According to Joan Ruddock, Minister for Climate Change and Waste, “It has been estimated that recovering energy from 2m tonnes of waste wood could generate 2600GWh electricity and save 1.15m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, with greater benefits available by recovering heat as well as power. This is a huge potential resource that is being wasted.”

Waste wood arises from a wide variety of sources, in varying quantities and levels of purity. The main three areas in which waste wood arises are, Construction and Demolition (C&D), Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and from Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sources. A feature of waste wood arisings, particularly from C&D and MSW, is that both tonnages and sources are unpredictable and materials are often mixed with other types of waste. As such, there is uncertainty over the exact tonnage of waste wood arising in the UK. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that there are 10.6m tonnes of waste wood arising per year.

The significant carbon and energy benefits of recovering energy from waste wood have been highlighted in a number of recent publications, including the Waste Strategy for England 2007, in which waste wood was identified as one of a number of priority materials for action, the UK Biomass Strategy and the Energy White Paper. Biomass energy generation will have an important role to play in meeting the UK share of the 20% European Union (EU) renewable energy target. It has been estimated that recovering energy from 2m tonnes of waste wood could generate 2600GWh electricity and save 1.15m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, with greater benefits
available by recovering heat as well as power.

With the majority of waste wood arisings being contaminated, the key to realising this potential is greater Waste Incineration Directive (WID) compliant combustion facilities, says Defra in a Market Information Report published in April. A number of economic measures exist, and are being strengthened, to divert waste from landfill and, in the case of waste wood, into renewable energy markets. While aggregation points and supply chains for waste wood are in their infancy, these are expected to grow (as they are already doing) with better market knowledge, greater WID compliant combustion capacity with better geographical distribution, and stronger incentives for renewable energy.

The Government announced its plans to band the Renewables Obligation (RO) in May 2007, which significantly increases support for electricity generated from biomass such as waste wood. Further measures to boost renewable energy generation will be needed to meet the UK share of the EU renewables target.

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/pdf/wastewood-biomass.pdf