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doi:10.3808/jei.202500528
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Potential of Substituting Softwood with Hardwood – A Resource-Based Analysis

V. Auer1,2 *, and P. Rauch2

  1. Technical University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Hochschulstraße 1, 83024 Rosenheim, Germany
  2. Institute of Production and Logistics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, Vienna 1180, Austria

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 (0)80301-805-2372. E-mail address: veronika.auer@th-rosenheim.de (V. Auer).

Abstract


With the rising demand for wood products and as more wood-based biorefineries enter the market, wood supply security is an increasingly pressing topic. However, the exact potential for hardwood in the market as well as its use as a substitute for softwood in production processes, remains unknown. Analyses such as multi-regional input-output, physical input-output, ex-post calculations, wood flow modelling, wood price calculations, and wood resource balance, provide a first, though rough, overview which is impaired by missing data, unresolved data contradictions, and an incomplete view of hardwood utilisation. Currently, hardwood flow models are lacking but are an essential basis for estimating hardwood supply. This paper introduces Material Flow Analysis (MFA) to evaluate hardwood flows in Germany and provides results which indicate that of 37% of the total hardwood harvested from forests are unrecorded with approximately 44% (of the total hardwood harvested) being used for direct energy utilisation (fresh fibre). Furthermore, the results of this study reveal that a considerable amount of potentially higher priced assortments are being used for energy purposes, meaning almost half of all high-quality hardwood being harvested is burnt. The MFA evaluated quality and quantity of the German hardwood potential and this revealed significant possibilities for value added production (e.g., innovative products in biorefineries using degraded highquality assortments). The methodology applied uncovered unrecorded hardwood fellings and allocated it to processing in order to systematically document and review the entire hardwood flow network within one data set, thus proving the suitability of MFA for this task.

Keywords: material flow analysis, hardwood flows, wood-based bioeconomy, hardwood value network, hardwood processing technologies, sankey-diagram


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