Analysis of wood bark use opportunities

The bark is very promising technological raw material and classic biorefinery object because of its unique barks biomass chemical composition and possibility to get many different products with the added value of individual or group of compounds of the synergistic biological activity, raw materials to produce various materials. Bark product market is poorly developed because bark treatment to produce product with high added value requires high investment, large amount of time. However, this market segment is currently growing in Latvia and in Europe due to the restrictions on the use of synthetic products, “green” thinking and growth of renewable material use. That is why authors did research about wood bark use opportunities, by analyzing different wood bark products which are currently at the research stage or already being manufactured. Using multi-criteria analyze (MCA) determining the main products which can be introduced in the Latvian market. Results showed that the best two products which potentially should be implemented are tannin and betulin, currently these products are not industrial produced in Latvia.