Research and Development Partnership with University of British Columbia
- Self-heating
and spontaneous combustion of wood pellets
- Wood dust explosibility
- Hygiene effects of airborne dust
- Bark as feedstock
- Wood pellet
lifecycle analysis
- Ventilation, storage, and cooling
- Oxygen depletion during sea transportation
- Off-gassing phenomena
- Materials safety
data sheets
- WPAC's research director, Staffan Melin was a contributing author of the Pellet Handbook published in 2010 by Earthscan.
- WPAC is developing
a best practices handbook, audit process, and certification program to improve the design, operation, and maintenance of wood pellet
manufacturing facilities.
- WPAC's research director, Staffan Melin is chair of a committee of the International Organization for Standardization
that is developing standard testing procedures for wood pellets.
- Together with Natural Resources Canada, FPInnovations, Premium Pellet
Ltd., and BC Bioenergy Network, WPAC is developing a commercial scale pellet torrefaction facility. Torrefaction is a process
that improves the quality of wood pellets by increasing energy density, making them waterproof, and increasing friability so that
they can be puliverized directly with coal.
Examples of equipment in the BBRG laboratory at UBC