PowerWood Canada To Build Two Black Pellet Plants In Northern Alberta

PowerWood Canada Corp., headquartered in Calgary, has progressed its plans to build two steam-exploded black pellet production facilities in Northern Alberta for the Japanese power plant market.

The company will pull from the region’s fire damaged timber when it completes its first facility, named for the Peace River, on 65 acres of prepared land near La Crete, in Mackenzie County. Construction is slated to commence in the spring of 2026 and the creation of up to 290 new jobs anticipated through its construction, operation and supply chain.

PowerWood Canada Corp.’s CEO David Peters, says, “We’re immensely proud to be working alongside local businesses and our indigenous partners in harvesting this firewood, helping address the wildfire threat in the area, and at the same time producing a truly viable low-carbon direct drop-in replacement for coal.”

The facilities will also see the introduction of Canada’s first steam explosion pellet production process, using Valmet’s BioTrac’s steam explosion process. It differs from torrefaction by exposing raw cellulosic materials under pressure to 240°C steam, to release its acetic acid, break down fiber cell walls and expel sugars (to be converted into biochemical byproduct furfural). A sudden drop in pressure and expulsion from BioTrac’s reactor chamber granulates the isolated organic matter for heat-drying and compression into highly-compact, energy-dense black biofuel pellets, with 94% less carbon release than coal.

Three black pellet plants using the steam explosion method are currently operating in France, Norway and Malaysia with additional plants under construction in both Europe and Asia. PowerWood Canada Corp. plans to open a second Alberta plant and has developed expansion plans for further plants in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Construction of the Peace River facility will be undertaken by WB MelBack Corp., and followed by the company’s construction of its second pellet plant, to be located near the Mackenzie County town of High Level, 56 miles northwest of La Crete. Once operational, planned for the first quarter of 2027, PowerWood Canada Corp.’s Peace River plant will have a production capacity of 350,000 tons of black biofuel pellets per annum, using a feedstock of only native dead fire-damaged timber, diseased trees and forest floor debris—to protect Alberta’s boreal carbon sink and create forest ‘fuel breaks’ that inhibit the spread of local wildfires. PowerWood Canada Corp. has secured long term renewable Crown forestry licenses to source raw materials from millions of hectares of Albertan forest containing a 15–20-year supply of fire damaged timber. The company has agreed terms with a major Fortune 500 A-rated Japanese buyer for 100% of offtake produced at its Peace River pellet plant, on a long-term take or pay basis.