There is not straightforward one grade of wood pellet fuel, there are multiple quality grades based mainly on the percentage of ash the biomass pellets generate post burning. For instance the highest grade of biomass pellet fuel are known as premium biomass pellet fuel. This grade of biomass pellet produces an ash content below 1%, generally normally around the 0.5% mark. Now, this ultra low ash content is only achieve by means of using very selective biomass resources, by means of no bark, as bark will increase the ash content of the pellets. Premium wood pellets demand the highest fee point, not only as they produce the lowest ash content of any pellet energy, but also because those same wood resources are in high demand. Particle board manufactures and quite a lot of other industries also used the same raw material. This therefore increased the price of the raw matter owing to increased competition. Now currently the pellet fuel market is relatively small, in addition to the volume of sawdust formed from timber processing is sufficient generally to support the needs of pellet energy manufacturers.

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Yet, within recent years issues have arose with ample sawdust reserve. For case in point, when the US housing market crashed, housing manufacture stopped plus so did the demand for construction timber. As no timber was being processed, this also meant there was no waste sawdust formed which is the raw material reserve for practically all premium biomass pellet manufactures. This meant the value of sawdust went due to the roof, in addition to also there simply wasn’t ample to support the pellet market. This meant two things, firstly the price of premium biomass pellets sky rocked, in addition to secondly supply issues were common. Many US pellet suppliers were sending what little supplies they had over to Europe, as they could demand higher prices. However this further escalated the problem in the US. That issue is no longer present as the housing market is now in rival, in addition to the same circumstances are unlikely to happen again. However, important lessons call for to be learnt from this scenario. One more issue which also contributed to the high demand in addition to high pellet prices, is that most pellet consumers cannot use any other grade of pellet energy other than premium pellets. This is because most pellet stoves are designed by limits. Consumers by means of more pellet fuel adaptable stoves could choose additional grades of biomass pellets when the price of premium pellets is very high. In the future it will be more common to use additional grades of wood pellets. For example, here at PelHeat we use predominantly wheat straw pellets which help support local farmers.

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The future of the wood pellet fuel market cannot simply depend on premium biomass pellets. If so pellet reserve problems will become common, prices will be high as well as with will devalue the reputation of the pellet industry. Supplementary forms of biomass can be used to make energy pellets, for case willow. Willow in the form of short rotation coppice can be grown very quickly along with generate some very high yields. The pellets due manufacture a to some extent higher ash content that premium pellets, however the prices would be far more responsible. Biomass will play a more significant role.

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