Brown | Pellets |
Wood pellets which are made from compressed sawdust or other raw materials are a heating fuel. Due to the rising prices of commodities and the consistent rise in the cost of fossil fuels, moreover, there is increased attention to the effects on the environment for the using of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Consequently, wood pellets become popular all over the world. According to the International Energy Agency, wood pellets production has more than doubled between 2006 and 2010 to over 14 million tons. When wood pellets are burned, they can generate high temperature, if the quality canât be guaranteed, the consequence will be severe, especially on smaller boilers and stoves used for household, so it is important to formulate wood pellets quality standards.
Even though wood pellets standards varies with different areas or markets, they share the core indicators. According to the requirements of their terms of different standards, about the wood pellets quality standards we should consider the following crucial indicatorsï¼
We clearly understand wood pellets are generally for heating. Compared with fossil fuels, wood pellets release much less ash. Then whatâs the standard of ash content?
According to Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI), the new standard about ash content requirements of wood pellets is as follows:
While the important quality criteria of wood pellets ash content of ENplus which is the benchmark for wood pellets is that at 550 °C for ENplus -A1(the premium quality used in private household boilers or stoves) isâ¤0.7%/mass, and for ENplus -A2 (used in larger installations) isâ¤1.5%/mass.
Ash content is one of the indicators of quality standards for wood pellets, from the above description, ash content of qualified wood pellets should be below three percent.