formation of slag or clinker occurs which can cause damage or breakdown of combustion equipment. No internationally-validat-ed method exists at the present time that can be used in case of lit-igation, thus this proposed method is of high economic relevance. Safety: ISO/TC 238 is also currently developing a comprehen-sive series of standards on “Safety of Solid Biofuels”. These include specifications for safe handling and storage to suppress fire and ex-plosion; 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 in-ternational safety regulations. NATIONAL STANDARDIZATION 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 emis-sions 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 sustain-ability of its biomass. CONCLUSION 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 specifica-tions and quality standards – in Ontario, New Brunswick and B.C. – by government agencies and local authorities responsible for cer-tification 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. SUSTAINABILITY This article has highlighted the importance and benefits of stan-dards for the Canadian solid biofuels industry. It has also under-scored 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 mar-kets 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. In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on meeting sus-tainability requirements in all industry sectors, particularly bioen-ergy. The European commission is planning for sustainability crite-ria 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 demon-strating 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 imple-mented 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 Swed-ish market – was recently published by Hansson, J., Martinsson, F ., and Gustavsson, M., from the IVL Swedish Environmental Solutions for: Biomass Biofuels Waste-to-Energy Resource Recovery Power Generation Pulp and Paper RECEIVING PROCESSING CONVEYING RECLAIM DELIVERY 763.576.9040 wolfmhs.com Canadian BIOMASS 23 2017-01-20 7:51 AM CBM_Hoffmann_Airoflex_Janfeb17_CSA.indd 2
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