Bioenergy International PS1 2015 7 INTERNATI NAL BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL Holländargatan 17 SE-111 60 Stockholm, Sweden Tel: +46 8 441 70 80 E-mail: info@bioenergyinternational.com Twitter:BioenergyIntl www.bioenergyinternational.com PUBLISHER Kjell Andersson kjell.andersson@svebio.se EDITOR IN CHIEF Alan Sherrard alan.sherrard@bionergyinternational.com SALES, MARKETING & CO-EDITORS Dorota Natucka dorota.natucka@bioenergyinternational.com Jeanette Fogelmark jeanette.fogelmark@bioenergyinternational.com Xinyi Shen xinyi.shen@bioenergyinternational.com SUBSCRIPTION 7 issues 125 EUR. Order: info@bioenergyinternational.com PRINTING Exaktaprinting, Malmö, Sweden OWNER SBSAB/Svebio Holländargatan 17 SE-111 60 Stockholm, Sweden ABOUT BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL Bioenergy International is produced in cooperation with the European Biomass Association, AEBIOM and published 7 times a year. COVER PHOTO No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher. Whilst every reasonable effort is made to check accuracy, all articles and information are published in good faith. Readers are advised to verify statements and facts direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher cannot, under any circumstances, accept any responsibility. Opinions expressed should not be construed as being those of the publisher. SI units and ISO 4217 currency codes are used as a matter of preference. A BRIEF HISTORY OF A HEALTHY 40+ YEAR-OLD Mechanical densification technologies have been around for quite sometime, in the 1930s the US company Potlatch Mill developed its “Press-to-log” to densify sawmill residues. Briquetting has been deployed at scale for decades in the peat industry in Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Belarus. Likewise in countries like Brazil and India briquetting has been used by the charcoal industry. whereas pelletising technology has been around for quite some time in the grain and animal feed industries. Fuel pellet production plants and projects using technology directly transferred from the peat, charcoal and animal feed industries began to appear at forest industry operations in Europe and North America during the late 1970s sparked by the oil crisis in 1973 and 1979. Many sawmills, pulp and paper mills used oil as fuel, yet generated large on-site volumes of residuals such as bark, sawdust, shavings, off-cuts and reject wood. According to French colleagues, 2014 marked 40 years of fuel pellet production in France. It seems appropiate that 2014 also marks 1 million tonnes of installed capacity in France, as well as neighbouring country Spain, and also by the Estonian company Grannul Invest commissioning its seventh and largest plant to date. According to documentation from the 1982 Fuel Pellet seminar held in Sweden there were reportedly 18 fuel pellet plants operational or under construction in the US. Whereas in Sweden 70 projects had been identified though only a handful were operational, primarily in the pulp and paper industry using technology transferred from the peat, charcoal and animal feed industries to produce a fuel from a variety of mill residues. It seems that the move to industrialise wood pellet production began in earnest in the early 1980s. As anyone in the business can testify this is far from easy or straightforward. In 1981 a major ground breaking ceremony was held in Sweden for what was then touted as Europe’s largest dedicated wood pellet plant. Designed to use forest and sawmill residues the 40 000 tonne-per-annum Mora Pelletsfabrik plant was completed in 1982. Stricken by operational problems it was closed in 1985 and the equipment sold to another pellet plant 15 years later. In light of the development of the industrial use of pellets and coal-fired plant conversions, 1991 is perhaps one defining milestone when Stockholm Energi (now Fortum) began looking at converting its Hässelbyverket CHP in Sweden from coal to pellets. The company went in as majority shareholder in the start- up of a 45 000 tonne plant on the Baltic coast. In 1993 the first pellets were transported by vessel and the plant was converted in 1997. The year 1997 also marks the second defining milestone, when the first ever transatlantic shipment of wood pellets took place from Canada to Sweden. Last year saw the first commercially contracted shipment of advanced biomass with coal-like properties go from Norway to Canada, to the world’s first advanced biomass pellet coal-fired plant conversion. In 2008, Green Circle BioEnergy in Florida, US was, with its 650 000 tonnes, the largest pellet plant in the world. As of January 2015 it is part of the world’s largest pellet producer. On reflection the industry has come a long way and seems to have accelerated over the last few years. It is time to crowdsource some assistance from you the reader, who can pinpoint where it may have all begun or lay claim to having the first fuel pellet plant. Up to you to define ”first” and other specifics like dimensions. It just needs to be substantiated that the pellets a) were produced from a biogenic feedstock including peat b) were used for thermal energy and c) it was or maybe even still is a commercial venture. Alan Sherrard Grabbing a bucket full from a boatload of pellets, a Port of Rotterdam crane operator skillfully manoeuvres his way around the cargo hold. A sight that is becoming more common as volumes from North Amreica to Europe increase. (Photo: Freek van Arkel). p idues the 982.Stricken o pelred nergi weden e were Carsion. 0 tonthe celerated ou readthe fuel ns.just nic ven
Bioenergy nr 1 - 2015
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