Making more effective use of forest resources

Mid Sweden University's EU project The forest as a resource. Extreme paper and pulp production is a tree that branches out into many side projects. It covers the whole chain of issues relating to the forest industry and associated industries in the region. The purpose is to develop competitive technology for pulp production and environmental forestry.

The aim is for its sub-projects to result in system solutions that are more productive than today. When the industry incorporates this knowledge and the new technology developed in these projects, this will be an opportunity to start new businesses and increase employment in the region.

Energy-efficient production

Today a mechanical pulp plant consumes 250 MW per year, almost as much energy as a quarter of a nuclear reactor. In the Extreme Pulp Production sub-project researchers are looking at energy efficiency in all phases of production. Swedish and Japanese pulp production are being compared in the area of operability. In Japan paper-making machines stop a few times a month. In Sweden they stop several times a day, which is costly in terms of energy consumption and productivity.

In final felling when branches and treetops also leave the growth area, it used to be thought that the biotope becomes low in nutrients, especially minerals. Researchers in the sub-project on the Production Capacity of Forest Land have concluded that tree roots live in symbiosis with fungi and can themselves compensate for the nutrient loss. So it may be possible to scrap the Swedish Forest Agency recommendation to spread ash at every final felling when branches and treetops are removed.

Elks that harm young pines are a curse to forestry. Now researchers in the sub-project Smell and taste repellants for sustainable control of forest animals and pests have identified a natural substance that elks detest and that sticks to trees. The same substance keeps roe deer away from fruit trees in gardens and prevents horses from chewing posts.

Sexual pheromones

The researchers are also working on preventing insect damage to trees. This involves the natural smell attractants, sexual pheromones, that only tempt the right species into traps. These methods can also be used as early prevention to ensure that foreign forest pests spreading to Sweden on account of the milder climate do not become established here.