The new standards will simplify the global trade of solid biofuels.
There has been a substantial increase in the amount of biomass being used for energy in Europe. As trade between countries and even continents becomes more widespread, it is necessary to create international standards to facilitate buying and selling biomass fuels. Solid biofuel covers many fuels including woody biomass (chips, hogfuel, firewood, wood pellets, briquettes), herbaceous biomass (straw, grass, miscanthus etc.), fruit biomass (olive stones, cherry pips, grape waste, nut shells etc.), aquatic biomass (algae, seaweeds), as well as a group called “blends and mixtures”. Solid biofuel excludes all animal-based biomass (manure, meat and bone meal and such-like materials); Demolition timber is classified as hazardous waste and is not included in the solid biofuel category.
The European standardisation organisation, CEN received a mandate from the European Commission to develop standards for solid biofuels. Simultaneously, a large European project was funded to carry out research to provide a scientific basis for the standards. After CEN completed most of the work to create European standards, a decision was made to move these standards to a worldwide level using ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, which develops and publishes international standards. EN ISO (applicable to European countries) standards are published as national standards. Once issued any prior national or international standards dealing with the same topic are withdrawn. There is no obligation to use ENs, but in contracts it can be very useful to refer to them to ensure everyone knows what is being referred to and how it is measured.
The list of new standards contain cover many different aspects of solid biofuels, such as taking samples, determination of chemical properties (macro and micro nutrients, heavy metals etc.), and physical properties (moisture content, size distribution, bulk density, etc.), as well as definitions and quality requirements. Standards on safety and health are also under development (such as self-ignition, dust explosion, fungal spores etc). Source: http://www.coford.ie/