Short Rotation Wood Crops in Latin American: A Review on Status and Potential Uses as Biofuel

Abstract

Studies related to biomass production, with a focus on energy uses for short-rotation woody crops (SRWCs), are limited in Latin America. The research that is available relates to a variety of tested SRWC species (50 species), however, the most important species are Populus, Salix, Eucalyptus, Acacia, and Gmelina arborea. In the existing studies, stocking densities varied from 1111 to 20,000 trees per hectare, with square or rectangular spacing. One important advantage of SRWC systems in this region, compared to most regions worldwide, is the predictability of biomass yields due to the tropical climate conditions of the majority of the Latin American countries. Rotations of three and four years can be projected to produce total biomass yields of 30–50 tons/ha, with increments of 10–20 tons/ha/yr. Fertilization is performed in SRWC with the aim of preventing soil degradation and maintaining further production. In regards to possible uses of biofuel generated from SRWC in Latin America, an inconvenience is that there are neither well-established harvesting systems nor conventional pre-treatments to process the biomass. Processes that are available in the region that use biomass from SRWC for energy production are gasification and pellet production. Other potential biofuel processes, such as torrefaction and biochemical conversion, are limited in this area.