# Wood pellets: supply and quality in Europe

Christian RakosPellets use in Europe grows at 20% p.a. and will exceed 20 Million tons by 2015

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## Annual"increase"of"pellet"demand" for"domes<c"hea<ng""

Boilers"<50KW"

Stoves"Wood pellet supply in Europe



### Supply for heating markets in EU is based on local production from sawmill byproducts

Supply for power production is mainly based on imports from North America – both from sawmill byproducts and low grade pulpwood

Heat for drying of fiber usually supplied by bark combustion, electricity consumption equivalent to approx. 2% of the energy content of pellets

### The critical role of pellet quality



## Contaminations lead to immediate problems with combustion systems – slagging of ash

Low durability and high content of fines can lead to significant handling problems, higher emissions and system failure

Particularly bulk pellet supply is very sensitive to pellet qualityPellet quality certification



### Introduced by the industry first in Austria 15 years ago to manage quality problems

Instead of testing every delivered batch of pellets the pellet plant and the quality management of the plant is evaluated by an independent auditor annually

Certification has almost eliminated quality issuesThe ENplus quality certification



### In the past several different national certification systems were in place for pellet quality

2010 the European Pellet council introduced ENplus as a system based an the standard EN
14931-2 for EU wide useENplus became a huge success: after 3 years 50% of EU production is certified

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2011! 2012! ENplus'produc,on'and'trade'

Produc/on!

Trade!1" 7" 13"

0" 2" 4" 6" 8" 10" 12" 14"

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### Countries"with"ENplus"cer7fed"producers"Key features of ENpus



### Certification of production and trade

Only accredited certifying bodies

Auditor trainings and continued education required

Test labs must be accredited

ENplus handbook states detailed requirements

Strict protection against fraudRequirements for certification



### Annual audit of the production plant

Audits of traders

Pellets must conform with EN14961-2

Requirements for documentary samples of all
deliveriesManagement of ENplus



### European Pellet Council: updates quality requirements of the handbook, organizes trainings for auditors, manages certification in countries
without Pellet Association

National Pellet Associations: manage the scheme locally – promote it, follow up quality issues, protect the system against abuseWhy does the system work so effectively ?

Consumers and traders require certification

If producers abuse the system and produce e.g. contaminated product they immediately loose certification – big impact on business

System of storing samples of delivered product allow to
trace back non conformities

It is fairly easy for an experienced auditor to tell if a plant is able to produce consistent qualityNext steps

Integration of sustainability criteria into the certification system – based on forest certification

Extension of the certification system to industrial pellets

Harmonized certification is improving tradeablility of product – increased security of supply

ISO standard for pellets is close to being completed – could be common base for US and European pellet markets! Lets try to establish harmonized certification!Thank you for your attention!