CONTENTIOUS FUEL EXPORT SEES STRONG GROWTH POTENTIAL

The humble wood pellet has graduated to an alternative to coal in the hungry power plants of Europe and Asia.

He forecasts Japan and South Korea will account for much of the increased demand, along with the Netherlands, U.K. and Denmark as the EU has set a goal of having 35 per cent of power sourced from renewables, including carbon-neutraldesignated biomass.

Wood pellets are considered carbon-neutral because as forests grow they can retrap carbon, but the designation has drawn criticism from environmentalist and academics who have questioned the equation.

John Sterman, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, published a paper this year that argued burning pellets would release more carbon dioxide than coal in the short term because it was a less efficient source of energy.

The lag for when the carbon would potentially be reabsorbed to eventually make it carbon-neutral is too long when emissions reduction is needed now, said Sterman in an interview. “The next few decades, the rest of this century, this is the critical period,” said Sterman. “Biofuels, and especially wood pellets, actually worsen climate change over this period.”

There are also significant concerns about the reliability of the forest retrapping the carbon, since climate change is expected to increase the risks of forest fires and insect infestations, said Sterman.

“The EU has made this error, an accounting error. It’s just a false statement to say that biofuels are carbonneutral. They’re not neutral in the short run, and whether they’re neutral in the long run depends on the fate of the land.”

Murray at the pellet association says such criticism is unfounded, with Canadian production coming from waste like wood chips and sawdust from lumber mills.

“That material is already being harvested by the sawmill industry ... so instead of wasting it, we’re using it to displace a fossil fuel,” he said.

The EU has also emphasized wood pellets should be sourced if possible from waste, since pellets from whole trees have been found to have a much greater impact on total carbon released.

But some have questioned the effect of even burning wood from waste, including Mary Booth, director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity, a public advocacy group.

Booth noted that while net emissions from whole tree pellets were substantially higher, her calculations found that 40 years after pellets were burned, their emissions still meant more CO2 than had been retrapped by growing trees.

Murray argues those who challenge the carbon-neutral designation don’t understand how the industry works.

“As long as that forest is growing at a sustainable rate, you’re actually replacing that carbon the very same day. The forest is growing continuously, and as long as you’re taking less wood out of the forest than you’re combusting, you’re better off.”

The industry expects years of continued growth as power producers try to move away from coal while keeping reliable sources of power.