GC: n

CT: Wood pellets are a renewable source of fuel. As long as the wood is sourced from a working forest (ie. one where more trees are planted to replace trees cut down) then the wood is renewable. To get more wood you simply grow more trees. When the tree grows, it uses energy from the sun to convert CO₂ from the atmosphere into wood, letting it grow. When the wood is burnt the carbon dioxide emitted is this same CO₂ that had been taken out of the atmosphere by the growing plant. So that means that overall there is no change in the levels of atmospheric CO₂. If the tree were left to die naturally then animals and plants would ‘eat’ it eventually releasing the same amount of CO₂ back into the atmosphere. Burning the wood just speeds up the process. Even allowing for carbon dioxide emissions produced by fossil fuels used to make the energy needed for planting, harvesting, processing and transporting the fuel, replacing fossil fuel with wood fuel will typically reduce net CO₂ emissions by over 90%.

S: http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood-pellets.html (last access: 23 October 2014)

N: 1. A product used for heat production, constructed by compressing pulverised dry biomass materials from plants and trees, usually sawdust, ground wood chips or wood flour.
2. The wood pellets are made by compacting the feedstock through small holes in a die. The die holes are round and the pellets are pushed from the inside out by rollers. The pellets are formed as a continuous “rod” and cut to length by a knife at the periphery of the die.
3. Wood fuel pellet; wood pellet; fuel wood pellet: terms generally used in the plural.
4. Fuel wood pellet: term and definition extracted from the Plant Health Glossary of Terms of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

S: TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 23 October 2014)

SYN: wood pellet fuel, wood fuel pellet, fuel wood pellet.

S: TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 23 October 2014)

CR: biomass, biomass energy, insert, pellet plant.