Eucalyptus sp. WOODCHIP POTENTIAL FOR INDUSTRIAL THERMAL ENERGY PRODUCTION1

ABSTRACT The main objective of this work was to identify and analyze the potential of forest biomass of Eucalyptus sp. such as thermal energy source for industrial use in place of fossil fuels. Two cases were analyzed: the first one estimated the total demand for forest biomass to replace the main fossil fuels in Brazilian industrial sector, with scenarios of 100, 75 and 50% replacement; in the second, it was calculated the cost of each fuel for producing ton of industrial steam (thermal energy) for a dairy industry, in order to verify the competitiveness of forest biomass compared to fossil fuels. The results showed that the areas demanded to replace 100, 75 and 50% of the analyzed fossil fuels were, respectively, 2.9, 2.2 and 1.5 million planted forests hectares, and the steam ton cost ratio using the woodchips was at least 34% lower than with other fuels, which corroborates the substitution potential in this sector.摘要：本研究的核心目标为识别并分析桉树属（Eucalyptus sp.）森林生物质作为工业用替代化石燃料的热能来源的潜力。本研究共开展两类场景分析：第一类场景估算了巴西工业领域替代主流化石燃料所需的森林生物质总需求量，设置了100%、75%与50%的替代比例情景；第二类场景则针对某乳品工业生产每吨工业蒸汽（热能）的各类燃料成本进行核算，以验证森林生物质相较于化石燃料的竞争力。研究结果显示，分别替代100%、75%与50%所分析的化石燃料所需的人工林面积依次为290万、220万及150万公顷；且使用木片（woodchips）生产蒸汽的单位成本较其他燃料至少低34%，这证实了森林生物质在该工业领域的替代潜力。