Du to financial pressures, the selection of areas for harvest generally tends to be biased towards the most accessible and most valuable forest stands, often to maximize lumber production. This can lead to a depletion of the resource over time, to an extent where the application of state-of-the-art silvicultural treatments can become no longer financially viable. To overcome this issue and rehabilitate depleted forests, value-added processing pathways are required that use so-called “unloved-woods” as a supply source. I will present the main outcomes of different studies showing how bioenergy products can represent promising processing pathways to help “fuel” the rehabilitation of depleted forests. Results demonstrates that 1) there are large amounts of undervalued biomass currently available for harvest in Quebec and 2) value-added bioenergy products are required for the solution to be financially viable. This calls for the development of new collaborations between scientists specializing in the biomass supply chain and in the development of value-added bioenergy products.
Pr Alexis Achim Director of Laval University’s Renewable Materials Research Center
The seminar will take place on Friday, October 16th at 11:00 am, to access the presentation online please contact Maricelly Martinez Aguilar at maricelly.martinez.aguilar@usherbrooke.ca