OREANDA-NEWS. Latin America´s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and Costa Rica´s Technological Institute (ITCR) have launched a wood biomass research project.

CATIE and ITCR inaugurated a commercial farm in Turrialba in central Costa Rica featuring 7,000 trees planted with the aim of studying biomass production based on tree type and density of cultivation. The farm is divided into three density blocks with the objective of developing biomass production models.

The project developers are cultivating three tree species, the native Gliricidia sepium, commonly known as Black wood, and two exotic species, Gmelina arbórea, commonly known as Melina, and Eucalyptus. "These species were selected because of they have a good capacity for regrowth, high growth rates and physical-chemical characteristics relevant for energy transformation for a combustion process," CATIE forestry researcher Jean Pierre Morales Aymerich told Argus.

The five-year project is funded by Costa Rica´s Science and Technology Ministry and the Korean Forest Research Institute (KFRI).