Finding Solutions World Bioenergy provides support for national biomass industry. By Andrew Macklin FOR anyone attending World Bioenergy 2012 in Jönköping, Sweden, it was clear that Can-ada has become a market of interest for investment and innovation in the biomass industry. Canada represented one of the largest international groups of pre-registered delegates, with a wide array of business leaders, innovators, researchers, and project coordinators repre-senting the national interest in the bioenergy marketplace. With an abundance of valuable information for the Canadian and North American bioenergy indus-try through a mixture of site visits, educational sessions, networking opportunities and B2B discussions, the conference lived up to its billing as the premier international bioenergy showcase. CONFERENCE TOURS One of the most notable parts of World Bioenergy 2012 was the variety of conference tours that pro-vided opportunities to see CHP , wood pellets, biogas and waste-to-energy solutions that are providing clean energy for the people of Sweden. The sites visited were a glimpse at some of the solutions that could soon enter the Canadian landscape based on size, volume, available resources and cost. The Öresunds Kraft facility in Helsingborg, on the southwest coast of Sweden, has been producing electricity plus district heating and cooling for over 150 years. In 1997, the plant began to introduce wood pellets as an alternative fuel, and by 2006, the plant moved to 100% pellets to fuel its boilers. The boilers run on wood powder, with 200,000 tonnes of pellets being ground at their facility per year. Using pellets, the plant produces 1,200 GW of power each year for the eighth largest municipality in Sweden. Ten years ago, a large portion of those pellets were imported from the United States. However, a growing pellet industry in Europe has changed Kraft’s purchasing patterns, with only 30% of its pellets now coming from North America. The other 70% are imported from a variety of Euro-pean markets, all of which arrives at the quay that it owns as part of its operation. No local pellet options are available, with the closest LEFT MAIN: Vermeer was one of the few companies that held outdoor demonstrations of chipping equipment at World Bioenergy. INSET: A large conveyor system takes chips and sawdust from the Derome sawmill to the Derome pellet mill; Inside the Derome pellet mill; The BioBaler, produced by Quebec’s Anderson Group, was one of the Canadian innovations on display at World Bioenergy. Canadian BIOMASS 13
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