wood pellets. This is because supply chains for wood chips are not developed yet, making it difficult for wood boiler operators to procure high-quality fuel. In Ontario, the wood pellet industry has been developing for several years to serve the international export market and has recently begun to supply an emerging domestic market. Therefore, there is a high availability of wood pellets in the province, despite the fact that sometimes it may be hard to acquire constant supply of wood pellets in bulk. In contrast, wood chips have historically represented a primarily unregulated fuel supply stream in Ontario and most producers are not accustomed to working with fuel quality standards. Pat Liew of Ecostrat, a wood fuel supplier, brings attention to the challenge of undeveloped wood chip supply chains in Ontario. Most notably, Liew identifies the issue of boiler design often not matching wood fuel specifications available on the local market. For example, wood chip quality can vary in each load — fuel sizing or moisture content may vary slightly depending on chipper quality, season, fuel source, etc. The less developed a supply chain, the higher likelihood of wood chip quality variation. Therefore, wood boiler design should accommodate for this variability. MOECC has recognized that it will take time for Ontario wood fuel supply chains to develop to a point where they can serve required fuel spec all across the province. For this reason, Guideline A-14 does not require wood fuel buyers to follow the ISO-17225-4 standards until 2027. This gives the Ontario wood fuel supply chain 10 years to develop. That said, due to high emission standards, Guideline A-14 requires developers to use high-tech boilers. All of the wood boilers that meet MOECC’s standards are manufactured in Europe, and therefore were deigned based on wood fuel specs available in European countries, where supply chains are much more mature. Consequently, Canadian buyers have to first understand the tolerance of these European boilers to the fuel available locally. Perhaps that is why MOECC requires that each small-to-medium wood combustion project conduct a wood fuel study. Each study should answer questions around wood fuel spec available locally, variations in quality over seasons, who the major suppliers are and risks associated with supply disruption. Wood fuel price is also a significant factor to consider. A typical wood chip supply chain would have an anchor buyer, such as a pulp and paper mill, that would dictate wood chip spec and price to the rest of the market. According to Liew, it is important to understand the type of wood chip most commonly produced, as any variation from the typical spec would likely increase the price of fuel. Wood pellet supply chains are different in a sense that wood pellets are already produced to a specific standard, so the price is dictated by how high that standard is. Consequently, there is much less risk associated with wood pellet procurement — but that comes at a price, as wood pellets are more expensive than wood chips (on a BTU/ lb basis). Therefore, a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of wood fuel options should be conducted by each project before the decision about fuel type is made for any given boiler technology, and before making potentially costly equipment decisions. • Marcin Lewandowski leads the Bioenergy Advisory Group at Ecostrat Inc., conducting analysis of availability and price of biomass across North America. BIOMASS PROCESSING with BLISS. Bliss Industries, LLC is a leading manufacturer of wood and biomass pelleting equipment for residential, commercial and industrial pellet fuel. Bliss also manufactures an extensive line of hammermills for biomass size reduction and processing. Proudly Manufactured in the USA Impacting Industries Worldwide. Bliss Industries, LLC P.O. Box 910 • Ponca City, Oklahoma U.S.A. 74602 Phone (580) 765-7787 • Fax (580) 762-0111 Internet: http://www.bliss-industries.com E-mail: [email protected] BL-135H.indd 1 CBM_Bliss_MarApr18_CSA.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 2/10/15 3:42 PM 2018-03-14 11:34 AM 23
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