Bioenergy

Wood has not only served as construction material since the beginning of mankind but it has also been one of its main sources of energy. Currently, Chile today fulfills 16% of its primary energy demand from forest biomass, of this, approximately 60% as firewood for household heating and cooking and 40% as industrial fuel. Unfortunately, both uses are made improperly, since firewood (in the industrial sawdust and bark) is used humid and heterogeneous and the combustion equipment are inadequate, causing a series of adverse consequences such as low energy efficiency, gaseous pollutant release and large generation of ash. This is contradictory to the fact that the use of forest biomass energy is in itself positive, since it is a renewable resource, with neutral cycle in terms of carbon dioxide release, sulfur nitrogen and heavy metals content of, and vast available. On that basis, UDT Bio-energy Area has raised the challenge of fostering the research, development and application of technology to reverse the negative effects shown nowadays.

In this context, CCTE-UDT focuses on the development and application of technologies, that avoid or mitigate the negative consequences of current fuel use of forest biomass, in the following lines of action:

• Standardized solid fuels
• Liquid fuels
• Gaseous fuels