How Are Wood Pellets Produced?

In order to make wood pellets, manufacturers must first remove moisture from incoming wood fibre before milling it into dust and compressing the dust into tiny cylinders, or pellets, generally measuring 6 or 8 mm in diameter and up to 40 mm in length. Lignin, a natural polymer present in wood, is heated during this procedure, which allows it to function as a glue to hold the crushed particles together. The outcome is a dry, tightly compressed product with a high energy value that is manageable and effective for long-distance transportation.

A Reliable Renewable Energy Source

Both home and commercial uses employ wood pellets. Many individuals use wood pellet boilers or stoves to heat their houses in cooler areas all around the world. Modern boilers are so highly automated that they don't require any maintenance or human intervention beyond loading enough pellets for a whole winter season, turning on the system, and removing the ash after six months. In North America, stoves are more typical. To provide an effective, uniform heat source, pellets are simply manually placed into the hopper of the stove. Modern pellet heating equipment emits particulate emissions that are comparable to and occasionally lower than those of typical fossil fuel boilers and furnaces. To replace coal in the production of industrial power, wood pellets are a low-carbon option. When pellets are reduced to dust, the dust is mixed with air and continually fed into a flame to produce steam, which in turn produces electricity.

Are Wood Pellets An Environmentally Friendly, Reduced Energy Source?

Scientists and international organizations agree that wood pellets are a type of biofuel that is better for the environment than fossil fuels. In comparison to the baseline of fossil fuel energy, biomass has a large potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), provided that it is produced responsibly and used effectively.

Because they are subject to strict environmental regulations, meticulous management, and substantial third-party certification, BC's forests are among the most resilient and sustainably maintained in the world. Wood pallets aka Fuel pallets are fairly priced and efficient.

Pellets Made From Burned-Down Trees

West of Prince George, British Columbia, more than 25,000 hectares of land were consumed by the Bobtail Lake fire in 2015. These trees would have previously been allowed to rot, steadily producing carbon and squandering a precious resource. A bioenergy business located in British Columbia started brutally plucking the injured trees in 2019 and turning them into pellets to provide renewable energy for consumers in Europe and Asia. The business planted 1.1 million plants in the once-damaged environment in 2020 to create a carbon sink.

How Do Wood Pellets Stack Up Against Other Goods?

While the residual debris is converted into biofuel, long-lasting wood products made from BC trees continue to store carbon. Reforestation, in which new trees are planted and grow to absorb additional carbon, keeps the cycle going. This makes woody biomass, like wood pellets, an all-natural substitute for energy sources that produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

In order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the energy sector uses wood pellets more and more in place of fossil fuels on a global scale. For instance, research at a power plant in the UK discovered that, even after taking into account fossil fuel emissions along the supply chain during harvesting, production, and shipping, wood pellets still reduce GHG emissions by more than 80% when compared to coal.