History
of the
manufacture of wood pellets
begin from the energy
crisis of oil in the 1970s.
Wood pellet making technology itself is adopted from
animal feed/fish pellet technology that had already been
applied. Along
with the development of various technological
modernization in line with
the characteristics of raw materials,
product specifications or market demands according to
international standards, production efficiency and capacity of the plant to meet market needs.
Efforts to create alternative energy from renewable sources with
several quality improvements of raw material into the solution at that time. After the oil crisis of
the 1970s ended the production
of wood pellets decreased.
But when the problem
of global warming, climate change and efforts
to increase the added value
of woody biomass and
the rapid depletion of fossil fuels
began in the 1990s finally wood pellets
again received great attention.
Woody biomass in
particular is said to be a
source of alternative energy that can be
renewed only if
the production is done in a sustainable manner. Forest plantations or energy
crops is an attempt to sustainable production
of biomass sources in addition to the utilization of wood wastes from
various industrial timber that must also
be traced if from
legal sources. Sawdust in
particular is the best raw material for the
production of wood pellets, but because of
its availability is usually not a big plus if collected from
a number of sawmill waste for
example, and so much demand that should be observed when actually be
used for the
production of wood pellets.
The wood
logs are part of a plant or tree are best to produce
pellets. If the premium quality woodpellets (pellets Class
A1) produced, the debarking
process must also be done to minimize
its ash content. While part of trees or
other plants that have a higher ash
content so it can not be used
for the production of premium quality wood pellets.
Wood pellets have
the best quality lowest
ash content and high
calorific value and are generally only used
for the home
heating in some
European countries, the U.S. and Canada. While
wood pellets with
a lower quality than
that its use in industry.
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| Log wood for premium wood pellet feedstock after debarking |
In
contrast to European countries and the U.S. are generally
using wood pellets
for domestic consumption
as heating, in
Asia generally digunakansebagai
wood pellet fuel
or power generation industries. The differences
in consumption patterns due to climatic
conditions, among others, as a result of its geographical location and the awareness of the environmental impact.
Various advantages of wood pellets for
industrial and domestic applications and a wide
range of driving factors on
environmental issues, climate change, global
warming and the economy
makes it increasingly
massive demand for the commodity.
