B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger

Carbon Pools in Wooden Products

and Substitution Effects

Bernhard Zimmer and Hannes Schwaiger

COST Action E9,Final Conference in Hamburg, 29th of November

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Content

• Background

• Carbon sinks and carbon pools

• LCA – a method to calculate carbon pools

• Carbon pool „wood and wood products“

• Conclusion

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Background

• The important role of forests and their inherent potentials does not receive adequate recognition at international and national levels.

• So far, the protection and economic use of forests and the importance of wood utilisation and wood use in the context of sustainability have not found sufficient consideration, nor has been translated into concerted political action.

• The same goes for the contributions of forests, forestry and wood towards the fulfilment of the Kyoto-commitments.

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Aim and Scope

• Present LCA methodology as a tool to estimate the carbon pools of wooden products

• Show the link between „LCA on Forestry and Forest Products“ and the climate change discussion

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Carbon Pools and Annual Flows

data according to Houghton (1997) and Schulze (2000)

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Wood and Timber Utilisation

• 3.6 billion cubic metres of timber are currently being used per year;

• almost half of this amount is used in wooden products and not directly as fuelwood;

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Life Span of Wooden Products

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Carbon Pool „Wood Products“

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• Forest destruction every year also signifies the loss of about 3.7 billion cubic metres of wood that is no longer available for material use nor for controlled use as an energy resource.

• In the final essence, this causes the release of about 1 Gt carbon per year from the destruction of wood mass alone.

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Carbon Pool „Wood Products“

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LCA, tool to estimate carbon pools

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The cradle of a wooden product is the forest

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Composition of Wood

One ton of woodotro:

500 kg carbon

430 kg oxygen

60 kg hydrogen

10 kg other elements

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Wood production through photosynthesis

Photosynthesis:

6 CO2 + 12 H2O      C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O

Theoretical approachto the calculation of material flows in the wood formation process:

8,4 CO2 + 12 H2O  C8,4H12O5,4 + 8,7 O2 + 6 H2O

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wood productionthrough

photosynthesis

solar energy

19100 MJ

water

nutrientsN, P, K, Mg, Ca

water541 kg

oxygen

1392 kg

wood atro(softwood)

1000 kg

water1082 kg

carbon dioxide1851 kg

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Forestry

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Roundwood

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Transports

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Sawn timber

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LVL – Laminated Veneer Lumber

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GWP for production of 1 m³ LVL (Kerto)

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GWP for the production of a timber frame building (Haas)

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Conclusion

• LCA is a valuable tool to calculate the carbon pools in products on condition that carbon dioxide is included as a elementary flow;

• Therefore wood cannot be assessed as CO2-neutral and all CO2-emissions have to be mentioned in the GWP-Calculation

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B. Zimmer / H. Schwaiger

Thank you very much for your attention