Regulatory Promotion of Waste Wood Reused as an Energy Source and the Environmental Concerns about Ash Residue in the Industrial Sector of Taiwan

Wen-Tien Tsai
Additional contact information
Wen-Tien Tsai: Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan

Energies, 2012, vol. 5, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: The objective of this paper was to provide a preliminary analysis of the utilization of energy derived from waste wood in Taiwan, a highly industrialized country with a high dependence (over 99%) on imported energy. The discussion focuses on the status of waste wood generation and its management over the past decade. Findings show that the quantities of biomass waste collected for reuse purposes in the industrial sectors of Taiwan has exhibited an increasing trend, from about 4000 tons in 2001 to over 52,000 tons in 2010. Although waste wood can be reused as a fuel and raw material for a variety of applications based on regulatory promotion, the most commonly used end use is to directly utilize it as an auxiliary fuel in industrial utilities (e.g., boilers, heaters and furnaces) for the purpose of co-firing with coal/fuel oil. The most progressive measure for promoting biomass-to-power is to introduce the feed-in tariff (FIT) mechanism according to the Renewable Energy Development Act passed in June 2009. The financial support for biomass power generation has been increasing over the years from 0.070 US$/kWh in 2010 to 0.094 US$/kWh in 2012. On the other hand, the environmental regulations in Taiwan regarding the hazard identification of wood-combusted ash (especially in filter fly-ash) and its options for disposal and utilization are further discussed in the paper, suggesting that waste wood impregnated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and other copper-based preservatives should be excluded from the wood-to-energy system. Finally, some recommendations for promoting wood-to-energy in the near future of Taiwan are addressed.

Keywords: waste wood; reuse; waste-to-energy; regulatory promotion; wood ash; heavy metal (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: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/11/4390/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/11/4390/ (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:5:y:2012:i:11:p:4390-4398:d:21166

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 ().