Over the course of the past 13 years, ENplus® gained popularity and became a symbol of wood pellet quality. Throughout this journey, many pellet producers, traders and service providers applied for certification but we would like to pay special attention to those who were among the first to join us and remained certified for more than a decade.

It is a pleasure, today, to share with you the story of the first certified wood pellet producer from the Netherlands –  Plospan Bio-Energy B.V.

The company was founded over a hundred years ago – in 1922 in Vinkeveen (Netherlands) and opened its location in Waardenburg in 1988. Today, it is still one of the largest family businesses in the province Gelderland / Holland.

Expanding and evolving through all these years made Plospan one of the leaders in the wood pellet market in Holland. The company also produces animal bedding for the local market and exports to all around the world.

The entire factory and internal transportation like the forklifts are powered by solar energy generated by 9240 solar panels placed on the roofs since 2015. In this way, the CO2 footprint is as good as 0 because the panels produce more energy than the plant needs. Raw materials are clean untreated wood residues from sawmills instead of A-class round wood.  This also eliminates the need for extra drying processes and minimises the use of excessive amounts of energy.

“This way we use wood the way it is supposed to.”, shares Henk-jan van Goinga, sales and quality manager at Plospan. “Building materials is our first choice if we think of wood. Only the wood(residues) that can’t be used for such purposed are used in our production lines. Plospan calls this up-cycling so nothing goes to waste. The packaging of the bags also contains more and more recycled plastic to meet new standards.”

Plospan has a large fleet of trucks for flexible delivery as well as a in-house machine shop to maintain and (re)build machines. The company develops its own methods to enhance existing machinery to a higher level.

The company has been an ENplus® certified pellet producer since 2013 and they admit the certification serves as a selling point for them.

When we asked them if they feel like there’s enough support for the wood pellet market at a national or EU level, they admitted that such support was missing in the past decade.

“All changed when the EU decided that biomass is considered a 100% green fuel source and that it has to be used as an alternative to fossil fuels to meet the climate goal for the next 20 or so years.”, adds Henk-jan van Goinga.

Looking into the future, Plospan’s management expects that wood pellets will get their place in the European energy transition as a good alternative to fossil fuels as a backup and extension to wind and solar energy.

 

More Than a Decade with Us: Plospan Bio-Energy B.V. – Enplus (enplus-pellets.eu)