophilic conditions after a grinding/milling pre-treatment. All samples were collected from a low-altitude Mediterranean Pinus forest (North Greece) adjacent to a category G forest road with a gentle slope. The methane yield of fresh pine needles was between 115 and 164 NmL g −1 volatile solids (VS), depending on the Pinus tree size. Pine needle litter produced a significantly lower methane yield (between 58 and 77 NmL g −1 VS), followed by pine bark (85 NmL g −1 VS) and pine branches (138 NmL g −1 VS). Considering the quantity of pine needle litter accumulated on adjacent forest roads (600 ± 200 g m −2 ), it was possible to calculate the biomethane production potential per km of forest road (up to 500 Nm 3 km −1 ) if the biomass collected was disposed of at an anaerobic digestion facility. The results of the study demonstrate that residual forest biomass represents an additional resource for bioenergy production. Moreover, harvesting residual forest biomass can decrease the incidence of devastating summer forest fires and their disastrous consequences for the environment, the economy, and the local populations.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biogas; pine needles; pine bark; pine branch; forest biomass; forest road; lignocellulosic biomass; forest fires (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5233/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5233/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:14:p:5233-:d:866431

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().