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Refining biomass in Italy

The total equivalent primary energy produced from renewable sources in Italy in 1999 was estimated at just over 18 Mtoe, with an increase in the Nineties of less than 10%. The production that could be attributed to the exploitation of resources broadly deriving from biomass in 1999 was estimated to be nearly 40%.

Considering only forest biomass, it is to be remarked that there is a high incidence of the use of firewood - estimated

Wood and similar consumption for kind of application (Ktoe)

This pattern, which is undetected in the official data, was revealed in a recent statistical survey on Italian families conducted by ENEA.
Domestic use accounts for around 83% of total consumption of wood and derivatives, followed by processing residues used in industrial heat production plants (approximately 15%).
Interest on wood pellets has increased in Italy in recent years and a development of this kind of fuels is foreseen. The main aspects on wood pellets in Italy regard:

1. TECHNICAL STANDARDS
2. No specific standards for wood pellets
3. UNI 9016 and UNI 9017 for fuelwood (solid)
4. UNI 10683 and UNI 9841 for burners
5. ON 7135 is considered a reference

CTI (National Thermal Committee) is working on standards and law proposals. CEN standardisation work is urgent and highly desirable. Standards should be performance-based and not just descriptive (wood species, moisture, ash content etc.).

1. MARKET SITUATION
2. 8-10 pellet producers, most of them located in northern Italy
3. 2 producers of pelletizing plants (30 new machines built in 2000)
4. installed capacity is estimated as >20.000 tons/year
5. import from Austria, Spain, Romania, Canada

growing consumption (+20% 1998-1999, reported from 2 distributors)

• the major producer of home boilers and stoves reported +30% sales (1999-2000) c) CURRENT MARKET PRICES:
Euro/ton IN FORM OF: CUSTOMER:
100-120 Big bags Wholesale
140-170 Pallet of bags Distributor
250-270 Bags (15-20 kg) End users

Low production costs (60 - 80 euro/ton) are encouraging the industry of dry wood processing (profiles, frames, steps etc.) to pelletize instead of selling chips and dust to the particleboard plants.

d) RAW MATERIAL SUPPLY

• 6x106 m3/y from the woodworking industry (dry), which can result in 1,5x106 tons/y of pellets competition with particleboard

• 7x106 m3/y from agro-forestry (wet, bark), which can result in 0,8x106 tons/y of pellets competition with direct use of chips

e) PUBLIC SUPPORT

Two programs from the Ministry of Agriculture encourage the research and dissemination of knowledge (one is specifically devoted to pellet quality).

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Refining biomass in Italy

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