2023-12-14 19:12:26
As usual, Jean-Lou comes to stock up on wood pellets. For several years, it has been heated in part using this renewable energy. “Three years ago I started, and it’s profitable. Electricity has become very expensive“, he explains.
At this distributor, demand has seen a sharp increase: it has multiplied by 6 in 5 years. “We are approaching 3,000 tonnes whereas we started with 500. I didn’t really believe in it at first, but it must be noted that the production is not bad“, explains Michel Wera, seller of wood pellets.
These bags of pellets were manufactured here, in an industry in Vielsalm. On this site, more than 200,000 tonnes of pellets are produced each year. Two thirds of the tree trunks transported here are transformed into construction wood: boards or beams, for example. The rest is ground to obtain this sawdust which is the first step in the transformation process. “We grind these wafers to obtain only sawdust which we will then dry.“, explains Emmanuel Nistajakis, employee at the Vielsalm & Cie SA wood industry.
In dryers, the sawdust is then heated to 70 degrees with one objective: to reduce the humidity level from 50 to 8%, or the water content of the finished product. Last step, quality control: the small pellets are then transported in bags, in bulk trailers. Nationally, we produce more than a million tonnes per year, which is much more than the consumption of Belgian households.
“In the residential sector, we are self-sufficient. Industries have invested more and more. For Belgian households, we are around 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes per year“, explains Manon Neirinck, project manager at the Belgian inter-professional wood energy federation.
Wood pellets constitute a renewable energy source provided that the raw material comes from local forests which benefit from sustainable management, as is the case in Belgium.
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