Biomass Pellet Market and Production across Latin America

Brazilian Pellet Market and Production
The main use of solid/woody biomass in Brazil is for the production of charcoal. According to the Brazilian association industry biomass and renewable energy (ABIB, 2011), there were 10 wood  pellet plants in Brazil, using pine or eucalyptus wood (residues) as feedstock, which had a reported capacity of about 320 kilotons per year (Brazil ABIB, 2011). However, to our knowledge, these were solely for domestic use; no wood pellets had been exported until a few years ago. In comparison, Brazil does have much larger wood briquette production capacity: 2.8 million tons according to Brazil ABIB (2011). However, according to several press releases (Suzano 2010, 2011), Suzano Papel e Celulose negotiated with the Brazil's Alagoas state authorities about the construction of one million tons wood pellet plant. The production, which reportedly started in 2013, is based on forests planted exclusively for use in energy generation. The management for this segment is based on the selection of specific eucalyptus clones, planting a greater number of trees per hectare (“energy management”), and a reduced harvest cycle, from two to three years (eucalyptus planted for pulp and paper has a cycle of approximately seven years).Suzano Renewable Energy’s goal is to achieve an annual capacity of three million tons of pellets by the end of 2014.To make the project feasible, the company estimates an investment of approximately US$ 800 million. Downey (2011) reported that two more plants might follow in 2018-2019. If these plants are to be realized, this would mean that Brazil would become a major producer and exporter of wood pellets to Europe. In august 2011, it was reported that GT Power Ltd. and Suzano Papel e Celulose S.A. have concluded a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding for the supply of biomass fuel for MGT's 300MW Tees Renewable Energy Plant project. First deliveries are expected in 2014. In addition, Timber Creek Farms announced that they were going to build a wood pellet manufacturing facility near Pien, Brazil. The plant as a matter of fact possesses a capacity of 90,000 tons, and started running in the first quarter of 2012. The wood pellets will be traded by Cellmark Energy, and are likely to be shipped to Europe for industrial use. 



READ: GET TO KNOW BIOMASS PELLET MACHINE
 
Chilean Pellet Fuel Production and Market
In the past years, three wood pellet mills had existed in Chile, but only two of them were operating until a few years ago:

• The company Ecopellets, situated close to Santiago de Chile, had two mills(from Andritz & La Meccanica), and was established about 6-8 years ago. The theoretical capacity of this plan was about 6 tons/hour, or about 30,000 tons per year, but this production level was never fully realized. The feedstock used was urban waste wood form Santiago. The wood pellets were destined for the domestic market. However, as this market was too small, the company recently ceased production.
• Andes biopellets, situated close to Santa Barbaras, belongs to a Swedish investor. It is located next to a saw mill, and uses saw dust as raw material. Bioenergy International (2011) reported a production capacity of 50,000 tons.  
• The third wood pellet planned is run by Ecomas, a joint venture of the Chilean company Promasa and the Japanese Somitomo corporation. It is situated in the center-south of Chile, near the city of Los Angeles. The capacity mentioned by Bioenergy International (2011) was 10,000 tons. The company has a marketing strategy to sell wood pellet boilers to small-scale industries, and deliver pellets to them with long-term contracts. 

The Chilean market has been struggling with the fact that the domestic market is very small. Chile is a very large user of firewood for heating (which causes large environmental problems in the winter). A wood pellet stove would be able to provide cleaner heat, but as (high-quality) stoves are expensive, and no subsidies are available either for stoves or for pellets, it is hard to compete with firewood. In recent years stoves from Rika and KWW have been slowly entering the market, but total volumes are still small. The current volumes are also too small for any meaningful export. Some minor amounts have been exported to Korea in the past, but in containers, which is very inefficient. Also, as Chile is facing the Pacific, and transport distances to the European markets are large, this makes export economics unfavorable. The long term potential for wood pellet production in Chile is large: the country produces about 40 million cubic meters of industrial round wood, and an additional 16 million cubic meters of firewood, so the sawdust and shaving potential is in theory large. However, these residues are currently utilized to a large extent to produce electricity and heat (as electricity prices are amongst the highest in Latin America). Also, most of the forest assets are owned by the pulp and paper industry which are not enthusiastic about the opportunities to produce pellets yet prefer producing electricity. 



READ: HOW TO START A PELLET FUEL PRODUCTION LINE
 
Pellet Fuel of Argentina
No wood pellet plants have been reported so far in Argentina. While Uasuf (2010) reported that there may be significant potential to use wood residues from the wood processing industry in a number of provinces (especially Corrientes), and no reports on production of wood pellets have been found. Therefore, wood pellet production will be quite a promising and burgeoning business across the country. As of now, more wood and timber suppliers have put their focus on the utilization of wood sawdust and saw shavings in a recycled manner. Besides, they have pinpointed the potentially huge domestic and brisk European market in Europe, of course more and more Argentinean people become eager to start a relatively small scale pellet fuel production plant to turn the waste material with potentially high value into pellet fuel possessing high thermal efficiency and environmentally-friendly attribute.

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