Biomass is becoming a more attractive source of renewable energy and the markets of solid and liquid biofuels are developing rapidly. Determining the international traded biomass volumes that end up in energy use is difficult for several reasons, such as challenges regarding the compilation of statistics on the topic. While for some markets (pellets, ethanol) separate overviews exist, no comprehensive statistics and summaries aggregating separate biomass streams are available. The aim of this paper was to review the challenges related to measuring internationally traded volumes of biofuels and to summarise the trade volumes of various biofuels. The scope of international biofuels trade was estimated in 2004 to be about 0.8 EJ. Indirect trade of biofuels thorough trading of industrial round wood and material byproducts comprises the largest part of trading having a share of about 0.5 EJ. The remaining part of trading consisted of products that are traded primarily for energy purposes, ethanol (0.09 EJ) and palm oil (0.04 EJ) being the most important articles. Compared to current global energy use of biomass (43 EJ/yr) and to the long-term theoretical trading potential between the world regions (80-150 EJ/yr), the development of the international trade of biomass for energy purposes is in its initial stage.

This perspective provides an overview of wood pellet markets in a number of countries of high signifi cance, together with an inventory of market factors and relevant past or existing policies. In 2010, the estimated global wood pellet production and consumption were close to 14.3 Mt (million metric tonnes) and 13.5 Mt, respectively, while the global installed production capacity had reached over 28 Mt. Two types of pellets are mainly traded (i) for residential heating and (ii) for large-scale district heating or co-fi ring installations. The EU was the primary market, responsible for nearly 61% and 85% of global production and consumption, respectively in 2010. EU markets were divided according to end use: (i) residential and district heating, (ii) power plants driven market, (iii) mixed market, and (iv) export-driven countries. North America basically serves as an exporter, but also with signifi cant domestic consumption in USA. East Asia is predicted to become the second-largest consumer after the EU in the near future. The development perspective in Latin America remains unclear. Five factors that determine the market characteristics are: (i) the existence of coal-based power plants, (ii) the development of heating systems, (iii) feedstock availability, (iv) interactions with wood industry, and (v) logistics factor. Furthermore, intervention policies play a pivotal role in market development. The perspective of wood pellets industry was also analyzed from four major aspects: (i) supply potential, (ii) logistics issues, (iii) sustainability considerations, and (iv) technology development.Perspective: Wood pellet market and trade: a global perspective CS Goh et al.

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Many countries have limited low‐cost biomass resources to satisfy their own demand for bioenergy; consequently, international trade in biomass in various liquid and solid forms is increasing. The aim of this study is to present a quantitative overview of the development of international biomass trade for energy purposes. This paper focuses on the main biomass producing and consuming countries, as well as exporters and importers of liquid and solid biofuels, such as wood pellets, biodiesel, and bio‐ethanol, and biomass products, for example industrial roundwood. The study discusses changes in trends that have occurred over the past decade, and investigates emerging energy biomass trade streams. Due to increased demand for wood pellets from the heating and industrial sectors, global wood pellet markets and international trade have increased significantly in the past decade. The United States and Brazil remain leaders in bio‐ethanol production with about 45 Mt and 24 Mt respectively. In recent years, Asian markets such as China (industrial roundwood), South Korea (wood pellets), Malaysia, and Indonesia (palm oil) have developed considerably. In the EU‐28, more than 60% of total palm oil consumption is used for energy purposes. The EU is the global leader in biomass for energy utilization and also the main importer of most biomass products, particularly wood pellets. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Torrefied biomass has considerable potential as a biomass fuel to replace coal in energy and process heat production. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potential of torrefied biomass in different industries, both power and non-power generation industries, and considers the impact of such use on the international biomass market. The power generation sector has been so far the leader in testing torrefied biomass use with other industrial demand lagging behind. There are promising technical possibilities for greater torrefied biomass use in a number of other areas such as the steel, non-metallic minerals, as well as the pulp and paper industries. Although a large increase in torrefied biomass consumption by industry is not immediately foreseeable, industrial use by actors outside the energy generation sector could increase demand for torrefied biomass in general and, as a result, stimulate development of global torrefied biomass markets. Results show that the torrefied biomass demand significantly depends on the bioenergy markets. It seems that despite of the challenges, the growth of torrefied biomass demand will have a large progress in coming years.