Standards for wood pellets are currently being developed. At
present, the specifications for premium wood pellets are:
- Particle size: 6mm to 8mm for domestic and small scale systems,
10-12 mm for larger systems
- Moisture content: less than 10%
- Calorific value: less than 4.7kWh/kg
- Ash content: less than 1% (low), less than 3% (standard) or
less than 6% (high); to be clearly labelled
- Bulk density: less than 600 kg/m
- Sulfur content: less than 300 ppm
- Chlorine: less than: 800ppm
- Only additives: lignin and trace amounts of vegetable oil as a
die lubricant
Mechanical durability of pellets is specified in EN 335, with
determination by technical standard CEN/TS 15210-1:2005.
The CEN/TC 355 standards include detailed specifications for
sampling and testing biomass fuel.
ENplus wood pellet certification
ENplus is a unifying wood pellet quality assurance system based
on the EN 14961-2 standard for wood pellets. It was agreed upon by
the European Pellet Council in January 2011. HETAS is a
certification body.
More
information on HETAS's website