Danish wood pellet market is one of the largest wood pellet market in the world. Different from wood pellet market in other countries, Danish wood pellets are mainly used for inhabitants heating by individual family houses and small and medium-size.
Materials Available in Denmark for Making Biomass Pellets
Though lacking of wood resources, Denmark is one of the earliest countries developing forestry biomass. They make full use of the wood resources in Denmark. Wood pellet production there was entirely based on dry wood residues from numerous wood processing industries for the earlier years. In addition, the agriculture residues are rich in Denmark, and with the development of pelletizing industry, pellet making machines such as wood pellet mills are able to make the agriculture residues into useful pellets.
Wood Pellet Consumption in Denmark
Wood pellet market started in the 1980s in Denmark in the district heating area. Then in 1990s, with the development of boilers industry, more and more boilers used by individuals for space heating. The high taxes on fossil fuels and the subsidy scheme for wood fired combustion systems made the wood pellets industry in Denmark boomed quickly. From 1993, the annual pellet use in district heating was about 110,000 tons and the figure kept steady in the following decade. While wood pellets used in private households doubled from 2001 to 2008. What’s more, since 2003, a new CHP plant partly fueled by pellets started operation which increased the total Danish pellet consumption. In 2001, the total wood pellet consumption in Denmark was about 400,000 tons, the figure doubled in 2005. And in the following five years, the wood pellet consumption increased significantly. In 2010, the Danish wood pellet consumption had reached 1600,000 tons, four times of the total wood pellet consumption in 2001. And the figures still increased since more boilers and stoves are used in Denmark.
Wood Pellet Production in Denmark
The wood pellet plants are varies in different scales from small farm based pellets plants to large scale wood pellet manufactures. The production capacity and production volume increased in the latest two decades especially in last decades. In 2001, Danish wood pellet capacity was about 173,000 tons and in the following two years the wood pellet production didn’t have significant change. In 2004 and 2005, the total wood pellet production increased to 187,000 tons. Then since lacking of raw materials in Denmark, wood pellets production decreased and the alternative materials of making wood pellets do not meant much on Danish wood pellet market.
Import and export of wood pellet in Denmark
Since the wood pellet production and capacity can not meet the demanding of wood pellets consumption in Demark, import of wood pellets are necessary. In 2001, about half of the wood pellets production relied on import and the figure increased in 2004, about 64% of wood pellets were imported from other countries and in year 2006, the wood pellet import toped to 97%. Then since 2008, the import decreased to 87% since the development of pelletizing industry. However, Danish wood pellets market still relies on import.
To sum up, wood pellets market in Denmark is vast with low production capacity, import of wood pellets will still in large demand in Denmark.
