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that European consumers will use about four million tons of pellets in 2008 and industry about the same amount. He expects the pellet markets to grow manifold. According to Kempe, there is enough sawdust and chips for six million tonnes of pellets a year in the Baltic region alone. Adding biocrops (such as reed canary grass and straw) and peat as raw materials increases the potential over four-fold. Vapo compresses over half a million tonnes of pellets per year. It has production plants in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark and Poland, and its capacity continues to grow. Competitors are also building more plants. "The market is in its infancy, so there is room for growth," explains Kempe. In Finland, pellets are used to heat single-family homes as well as townhouses, airports and daycare centres. Kempe believes that pellet-fired district heating networks will also become more common. "In large applications, the euro is a convincing consultant. The savings can be as much as hundreds of thousands of euros a year. In fact, many are already shifting away from oil." Sweden and central Europe are two areas where pellets are used to produce heat and power for entire towns; many Finnish cities, meanwhile, are heated with logging slash, branches and stumps. Compared to other industrial countries, wood and wood-based fuels are used to produce a record amount, one-fifth, of all the energy used in Finland. Burning wood takes know-how When it comes to curbing climate change, wood is be er than fossil fuels. The amount of carbon dioxide that trees absorb when they are growing is the same amount that is released when they are burned. Local air quality, however, is something that must be carefully monitored when burning wood even at home. While many people like the smell of smoke from a sauna or a fireplace, it is an indication of harmful combustion gases. Black smoke, in turn, emits harmful small particles into the air. O en the black smoke is a result of wood that is too moist and a fireplace with poor dra . So it's no wonder that there are people who want to give advice on building a fire and choosing the kindling. "Pellets burn so efficiently and cleanly that even our closest neighbours can't tell what kind of fuel we use for heating," says single-family home owner Timo Vitikainen. Dry and clean fuel in a precisely controlled burning process is likely to be the requisite for successful small-scale burning. Industrial boilers can combust biomass that has higher moisture content, because the high temperature will complete the combustion. However, it takes know-how to generate a high heat output with minimal fuel and emissions. Logging slash for boilers Rauma is a city of nearly 40,000 on the western coast of Finland and the thirdoldest in the country. Over the years, sparks flying from stoves have started major fires that have a few times destroyed the town built from wood. Now Rauma is heated with wood again, but safely. District heating pipes and power lines run from the city to the huge tower at the UPM Rauma paper mill. The boiler in the biofuel plant burns bark that comes from the debarking lines at the paper mill and the neighbouring pulp mill. When homeowner Timo Vitikainen replaced the old oilfired boiler with an efficient pellet boiler, "the heating bill was cut in half," he says. Vapo's energy efficient pellets are made in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark and Poland. FOCUS 11
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