A Forest Enterprise from the Future

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La Foresta Soc. Coop. is the perfect example of how a forest enterprise will look in the future. Investment, that were driven by necessity and were focused on education and knowledge, helped this cooperative company to survive during harsh times and to grow as big as it is now. “We set ourselves as first and the only interlocutor in the biomass and heating plants’ sector, here in the Susa Valley; now we’re spreading our knowledge, gained over the past years, all over Italy transferring our knowledge and making new, crucial networks” states Giorgio Talachini La Foresta’s director and owner.

La Foresta Soc. Coop. is a 25 years old company that started as a normal forest cooperative company that used to produce timber and to do forestry jobs in public and private lands working with public procurements. But it hasn’t been always easy for the Talachini’s cooperative company. In fact, he continues saying: “When the public procurement went down, we lost a big share of our income and we decided to invest all we had left to learn everything about plants engineering and installations. Now, more than 10 years later, I can say that those investments definitely payed off”.

To date, only a 20% of the activities carried on by the cooperative can be defined as timber production and forestry jobs and for the remaining 80% of their activities, they’re dealing with woody biomass for energy purposes and all the aspects related to the sector. In fact, they’re managing a total of 20 heating plants all over Italy, all supplied by local forest enterprises, making the entire process economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. In addition, they’re directly responsible for the supply of wood chips of a fair share of plants that are nearby the cooperative headquarter, in Susa (TO) right in the middle of the homonymous Valley, reducing the transport within a radius of 35 km.

In 2012 the company started to sell the wood chips as energy using the energy contracting sale method, becoming the second company in Europe to use this energy sale method using certified wood coming from sustainable forestry. Now, after almost 10 years of experience gained in the sector, they’re able to provide services to other companies interested in this kind of sale method and plants, providing also their readymade and easy-to-install heating systems.

Talachini’s flagship is the Pomaretto’s heating plant that heats up the Pomaretto’s city hospital, the town hall and several other buildings. The total output is 600 kW and it’s fully fuelled by local wood chips. The cooperative company La Foresta created a brand-new limited liability partnership exclusively for this project involving the local forest enterprise that is responsible of the supply of the woody biomass, within 30km distance and is owner of one third the entire facility.

La Foresta Soc. Coop. is now a leading company in the biomass heating sector and is already projected into the future.

About the campaign

The campaign is powered by Bioenergy Europe and relayed across Europe by both national and international partners supporting the belief that bioenergy is more than a renewable energy source, it is also a reliable path that will lead Europe to achieve its renewable energy transition in the shortest span of time.

Solid Biomass Conversion Processes

Logging, grinding, screening and drying operations are mechanical processes for enhancing solid biomass fuels. These operations help transform biomass into homogeneous fuel that is easy to handle, with a higher energy recovery (eg. woodchips, wood logs, agrofuel). In general, moisture content in woodchips used for energy generation in municipal or industrial plants ranges between 20-30%.

Densification is another popular way to transform woody material into an advanced fuel with high calorific value. This process involves compressing biomass and lowering moisture levels to a range of 8-10%, allowing for an homogenous fuel – either in the form of pellets or briquettes. The heat during compression fuses the lignin in the biomass, naturally binding the biomass together in a new, enhanced shape. Thanks to densification, the homogenous biomass fuel is easier to transport and can be used in automated biomass installations, such as pellet stoves and boilers.

Thermo-chemical conversions are now used to produce fuel with even higher calorific value, utilising torrefaction or steam explosion technologies. During the torrefaction process, wood is subjected to temperatures of 230°C-300°C at atmospheric pressure without oxygen. Comparable to some extent to coffee torrefaction, this method creates a fuel with unique characteristics. As compared to conventional wood, torrefied wood has very low (>5%) moisture content, is easily grindable and is relatively hydrophobic.

Thanks to advanced technologies, woody biomass can also produce liquid and gaseous fuels. Pyrolysis, for instance, is a thermal-chemical conversion that requires a high temperature (>400°C) and little oxygen to convert solid biomass into gas, liquid fuels (pyrolysis oil) and/or biochar. Gasification is another thermo-chemical conversion that takes place at high temperatures (>800°C), with limited oxygen and/or steam, and converts solid biomass into synthesis gas, known as syngas – which contains carbon and hydrogen and can be used to produce liquid fuels such as biodiesel.

Wet Biomass Conversion Processes

Wet biomass is present in high volume across Europe (manure, agricultural waste and by-products). As it contains too much moisture to be converted efficiently into energy via a direct combustion process, other conversion pathways and energy outputs have been developed by the biogas (eg. anaerobic digestion) and biofuel sectors (eg. fermentation). Anaerobic digestion and fermentation are the two main conversion pathways used for converting wet biomass feedstock into advanced fuel.

Anaerobic digestion is the microbiological process of decomposition of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen, and is common to many natural environments; it is largely applied today in order to produce biogas in airproof reactor tanks, commonly referred to as digesters. A wide range of micro-organisms are involved in the anaerobic process which has two main end products: biogas and digestate. Biogas is a combustible gas consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases and trace elements. Biogas can be used in direct combustion to produce heat, but also power if converted within a cogeneration plant or in adapted gas motors. Biogas can also be upgraded via purification processes to a biomethane that can be injected into the existing natural gas networks, used as a chemical product and/or vehicle fuel. Digestate is the decomposed substrate, rich in macro- and micro-nutrients and therefore suitable for use as plant fertiliser.

Fermentation is a biochemical conversion whereby microorganisms, including yeast and bacteria, convert matter into products such as ethanol and liquid transport fuel (biodiesel). This process is done in several stages. First, sugary and starchy feedstock such as corn must be crushed and combined with water, allowing enzymes to convert this starch into sugar. This ferments along with the addition of yeast and is distilled into bioethanol. Bioethanol can also be produced from cellulosic biomass, such as grass, wood and stalks, via fermentation; however, this process is more complex and involves a mechanical pre-treatment and the addition of enzymes, or the breakdown of the lignocellulose into sugar through hydrolysis, followed by the same procedure.

Solid bioenergy feedstock

Renewables represent 8,0% of EU-27 total energy consumption (22.473 kilotonnes of oil equivalent) in transportation, of which 68% is provided by biofuels in 2018. It is rather challenging to foresee how biofuels (in particular first-generation biofuels) will continue to develop, since recent EU legislation established a quota for these biofuels. EU statistics on renewables in transportation can also be misleading regarding the actual level of production, because multiple counting rules are applied in accordance with the EU renewable energy directive. Looking at it in more detail, the biofuel market is driven by biodiesel and bioethanol. Biodiesel was the first biofuel developed and used in the EU in the transport sector in the 1990s. EU-27 remains the world’s largest biodiesel producer and it consumed 13,303 Ktoe in 2018. By comparison, bioethanol consumption in 2018 reached 2,620 Ktoe for an actual production of 2,365 Ktoe (Biofuels Report, 2020).

Bioenergy comes in all shapes and sizes

Within our close environment, a great source of organic materials such as plants, algae, or organic wastes, can be valuable fuels as soon as a technology makes it possible to efficiently extract all of its energy potential. Bioenergy players traditionally refer to biomass to describe those usable feedstocks. Biomass currently used in Europe includes wood from forests, agricultural crops and residues, by-products from the wood and agricultural industry, herbaceous and woody energy crops, municipal organic wastes and manure, and could potentially integrate algae and marine biomass in the future.

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