- Production, supply, and practical use of woody biomass -

ABSTRACT Wood biomass including forest resi dues, waste wood, and construction residuals has been widely gen-erated in Korea, but forest biomass from the National Forest Management Operation Project plays a big role in generating wood biomass. Unfortunately the promotion policy of woody energy organized by the Forest Service in Korea concentrates more on demand creation rather than on supply expansion. Therefore, in order to utilize insufficient wood resour ces effectively, it is greatly required to develop uses for maximizing their added value. In particular, more attention to the use of the second generation bio-mass has been paid in foreign countries because there is a threshold that the first generation biomass can-not produce enough biofuel without threatening food su pplies and biodiversity. In Korea, wood pellets are regarded as the alternative clean fuels to oils and coals that emit green house gases into the atmosphere. However, using wood as pellet raw materials can not be an economic way because the value of wood disappears right after burning in the boiler in spite of its contribution to the decrease of carbon emission. Differently from wood pellets, kraft pul ping process using woody biomass produces black liq-uor as a by-product which can be used to generate electricity, bioenergy and biochemicals through gasification. Thus, it can be more economical to make a torrefaction of lignocellulosic biomass such as low-quality wood and agricultural leftovers as raw materials of pellets.