A synopsis of the wood-based energy and heating industries in the northeastern United States with consideration of potential impacts on future demand for roundwood

Author: Wiedenback, Jan; Ray, Chuck D.; Ma, Li.; 

Date: 2011

Source: In: Fei, Songlin; Lhotka, John M.; Stringer, Jeffrey W.; Gottschalk, Kurt W.; Miller, Gary W., eds. Proceedings, 17th central hardwood forest conference; 2010 April 5-7; Lexington, KY; Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-78. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 559-569.

Publication Series: General Technical Report - Proceedings

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Description: The project team identified 323 facilities in the northeastern United States that input pulpwood or "energy wood." Of these, 88 are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, part of the central hardwood forest region. In the 13-state northeastern region, 81 percent of the facilities that use pulp-type roundwood produce an energy-related product. For the three states that are part of the central hardwood forest, 75 percent of the facilities are in business to produce an energy product while the other 25 percent produce a more traditional product (e.g., pulp, oriented strand board). The 323 operations identified in the Northeast potentially consume 40.6 million tons (50-percent moisture content) of wood per year, of which 12.5 million tons is consumed in the three central hardwood states. Forest resource concentrations and levels of industrialization suggest that collection of data on future woody biomass demand be focused on five key states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania. Small-scale bioenergy projects pose no real threat of significantly reducing the general supply of woody biomass in the Northeast. The ongoing decline in pulp and paper production together with the apparent decline in other traditional woody biomass-using industries, will relieve the pressure on the woody biomass resource. Assuming a normal and expected evolution of events, woody biomass consumption in the region will increase by roughly 25 percent over the next decade. The variable that could most affect the woody biomass resource is the future direction of electricity production from wood and co-firing of wood in coal power plants, especially in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

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Citation:

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Wiedenback, Jan; Ray, Chuck D.; Ma, Li. 2011. A synopsis of the wood-based energy and heating industries in the northeastern United States with consideration of potential impacts on future demand for roundwood. In: In: Fei, Songlin; Lhotka, John M.; Stringer, Jeffrey W.; Gottschalk, Kurt W.; Miller, Gary W., eds. Proceedings, 17th central hardwood forest conference; 2010 April 5-7; Lexington, KY; Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-78. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 559-569.

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