Solid biofuel, wood-pellets application in Russia

Focus

With regard to biofuel application the focus in Russia shall be upon burning down chips, bark, sawdust, firewood and other kinds of raw biomass usually of natural humidity. This fuel is lying in Russia everywhere (at least where forests are growing). It is free. Owners of wood waste also suffer from having to dispose of it and are happy, if they can burn down at least part of it to produce heat or energy.

As the prices for traditional fuels grow and rules of waste disposal are being toughened wood-working companies seek for more advanced technologies to utilize their wood waste. Obsolete inefficient boilers are being dismantled and replaced with new European equipment (German, Swedish, Finnish, sometimes Danish).

In addition to this trend in private business, switching to biofuel is also a part of governmental policy in Russia on federal as well as regional levels. Regions with the most bountiful forestry resources are pursuing or currently developing complex programmes aimed at introduction of biofuel as a substitution to oil, gas and coal. These are: Leningrad Oblast, Karelia, Yaroslavl, Krasnoyarsk and so on. These programmes will be funded by governmental money as well as private and international loans.

And this creates one more interesting segment of the whole market for biofuel application technologies in Russia

Limited internal market for wood pellets

This portal bears a name of just one type of biofuel wood pellets - probably the most efficient, but not the only one. When it comes to burning biomass in Russia, wood pellets are probably not so attractive as in other European countries. There are several reasoins for that:

1. Relatively cheap oil, gas and coal
2. Relatively soft environmental restrictions
3. Vast biomass "on-site" - without having to carry it over long distances

It will take some years before wood-pellets are applied as fuel inside Russia on industrial level. However, one segment is almost ready to boom now - private house owners. These consumers show high interest in all environment-friendly kinds of fuel: it smells better, it is clean in use, it leaves little ash... So they are ready to pay more for this fuel.

There are a lot of companies seeking contacts to manufacturers of small capacity burners to serve this segment - wood-pellets producers, manufacturers of wooden houses, suppliers of gardening and agricultural equipment etc.

Conslusion: three segments 

Thus we see three main segments, where biomass application is currently developing especially rapidly:

1. Sawmills and wood-working companies seeking to dispose of wood-waste
2. Public sector seeking to improve the economies of district heating.
3. Private house owners seeking to improve their living conditions as well as to be up-to-date with modern technologies and fashion.