Canadian Biomass • January February 2017 • Solid Standards

The use of solid biomass – in the form of wood chips, pellets, briquettes, firewood, sawmill residues, bark, or insect-killed trees – for fuel production is rapidly growing worldwide, with the global market for biomass pellets expected to nearly double from $4.5 billion in 2014 to $8.3 billion in 2020. Applications range from home heating, to greenhouses, schools, combined heat and power (CHP) plants, district heating stations and co-firing with coal in industrial power plants.

The varying quality and different applications of the feedstock have created a need for standardization of these materials both for local consumption and to facilitate international trade. In addition, product quality certification schemes have been introduced in order for biomass suppliers to demonstrate compliance with national and international regulations on the quality and sustainability of their products.

ISO Technical Committee (TC) 238 was established in 2007 to develop international standards on solid biofuels. The standards specify and classify all types of biomass and provide specifications for graded solid biofuels traded in the market, including wood pellets, wood briquettes, wood chips, firewood, as well as non-woody pellets and briquettes.

This article provides an overview of Canada’s involvement in making significant contributions to the development of standards for solid biofuels, both at the international and national levels, and of the benefits to the Canadian solid biofuels industry. The importance of using relevant standards and reliable emission accounting methods for assessing the sustainability of solid biofuels is also highlighted in the article.

The examples below illustrate the importance and benefits to Canada of selected standards, in three main areas, namely fuels specifications, test methods, and safety.

Fuels specifications: For each class of solid biofuels, the specifications for key parameters, such as calorific value, ash, sulphur and chlorine levels are such as to accurately reflect the levels that can be achieved commercially for production of high quality biofuels. Without such rigorous standards, production and trading of biofuels of lesser quality could create unfair competition in markets of interest to Canadian producers and increase air emissions as a result of poor combustion in boilers.

Emerging technologies for producing thermally-treated and densified pellets, by processes including torrefaction, steam explosion, or hydrothermal carbonization are also showing great promise for producing solid biofuels with unique properties. As such, some European countries have recently made a strong plea for introducing international standards based on these technologies. However the proposal was turned down, largely based on arguments by Canada that these technologies have not yet been commercialized and validated, and that introducing new standards prematurely could seriously distort global markets and cause considerable confusion among stakeholders. The proposed standard was instead converted into an ISO Technical Specification (TS).

Test methods: Standards have been developed within this group for the measurement of key parameters, including moisture, ash, calorific value, durability and several others. Two new standards, proposed by Canada, are under development for determining grindability and absorptivity characteristics of solid biofuels. Grindability is of fundamental importance during solid fuel preparation since it affects energy consumption and particle size distribution. The new method will be a valuable tool for biomass power plants for accepting or rejecting pellets based on their grindability characteristics. The absorptivity method will assess the degree of water absorption and resulting durability loss of pellets and briquettes. It will be of particular relevance for plants using steam explosion pellets.

Ash melting behaviour is another critical parameter. The method is designed to assess the fusion and melting behaviour of mineral compounds remaining as residues in the combustion process. If the sintering or melting temperature of these residues is low, formation of slag or clinker occurs which can cause damage or breakdown of combustion equipment. No internationally-validated method exists at the present time that can be used in case of litigation, thus this proposed method is of high economic relevance.

Safety: ISO/TC 238 is also currently developing a comprehensive series of standards on “Safety of Solid Biofuels”. These include specifications for safe handling and storage to suppress fire and explosion; and for reducing the risks of self-heating, off-gassing, and oxygen depletion in pellets plants and storage facilities. Canada, largely through work conducted at the Wood Pellet Association of Canada and University of British Columbia, has made significant contributions towards the development of these standards and international safety regulations.

Canada is promoting replacement of coal with renewable biofuels in residential, commercial, institutional and industrial applications. District heating systems have been installed in Quebec, Ontario,B. C., New Brunswick, and Northwest Territories. In Ontario, the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Atikokan Generating Station was converted from coal to “white” wood pellets. The OPG Thunder Bay generating station is testing “steam exploded” wood pellets for production of electricity as a replacement for coal.

These endeavours have been driving requests for fuel specifications and quality standards – in Ontario, New Brunswick and B.C. – by government agencies and local authorities responsible for certification of combustion equipment and emission regulations. This has prompted the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group to consider adopting ISO standards as national standards. As a result, out of 24 published ISO standards on solid biofuels, 16 have now been adopted by CSA Group as Canadian standards, and six more will be adopted in 2016-17.

In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on meeting sustainability requirements in all industry sectors, particularly bioenergy. The European commission is planning for sustainability criteria for solid and gaseous biofuels to come into effect in 2020. There is no clear indication yet as to which criteria will be adopted. The new ISO 13065 on “Sustainable Criteria for Bioenergy”, published in September 2015 may provide a common ground for demonstrating sustainability.

Sustainability is also becoming a more pressing issue for users of industrial pellets. As such, a new sustainability certification under “Sustainable Biomass Partnership” (SBP) is starting to get implemented in Europe.

One of the main requirements in Europe for sustainability of solid biofuels is that the overall GHG savings from such fuels be at least 60 per cent compared to fossil fuels. In 2015, the European commission released data showing over 60 per cent GHG savings for electricity and heat for feedstocks from the EU, Russia, and Southern U.S., but well below 60 per cent for feedstocks from Western Canada, particularly those used for heat generation.

Another study on GHG performance of heat and electricity from wood pellet value chains – based on pellets for the Swedish market – was recently published by Hansson, J., Martinsson,F. , and Gustavsson, M., from the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Pellets from Canada, particularly those that were biomass-dried instead of natural gas-dried, were found to meet the 60 per cent reduction in GHG emissions and thus would well comply with the strict demand for sustainability from a GHG perspective. These results are also in line with GHG life cycle emissions reported in the “British Columbia Wood Pellets Sustainability Fact Sheet”, November 2013. However, they are in contrast with the European Commission report.

These discrepancies show the importance for Canada to ensure the validity and credibility of assumptions for assessing the sustainability of its biomass.

This article has highlighted the importance and benefits of standards for the Canadian solid biofuels industry. It has also underscored the need for Canada to be vigilant in ensuring the validity and credibility of assumptions for assessing the sustainability of its biomass operations and products. Rapidly changing trends in international markets for pellets and wood chips, combined with new technologies for pellet production, and the growing demand for international standards and compliance certification, will need to be closely monitored and taken best advantage of, as they will have a profound impact on Canada’s domestic use and export markets of solid biofuels.

Staffan Melin is Chair of the SCC Mirror Committee to ISO/TC238. Maurice Douek and Sebnem Madrali are co-chairs of the SCC Mirror Committee to ISO/TC238.