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Global Prospects of Substituting Oil by Biomass

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World Forests, Markets and Policies

Part of the book series: World Forests ((WFSE,volume 3))

Abstract

The 19th century’s industrial imperialism, the first wave of globalisation,was characterised by its growing demand for raw materials from tropical plantationsand natural forests. Some of the natural raw materials were later replaced by syntheticsubstitutes. The world’s industries are dependent upon fossil fuels, particularly onoil. The use of fossil fuels increases CO2 emissions and other wastes. This paper examinesthe role of forest biomass and new technologies in substituting the current pulpand paper and oil based chemical industries. Current technology based on linearproduction models produces wastes in all three phases: in exploiting resources, inprocessing, and in the product phase. A new system thinking and zero emission industrialcluster model is described. Zero emission clusters are based on recycling andreusing wastes in new processes. Biorefineries enable the comprehensive recycling ofwastes. Breakthrough technologies and case studies are presented. Steam explosionand solid state extrusion result in the reduction of both energy consumption andemissions by the processing of biomass. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation,based on genetically engineered bacteria, simplifies the fermentation process.Increasing the yield of furfural, processed from low-grade wood and agricultural wastesusing a two-step catalysis, has considerable potential.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC), 27 Dzerbenes St., LV-1006, Riga, Latvia

    Janis Gravitis (Professor)

  2. Institute of Advanced Studies (UNI/IAS), United Nations University, 53-70, Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Dr Tarcisio Della Senta

  3. Faculty of Forest Sciences, University of Chile, Santa Rosa 11315, La Pintana, Chile

    Javier González Molina (Professor)

  4. Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), Unioninkatu 40 A, FIN-00170, Helsinki

    Matti Palo (Professor)

  5. WFSE, c/o Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), Unioninkatu 40 A, FIN-00170, Helsinki, Finland

    Erkki Lehto

  6. Dept. of Social Science History, University of Helsinki, PO Box 54, FIN-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland

    Riitta Hjerppe (Professor)

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  1. Janis Gravitis
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  2. Dr Tarcisio Della Senta
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  3. Javier González Molina
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  4. Matti Palo
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  5. Erkki Lehto
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  6. Riitta Hjerppe
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Matti Palo Jussi Uusivuori Gerardo Mery

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Gravitis, J., Senta, T.D., Molina, J.G., Palo, M., Lehto, E., Hjerppe, R. (2001). Global Prospects of Substituting Oil by Biomass. In: Palo, M., Uusivuori, J., Mery, G. (eds) World Forests, Markets and Policies. World Forests, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0664-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0664-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7171-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0664-4

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