INESC TEC’s work on the better use of forest biomass for energy production

INESC TEC’s work on the better use of forest biomass for energy production

A team of INESC TEC’s Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE) has been deepening aspects related to the optimisation of forest biomass supply chain.

21st December 2018

A team of INESC TEC’s Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE), who has been deepening aspects related to the optimisation of forest biomass supply chains that is associated to different types of use, held a work meeting on 22 October in Mortágua with the company Floresta Jovem. This initiative, which is integrated in GOTECFOR - Operating Group of the National Rural Network - is funded by the Rural Development Programme (PDR2020).

This meeting, which allowed to visit some ongoing operations, aimed to identify and to characterise the logistic processes of the collection, processing and transport of the forest biomass for energy production in order to apply it to a case study of heating glasshouses for the flower production.

The optimisation of the logistic processes associated with the mobilisation of forest biomass as well as the need to diversify its use as an energy source is currently one of the main aspects for implementing the measures foreseen in the several national and European plans, which aim at increasing the renewable energy production from the forest biomass. This issue is also related to the need to reduce the structural risk of wildland fires and to foster the development of the less favoured regions of the Interior.

Alexandra Marques, Ricardo Soares, Reinaldo Gomes and Jorge Cunha from CESE and Ricardo Reis from the Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS) represented INESC TEC. João Mendes and Rui Matos represented the company Floresta Jovem.

Other initiatives are under way aiming at contributing with new knowledge and innovation in an area that has been insufficiently researched in Portugal, even though it is important for the viability and competitiveness of the forest sector. These initiatives are part of a line of work entitled “biomass supply optimization”, which has several projects namely the FOCUS – Advances in Forestry Control and Automation Systems in Europe - project funded by FP7; the EasyFlow - A Collaborative Platform for coordinating the logistics in the forest-based supply chain towards sustainability - project funded by FCT; and the BIOTECFOR - Biobusiness and Technology for the efficient valorisation of endogenous forest resources in the North of Portugal and Galicia - project funded by the programme Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal 2014-2020 (POCTEP).


The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC.