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Legislation

Ministry of Environment

Emissions from Wood-Fired Combustion Equipment

The B.C. Energy Plan identifies biomass as a potential energy source as part of a clean, renewable energy future.

Early in 2008, the Ministry of Environment undertook to review guidelines for emission standards in anticipation of new biomass-fired combustion electricity projects under the BC Hydro call for new biomass-fired power projects.

As part of this work the ministry hired a contractor to investigate biomass combustion practices and produce a report that:

  • compares emission performance for various biomass combustion technologies;
  • assesses practices in other jurisdictions;
  • indicates the expected emissions from all biomass-fueled systems in use, in demonstration and research and development, domestically and internationally;
  • compares emission rates, capital expenditures, operating costs, feedstock availability and reliability, efficiencies and savings, and lifecycle considerations for biomass-fired combustion processes;
  • provides a comparison of emissions from current biomass combustion and control technologies;
  • indicates emission levels for logical size categories for biomass combustion units; and
  • compares performance of current business as usual biomass combustion and best-available non-biomass technologies.

The final report from the contractor is available at the link below. The ministry intends to use this report as a basis for proposing new guidelines for emission standards for biomass-fuel electricity projects.