Source of Renewable Energy.” I encourage all of you to reg-ister for this free three-hour virtual conference, offered with simultaneous French translation, at canadianbiomassmaga-zine.ca/virtual-events. This year is also bringing exciting new safety initiatives to the wood pellet sector, including key work on Critical Con-trol Management. (Editor’s note: you can read more about this initiative in the interview with Kayleigh Rayner Brown on page 20.) This work originated from a realization that, despite strong safety performance, pellet plants remained vulner-able to Major Unwanted Events, such as explosions, fires and fatal accidents. This project has the potential to create transformational change in risk management and mitiga-tion, and we look forward to sharing more updates as the work progresses. I’d also like to invite readers to visit WPAC’s new and improved website, at www.pellet.org. The new site provides an improved user navigation experience and updated infor-mation and resources to support members, customers and stakeholders. I welcome your feedback on the new site, and further improvements that could better serve WPAC’s grow-ing community. The team at WPAC looks forward to continuing to work with sector partners to realize opportunities for Canada’s wood pellets. Working together, the future for our sector is bright and we are excited to harness these opportunities into strong growth, in markets at home and abroad. • INNOVATION TRAILBLAZER Fahimeh Yazdan Panah has been the director of research and technical development for the Wood Pellet Association of Canada since 2019. Fahimeh was born and raised in Iran. She did her undergrad in Chemical Engineering at Tehran Polytechnic University before immigrating to Canada where she completed her masters and PhD at UBC. Fahimeh is excited about pellets as the gateway to pro-ducing many different types of high value fuels and biomate-rials beyond the traditional heat and electricity applications. There is a lot of waste left over from sawmilling or harvesting that needs a home and the best way to use it is to convert it to a homogenous, dense and clean fuel. “In fact, every common thing in your home that is made from plastic could potentially be made from wood and look the same. We know the theory and chemistry of how to do it. It’s just about making those processes economic and scalable. But it starts with pellets,” she says. To Fahimeh, her role with WPAC isn’t just a job. “I be-lieve in these environmental issues and we are really con-tributing and making a difference. There is research that we need, there is policy that we need and technologies that we need. We need to change public perceptions and provide education. Each job I do is working one of those angles. I try to cover and contribute to as much as I can and that makes it really interesting for me.” S ces Suc ssfu s l ls s olu ol l tio o ns n s for as pir rati on sys tem te s and in dus tri al pro oces ses DESIGN MANUFACTURING INSTALLATION MAINTENANCE 1839, St-Joseph blvd West , Saint-Majorique, Quebec J2B 8A8 | Tel.: 819 475-0041 | Toll free: 1 866 644-0041 www.concept-air.ca Canadian BIOMASS 9
Canadian Biomass Spring 2021: Page 9
