Biomass Atlas use cases

Agriculture
Forests and forestry
Food

What did you use the Biomassa Atlas for?

Tell us about your use case - We are happy to publish user examples. Please send an email to biomassa-atlas@luke.fi

Eeva Lehtonen
Research Scientist

Expert services provided by Luke

Luke provides research and expert services to companies and other organizations. The case studies collected here are examples of research projects or expert services that have been or are being carried out.

Luke conducts studies on regional biomass availability, biomass procurement and logistics cost assessment, procurement technologies and procurement optimization. It also carries out analyses on the detailed composition of biomass, nutrient content and energy potential, as well as on the regional optimization of nutrient recycling.

The regional potential of biomass utilization can be analyzed in terms of employment, regional economy and environmental impact, and scenarios can be developed on how these issues will develop in the future.

Evaluation of alternative locations for a plant using spruce stumps

The company plans to build a production plant using spruce stumps as raw material. The company has found four alternative locations in Southern Finland for its production plant.

To find out the potential of the raw material, the company will make the following calculations for each alternative location in Biomassa-atlas.

  1. How many hectares of suitable forest land are there in the area less than 50 km from each of the alternative locations?
  2. How much spruce stumps are produced in annual felling in these areas?
Perttu Anttila
Senior Scientist
+358295323088

Background on biogas production

Biogas business and networks in Central Finland (BiKa) project aims to develop operational models and business concepts for biogas production and filling stations in rural areas.

As background information for those interested in biogas production, municipal data on biomass volumes and their biogas and nutrient potential will be calculated. Municipal manure data will be extracted from the Biomass Atlas.

Saija Rasi
Principal Scientist, Circular bioeconomy
+358295326469

Utilizing nutrient-rich biomass for energy and crop production

A new wastewater treatment plant is planned for the region. Local centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre) hopes to use the wastewater sludge and bio-waste for energy production and utilize the nutrients for crop production. A study is needed to determine if the biomass volumes are sufficient and if there is a need for the nutrients in the region.

Field and crops information is needed to determine the nutrient needs in the region. Manure will provide some of the nutrient needs in the region. Crop information and manure amounts are obtained from the Biomass Atlas. The data is entered into a spreadsheet and combined with information on the nutrient content of the manure. The next step is to calculate how much additional nutrient is needed on the fields once the manure nutrients have been used. It was found that sewage sludge from the treatment of municipal wastewater and biowaste would supplement the fertilizer need well.

The characteristics of wastewater sludge may limit their application to some food crops. The fields to which sludge can be applied will be investigated by selecting suitable crop groups from the Biomass Atlas. A midpoint search of the area selection tools is used to estimate the transport distance to fields suitable for sludge application.

Such a study was conducted in 2016 for the Pirkanmaa Ely Centre. It used field use data from the Biomass Atlas.