Canadian Biomass Magazine

WPAC releases report on pellet co-firing

July 31, 2012
By Scott Jamieson

July 31, 2012, Prince George, BC - The Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) has released a report on the potential for co-firing wood pellets in coal-fired power generating plants in Canada.

Penned by research director Staffan Melin, Development of the Bulk Pellet Market in Canada is an in depth look at
the potential Canadian market for bulk wood pellets. The 27-page report
includes information from across Canada on opportunities to use wood
pellets to replace coal in power generating plants.

The report concludes that a large scale conversion of the coal
burning power plants in Canada to co-firing at the 30% level would have a
major impact on national CO2 emissions. A gradual introduction would
potentially eliminate in the range of 50 million tonne, or 40% of the
targeted 607 million tonne GHG annually by 2020 requiring about 14
million tonne of wood pellets or 11 million tonne of torrefied pellets.
Aside from aiding Canada in meeting its obligation to reduce CO2
emissions, this would obviously create tremendous growth opportunities
for the wood pellet sector and employment growth in many of Canada's
remote forested regions.

Report topics include a summary of Canadian energy policy, a
review of climate change policy and Canada's commitments, mitigation
options for electricity producers, current electricity generating
capacity in each province, conversion options, including natural gas and
biomass, co-firing with biomass, woody biomass supply, agro-biomass
supply, research underway, and torrefaction. Download the entire report,
including graphs and tables, from WPAC's new website.

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