In 2020, approximately 251 thousand tons of black pellets was produced globally, and the revenue market size was approximately US$71 million

Black pellets are a solid fuel produced by crushing and compacting waste wood (such as sawdust, forestry residues, industrial by-products such as old paper and forestry waste). Black pellets are mainly used for power generation, and other (boiler households, etc.). Power generation is the largest use in 2020, with a share of around 97.6%.

In 2020, approximately 251 thousand tons of black pellets was produced globally, and the revenue market size was approximately US$71 million. According to the report’s forecast, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2021 to 2027 will remain around 14.1%, and global sales in 2027 will reach 520 kilotons, with sales of approximately US$182 million.

North America is the largest producer of black particles, producing approximately 167 kilotons (more than 56% of the global total) of black pellets in 2020. Europe is another major producer of the black pellets market, accounting for approximately 41% of the market in 2020.

 

In the past few years, Europe and North America were the two largest black pellet consumer markets in the world, and they will maintain the same position in the next few years. In 2020, sales in Europe accounted for about 54% of the global market, while North America accounted for 37%. North America is currently the world's largest exporter of black pellets.

In the global market in 2020, Zilkha Biomass Energy, Bionet, Blackwood Technology, Arbaflame, Airex Energy, ECN, etc. are well-known companies in the global black pellets market, with the top four companies occupying 80% of the market share.

In the past, the black pellet market was dominated by torrefaction technology. Since 2010, Zilkha Biomass Energy has developed steam explosion technology (SE) and expanded its factory capacity in 2014. Then the market share of steam explosion technology has been greatly reduced. In addition, Arbaflame also uses steam explosion technology (SE) to produce black pellets, while other manufacturers use torrefaction technology.

Although the Asia-Pacific region still accounts for only a small part of the global market, now, whether it is Japanese or Chinese research and design institutions, or potential companies, all of them have invested time and money in this particle technology. There is also information on the market that South Africa wants to build a torrefaction factory, but there is still no real progress. Commercial production is expected to be achieved in the past two years, mainly from Japan's Idemitsu Kosan.

Affected by the epidemic, several companies declared bankruptcy or closed their factories in 2020. For example, Bioendev planned to close its black pellet factory in February 2020, and Thermate Industrie (Cate Street Capital) went bankrupt in May 2020, but on the whole, the foundation of market development is still improving. With the breakthrough of black wood pellet R&D technology and the improvement of production economy, the share of black pellets in whole wood pellets market will further increase in the future, and black pellets will still be the future an important direction for the development of wood pellet products.