CAN (ON): Expanding opportunities for advanced wood pellet producers

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada reports that one of its members – Ontario Power Generation (OPG) – operates the Thunder Bay Generating Station, which is the only plant worldwide that has been converted from coal firing to employ advanced wood pellets as the sole primary fuel.

OPG is seeking to expand its experience and knowledge about advanced wood pellets. To this end, the company is collaborating with Natural Resources Canada on a project aimed at evaluating advanced biomass fuels for use in power generation and other industrial sectors.

The project has two primary objectives:

To improve the understanding of both suppliers and end users on the current state of advanced biomass fuel development and to improve the characteristics of the fuels as needed.
To assist in the development of standardised, objective tests to define and measure the criteria required by industrial end users.

OPG has already received interest from a number of Canadian and international utility companies who intend to participate in the project. These companies will provide feedback on the types of tests to be conducted and the actual methods employed. The unique properties of advanced biomass fuels offer several significant advantages to a utility generator but the means to evaluate fuels are not well developed.

Find out more at the Wood Pellet Association of Canada