Inte rna tio na l Symp o sium o n Wo o d Sc ie nc e a nd Te c hno lo g y 2008 (IAWPS2008) Pro c e d d ing s, Ha rb in, C hina 27-29/ 9/ 2008. (in p re ss) BIO FUELS’ SELLING AND UTILIZATION FROM AGRO FORESTRY PRODUCTS AND WOOD PROCESS RESIDUES IN WEST MACEDONIA IN GREECE Dr. Ioannis Papadopoulos, Msc Τrigkas Marios Department of Wood & Furniture Design and Technology Technological & Educational Institute of Larissa, Karditsa, Greece papad@teilar.gr , mtrigkas@for.auth.gr Introduction The energy problem that most of the countries in the world are facing nowadays, it becomes even more intensive because of the continuously increasing prices of oil in an international level, but also because of the continuously declining quantities of non renewable energy resources that we insist to use for the satisfaction of our energy needs. The use of biofuels and especially of wood pellets, constitutes an environmentally acceptable and financially profitable politic towards this direction, simultaneously with the development of agricultural economy of our country [1, 2, 3]. The study of the capabilities to use wood pellets or wood briquettes by the Greek consumers constitutes the basic aim of this research which is the result of the research program “PROARES – Promotion of the capabilities of renewable agricultural energy resources” and of the program “Possibilities of production and disposal of biofuels from agricultural – forest products – pilot application”, of the Department of Wood and Furniture Technology and Design of the T.E.I. Larisas in cooperation with the Environmental Center of Kozani Prefecture. Methodology The methodology that was applied for this research, it was the filling of specially constructed questionnaires which were selected as a mean for gathering primary data using the method of telephone interview. The determination of the sample was made using the methodology of random sampling by layers with the help of the Greek telephone catalog. The size of the sample was determined to 189 persons with the accuracy level up to 90%. Finally, one hundred and fifteen (115) questionnaires were filled by regular residents of all the municipalities of the Prefecture of Western Macedonia. That was a percentage of 61% from the first selected sample. The data collection was made during September – October of 2006. The data were analyzed using the scientific rules of statistics such as the relevant checking of frequencies, descriptives and crosstabs [4, 5, 6]. Results and Discussion The average fuel consumption (in tons) of each household or of each enterprise of the study area, comes up to 2,5 tn/year for each household approximately, while for each enterprise comes up approximately to 2,8 tn/year. Basically the greatest part of the consumers (69,2%) uses quantities less than five (5) tons per year. A quite significant result of the present study that came up, was consider to the knowledge and the information of biomass meaning and its use by the residents of Western Macedonia in a percentage of 56,5% ( that is quite significant for the total population of the Prefecture). The residents of the greatest towns (with population over 10.000) was familiar with the use of biofuel in a greater percentage (62,2%), as this was predictable because they have a greater information about the subject. Finally, the professionals are a bit more familiar with the subject (67,6%) than the household users. A significant percentage of 39,1% of the residents of the area was for the first time informed for the use of the mentioned product by the present study (effective way of promotion), while a percentage of 26,1% by the media. The knowledge of contribution or not of the use of biomass as an energy material which helps the environmental protection, constitutes a common sense for the 84,3% of the population, along as a mean of money saving in an individual level to a percentage of 74,2%. The above mentioned factors are statistically related to the Prefecture that the questioned live (V of Cramer = 0,214and 0,233 respectively, Χ 2 = 15,7 and 12,4 respectively for α<0,10, and kendal’ s tau-c = -0,078 and -0,134 respectively). A percentage of 26,1% of the residents of the whole Western Macedonia is interested in direct personal use of biomass, a percentage that is quite significant and encouraging for production, exploitation and disposal of biomass from each origin (agricultural or forestry). Also, the percentage of corresponding to biomass use is a quite significant percentage (50,4%) under specific conditions. The basic factors of biomass direct use are the free supply and replacement of the old boiler (score 3,97 with excellent score 5) and the existent of a form of a financial contribution or tax exemption (such as income taxes, reduce of municipality taxes for energy performance buildings, lower V.A.T. etc) by biomass use (score 3,75). 1