Carbon Pools in Wooden Products
and Substitution Effects
Bernhard Zimmer and Hannes Schwaiger
COST Action E9,
Final Conference in Hamburg, 29th of November
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Content
• Background
• Carbon sinks and carbon pools
• LCA – a method to calculate carbon pools
• Carbon pool „wood and wood products“
• Conclusion
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Background
• The important role of forests and their inherent
potentials does not receive adequate recognition at
international and national levels.
• So far, the protection and economic use of forests and
the importance of wood utilisation and wood use in the
context of sustainability have not found sufficient
consideration, nor has been translated into concerted
political action.
• The same goes for the contributions of forests, forestry
and wood towards the fulfilment of the Kyotocommitments.
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Aim and Scope
• Present LCA methodology as a tool to estimate the
carbon pools of wooden products
• Show the link between „LCA on Forestry and Forest
Products“ and the climate change discussion
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Carbon Pools and Annual Flows
data according to Houghton (1997) and Schulze (2000)
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Wood and Timber Utilisation
• 3.6 billion cubic metres of timber are currently being
used per year;
• almost half of this amount is used in wooden products
and not directly as fuelwood;
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Life Span of Wooden Products
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Carbon Pool „Wood Products“
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• Forest destruction every year also signifies the loss of
about 3.7 billion cubic metres of wood that is no longer
available for material use nor for controlled use as an
energy resource.
• In the final essence, this causes the release of about 1
Gt carbon per year from the destruction of wood mass
alone.
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Carbon Pool „Wood Products“
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LCA, tool to estimate carbon pools
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The cradle of a wooden product is the
forest
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Composition of Wood
One ton of woodotro:
500 kg carbon
430 kg oxygen
 60 kg hydrogen
 10 kg other elements
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Wood production through photosynthesis
Photosynthesis:
6 CO2 + 12 H2O

C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O
Theoretical approach
to the calculation of material flows in the wood formation
process:
8,4 CO2 + 12 H2O

C8,4H12O5,4 + 8,7 O2 + 6 H2O
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carbon
dioxide
1851 kg
solar energy
19100 MJ
water
water
1082 kg
wood production
through
photosynthesis
water
541 kg
oxygen
1392 kg
nutrients
N, P, K, Mg, Ca
wood atro
(softwood)
1000 kg
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Forestry
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Roundwood
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Transports
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Sawn timber
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LVL – Laminated Veneer Lumber
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GWP for production of 1 m³ LVL (Kerto)
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
Ph
oto
syn
th
Fo
e si
s
res
try
RW
-tra
ns
LV
por
t
L-p
rod
u
LV
ctio
n
L-tr
ans
por
t
GW
P
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GWP for the production of a timber frame building
(Haas)
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
Pho
tos
y
nth
Pro
d
esi
s
u ct
ion
GW
P
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Conclusion
• LCA is a valuable tool to calculate the carbon pools in
products on condition that carbon dioxide is included as
a elementary flow;
• Therefore wood cannot be assessed as CO2-neutral
and all CO2-emissions have to be mentioned in the
GWP-Calculation
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Thank you
very much for your attention
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