The use of bio energy in Sweden has increased during the last few years and with every passing year, bio energy produces 3-4 TWh´s more energy than the previous year. The increase in the use of bio energy makes it an interesting prospect for forest companies to produce bio energy from the forest. Sveaskog has a fairly extensive bio energy programme, mainly in southern and middle Sweden. Their activity regarding bio energy in northern Sweden has been very restrictive or even non-existent. Because of this, during the winter of 2003-2004, Sveaskog initiated a number of degree projects with the purpose of looking at the use of bio energy in northern Sweden.

In this thesis tests has been performed on the pull strength of screws glued into glulam beams.The experiment is based on the already approved method whereby the diameter of the drilled holes is the same as the screw outer diameter of 1 mm or bigger. The screws strength class shall not be less than 4.6 (EN ISO 898-1:1999, 1999).The difference in the experiments that were performed where that the drilled diameter were 1 mm smaller than the outer diameter of the screw so that the screw thread was worked into the wood.In the tests the gluing where made on M8 glulam beams. The screws where drilled at and angel of 90°tangental to the fiber direction with a diameter of 7 mm. The gluing of the screws where made in three different depths and where later exposed to pulling forces. The results showed both pulling breaks and screw breaks when they reached their maximum capacity.

It is essential to reuse- and recycles residues to decrease the amount of deposit materials and reach sustainable energy use. Two ways to work towards this is to recycle wood ashes to the forest as nutrient compensation and extract biogas from combustion of biomass.The aim with this study was to decide whether wood ashes that been used for biogas upgrading with accelerated carbonation also can be used as a nutrient compensation in the woods according to recommendations from the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen).The ashes that were used in this study came from Johan Andersson who works at JTI in Uppsala, who also treated the ashes with biogas. The ashes have, in both untreated and treated condition, been analyzed in this study according to contents of elements, leaching properties, hardening properties and contents of crystalline phases, to evaluate what impact carbonation with biogas has on the ashes.The accelerated carbonation led to hardening of the ash, and decreased amount of CaO- and increased amount of CaCO3. The CO2-uptake also entails a dilution of the elements, and the content of nutrients and trace elements decreases. However the results show an indication of an uptake of S from the biogas to the ash, since the dilution had a smaller impact on S than the rest of the elements.

The sun is an endless energy source and the heat it produces can be used to heatup our homes. This technology is relatively old and was introduced in the late70-s. There are two kinds of solar collectors that are most frequently used todayand these are plain solar collectors and vacuum solar collectors. The plain solarcollectors are the once that are used the most but the vacuum solar collectorshave increased more as a percentage the last couple of years.The biggest question asked regarding an investment in solar heating is if theplant is economically profitable. This question has no direct answer because itis dependent on a couple of prerequisites.

The aim for this study where to investigate the frequency of cutting cracks in saw timber harvested in the storm-damaged forests in regions where the storms Hilde and Ivar hit. The idea for this work came from one of the region?s biggest actors, SCA Skog and Jämtlands district. The purpose where to find out how big proportion of the saw timber that contains cutting cracks, their financial cost in lost wood value and also give advice and suggestions on how to work against the frequency of cutting cracks. For the field-study some guidelines where used to make sure that the samples were taken under the same conditions, they were: ? The field-study must be performed under harvesting of storm-felled forest, which are horizontal/inclined trunks. ? The averaged sized tree will make it possible to harvest saw timber. ? The trunks can?t be root cut. A methodology called in Swedish ?Trissmetoden? was used because it is the most frequent used methodology in earlier performed studies and the only one that can be used I field. Under the field-study data were collected from 570 saw timber logs, 30 logs from each one of the tested harvesters.

The need for roundwood transport capacity vary throughout the year. The need during a period is influenced mainly by the volume transported the period, the number of days during which transport can be carried out, seasonal variations in road conditions and the weight of the roundwood, and the origin of the wood (private forest owners/ forest companies). The need for transport capacity generally increase during the winter and in spring, after thawing. Lack of logging trucks combined with a lack of drivers for these trucks make it hard to hire extra help during periods of increased transport capacity needs. It is also very expensive to keep logging trucks for use only during these periods. In this thesis, two new concepts based on the partial transport by truck tractors have been examined, to find out the possibility for increased performance and flexibility.

This study investigates three different methods for evaluating MOE,Modulus of Elasticity, in field measurements. The purpose is toinvestigate the possibility to use dynamic measurement methods infield measurements that hitherto (2010) has been performed with staticmethods. The objects of investigation are 20 glulam beams. The firstfield measurement took place in november 2007 and applied a staticmethod based on the standard SS-EN 408. The second measurement,described in this study, took place during summer 2010, and appliedstatic as well as dynamic methods.The MOE of wood is affected by a range different factors.

In the current situation a big part ofthe settlements that exist in Sweden isin need of renovation and energyefficiency in order to survive.Therefore, also many of the older houseswith a wooden structure are in a need ofenergy efficiency, which can be done ina variety of ways, including addinginsulation.This project deals with whether the useof a diffusion barrier or a vaporbarrier affects a wall structure byadding insulation to an older house witha timber frame. The insulation materialswhich are concidered in thisinvestigation are mineral wool and woodfiber insulation. Efforts are focused onthe effects of moisture on theseinsulation materials.To demonstrate the differences thatarise the moisture measurement programWUFI have been used to simulate avariety of wall designs. These designsare developed in consultation with theconstruction carers who are active inthe industry.Using WUFI graphs illustrating themoisture levels of the wall structureswere obtained and from these conclusionsvould be drawn. The work demonstratesthe differences that arise when using adiffusion barrier or vapor barrier inwall construction.

The sun is an endless energy source and the heat it produces can be used to heatup our homes. This technology is relatively old and was introduced in the late70-s. There are two kinds of solar collectors that are most frequently used todayand these are plain solar collectors and vacuum solar collectors. The plain solarcollectors are the once that are used the most but the vacuum solar collectorshave increased more as a percentage the last couple of years.The biggest question asked regarding an investment in solar heating is if theplant is economically profitable. This question has no direct answer because itis dependent on a couple of prerequisites.

We are heading towards a huge switch of how energy is produced with fossil fuels being replaced by renewable energy sources. It is not difficult to replace the energy you use in the house and there is no need for futuristic technology. There are already many established products on the market such as high efficiency vacuum solar collectors, heat pumps & small wind power stations that can supply the energy being used in a house. The company Sol & Energiteknik SE AB in Huskvarna has many different products which can reduce the need for an outside energy distributor. An average house in Sweden uses 15 000 kWh for heating, 5000 kWh for tap water and 5000 kWh for electricity.

Finnhamn is a small group of islands in the Stockholm archipelago. At Stora Jolpan, the biggest island, there is a hostel. The main building was built in 1915 and is called Utsikten. The purpose of this project is to on behalf of the Archipelago Foundation (Skärgårdsstiftelsen) find alternative systems that can replace the existing heating system of Utsikten (an oil-fired boiler and electricity heaters) to a system with renewable energy. The alternative system that this project focuses on is a system of solar collectors combined with a wood chip boiler.

A recommendation for stand treatment of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is, in a scientific point of view, lacking when it comes to harvesting for biomass energy. Within the next decades it is expected that 280 000 hectares of lodgepole pine will have reached thinning age on the domains of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). Due to this the interest has grown rapidly for studying the possibilities of harvesting biofuel assortments already in the first thinning. In this study the distribution of the biomass within lodgepole pine trees has been studied and taken into account for estimating the proportions of harvested assortments when using different methods of thinning. The methods studied were conventional biofuel-harvesting (with delimbed branches gathered separately from the round wood) and thinning with cutting of round wood and long tops (incl.

The biodiversity of the Swedish forest has degenerated since the beginning of the 19th century when fire suppression and large scale logging first occurred. Together with a changed land use, these actions today have had a negative influence on many forest dwelling species, due to gradual reduction of natural processes, successions and different structures from the forest ecosystem. The Swedish Forest Act, together with different environment certifications, have today encouraged private persons and forest companies, among them Holmen Skog, to work actively to improve nature conservation. The aim of this study was to, by field inventories of already existing nature values, literature studies, recommendations from scientific reports and ecological gap analysis as a basis, make a management plan, for a non-production area, to conserve or improve the prerequisites for biodiversity. ?Storskogsberget? is located in the coastal area of Västerbotten County, 35 km from the city of Umeå.

The Swedish FSC standard (Forest Stewardship Council) is a level standard used to certify forestry. All the major Swedish forest companies are using the FSC standard, and approximately 50% of the Swedish forests are FSC certified today. In the essay six items within the chapter on environmental issues and biodiversity are examined: the proportion of protected forest, the proportion of annually burnt clear-cut stands, the number of trees with large diameter, the amount of dead wood, the proportion of deciduous trees within a stand and the proportion of deciduous-dominated stands. The FSC standard states a level for all items, and the purpose of the essay is to analyse whether these levels are supported by research within the field of conservation biology. The validity of the levels of the six items is them discussed to evaluate whether changes are required to the next revision of the FSC standard.

Forest enterprises have always searched for ways to improve efficiency. For the past few years there has been an emphasis on stock-keeping levels. Increased demand for fresh round timber and the need to decrease the amount of tied-up capital has made the forest industry reduce its inventory levels. This has brought on a higher demand on the timber supply from the forest management districts concerning both delivery in time and assortment output. As a result, the flow of timber has fluctuated a lot with serious consequence for the timber supply during 1994.