Is the export of wood pellets more environmentally friendly than coal?

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Interesting question, and one that recent research has tried to answer.  A study recently release by University of Illinois professor of agricultural and consumer economics, Madhu Khanna, and her colleagues answers that question with a resounding YES.  In fact, they found that wood-pellet based electricity is between 74 and 85 percent lower than coal-based electricity!  This is great news for the forest industry and not only means lower greenhouse gas emissions but also could ultimately lead to other positive impacts such as  less land conversions to other uses, more trees being planted, and increased carbon sequestered.  This may also mean more dollars to forest landowners who may have low value trees that can be sold for use in pellet markets.

Export of wood pellets more environmentally friendly than coal
By University of Illinois | November 25, 2015

As the export of wood pellets from the U.S. to the European Union has increased six-fold since 2008, questions have been raised about the environmental impact of the practice. According to a new paper from a University of Illinois expert in environmental economics, even after accounting for factors ranging from harvesting to transportation across the Atlantic Ocean, wood pellets still trump coal by a wide margin in carbon emissions savings.

The greenhouse gas intensity of wood pellet-based electricity is between 74 to 85 percent lower than that of coal-based electricity, says published research co-written by Madhu Khanna, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois.

“One of the concerns with wood pellet production has been that it’s going to lead to an increase in the harvesting of trees in the southern part of the U.S., and that the emissions that go into both the production of these pellets and their transportation to Europe will result in a product that is not going to save a lot of greenhouse gas emissions when it displaces coal-based electricity in Europe,” Khanna said.

But Khanna and her co-authors, including Weiwei Wang, a postdoctoral research associate at Illinois, found that across different scenarios of high and low demand for pellets, the greenhouse gas intensity of pellet-based electricity generated from forest biomass such as pulpwood and milling residues is still significantly less than that of coal-based electricity.

“Even if you include all of these emissions that go into the process of producing and transporting pellets, and if you include for all the land-use changes that occur and the fact that you’ll be diverting some amount of pulpwood and other forest biomass from conventional forest products to pellets, you can still get emissions reductions that range from 74 to 85 percent compared with coal-based electricity,” Khanna said.

“Basically, wood pellets look really good next to coal, even when you account for everything else.”

Click here to read the full news release.