Competing with Quebec’s famously low hydro prices is not easy. Granulco markets to a clientele attracted by the social and environ-mental benefits of using a local, low-carbon forest waste product, as well as those seeking the ambience created by a wood stove. The financial argument is also put forward where it makes sense, says sales manager Jean-François Bouchard. “Biomass heating is a much cheaper alternative than heating oil,” he notes. “On this point, Europe is 20 years ahead of Quebec. Trucks go from house to house to fill pellet tanks. We are far from reaching that point here, because of the low price of electricity in Quebec, because the product has yet to be known.” That may slowly be changing, as various high-profile pellet heat projects involving apartment blocks in Quebec City and ski chalets at Le Massif begin to garner press. According to data provided by the Director General of For-est Energy of the Quebec Federation of Forestry Cooperatives, Eugene Gagné, pellet heating costs $0.0675/ kWh, taking into account the current price of bags on the market at the end of January 2013. Heating with pellets is about 50% cheaper than oil heating ($0.1286/kWh), and in the same ball park as heating with electricity ($0.0751/kWh). The bagged heating product, which represents approximately 90% of the plant’s production, is distributed throughout Quebec in some retail stores. Currently, Granulco is not exporting to the U.S. market. The company also says exports to Europe may be in its future. “In Quebec, there is a need for pellets for heating in winter, but in summer, when the plant continues to operate, we may export to France, Belgium and Italy, for example, as a good means to sell our stocks,” says Jean-François Bouchard. The plant also produces equestrian bedding sold in bags of 40 pounds and distributed by Royal Litter, which represents approxi-mately 10% of Granulco’s sales. The product is made from resin, using the same method as that used to produce pellets for stoves. Litter pellets are crushed, however, which can increase their ab-sorptive capacity, making them increase in size by five times when wet. After use, the litter can be spread on fields as fertilizer by farmers. BULk POTENTIAL Granulco also occasionally sells pellets in bulk, a sector that the company wants to develop in the coming years, its president ex-plains. “In the medium term, the next three years, we plan on increasing our bulk business,” says Deschênes. “It requires some changes in equipment, but there is a potential institutional side, hospitals and schools, for example, who need to replace aging equipment which often operates with oil, but the process is always longer with the public sector,” he adds. The private sector, especially within the agricultural sector, is also being closely studied by Granulco, as are the province’s many maple sugar shacks, which increasingly use pellet-fuelled equip-ment for the energy-intensive sap processing. • This article originally appeared in Opérations forestieres et de scierie , a sister publication to Canadian Biomass, and was translated by Scott Jamieson. For more on pellets go to www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca. Dependable pneumatic and mechanical boiler fuel feed systems by Jeffrery Rader, a brand of TerraSource ™ Global, combine the best of our storage, reclaim, conveying and feeding equipment. We work closely with our customers to ensure that our designs meet the storage, metering and feed rate requirements of the boiler, whether it’s feeding 100% biomass or co-firing biomass with coal. 1.800.615.9296 • www.terrasource.com TerraSource™ Global is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) ©2013 TerraSource™ Global. All Rights Reserved. Canadian BIOMASS 17
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