In the process of discussing the carbon footprint, very little attention is paid to the production of green energy from biofuels, namely from bark and wood waste (BWW) generated during the deep processing of wood, such as: bark, wood chips, sawdust, dust from grinding and etc. Utilization of this waste for the purpose of generating electricity is a technology with zero carbon footprint. The point is not that when fuel is burned, carbon dioxide is not emitted, but that a balance is maintained between the amount of CO2 consumed by trees during their life, and the amount of CO2 emitted when burning wood fuel. That is why the technology of combustion of biomass (wood waste, agricultural waste) is a technology with a zero carbon footprint. Thus, burning wood waste does not increase the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmos-phere, when all other things being equal
Therefore, the question of the expediency of investing in boilers operating on BWW for the pulp and paper industry should disappear. YES, you need to invest! Even due to the fact that it is planned to expand the list of taxable products and may include pulp and paper products. There are already requests from the EU to the producers of paper and cardboard in the Russian Federation to confirm the existing technology for compliance with the zero carbon footprint policy. Similar re-quests for compliance with "green" energy can be received by all timber processing enterprises, namely: the production of wood-based panels (plywood, chipboard, OSB), the production of logs, etc. This is especially true for companies focused on the European market.
Yes, it is true, “green” energy is quite expensive, but the production of electricity from bio-fuels in most cases is highly profitable, i.e. payback. And as an additional factor of payback when evaluating a project, it is necessary to take into account either the possible loss of the European market, or the payment of a cross-border carbon tax. Depending on the share of exports of products, these factors can be decisive in calculating the payback of the project. This is true for all enterprises engaged in deep processing of wood, due to the need to utilize waste in the production of finished products, but what should the enterprises of heavy industry do that do not have this waste for processing (metallurgy, cement, mineral fertiliz-ers)? In my opinion, in this case, it becomes possible to purchase "green certificates" from wood-processing enterprises, which for the latter will also be an additional factor in the payback of projects that will be able to lay down the production of electricity, when implementing new energy projects, in the maximum volume, even more. Their needs, precisely for the is-suance of this kind of "green" certificates. Moreover, according to European experience, the cost of electricity according to the certificate data can be higher than a simple supply of electricity to the grid.
You can also consider the emergence of collaborations / associations between heavy industry enterprises (metallurgy, cement industry) and timber industry, with the aim of investing in individual energy projects. For example, as we can see, the cross-border tax on metallurgists can be up to 1.1 billion euros per year. And for this amount, you can invest in the construc-tion of 40 new biofuel thermal power plants Wellons (TPP), with the possibility of a total generation of up to ~ 1000 MW of electricity. Wellons (USA) is the only company in the world that has the knowledge and skills of all biofuel combustion tech-nologies and manufactures boilers with a unit heating capacity from 5 to 300 MW. For example, one of the first projects in the Russian Federation was a project to build a boiler for the disposal of sludge in the pulp and paper industry at Solikam-skbumprom JSC, which has been operating trouble-free for more than 20 years since 2000, providing the generation of “green” electricity.
This example shows what can be done with investments from only one year of future cross-border tax payments. Why invest huge annual sums in the "green" energy of the European Union, when, with greater efficiency and benefit, you can invest in the development of your own business, while increasing your responsibility and participation in the process of re-ducing greenhouse gas emissions. Become an environmentally responsible company, descendants will thank you.
A more detailed analysis of the reasons for the introduction of a cross-border tax is described in the article "WELLONS AND THE GREEN RULES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION"