Why it matters to materials
Two completely different industries share this heading. One is household fuelwood and charcoal, largely informal and local, and it is the bigger of the two. The other is the internationally traded pellet business, which exists because European and Asian renewable energy rules count biomass - a market created by policy and therefore removable by policy.
What it is made of
All materials →| Material | What it does here | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Wood Fuel | Firewood and charcoal, the majority of world use | Defining |
| Wood Pellets | The traded, standardised form | Defining |
| Eucalyptus | Charcoal for steelmaking, notably in Brazil | Important |
| Industrial Roundwood | Competes for the same low-grade logs | Important |
| Recovered Wood | Waste wood burned for energy recovery | Important |
Wood Fuel
Wood cut to be burned - firewood and the charcoal made from it. Still the largest single use of wood on Earth by…
Wood Pellets
Sawdust and shavings dried and squeezed into uniform cylinders that can be handled, shipped and burned like a liquid…
Eucalyptus
The fastest-growing hardwood planted at scale, harvested on rotations as short as six or seven years, and the fibre…
Industrial Roundwood
Logs. The tree after felling and before anything has been done to it except cutting it to length.
Recovered Wood
Wood collected after use - pallets, crates, demolition timber and furniture - and sent back into panels or energy…