Technical Note SB09: Where does wood fuel come from?

Wood fuel is a common name for solid biofuel because of the large amount of biomass from wood that is processed into making a biofuel. For a full description of the full range of solid biofuels see Technical Guide 1 “Solid biofuel classification guidelines”.

New Zealand is fortunate to have perfect growing conditions for trees and has a significant ‘traditional’ forestry industry focused on the growth of radiata pine largely to serve export markets. This forestry industry is the key source of wood fuel in New Zealand. In Australia there is a much wider range of sources of biomass.

Increasingly its likely that landowners will wish to maximize the return from their land and will consider growing dedicated fuel crops in addition to their traditional agricultural or horticultural business activities through integrated land use. In addition, as sustainability is now a factor in all smart energy and environmental decisions, waste wood and demolition timber are increasingly providing opportunities as fuel sources.