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Wood Pellet Fuel Production 1 National
Energy Centre, Milton Keynes 2nd February 2005 On February 2nd 2005 the Wood Pellet Fuel Production conference hosted jointly by the National Energy Foundation and the British Pellet Club was held in Milton Keynes.
Although the focus of the conference was specialised on wood pellet production there was a very high level of interest and the conference was over-subscribed. Delegates who attended came from varied backgrounds - waste management companies, wood processing industries, Environmental NGO representatives, engineers and a smattering of potential investors hovering around the edges.
The day was coordinated by the National Energy Foundation as part of their work in supporting the wood fuel industry through their Logpile project and as part of their broader work supporting the various Renewable Heat industries. They manage and provide support to the British Pellet Club, the trade association for the UK wood pellet heating industry, the Solar Trade Association for water heating and the Ground Source Heat Pump Club as well as PV-UK the British Photovoltaic Association for solar electricity.
Several of the speakers were committee members of the British Pellet Club. This trade association was formed in 2003 by a core group of committed experts in the technology who wished to encourage the growth and development of the wood heating industry which is very much in its infancy in the UK. Rightly so, there is caution amongst those who are considering moving into the industry and one of the main aims of the BPC is to aid the growth of the market, whilst ensuring that quality issues are taken seriously for the benefit of the market as a whole.
The discussions covered the full range of practical issues relevant to those considering setting up wood pellet production. Starting with the production process itself, raw material requirements, quality issues and Standards which are about to come into force. It was discussed that it was possible to establish different scales of production- from workshop scale - supplying heat for the producer business to medium scale - taking waste from a local source, sawmill or factory and supplying a local cluster of customers to the large scale - delivering to a wide catchment area. Storage and delivery considerations were also covered.
As well as looking at the technical issues speakers also offered their view on the the nature of the UK pellet market both at present and their expectations for the future. The consensus was that the number of installations of pellet burning equipment will increase, although steadily at first until consumer confidence and awareness has been raised. There will be an increasing need for quality pellets produced in the UK and from bona-fide sustainable sources. More large scale production plants will be developed but there will still be room for smaller scale local plants as well. There is an urgent need for a better geographical spread of pellet supply and there is a definite 'chicken and egg' situation between pellet supply and boiler/stove installations.
It was thought by some that until the market expands new large scale pellet plants were not likely to be set up successfully without some level of government funding and potential funding streams for all sizes of plant were explored.
Although a few delegates said that although initially interested in diversifying into wood pellet production the findings of the conference had discouraged them from taking further steps. In many ways this is just as valuable to the industry as encouraging new players and the British Pellet Club is keen that through sharing knowledge and experience we can avoid setbacks to this fledgling industry. Presentations (pdf files) (go to top) Session 1 Welcome and Overview of Pellet Technology - Gavin Gulliver-Goodall, 3G Energi/BPC Pellet Quality & Standards - Gideon Richards, Consulting with a Purpose/BPC Session 2 Small Scale Pellet Production - Andy Stewart, Coed Cymru Large Scale Pellet Production - Ken Shaw, Welsh Biofuels/BPC Overview of Pellet Market & installation of medium-scale plant - Stewart Boyle, RHPL Session 3 The Pellet Market in the South East - Harvey Guntrip, SEEDA Funding - Daniel Kenning, Spendid Engineering/NEF & Katherine Donne, DTI
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Log Pile is a project from the National Energy Foundation which was supported by DEFRA.
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