Russian Forestry and Wood Supply Operations Analysis
BIOENERGY
BIOENERGY
The Rebirth
of the Pellet Industry in Russia
According to data quoted at the WSED European Pellet Conference in WEls, Austria (February 25-26,
2015), the pellet output in Russia increases by 10-15% every year. Since 2014, the production of pellets
and their export to the EU has become profitable even for facilities located in East Siberia; therefore,
many companies of other profiles began to invest in pellet manufacturing. The annual Russian export
is about 1,000,000 tons of pellets mainly to the European Union (97%). The South Korean market comes
second, but it is not as large as the European one (2%).
At the beginning of 2014 Russia already had 12
large pellet mills exporting from 20,000 to 300,000
tons of pellets per year (Table 1).
Table 1. Russia's largest
exporters of wood fuel
pellets from July 2013 till
June 2014, tonns
Vyborg Forest Corporation, Leningrad region
300,000
SP Arkaim, Khabarovsk region
Novoeniseisky LHK, Krasnoyarsk region
70,000
50,000
Mir Granul, Leningrad region
45,000
Lesozavod-25, Archangelsk region
45,000
DOK Enisey, Krasnoyarsk region
45,000
Severo-Zapadny Holding, Leningrad region
40,000
Svedwood Tikhvin, Leningrad region
35,000
Russian Pellet Alliance, Karelia
30,000
Setnovo, Novgorod region
20,000
STOD, Tver region
20,000
Russian Pellets, Mary El
20,000
Source: Infobio Information Agency
The exports mainly consist of industrial pellets
(pellets intended primarily for burning at high-
capacity co-generation plants, that meet the new
ENplus-B standard, Table 2), but over the last
1.5 years, already four Russian pellet mills were
successfully certified to the EN plus standard,
and are exporting pellets of the ENplus-A1 class
(white pellets, often called premium class pellets,
for use in small-capacity pellet boilers, mainly in
private residences) to the EU.
Russia's first specialized transshipment and
warehouse complex at the port of Ust-Luga
in Leningrad Oblast, near the Estonian border,
deserves a special note. It started operating only
in 2014, but has already become No. 3 among
all of Russia's essential ports shipping pellets
for export (fig. 1).
Four new large pellet mills were started up
in 2014:
DOTS+ LLC (Bryansk), 80,000 tons of pellets per
year.
Arkhangelsky LDK-3 JSC (Arkhangelsk Oblast),
100,000 tons of pellets per year.
According to the press service of the Governor
of Arkhangelsk Oblast, in accordance with the
thermal energy development concept approved
by the regional government in November 2014,
the output of wood fuel pellets in the region
must reach 500,000 tons/year by 2020.
Lesresurs LLC (Irkutsk Oblast), 30,000 tons of
pellets per year.
Several mills have already been constructed in
Irklutsk Oblast, for an output of 30,000 tons of
pellets per year and more. In 2015, a few more
mills will be commissioned, and in the next year
2016, the pellet output in the oblast will reach
500,00 tons/year. Pellets are exported from Irkutsk
Oblast both to the EU and to South Korea.
Bionet JSC (Arkhangelsk Oblast), 150,000 tons
of lignum pellets per year.
The reserves of hydrolyzed lignin in the Russian
Federation estimated at dozens of millions of
tons are comparable to other timber processing
waste like bark, sawdust and so on, but most
interestingly, their difference is in their more
homogeneous nature, and above all in their higher
concentration (in dumps near hydrolysis plants).
Most hydrolysis and biochemical plants dispose of
their lignin in dumps, thus polluting large areas,
which creates problems both for the environment
and for the enterprise. Many European specialists
visiting such plants emphasize that they have
not seen such colossal concentrations of unused
energy raw material anywhere in Europe.
In Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, German pellet maker
German Pellets (the largest in Europe) announced
its contribution to and funding of the construction
of a pellet mill with a capacity of 500,000 tons/
year. It may be concluded that the manufacturing
of pellets in Russia and their shipping to its buyers
in the EU are quite profitable for the company.
One more factor to be considered is that Germany,
and other European countries too, have faced big
problems with quality raw materials, in terms
of both available quantities and prices that are
continually rising.
Taras V. Shevchenko, associate CEO of the Sayano-
Shushenskaya HPP, RusHydro JSC, told us about
a very interesting project of pellet making from
timber already submerged or sinking at hydro
powerplants in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The
purpose of the project is to completely clean
the HPP reservoir of wood residues in 10 years;
to gain economic advantage from processing
abandoned timber left after HPP construction
and during forest husbandry work; to improve the
environmental situation; to reduce the indirect
costs related to HPP structures' protection from
free-floating logs and the manufacture of solid
biofuel. Experts estimate the abandoned timber
floating in the HPP basin at 1.5 to 2 million m³.
This volume of wood is sufficient to make 500,000
to 700,000 tons of quality pellets or briquettes.
Most experts agree that biomass is the most
promising type of renewable energy sources
(RES) for Russia today. They believe this should
be developed as an integrated solution for waste
disposal. The highest potential for bioenergy in
the RF is waste disposal in the timber processing
and agro-industrial sectors, food industry, and
domestic waste (the total industrial biomass
potential in the RF being 15,00-20,000 MW;
for comparison, the capacity of all nuclear
powerplants in Russia was 23,643 MW in 2011).
It should be noted that investors have already
noticed the potential of the bioenergy sector in
Russia. For instance, according to the consultancy
company Rosbioconsulting, the accumulated
investments in bioenergy have grown 18-20
times over the last ten years. As of 2010, the
investments in bioenergy amounted to about 30
billion rubles, or 88-90% of the total investment
in RES in the country. According to the National
Union for Bioenergy, RES and Ecology, Russia's
potential volume of timber processing industry
waste is about 200 million cu. m/year, and the
annual industrial and domestic waste to be used
for energy generation is about 165 million tons.
Among the main obstacles for bioenergy
development in Russia are the lack of a
governmental support system, lack of Russian
RES standards, relatively low electric and
thermal energy charge rates (although these
have noticeably grown over the recent years),
and above all, problems with investments in
Table 2. Standards adopted today in the ENplus classification
of wood fuel pellets
Diameter
Length
Bulk density
Calorific value
Humidity
Parameter
Group
mm
mm
3.15 L40
ENplus-A1 ENplus-A2 ENplus-B
6(±1) or 8(+1) 6(±1) or 8(±1) 6(±1) or 8(+1)
3.15 L≤40 3.15 L40
kg/m³
> 600
> 600
> 600
MJ/kg
> 16.5
> 16.3
> 16.0
%
< 10
<10
< 10
Dust (<3.15 mm)
Mechanical strength
%
< 1
<1
< 1
%
> 97.5
> 97.5
> 96.5
Ash content (for ash temperature of 550°C)
Ash softening temperature
Chlorine
%
< 0.7
< 1.5
<3.0
°C
> 1200
> 1100
> 1100
%
< 0.02
< 0.02
< 0.04
%
< 0.03
< 0.03
< 0.04
Nitrogen
%
< 0.3
< 0.5
<1.0
Copper content
Chromium
mg/kg
< 10
< 10
< 10
mg/kg
< 10
<10
<10
Arsenic
mg/kg
< 1
< 1
< 1
Cadmium content
mg/kg
< 0.5
< 0.5
< 0.5
Mercury
Lead
mg/kg
< 0.1
< 0.1
< 0.1
mg/kg
< 10
< 10
<10
Nickel
Zinc
mg/kg
< 10
< 10
< 10
mg/kg
< 100
< 100
< 100
Sulfur
projects having a payback period of 10 to 15
years, which is often too long a time given the
real situation in Russia, especially today's reality
of sanctions implemented against Russia by the
EU and the Western world in general.
Currently, the RF Ministry of Energy is developing
the draft resolution "Amendments to some acts
of the Russian Federation Governments on
encouraging the use of RES on the wholesale
electricity and power market." The Government
of the RF has adopted an integrated program of
bioenergy development and in particular of the
use of vegetable biomass in the RF until 2020.
In all, 367 billion rubles will be allocated for its
support. The document envisages setting up a
technological and engineering basis for bioenergy
development, support for engineering efforts and
equipment manufacturing, and support to regional
programs for the use of biomass in decentralized
energy supply.
Just recently, Vice Premier Arkady Dvorkovich
approved the "Plan of Bioenergy Development in
the Russian Federation." The Ministry of Natural
Resources is the main executive agency for the
plan, implementing several essential activities
to promote bioenergy development in Russia.
Its premise is that the Russian potential for the
development of this sector of the economy is
tremendous. The timber reserves in the forests
are 82 billion cu. m (over one quarter of the
world reserves). The annual timber harvesting
exceeds 500 million m³. Today, 40-60 m³ of timber
sawing waste on average is left on each hectare
of felling. The waste of timber harvesting and
timber processing facilities may be recycled into
fuel pellets, briquettes or fuel chips. According
to expert data, over 80 million cu. m of wood
biomass is generated in the Russian Federation
in one form or another. This is logging residues
on forest sites, low-value hardwood left standing,
and timber production waste (chips and dust). This
Fig. 1. The main export points in Russia from January till June 2014, tonns
Petrozavodsk
Vanino
5200
6854
10620
Nebolchi
Bryansk 14386
Arkhangelsk 15275
18829
Ust-Luga
Vyborg 102427
St. Petersburg 102427
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
120000
100000
Source: Infobio Information Agency
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