NEW STUDY CONFIRMS B.C. WOOD PELLETS ARE RESPONSIBLY SOURCED A new study confirms that wood pellets in British Columbia are sourced entirely from sawmill and harvest residuals or from low-quality logs and bush grind re-jected by other industries. The study was commissioned by the Wood Pellet Association of Canada. Respected forest experts and registered professional foresters Gary Bull, Jeremy Williams, Jim Thrower, and Brad Ben-nett, analyzed government and industry databases, confidential commercial data, and audit reports and conducted person-al interviews with individual pellet plant operators and local communities. “We reviewed the data for virtually ev-ery truckload of fibre for each pellet mill in the province and were able to source forest-based residuals down to the for-est harvesting block for each mill,” Bull said. “The findings were clear: 85 per cent of the fibre for pellets comes from the by-products of the sawmills and allied industries, and the remaining 15 per cent comes from bush grind and low-quality logs where the only other option is to burn the low-grade logs and brush piles on site in order to reduce fire risk.” In addition, almost all the pellets pro-Graphic courtesy WPAC. duced in B.C. are certified under the inter -national recognized Sustainable Biomass Program and the fibre is from sustainably managed forests in B.C. certified under the Canadian Standards Association, the Forest Stewardship Council or the Sus-tainable Forestry Initiative. “The notion of harvesting whole stands of timber or displacing higher value for-est products for the purpose of producing wood pellets is counter to the overall eco-nomic and environmental objectives of us-ing wood pellets,” added Thrower. – Wood Pellet Association of Canada ANNEX FORESTRY GROUP WELCOMES NEW PUBLISHER Annex Business Media’s Forestry Group of media brands has welcomed a new group publisher, Anne Beswick. Canadian Biomass, Canadian Forest Industries , Pulp & Paper Canada, and Opérations forestières et de scierie are among the nine brands Beswick will lead as the newest mem-ber of Annex’s senior management team. Beswick has 30 years of experience in media sales and leadership roles, more than 20 of which were at Torstar Cor-poration, most recently as their regional general manager for Eastern Ontario. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the incredibly talented and dedicated team at Annex,” Beswick said. “I feel for-tunate and proud to be able to bring my leadership and media experience to Annex, as they continue to innovate and lead the B2B industry, developing incredible brands and relationships.” FEDS INVEST OVER $1.4M IN SIX-RING’S BIOFUELS AND BIOPROD-UCTS TECHNOLOGY The federal government is helping fund the scale-up of Six-Ring’s low-energy biomass conversion process that converts ag-ricultural waste into renewable fuels and bioproducts. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced a $1.4-million investment in the Calgary biofuel company under the Agricultur-al Clean Technology program. The funding will allow SixRing to significantly scale up pro -duction through research and development activities, as well as support testing of underused feedstock and technology optimi-zation. “This funding contribution will greatly assist in accelerating our SixRing crop-based feedstock research and process optimi-zation,” Clay Purdy, CEO and chairman of SixRing Inc., said in a government news release. “We look forward to supporting our agricultural industry by generating new avenues of revenue from these crop waste products while allowing for greater access to low carbon-intensity, non-food-based sustainable fuels including SAF, diesel and gasoline.” FALL 2022 6 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass Fall 2022: Page 6
