Wood ash recycling planning tool

The cost of returning ashes to the forest is high. Attempts have so far been made to find cheaper solutions and find new use areas for the ashes. The Wood ash recycling planning tool that is developed in CEforestry will help sawmills (but also other producers of pure wood ash) to identify to which forest site they could return the ash and also help them plan all the available resources needed for returning the ash at a specific location. Based on the wood ash analysis sheets that we have seen in the project and research in the partner countries, we recommend that the wood ash that is produced is spread in drained peatlands. To locate drained peatlands please refer to the sawmill map that is produced earlier in the project (https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/ceforestry/#output-0). Consult with the authorities before the wood ash recycling operation.

Very well managed biomass and ash handling could make ash utilization as fertilizer a much more attractive alternative. The Wood ash recycling planning tool is an excel-based online tool where one can input the amount and quality of the ash that is produced by a specific facility. The outcome would be an estimation of the costs for three different methods of spreading. The Wood ash recycling planning tool should be used when wood ash is planned to be spread to the forest in order to get an idea of the costs. The tool will contribute in resolving the issues on utilization of the ash produced during processing of unutilized forestry biomass residues. By facilitating the use of wood ash as a forest soil amendment in forest soils in the Baltic Sea Region, we achieve a sustainable utilization of forestry side streams.

As an addition to the tool, we have subtitled two short films (that are produced by external organisations) that show how wood ash recycling is performed by a modified forest machine and a drone system.

Wood ash recycling through a modified forest machine

Wood ash recycling with drones (English), (Polish), (Lithuanian), (Latvian), (Finnish), (Swedish)

Programme Manual Online

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