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bioweb.sungrant.org » Technical » Biomass Resources » Forest Resources » Mill Residues » Black Liquor

Black Liquor	Printer Friendly

The U.S. forestry industry, in the process of harvesting and converting wood into consumer products, generates a number of residue and waste materials that could be used for bioenergy and bioproducts. Primary mills are those that convert roundwood products (i.e., tree trunks and logs) into other wood products and include sawmills that produce lumber, pulp mills, veneer mills, etc. In addition to wood residues generated in mill operations, pulp and paper mills also generate black liquor as a by-product of the kraft pulping process.    Most of the black liquor produced in pulp and paper mills is used by the paper mill to produce the heat, steam, and electricity used to run the mill. Excess electricity is sold in the electricity markets. The use of black liquor for the production of energy constitutes the largest component of existing bioenergy production. According to DOE, as of July 2006, 3,442 thousand megawatts of net electricity generation came from wood, black liquor, and other wood waste with 2,497 thousand megawatts from industrial firms (the paper industry) and the remaining from electric utilities and independent power producers (DOE, 2006).          Perlack (2005) estimates that current black liquor generation in the paper and pulp industry is 52.1 million dry tons and that black liquor quantities will increase by about 30 percent by mid-century.

References
General Bioenergy, Inc., November 9, 2005, Biomass wood resource assessment on a county-by-county basis for the state of Georgia, Prepared for the Georgia Forestry Commission and the Southern States Energy Board. Haynes, Richard W. (February 2003), An Analysis of the Timber Situation in the United States: 1952 to 2050, USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-560. Perlack, Robert D., Lynn L. Wright, Anthony F. Turhollow, Robin L. Graham, Bryce J. Stokes, and Donald C. Erbach (April 2005), Biomass as Feedstocks for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of A Billion-Ton Annual Supply, ORNL/TM-2005/66. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (October 2006), Electric Power Monthly.