This weekend, a shipment of 4,000 tons of Asturian biomass pellets, was shipped to a thermal power plant in Belgium. This is the first shipment from the factory of Pellets Asturias, a company formed by the Regional Promotion Society, Asturian Energy Foundation and the companies Tinastur, Maderas Siero, Canastur, Maderas Navelgas and Maderas Garcia Hermanos, explained its President, Luis Enrique Garcia, who is also president of the association Asmadera. Garcia added that this is the first shipment bound for the Belgian energy company Electrabel. This first shipment, will be followed by other four, to complete the 20,000 tonnes of ‘pellets’.
The shipment valued at half a million euros left the Avilés port yesterday. Through its participation in the project Peletin, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, together with the FAEN, the Institute of Coal and Hunosa, Pellets Asturias is developing an industrial pellet whose marketing has just begun.
The company is oriented to the manufacture of “pellets” for domestic use, ie for heating. Due to the fall in consumption of this product during the summer, the company has sought as an alternative the production of “pellets” for use as industrial fuel, which will be sold to companies in Central Europe. The company will resume next October the production of the highest quality “pellets” for domestic use. Pellets Asturias, which was recently awarded the prize “Promotion of Environmental Business Management,” is currently working in three shifts, while it expects to reach a fourth shortly, in order to achieve its greater production next year. The shipment that yesterday left Avilés bound for Belgium “is the first batch of the Curiscada factory ” said Luis Enrique Garcia. At present, the factory produces 30,000 tons per year.
Cogeneration Plant
In addition, Pellets Asturias is currently running a major investment in excess of two million euros for the implementation of a cogeneration biomass plant. When operational, this will allow the generation of 1 megawatt hour of electricity and the waste heat resulting from the process will be used for the pellet drying process, achieving greater energy efficiency overall. The cogeneration plant will be operational next October, according to company sources.
Pelet IN
Pelet IN is the acronym of the project ‘Development of a pellet for industrial applications’.
The main objective of the project Pelet IN is the design and manufacture of industrial pellet from mixtures of biomass, for its use as boiler fuel in power plants or industrial facilities.
Pelet IN expects to have a pellet to market in 2013. Participants, considering the activities this project involves, expect to gain insight into the possible raw materials to be used to produce the pellets, in optimizing the manufacturing process of pellets, in the pellet market developments and in the use of pellets in industrial facilities.
The IN Pelet project arises as an opportunity to develop national
solid biofuels technology that will cover emerging domestic demand and biomass exportation to international markets.
Pelet IN is a public-private partnership project involving four entities: the companies Pellets Asturias and HUNOSA and the National Coal Institute and the Asturian Energy Foundation. It is partially funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the sub program INNPACTO with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and own funds. Pelet IN is supported by the Energy Technology Consortium of Asturias, which is a consortium of companies whose mission is to develop innovative projects of interest to the energy sector in Asturias.
