Biomass demand from new sectors welcome: industry

Spanish Market: Biomass
18/04/23

Increasing demand for biomass feedstocks from industries outside power generation is "welcome" and incentivises investment in new production capacity, panelists said during a discussion at the Argus Biomass conference in London on Tuesday.

Hard-to-abate sectors such as cement and steel are using biomass, most notably wood pellets, as an alternative to coal and other fossil fuels in their operations. The European cement industry could be up to 50pc biomass-fuelled by 2050 and US wood pellet producer Enviva is in discussions to provide up to an additional 8mn t/yr to industrial partners by 2028.

This new demand "should create more liquidity and stimulate supply", Danish utility Orsted's head of fuel, Soren Alsing, said. And the "huge interest" in pellets from other industries is positive for the future of the market, CM Biomass chief operating officer Michael Christensen added.

Demand from new markets could also "flatten the winter profile", Alsing said.

"Power and heat production will become less and less relevant," Vattenfall's head of biomass and freight, Christian Joore, said, adding that demand from new industries would result in more dynamic pricing.

By John Cooper

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19/12/25

Viewpoint: Vietnamese pellet supply to remain volatile

Singapore, 19 December (Argus) — The Vietnamese wood pellet market is likely to face supply volatility in early 2026 due to an adverse weather outlook in the coming months. This could be exacerbated by a busy period to clear shipments before the annual Tet holidays in February, while forecasts of rain in early 2026 could translate to a repetition of the supply shortages seen in 2025. Rain across the country can make it difficult to harvest raw material including wood chips, putting pressure on wood pellet production. La Nina weather conditions are expected to persist until February 2026 at a probability of 50-60pc, according to forecasts by the country's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF). Areas in southern Vietnam are expected to have higher-than-average rainfall at 10-30mm from January-February 2026. Regions in northern and central Vietnam may receive significant rainfall at 15-35mm during the same period. The NCHMF expects the most rainfall in the Quang Tri region in central Vietnam, with forecasts of 50-150mm in January and 40-70mm of rain in February. Multiple typhoons hit the country in the second half of 2025. Rain and floods were also frequent during this period, damaging wood pellet stockpiles and causing delays to shipments. Significant volumes of wood pellets were damaged by floods in late November. This was akin to weather-related disruptions seen in 2024, which extended to the Tet holidays in 2025. The supply disruptions caused a significant backlog of shipments after the holidays. Vietnamese wood pellet production capacity is also set to increase in 2026, cushioning the impact of the shortage brought about by supply disruptions in the fourth quarter of 2025. More than 300,000 t/yr of additional wood pellets are expected to meet export demand by the end of 2026. A major wood pellet supplier plans to generate an additional 315,000 t/yr of capacity by the end of 2026. A Japanese energy company aims to build at least five new wood pellet factories in the coming years, of which one with a capacity of 150,000 t/yr capacity began operations in 2025. Wood pellet from alternative origins Wood pellets from origins such as Russia and Canada have historically been the main alternatives to Vietnamese pellets and are generally considered to be of better quality. South Korean annual imports from Canada and Russia in 2025 are projected to rise on the year, much like Canadian wood pellets to Japan. Japan stopped importing from Russia in 2022. South Korean and Japanese demand for wood pellets from other southeast Asian origins have also increased substantially in recent months, with new volumes coming from Indonesia and Malaysia. Imports from the two countries have risen in 2025, with Indonesia having seen the highest export growth this year among all regions. This trend is expected to continue into 2026 where South Korean state-owned utilities and independent power producers (IPPs) have awarded more tender volumes to non-Vietnamese sellers, while Japan is expecting more than 200MW of new generation capacity to come on line by the end of 2026. By Nadhir Mokhtar and Joshua Sim Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

EU may crank up coal and steel research funds in 2027

11/12/25

EU may crank up coal and steel research funds in 2027

London, 11 December (Argus) — The European Commission could fund a much larger share of research in the coal and steel industry from 2027, according to a staff working document published yesterday. The EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) would fund 70pc of corporate research and 100pc of academic research into green initiatives if the EU moves forth with the proposal. It currently funds 50pc of both corporate and academic research projects, but has struggled to attract participants or meet its spending targets, noting that the "underspending of the project is rooted in a lack of attractiveness of certain aspects of the programme". RFCS spent 57pc of its €43mn ($50mn) budget for large coal projects and only 31pc of its €208mn budget for steel research from 2021 to 2024. Brussels, troubled by a lack of applications, consulted companies and academics this year and found that its spending requirements were the largest barrier. Most were unable or unwilling to fund 50pc of large research projects themselves. RFCS has supported a number of groups hoping to repurpose old coal mines for clean energy. GreenJOBS and Mine-TO-H2, two funding recipients, both plan on making green hydrogen from mine water, while GrEnMine received pilot funding worth €3.5mn to research new ways to store gravitational energy in abandoned mines. Others, such as REM and GI-mine, are working on new methods to capture methane from coal mines. In the steel sector, RFCS has awarded funds to hydrogen power projects such as ProSynteg and HYDREAMS and research groups such as BIOCODE, which hopes to replace up to 10pc of the coal in coke ovens with biomass. The EU dissolved the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) — an agency tasked with making a common European steel market, which eventually led to the creation of the EU — in 2002. The EU used revenues from ECSC assets to launch and fund the RFCS in the same year, and boosted the programme in 2021 by tapping into the assets themselves. By Austin Barnes Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Indian coal plants raise biomass co-firing in FY2024-25

09/12/25

Indian coal plants raise biomass co-firing in FY2024-25

Singapore, 9 December (Argus) — India's thermal coal power plants have raised biomass co-firing by more than four times over the country's India's April 2024-March 2025 financial year. Overall biomass consumption in the country reached 1.62mn t in April 2024-March 2025, up from 375,000t the same period a year earlier, according to India's minister of state for power Shri Naik. India's biomass consumption reached around 3.42mn t in January-October, according to an estimate by the country's power ministry in parliament. Biomass in India mainly consists of pellets made from agricultural residue. The country's existing biomass mandate requires 5pc of co-firing biomass at coal plants. The co-firing of biomass pellets this year has led to a reduction of around 4mn t of CO2 emissions, said Naik. The government has taken various steps to support the establishment of biomass pellet manufacturing units across India including subsidy and financial assistance schemes, he added. These projects include briquette, non-torrefied and torrefied pellet plants. Indian state-controlled utility NTPC's plant in Uttar Pradesh state consumed the most biomass in the 2024-25 financial year at 274,000t, up from about 36,000t a year earlier. This was followed by NTPC's Indira Gandhi plant in Haryana which burned 223,000t of biomass over that period, up from 97,000t a year earlier. NTPC is likely to increase its consumption of biomass as the utility aims to increase coal output by 9pc in the next financial year. By Nadhir Mokhtar Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Floods disrupt PKS supplies in peninsular Malaysia

02/12/25

Floods disrupt PKS supplies in peninsular Malaysia

Tokyo, 2 December (Argus) — A series of floods in the peninsular Malaysia since late November has disrupted supplies and logistics of palm kernel shells (PKS), market participants told Argus . Almost all regions of the peninsular Malaysia were hit by heavy rain last week, especially the Perak area in the northwest peninsular and Melaka in the southwest peninsular. The east coast of the peninsular, including Kelantan and Terengganu areas, were also severely flooded. This has caused significant damage to roads and infrastructure in the regions, impacting PKS supplies and logistics, according to traders. Such disruptions could limit PKS supply capacity in these areas, which may affect spot prices of the cargoes loaded in peninsular Malaysia, market sources said. Northern Sumatra in Indonesia was also hit by heavy rain, including the Aceh area. But Jambi and Riau, which are major PKS supplying areas in Sumatra, were not significantly impacted, although logistics in Padang region in western Sumatra were disrupted slightly. Argus- assessed prices for PKS that meet Japan's FiT requirements were at $87.60/t fob peninsular Malaysia on 26 November, lower by $1.06 on the week. Prices of PKS that comply with Japan's FiT requirements were pegged at $101.47/t fob east coast Sumatra on the same day. By Takeshi Maeda Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

EU readies new bioenergy strategy

26/11/25

EU readies new bioenergy strategy

Brussels, 26 November (Argus) — The European Commission is today expected to adopt a new strategy aimed at boosting "nature-positive" investment and making better use of biomass. The latest version of the strategy seen by Argus deleted wording from a previous leaked draft that mentioned disincentivising "inefficient" biomass combustion, including changes to EU and national subsidies to avoid prioritising combustion over material use. Industry groups last month had criticised the previous draft strategy for "punishing" biomass combustion and ignoring the role of sustainable biofuels. The commission may still amend the current strategy document, which sets out a direction for policies but is not itself a legal proposal. Demand for biofuels will likely rise from 2025, in part thanks to the bloc's ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU initiatives, but sustainable biomass remains finite and its use is most effective in hard-to-abate sectors, the commission said in the document. The commission wants to add value to energy, industry, food, health and other sectors through biomass processing and biotechnology. The body said it would, for example, support uptake of bio-based plastics and novel materials by 2027 alongside recycling. Officials could also assess whether EU-wide definitions could support certification and scaling of bio-based polymers. And an EU methodology could certify long-lasting biogenic carbon storage in buildings under the carbon removal and carbon farming certification framework. The commission will issue legislation such as the upcoming BioTech Acts to bolster industrial production of bio-based chemicals and may target bio-based content requirements in some products. In the strategy, the commission and the European Investment Bank will use finance instruments to support biorefineries that incorporate new technologies. And a forthcoming Circular Economy Act aims to support biogas and biomethane production as well as using digestate as a fertiliser. A review next year of the bloc's emissions trading system will also explore potential for scalable biogenic carbon, capture, use and storage projects. The EU is also scheduled to review its Renewable Energy Directive by 2027 and assess how national biomass support schemes affect biodiversity. Dafydd ab Iago Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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