Canadian Biomass Magazine

News
Russia to supply Asian biomass

Mar. 9, 2012, London, UK - Japanese wood products firm Arkaim is constructing a 250,000 t/yr wood pellet plant in the Khabarovsk region of far east Russia to exclusively serve Asian markets.

March 9, 2012  By Argus Media


Mar. 9, 2012, London, UK – Japanese wood products firm Arkaim is constructing a 250,000 t/yr wood pellet plant in the Khabarovsk region of far east Russia.

The plant, which is expected to come on line this year, will exclusively supply Asian markets, according Bioenergy International Russia general director Olga Rakitova. “Asian markets are showing an interest in Russian pellets,” Rakitova said. “There is great biomass potential in Russia.”

Wood residues from Arkaim's wood processing plants at the same site will provide feedstock for the biomass plant. The pellet plant will raise Russian pellet production capacity to more than 2mn t/yr, but actual production is falling short of this.

“In 2011, we expected to produce 2mn t, but the actual figure was closer to 860,000t, up from around 800,000t in 2010,” Rakitova said. “This is due to Vyborgskaya Cellulose, which has now changed its name to VLK, experiencing some start-up problems and not producing at its full 900,000 t/yr capacity.”

Advertisement

Russia has pellet plants in Arkhangelsk, Krasnoyarsk and Tver, which produce about 100,000 t/yr each. A second plant in the Krasnoyarsk region came on line last year and is now producing at around 80,000 t/yr, Rakitova said. “Russia has 23pc of the world's forestry resources, but only a quarter of the needed biomass volumes are currently used.”

Arkaim's plant was originally scheduled to start up in September last year.

Please visit ArgusMedia.com for more information.

Copyright © 2012 Argus Media Ltd. All rights reserved. By reading
this article, you agree that you will not copy or reproduce any part of
its contents (including, but not limited to single prices or any other
individual items of data) in any form or for any purpose whatsoever
without prior consent of the publisher.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below


Related