Woody Bio Fuel

The volume of forest residue from logging activities in Malaysia is very valuable but remains largely untapped.As the woody bio fuel has become an alternative to petrol, logging residues are an important source for biomass. 

 

Forest residues are defined as wood pieces 10 cm and above in diameter, generated by construction of forest roads, skid trails and landings, felling, skidding and transportation. They originated from the felled trees and trees damaged or overthrown during the logging operations.

 

The residues can roughly be divided into the following groups:

   i.           High stumps

   ii.          Stem section above first branches (top log)

   iii.        Branches

   iv.         Off-cuts, rotten log parts

   v.          Trees broken or severely damaged in the crown

   vi.        Trees severely damaged (butt trunk and root damaged)

   vii.       Splintered trees and logs

   viii.      Logs, lost down and not recovered

Significant volumes of forest residues are left in the concession area after logging.

According to the Malaysia-DANCED bilateral project “Study On Extraction and Processing of Forest Residues and Small Dimension Logs” on the basis of the Government Agreement signed between Denmark and Malaysia in December 1996, based on the current logging and extraction methods, the volume of forest residues is about 2 times the volume of logs removed from the area.

Approx 1/3 of the wood residues originates from the felled trees and the rest originates from residual trees are either destroyed or damaged during logging and extraction.

The calculation of the estimated volume of biomass (forest) residue from logging activities thus is as follows:

Volume of biomass (forest) residue from logging activities in the year 2011 is 8343942 m3. (Total log production in the year 2011 is 4171971(m3) x 2 = 8343942 m3).