ABSTRACT
The forest products industry utilizes residual material from trees to processes. The trend is toward replacement of natural gas, oil, and coal by produce steam, hot air, electricity, and combustible gas for its various wood-derived biomass as well as self-generation of the electrical requirement. This trend suggests a doubling of wood biomass use from 2 to 4 quads from 1980 to 2000. It will be shown that in a managed conifer plantation system at steady state there is a slight excess of energy over production requirements. Technology improvements in harvesting and energy production make residual biomass the vehicle of economic choice in most instances. In the United States, short-rotation hardwood plantations may eventually be used by the industry as a source of pulp chips, but not primarily for energy.
