Carbon Footprint - Wood Pellets from Storuman to Avonmouth delivery

We calculate below the carbon footprint of a hypothetical delivery of Swedish pellets to a customer 27 miles from our store in Avonmouth. 27 miles is chosen somewhat arbitrarily as a reasonably typical distance from store to customer. The Swedish factory chosen is one of the most remote from Britain, and therefore gives a conservative figure for the carbon-footprint of supplying pellets from a distant but highly efficient pellet plant. The transport component of the carbon footprint for many imported wood pellets will be lower, although not many plants will match Storuman's efficiency.

Storuman is the second large, high-efficiency wood-pellet production plant developed by Skellefteå Kraft. It is located well inland from Skellefteå, involving more road transport before shipping than from their original plant at Hedensbyn. However, its location in the middle of the forest means that the wood travels a particularly short distance to the factory, so (as usual) there are swings and roundabouts in carbon terms.

The location is quite remote and distant from the UK. And yet, as the schematic below demonstrates, the benefit of high-efficiency pellet-production combined with bulk transport using the most efficient mode for each leg, means that the carbon footprint is very low, not only relative to fossil fuels and electricity, but even relative to pellets produced closer to home, if those pellet factories are less efficient and if the pellets are transported less efficiently (e.g. longer portions by road).

It is sometimes suggested that the accessible forest resource is very much less than the theoretical resource. This plant demonstrates that a significant proportion of the resource can be tapped efficiently.

Storuman wood-pellet production plant

Pellet production takes a significant amount of heat and electricity. Larger plants like Skelleftea use biomass-fired Combined Heat & Power (CHP) equipment to supply their heat and electricity and also supply excess green heat and electricity to neighbouring businesses and homes, maximising the efficiency and displacement of fossil fuels. In this case, no fossil carbon is emitted in the production of the pellets.

kg of CO₂ released per tonne of pellet produced

0.00

Storuman plant to dock at Skellefteå

The emission factor is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per mile by the vehicle for a return journey (fully laden on the outward leg and empty on the return), divided by the number of tonnes carried. The emission factor is then multiplied by the number of miles the vehicle travels. Generally, the larger the lorry, the lower the carbon footprint and cost per tonne of pellet-haulage.

Miles	x	Emission factor per tonne	=	kg of CO₂ released per tonne of pellets delivered to port
137	x	0.129	=	17.67

Skellefteå to Avonmouth

Coaster for bulk shipping of wood pellets

Shipping has a much lower carbon intensity per tonne per mile than road transport, so pellets shipped long distances by sea and short distances by road may have a lower carbon footprint than pellets shipped long distances by road within the UK.

Miles	x	Emission factor per tonne	=	kg of CO₂ released per tonne of pellets shipped
2159	x	0.02636	=	56.91

Avonmouth to customer

Pneumatic blower lorry for delivering bulk wood pellets

FF has a fleet of delivery vehicles that can carry between 10 and 20 tonnes. DEFRA suggest that such vehicles would emit around 0.214 kg CO2/t mile. The actual figure would vary significantly, depending how many tonnes the vehicle was able to deliver in a single run. Where appropriate, FF aims to combine deliveries to maximize efficiency. Efficiency will thus improve as the market grows and consolidates, increasing opportunities to combine deliveries.