The Forest Refine project – development of efficient forest biomass supply chains for biorefineries

The need for energy is continuously increasing globally, due to e.g. increases in industrialization and population. Unfortunately, petroleum is in danger of becoming short in supply within coming decades. In this paper existing and planned biorefinery initiatives in Sweden and Finland are identified and described. Standing volumes, annual growth and harvested volumes of forests in Sweden and Finland are described together with an overview of forest biomass supply chains. Raw material quality demands of biorefineries may differ from those of traditional forest industries and energy plants and efficient supply chains for the provision of biorefineries with forestry biomass have to be designed and developed. The Forest Refine project is a Swedish/Finnish cross-border co-operation working to improve the whole forest supply chain. The participants have comprehensive knowledge about biorefining, forest energy supply chains and traditional forest supply chains.