Fuel costs per kWh above
Prices per kwh by moisture contentPrices per kwh by moisture
content
This spreadsheet shows how the cost of energy from woodfuel
changes with varying moisture content. Excel spreadsheet - 41 kB
Fuel Price per unit
kWh per unit
Wood chips (30% MC)
pence per kWh
£110 per tonne 3,500 kWh/t
Wood pellets
£210 per tonne 4,800 kWh/t
Natural gas
4.9p/kWh 1
4.9p/kWh
Heating oil
58p per litre
10 kWh/ltr
4.4p/kWh
5.8p/kWh
3.1p/kWh
LPG (bulk) 43p per litre
6.6 kWh/ltr
Electricity 15.0p/kWh
1
6.5p/kWh
15.0p/kWh
Typical prices for bulk purchase of fuels at domestic or small
commercial scale, December 2013
Typical calorific values of fuels
Net calorific value (CV) or Lower Heating Value (LHV) given for all
fuels. This means that the latent heat of vaporization of the water
vapour created by combustion is not recovered by condensation.
Fuel Net Calorific Value (CV) by mass
GJ/tonne Net Calorific Value (CV) by mass
kWh/kg
Bulk density
kg/m3
Energy density by volume
MJ/m3
Energy density by volume
kWh/m3
Wood chips (30% MC)
12.5 3.5 250 3,100
870
Log wood (stacked - air dry: 20% MC) 14.7 4.1 350-500
7,400
1,400-2,000
Wood (solid - oven dry)
2,100-3,200
Wood pellets
17
19
5.3 400-600
4.8 650 11,000
Miscanthus (bale - 25% MC)
500-650
13
27-31
Anthracite
33
Heating oil
42.5 11.8 845 36,000
Natural gas (NTP)
7.5-8.6
9.2 1,100
7,600-11,400
3,100
3.6 140-180
House coal
7,300
5,200-
1,800-2,300
850 23,000-26,000 6,40036,300
10,100
10,000
38.1 10.6 0.9 35.2 9.8
LPG 46.3 12.9 510 23,600
6,600
wood pellet standard: CEN/TS 14961
Calorific value
Circa
48kWh/10kg bag
4,800kWh/tonne
Mechanical durability
› 97.5%
Ash
‹ 0.7%
Moisture
‹ 10%
Additives
‹ 1.0%
Dimensions
Diameter 6mm
Length
‹ 30mm
Sulphur
‹ 0.05%
Fines
‹ 1.0%
Bulk Density
650kg/m3
A tonne of pellets displaces about 490 litres of heating oil
when burned in a high
efficiency
pel
let boiler or furnace. In many parts of Atlantic Canada, bulk pellets can be
purchased at a delivered cost of about $230.00 per tonne.
The savings therefore can be calculated
as follows:
Pellets = $230.00/t = 490 litres of heating oil
Pellets =
$230.00/t = 490 x cost per litre of heating oil
Pellets = $230.00/t = 490 x .76* cents per litre = $372.40
(value
oil displaced)
Savings = $142.40 per tonne of pellets used ($372.40
$230.00 = $142.40)
Note: A large home might use 5
6 tonnes of pellet
s per year.
At .76 cents per litre for oil,
bulk
pellets are about 62% of the price of oil. This is
equivalent to buying heating oil at 47 cents per litre.
Even today with relatively low oil
prices, the savings are significant with bulk pellets.
* The pr
ice of oil was $82.00 per barrel at the time of this writing.
If we use the 2008 price of oil @ say $1.10 per litre:
Pellets = $230.00/t = 490 x 1.10 cents per litre = $539.00 (value of oil)
Savings = $309.00 per tonne of pellets used
At $1.10 per litre
and pellets at $230 per tonne, pellets cost about 43% of the price of
oil, a significant saving
Type of fuel
Calorific value MJ / kg (* MJ / m 3)
kg / GJ
Diesel fuel
42.5
0.2
1
78
% Sulfur
% Ash Carbon dioxide
Fuel oil 42
12
Natural gas *
35-38 0
Coal
15 – 25 13
Wood pellets
17.5
15
78
0
57
10-35 60
0.1
1
0
The pellets from straw 14.5
0.2
4
Peat pellets
10
0
4-20
70
Wood chips
10
0
1
0
Sawdust
10
0
1
0
0
Table Comparison of the Efficiency
Type of fuel
Gross efficiency (%)
Electric power 97.0
Gas
87.1
Wood pellets
86.0
Diesel fuel
81.6
Wood chips, dry sawdust
80.5
Fuel oil 72.6
Coal
56.1
Firewood
Peat
49.5
38.6
Raw sawdust
35.1
forbes commentary
The price of energy has a very strong influence on the energy choices governments and individuals
make. I sometimes hear people ask "Why are we still building coal-fired power plants?" or "Why don’t
we replace more petroleum with biomass?" One reason is that biomass is generally more difficult to use
from a logistical point of view. Another is that there just isn’t enough biomass to meet present energy
demands. But a major factor comes down to price.
The price and convenience of energy sources are ultimately the keys to customer acceptance. Homes
can be heated with wood, heating oil, natural gas, or electricity. Automobiles can be fueled with
gasoline, ethanol, natural gas, diesel, electricity, and a wide variety of more unconventional fuels. If
consumers have a choice and the supply is convenient, they will tend toward the cheapest energy
source they can get.
Recommended by Forbes
Below I have compiled a list of current prices for some of the more common energy options on an
energy equivalent basis – the British Thermal Unit (BTU). A BTU is simply the amount of heat energy it
takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Everything has been
converted into U.S. dollars per million BTU (MMBTU). The sources for the data are listed below.
I have included the cost of electricity, although it is important to note that the efficiency of electric
motors is higher than for internal combustion engines. For comparison, I have also included the cost of
the federal ethanol tax credit (Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit), which is $0.45 per gallon of ethanol
for 2010.
Energy Prices per Million BTU
Coal – Powder River Basin1 – $0.56
Coal – Northern Appalachia1 - $2.08
Natural gas2 - $5.69
Ethanol tax credit3 – $5.92
Propane4 - $13.28
Petroleum5 – $13.43
#2 Heating oil4 - $14.74
Jet fuel4 - $15.48
Diesel4 - $15.59
Gasoline4 - $17.81
Wood pellets6 - $18.57
Corn ethanol7 - $23.46
Electricity8 - $26.31
Cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs9 – $30.92
Observations
The list above illustrates why wood pellets for home heating are flowing out of Canada and the U.S. and
into Europe. Wood pellets are much more expensive and generally less convenient to use than natural
gas in North America. It isn’t difficult then to see why wood pellets have a difficult market in North
America. For people with access to natural gas, the lower price and convenience of natural gas is
compelling. In Europe, natural gas supplies aren’t as secure, so they have more incentive to consider
wood pellets as an option.
The cost of the ethanol subsidy is interesting. Taxpayers presently pay more for the subsidy than natural
gas costs. However, if you consider that the subsidy is on a per gallon basis – and a large fraction of that
gallon of ethanol is fossil fuel-derived, the subsidy for the renewable component is higher.
For instance, consider an energy output of 1.5 BTUs of ethanol (and by-products) per BTU of fossil fuel
input (this is approximately where today’s corn ethanol plants operate). In this case the renewable
component per gallon is only 1/3rd of a gallon; the rest of the subsidy is essentially subsidizing the fossil
fuel inputs. (An energy return of 1.5 indicates that it took 1 BTU of fossil fuel to produce 1.5 BTUs of
ethanol; hence the renewable component of the ethanol in that case is 1/3rd). That means that the
subsidy on simply the renewable component is actually three times as high – $17.76/MMBTU. Also bear
in mind that this is only the subsidy; the consumer then has to pay $23.46/MMBTU for the ethanol itself.
Of course there are many other considerations, and government subsidies can tilt the playing field
toward or away from different options. But if you ever wonder why those long railroad cars filled with
coal are headed east from Wyoming, or why we tend to heat homes in North America with natural gas
or heating oil, now you know.
Sources for Data
1. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Coal News and Markets Report for the Week Ending
1/15/2010. (Link).
2. EIA, Natural Gas Futures Prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
3. U.S. Department of Energy, Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC). (Link).
4. EIA, Spot Prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
5. EIA, World Crude Oil Prices, U.S. average price for 1/15/2010. (Link).
6. WoodPelletPrice.com, typical premium wood pellet prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
7. CME Group, Chicago Board of Trade Ethanol Futures for February 2010 Contract. (Link).
8. EIA, Wholesale Day Ahead Prices at Selected Hubs for New England 12/31/09. (Link).
9. POET, POET Announces Cost Reductions in Cellulosic Ethanol. (Link).
Conversion factors
Petroleum – 138,000 BTU/gal
Gasoline – 115,000 BTU/gal
Diesel – 131,000 BTU/gal
Ethanol – 76,000 BTU/gal
Heating oil 138,000 BTU/gal
Jet fuel – 135,000 BTU/gal
Propane – 91,500 BTU/gal
Northern Appalachia Coal – 13,000 BTU/lb
Powder River Basin Coal – 8,800 BTU/lb
Wood pellets – 7,000 BTU/lb
Electricity – 3,412 BTU/kWh
Renewable Energy Prospect
1. Renewable energy will not be hurt by falling oil price
The application of oil and renewable energy is completely different. Oil is mainly used to produce
transportation fuels while renewable energy is applied to generate electricity. So fluctuations in oil
prices will have little influence on renewable energy sources like solar, wind and biomass in advanced
economies, ensuring that the economic proposition of those resources remains highly compelling in the
long run.
In the long term there is the remarkable price difference between energy derived from technologybased sources like solar, wind and biomass and that derived from commodity-based sources like coal
and oil. The cost of energy from the former invariably declines as technology innovation proceeds.
2. Pellets will have great market
Future research in commercial pellet burning systems are employing various technologies which are
promising even further increases in efficiency. With the reduced costs, ease of operation and
environmental benefits, home heating and industrial sector will increasingly favor pellet fuel which
provides financial benefits to them. The next step for biomass pellet producer is increasing quality
awareness. Right now it might be the best time to show the world just how strong the wood pellet
industry is.
demand for wood pellerts graph