Development of Efficient Harvesting Technologies for Unutilized Forest Biomass Resources and Evaluation of Their Economics and Environmental Performance
Biomass as a renewable resource is estimated to have the potential to supply several percent of Japan’s primary energy demand.
Sustainably utilizing the abundant biomass resources that exist in forests, which cover two-thirds of Japan’s land area, offers major benefits not only in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing energy security, but also in forest maintenance, biodiversity conservation, improvement of the domestic wood self-sufficiency rate, and job creation.
We have been conducting research to evaluate harvesting technologies for untilized biomass resources, which are considered expensive to procure from Japan’s steep forests, from both economic and environmental perspectives.
Specifically, through harvesting experiments of forest residues, small-diameter trees, and willows cultivated for energy forestry, we clarified their economic feasibility for the first time in Japan. Additionally, energy balance analysis quantitatively demonstrated that using these resources for electricity generation is not a "waste of energy" and quantified the possible GHG reduction by substituting fossil fuels.
Currently, we are examining business scales for sustainable forestry management in local communities, analyzing the relationship between the available quantity of biomass resources in local communities and the economics under such conditions, and evaluating the environmental performance of comprehensive energy utilization systems including heat use.
Educational approach
Pursuing the Sustainable Use of Forest Resources from a Technical Perspective
Forest Utilization is a field of technology and science that focuses on maximizing the revenue obtained from forests, mainly through engineering approaches.
Specifically, focusing on forestry as a primary industry, the laboratory emphasizes a combination of field investigations (on-site) and mathematical understanding (in the laboratory) to study themes such as improving profitability and ensuring safe and comfortable forest work. The goal is to cultivate human resources capable of considering the sustainable use of forest resources and, more broadly, the meaning of sustainability.
Undergraduate lectures and practical training focus on forestry machinery, forest roads, operational systems, ergonomics, and biomass as core keywords. Students acquire technical knowledge required for Japanese forest policy planning in the classroom and gain basic skills needed for forest engineering in the actual forestry field.
In the master’s program, students apply what they learned in undergraduate studies to more advanced contexts in the laboratory. While receiving guidance to develop advanced mathematical and analytical methods, they aim for publication in domestic and international academic journals. Although submitting papers involves numerous challenges, we firmly believe that overcoming these challenges fosters experience that cultivates "life skills," not only for advancing to doctoral studies but also for entering society and working after graduation.
Vision for industry-academia collaboration
Contributing to the Construction of a Sustainable Society in the 22nd Century
The Laboratory of Forest Utilization has a 120-year history, with a rich accumulation of research achievements particularly in the logging sector of forestry, including forest roads, forestry machinery, operational systems, and ergonomics, and we take pride in having made significant contributions not only to the development of Japanese forestry technology but also to forest policy in Japan.
To further explore the sustainable use of forest resources from a comprehensive perspective, we aim for a "bio-systems engineering" approach that intelligently incorporates methods from forest science, biomaterials science, agricultural information engineering, and biological production machinery engineering.
For example, our research includes:
Supply chain management and life cycle assessment from the production to transportation and utilization of wood and biomass;
Advanced planning and construction techniques for forest and forest operation roads as forest infrastructure, including automation using topographical information;
Automation and remote operation of forestry work and operational systems using forestry machinery;
Labor-saving techniques for manual silvicultural work;
Processing forest resource information with ICT to predict future resource availability and estimate harvesting productivity.
Through these research activities, we aim to demonstrate that Forest Utilization can make a significant contribution to the construction of a sustainable society in the 22nd century.
