ISO solid biomass standards moving forward

In Finland, development of international standards for solid biofuels advanced at a recent meeting of the ISO committee responsible for that work.

The tenth annual meeting of ISO/TC238, Solid Biofuels, was hosted by Finland at the Espoo VTT Technical Research Centre. Representatives from 15 nations participated, including Chile and Japan for the first time.

Among the new or expanded work items discussed at the recent meeting were classification of hog fuel and splitting the determination of fines content in pellets into two methods, one being a reference method for use in laboratories and the other a simplified method for use at field and production sites. Progress was made on a number of existing projects, including a simplified sampling method, water sorption of thermally treated biofuel pellets (to include the measurement of water uptake, changes in durability, and the creation of “weathered fines” as a result of wetting), and a number of projects covering various aspects of industrial and personal safety. When approved and published, these documents will be available for use on a worldwide basis. To date ISO/TC238 has published 34 standards for solid biofuels, has 11 registered projects, and will be adding new projects into the queue as the outcome of this meeting.