PRODUCTS
3 BIOMASS FUEL PELLET PRODUCTS
Prairie Clean Energy (PCE) has three biomass fuel product lines for customers to choose among; wood pellets, flax straw pellets, and agricultural or ag pellets made from crops other than flax straw. PCE uses un-utilized wood and agricultural residue for our product lines to create the secure, abundant, and renewable supply for our customers.
WOOD PELLETS
AG RESIDUE PELLETS
Saskatchewan is Canada’s “ breadbasket,” with agricultural production representing more than 40% of Canada’s total. You can see crops like barley, canola, canary, hemp, wheat and many more growing in its vast fields. All of these crops result in an abundance of un-utilized agricultural residue – waste that has no other purpose. PCE is uniquely positioned to bring this residue, all 48 million tonnes of it, to the biomass pellet market. We’re offering a clean, renewable, abundant, and secure fuel source.
FLAX PELLETS
Flax straw pellets come from the flax (or linseed) plant. Flax straw is a waste by-product of harvesting flax seed. The straw has no nutrients, cannot be tilled into the soil, and has no market value. Farmers have no choice but to burn the straw in field. However, flax straw is an excellent fuel source. It burns cleanly and hotly, generating very low ash content and a high net calorific value. PCE has developed a patent-pending process to transform this straw into pellets for the biomass industry. More than 750,000 tonnes of flax straw are produced on the Canadian prairies every year. We are the only company in the world that pelletizes flax straw.
Benefits of Flax Straw
Flax straw is abundant, renewable, and it burns efficiently:
Canada produces 40% of all global flax, and the amount of flax straw produced annually on the Canadian prairies is well over 750,000 tonnes.
As a staple of Canadian agriculture, flax is already part of farmers’ annual crop rotations. The straw is a residue after the flax has been harvested. It has no nutrient value and must be removed from the field. With no market for this waste, most of the straw is burned in the field.
As tested, flax straw can meet ISO standards. Flax straw has a very low ash content and low moisture levels. The chemical composition of flax straw is appropriate for power generation, with mineral content far below typical agricultural fuel sources. Most importantly, flax straw has high net calorific value equivalent to wood.
Prairie Clean’s products are all independently tested and verified. Testing labs include Econotech (from Delta, British Columbia, Canada) and the Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group (from the University of British Columbia).
The flax plant
Flax is a slender plant with pale blue flowers grown as an annual crop for its seeds and fibre. It is used in industrial applications, food production, textiles manufacturing, and as animal fodder. In Canada, the vast majority of flax is harvested for its seeds and the straw fibre is discarded as waste.
Prairie Clean Energy is the only Saskatchewan-based
registered buyer of flax straw. For more information on flax and the flax industry, visit SaskFlax or the Flax Council of Canada.
PCE Flax Straw Pellets
ISO-compliant
High net calorific value equivalent to wood
Low ash content
Good moisture levels