Pulpwood biofuel being looked at in Revelstoke as replacement for propane

In Canada, Revelstoke, a city in British Columbia, is looking at replacing its propane consumption with biofuel from pulpwood. A study from Canadian Biomass Energy Research was presented at a recent council meeting showing how Revelstoke could convert its own wood waste into energy and replace the more than $12 million used annually on imported fossil fuels.

Hemlock timber is abundant in the area but it is unprofitable due to high incidences of rot. This makes the hemlock timber useless for lumber and makes it more expensive to transport the hemlock to pulp mills than what forest holders sell the hemlock for, thus making it a great contender for wood to fuel bioenergy. One option being looked at is the development of a wood to fuel plant next to a boiler plant at Downie Timber so the fuel would be locally made. Their next step is to look into conducting a feasibility study for building the plant.