Pellet fuel market in EU

The EU countries are the biggest pellet fuel consumers in the world, and they are also the primary region for production of pellet fuel. The production accounts for 50% of the global consumption, the production for consumption account for almost 70% of the global market. In 2013, the amount of consumption in EU is 175 million ton, and it has become the biggest sawdust pellet consumption market in the world.

 
Read:How to make wood pellets

On the one hand, in Europe there is lack of wood, so wood is more and more expensive material for pellets. Major power plants and residential consumers in North America, Europe and Asia are turning to wood pellets as an alternative to fuel oil, gas or electricity to heat homes. Wood pellets, made from waste wood such as wood shavings and sawdust, are carbon neutral and do not contribute to global warming because they emit the lowest greenhouses gases of any fuel burned. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed wood pellet heat as one of the cleanest burning, most renewable energy sources on the planet. Global wood pellet production in 2008 was almost 11 million tons, and some analysts believe worldwide production could double by 2014.

In 2008, industrial production of electricity from wood amounted to 10.9 billion kilowatt hours. The figures tell us that wood as a feedstock for electricity production is growing exponentially right now.

It looks like it is going to have a huge market for low grade wood and agro products for biomass. The demand for biomass is going to quadruple from 2009 levels to 2014.

There is a huge number of facilities that either are being constructed or will be constructed, and when completed they are going to demand 125 million tons of wood a year, and that’s quite an astounding number. The demand for pellet plant continues to expand. There is going to be lots of market for what we cal waste. And maybe waste is the wrong term. Because of all the material have a lot of good value. In the U.S. the renewable energy market is more than 50% of green energy that is produced. And it amounts to more than 1/3 of our total energy supply.

 

In EU, the market of sawdust pellet fuel is mainly classified into two parts: industrial application and residential use. Actually, the pellet for residential use is increasing. Among the EU countries, United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark, German and Swiss are all on the top of pellet consumption countries.

Except the sawdust pellet, a large amount of wood bark or low grade wood is also be used in the pellet plant. And the demand for that in the world is about 145 million tons each year. It is expected that the figure is going to rise to 280 million tons. The North Europe is the market with great potential. 

According to the Union of EU sawdust pellet, the demand for heat system in EU increases 15% each year during the past three year. In addition, the sales of pellet stove and fireplace are increase significantly in German, Italy and France, and it may cause the increasing of pellet consumption in EU further. In Swiss and Denmark, the application of pellet fuel is much more versatile, which includes family pellet stove, medium scale power plant by pellet fuel and large scale power generation. The aim of renewable energy account for about 49% and 35% of the total energy consumption separately. Even several large scale pellet plants have been built or still in construction, the demand for pellet fuel is still increasing.   

In England and Holland, the sawdust pellets are mainly used for the large scale power generation. In recent years, the government has given policy subsidy to the development of pellet fuel and pellet plant according to the goal of EU. Due to the restriction of these countries, it mainly depends on the import of sawdust to meet the demand of biomass energy. 

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