Robin Post Van der Burg, busi-ness development director at Topell Energy, a Netherlands-headquartered WNF-Cleantech Star 2011 Award winner, shared the most recent results at the Topell plant currently being commissioned in Duiven, Netherlands. With RWE Inno-gy investment demonstrating the utility sector’s confidence and initial results demonstrat-ing torrefied pilot produc-tion of eight tonnes/hour, this project is on track. With a pro-Michael Weedon is executive director of the jected total of 60,000 tonnes/ BC Bioenergy Network, which hosted the year of torrefied pellets, the average power plant can pro-conference. duce electricity for approxi-mately 42,000 households. The conference also heard from John Bennett from Canadian Bio-Coal Ltd. in Vancouver, and Carl Rheu-ban from U.S.-based KeyFlame Energy Advisors about their plans to commission torrefied plants in British Columbia and the United States in the near future. Bill Sinclair, Canadian Process Manager of Vattenfall, one of Eu-rope’s largest utilities, confirmed that torrefied biomass, or “black pel-lets,” is a key part of Vattenfall’s plans to reduce their carbon emissions from 90 million to 65 million tonnes/year by 2020. Vattenfall’s CEO, Øystein Løseth, states: “We will strive to be one of the leaders when it comes to transforming the energy sector in Europe into something more sustainable and to decreasing our environmental impact. This is taking responsibility, and it simply makes good business sense to do so as well.” Black pellets are also seen to minimize downstream capital costs and help achieve high co-firing rates. Vattenfall is seek-ing to secure upstream supply at stable volume and cost, anticipating five million tonnes/year of black pellets by 2020. The price of tor-refied biomass and the cost of coal are expected to cross sometime before 2020. With the avoided capital cost and the carbon reduction targets as drivers, Vattenfall can justify paying a little more to ensure development of this important fuel input. With technology and upgrade cost hurdles seemingly reduced, torrefaction implementation success will now be focused on the de-velopment of supply chain and economic fibre costs. British Colum-bia, with its abundant fibre basket and well-established forestry and pellet industry, is well poised to become a major player in the supply of torrefied biomass. Several projects are under development in the province, and the first facilities could be under construction in the next 12 to 18 months. Synergistic partnerships between technology innovators, project developers, utilities, logistics companies, and in-vestors are keys to positioning British Columbia as the North Ameri-can and potentially global leader for torrefied biomass. Myth no more, conference attendees expressed by straw vote. The reality is, torrefaction is here, and it will indeed be a game changer if we listen to the technology providers and enthusiasts. • Michael Weedon is executive director of the BC Bioenergy Network, an industry-led initia-tive that invests in technology development and demonstration, product commercialization and market development, and capacity-building initiatives to build a world-class bioenergy capability in British Columbia. Conference for the International Pellets Market October 4–5, 2011 International Congress Center Stuttgart (ICS), Germany Gold Sponsor : Silver Sponsors: With the International Exhibition October 5–7, 2011 | www.interpellets.de www.pelletsforum.de
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