The financial viability of artificial drying of forest chips, a case study from Northern Finland

The generation of energy from biomass has a relevant role in current international strategies to mitigate climate change. Particularly forest biomass is considered to be one of the leading renewable energy sources in European Union (EU) in the next few decades. Thus, every innovative solution contributing towards meeting the long-term renewable targets is called for. This study tackled a new approach: artificial drying of forest chips by applying the reserve heat from district-heating loop. We focused on estimating the effect of using an artificial drying system in a container on the financial incentives of heat entrepreneurs. Traditional forest fuel supply chain was compared to a fast forest fuel supply chain in which artificial drying was applied. In this study a heat entrepreneur is financially responsible for all the costs related to both forest fuel supply chains. A break-even price for energy used for artificial drying was determined so that the fast forest fuel supply chain would equal the traditional forest fuel supply chain in monetary terms, i.e. profitability. The case study covered seven end-use facilities located in Northern Finland and presenting an entity of app. 13–14 Gigawatt hours, GWh produced per annum. The results of financial analysis indicated that artificial drying of forest chips is financially viable for the heat entrepreneur if the productivity of the container exceeds ca. 3.6 dried bulk-m3 hour−1, given the observed moisture content (before and after artificial drying) in test runs. However, the results were considerably sensitive to the energy price of delivered stem chips (euros per Megawatt hour, € MWh−1). Furthermore, new technical solutions to increase the productivity of the container are welcomed since at the current productivity level (range from 2.5 to 3.6 bulk-m3 hour−1) artificial drying is barely financially attractive for a heat entrepreneur.