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The use of wood as a fuel source for heating is much older than civilization and is assumed to have been used by Neanderthals. Today, burning of wood is the largest use of energy derived from a solid fuel biomass. Wood fuel can be used for cooking and heating, and occasionally for fueling steam engines and steam turbines that generate electricity.
Pellet heating is a heating system in which wood pellets (small pellets from wood chips and sawdust) are combusted. Other pelletized fuels such as straw pellets are used occasionally. Today's central heating system which run on wood pellets as a renewable energy source are comparable in operation and maintenance of oil and gas heating systems.
Historically, before the use of fossil fuels in significant quantities, biomass in the form of wood fuel provided most of humanity's heating. Because forest based biomass is typically derived from wood that has lower commercial value, forest biomass is typically harvested as a byproduct of other timber harvest operations.
Examples include wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues including straw, and organic waste from industry and households. [1] Wood and wood residues is the largest biomass energy source today. Wood can be used as a fuel directly or processed into pellet fuel or other forms of fuels.
Torrefaction is a thermochemical treatment of biomass at 200 to 320 °C (392 to 608 °F). It is carried out under atmospheric pressure and in the absence of oxygen.During the torrefaction process, the water contained in the biomass as well as superfluous volatiles are released, and the biopolymers (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) partly decompose, giving off various types of volatiles. [4]
The total sales of wood pellets in New Zealand was 300,000–500,000 tonnes in 2013. Recent construction of new wood pellet plants has given a huge increase in production capacity. [78] Nature's Flame wood pellet processing plant, in Taupo, is due in late 2019 to double its annual production capacity to 85,000 tonnes. [79]
Central pellet heating system standing in the cellar. A pellet boiler is a heating system that burns wood pellets. Pellet boilers are used in central heating systems for heat requirements (heating load) from 3.9 kW to 1 MW (megawatt) or more. Pellet central heating systems are used in single family homes, and in larger residential, commercial ...
Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, PFI maintains National Residential Pellet Fuel Standards, [2] compiles and publishes data on sales and manufacturing output relating to the U.S. pellet fuel industry, [3] hosts industry conferences, [4] and provides outreach to consumers on the use of pellet fuel as an alternative energy thermal source. [5]