Research | Wood Pellet Association of Canada

Research

Research and Development Partnership with University of British Columbia

WPAC and UBC are partners in the Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group ("BBRG"). Sample research topics include:

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

Examples of equipment in the BBRG laboratory at UBC

Other WPAC Development Initiatives

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.


These pictures show wood pellets (left) and pellets of torrefied wood (right).

Other resources

Please refer to these white papers for more information on wood pellet research on health, safety, and transport issues.

Research on off-gassing and self heating of wood pellets during bulk storage

Modelling of off-gassing during marine transport - wood pellets

Review of off-gassing from wood pellets - Canadian perspective

Emissions during transport

Off-gassing during transport

Expolsibility of dust from pellets

Airborne dust evaluation - wood pellets

Oxygen depletion during sea transport - wood pellets

Airflow for bulk wood pellets

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Power Generation

Sustainable power

The vast majority of Canadian wood pellets are made from sawmill residuals - sawdust. The rest are made from the residuals from harvesting operations for sawmills and pulp mills, or low-grade timber from forest industry harvest sites that has no other economic value. Think firewood. Read more...

Breathing easier - pellet emissions vs coal

Sustainability should be top of mind for any company that wants to stay in the game in today’s world.

As important a role as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions play, we also need to focus on noxious emissions versus coal.

Read more...

Industry News

Drax, GB Railfrieght, extend contract to transport biomass

GB Railfreight (GBRf) and Drax have agreed to extend their contract to transport supplies of sustainable biomass from UK ports to Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire until 2025. Teams at GBRf have worked closely with Drax for the past[…]
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Remotely powerful: Nine rural communities’ experience with bioenergy – Part 3

[Editor’s note: this article is the third in a series of four. Part 4 online next week.] In early 2020, CanmetENERGY, part of Natural Resources Canada, carried out interviews with nine pioneering rural and remote communities that have installed bioenergy[…]
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The Pellet Advantage

Efficient and Plentiful Production

Wood Pellet Association of Canada members are world leaders in the design and operation of modern pellet plants.

Innovating our way to a safer, better product

Wood pellets are a safe, reliable modern fuel. But they are still a fuel, requiring care in producing, shipping and storing.

Renewable and sustainable? Energy really can grow on trees.

There is no single energy source capable of solving our dependence on fossil fuels. Instead we need to look to a mix of new fuels, including wood pellets.