buyers meet mutually beneficial objectives, then I can see there being a strong increase in the development of biomass facilities.” DEMAND RISING FOR ‘GREEN’ ENERGY Many countries are putting more of an emphasis on renewable energy production and reducing greenhouse gas emissions than Canada, which is good news for biomass exporters. Murray points out that the United Kingdom is moving away from coal mostly in order to reduce its carbon emissions. Drax, the U.K.’s largest electricity-generating company, began converting the majority of its facilities from coal to biomass gen-eration in 2003. All of their facilities are now co-gen or predom-inantly biomass, with the first biomass-only unit was operational in 2013. The company plans to complete the second unit this year and a third by 2016 – a fourth is under consideration. Murray reports that Drax calculates that having three units firing pellets instead of coal will reduce carbon emissions by about 80 per cent, reducing CO 2 production by 10 million tonnes a year compared to levels today. When all three units are done, Drax will use seven to eight million tonnes of pellets annually, and will likely be the world’s largest biomass generating company. COST OF BIOMASS AND BIOMASS SYSTEMS “The current biggest challenge for commercializing biomass to energy systems, is the true cost of biomass-derived energy (par-ticularly for liquid transport fuels), versus their fossil fuel equiv-alents,” says FPInnovations’ Doug Bull. “Economies of scale limitations exist with biomass-based energy systems to a greater extent than occurs with most fossil fuel energy facilities. Further-more, depending on the conversion process and final form of the energy being generated, some major technical challenges exist with biomass energy conversion routes.” A prime example is deoxygenating biomass-based energy carriers such as pyrolysis oil and biocrude for conversion into hydrocarbon transportation fuels. However, Bull says that up-grading techniques and solutions to technical challenges are be-ing actively developed around the world. “Hence, the economic viability of such processes are difficult to predict while technical development is still occurring.” Green energy, as FPInnovations’ Forest Feedstocks Research Leader, Dr. Dominik Roser, notes, is already a reality in Canada. “Whenever we are in areas or communities that are not connect-ed to the natural gas grid, forest biomass can be a good alterna-tive to heating oil or propane,” he says. “Communities across Canada are making the switch to a renewable, sustainable and local source of energy that cre-ates energy independence and ensures that money stays in the communities. Using forest biomass for heating in com-munities is something that can be done now, and helps to bridge the gap until higher value uses for forest biomass can be found.” • Industrial IP Cameras The wood processing industry’s most advanced NETWORK CAMERAS. biomassenergylab.com EN Plus Auditing and Consulting CC04 Series ISO 17025 Accredited for ASTM and CEN/EN Standards Certificate of Analysis for Pellet/Biomass Export · Advanced Vibration Damping Design · 2.3 Megapixel / IP67 All Weather Enclosure · Compatible with most Major VMS Software TIMBER PRODUCTS INSPECTION Accredited by the American Lumber Standard Committee as a Testing Laboratory and an Auditing Agency for the Pellet Fuels Institute’s Densified Biomass Fuel Standards Program. North America: 1-800-578-1853 Montreal: 1-514-683-0766 www.opticomtech.com www.toughestvideocamera.com 1641 Sigman Road Conyers GA 30012 218-461-2579 Canadian BIOMASS 29
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