The founding group of the Association of Pellet and Wood Biomass Producers today established a new professional association at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb with the aim of promoting the use of pellets, briquettes, and wood biomass and affirming domestic producers.
The establishment of the Association was initiated by the wood cluster. In Croatia, the use of wood for energy production is very modest, below one percent of the total energy produced, while the potentials are significant. The lack of a domestic pellet market and the almost complete orientation towards export have prompted Croatian pellet producers to establish an Association that would highlight the advantages of using this ecological and efficient fuel, which can significantly change the current modest production of energy from renewable sources in Croatia.
The most widespread and advanced form of fuel from wood biomass is pellets, pressed mini cylinders 1-3 cm long and 6-10 mm in diameter, which are produced by pressing sawdust or grinding large wood residues or forest chips. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Finland, which have developed large energy systems for heating cities and producing electricity from wood, are synonymous with the use of wood in energy production. The use of wood for heating in households is becoming increasingly common, with France and Italy leading in Europe. Last year, 150,000 pellet stoves were sold in Italy, as this type of fuel achieves savings of 35% compared to gas, and the current pressures in the EU and Russian energy markets further favor the use of wood pellets as a long-term profitable and environmentally friendly energy source. Briquettes were a more popular fuel before pellets and were very widespread in the past decade in some developed countries. The limitation was related to distribution, as traditional briquettes are unfavorable for storage, mostly packaged in bags of 5-20 kg, and the biggest problem relates to loading the stoves, as the process cannot be automated, which has been achieved with burning wood pellets.
The main goal of the Association will be to promote the production of pellets and biomass from wood, and the main directions of action will focus on communication with state institutions responsible for creating and implementing energy policy to design and launch campaigns for greater use of pellets and wood biomass.
