Wood Chips Trading

Woodchips are small to medium sized pieces of wood formed by cutting or chipping larger pieces of wood such as trees, branches, logging residues, stumps, roots, and wood residue.

Woodchips may be used as a biomass solid fuel and are raw material for producing wood pulp. They may also be used as an organic mulch in gardening, landscaping, restoration ecology, bioreactors for denitrification and as a substrate for mushroom cultivation.

Our platform covers the trading of the world’s most common standards (including ISO) & non-standard wood chips products.

Technical Specification of standard Wood Chips

*Exact technical specification of Non-standard Wood Chips products can be inserted in the Electronic Trading System and published by the suppliers.

ISO Specification of graded Wood Chips - A1, A2, B1, B2

Table 1 – Particle size of wood chips

*All Dimensions are in mm

	Minimum 60 w-% in main fraction, mm^a	Fines fraction, w-% (< 3,15 mm)	Coarse fraction, (w-%), max. length of particle (mm), max. cross sectional area (cm²)
P16 small	3,15 ≤ P ≤ 16 mm	≤ 12%	≤ 3 % > 31,5 mm, and all < 45 mm, The cross sectional area of the oversized particles < 1 cm²
P31 medium	3,15 ≤ P ≤ 31,5 mm	≤ 8%	≤ 6 % > 45 mm, ≤ 3 % > 100 mm and all < 200 mm, The cross sectional area of the oversized particles < 5 cm²
P45 large	3,15 ≤ P ≤ 45 mm	≤ 8%	≤ 12 % > 63 mm and all < 300 mm, The cross sectional area of the oversized particles < 10 cm²

^aThe numerical values (P-class) for dimension refer to the particle sizes passing through the mentioned round hole sieve size (ISO 17827-1).

Origin & Source

A1	A2	B1	B2	Analysis Method
1.1.1 Whole trees without roots ^a	1.1.1 Whole trees without roots ^a	1.1 Forest plantation & other virgin wood^b	1.1 Forest, plantation and other virgin wood^b	ISO 17225-1
1.1.3 Stemwood	1.1.3 Stemwood	1.2.1 Chemically untreated wood residues	1.2. By-products and residues from wood processing industry
1.1.4.3 Logging residues, stored broadleaf	1.1.4.3 Logging residues, stored broadleaf		1.3.Used wood
1.2.1 Chemically untreated wood residues	1.2.1 Chemically untreated wood residues

Physical Parameter

	Unit	A1	A2	B1	B2	Analysis Method
Particle size, P	mm	To be selected from Table 1	To be selected from Table 1	To be selected from Table 1	To be selected from Table 1	ISO 17831-1
Moisture, M^c	w-%	M10 ≤ 10, M25 ≤ 25	M35 ≤ 35	To be specified	To be specified	ISO 18134-1, ISO 18134-2
Ash, A	Dry Basis, w-%	A1.0 ≤ 1,0	A1.5 ≤ 1,5	A3.0 ≤ 3,0	A3.0 ≤ 3,0	ISO 18122
Net Calorific Value, Q	MJ/kg or kWh/kg	Q13.0 ≥ 13,0 or Q3.6 ≥ 3,6	Q11.0 ≥ 11,0 or Q3.1 ≥ 3,1	To be specified	To be specified	ISO 18125
Bulk Density, BD ^d	As received, kg/loose m³	BD150 ≥ 150 or BD200 ≥ 200	BD150 ≥ 150 or BD200 ≥ 200	To be specified	To be specified	ISO 17828

Elementary Composition

	Unit	A1	A2	B1	B2	Analysis Method
Nitrogen, N	Dry Basis, w-%	Not applicable	Not applicable	N1.0 < 1,0	N1.0 < 1,0	ISO 16948
Sulphur, S	Dry Basis, w-%	Not applicable	Not applicable	S0.1 < 0,1	S0.1 < 0,1	ISO 16994
Chlorine, Cl	Dry Basis, w-%	Not applicable	Not applicable	Cl0.05 < 0,05	Cl0.05 < 0,05	ISO 16994
Arsenic, As	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 1	≤ 1	ISO 16968
Cadmium, Cd	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 2,0	≤ 2,0	ISO 16968
Chromium, Cr	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 10	≤ 10	ISO 16968
Copper, Cu	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 10	≤ 10	ISO 16968
Lead, Pb	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 10	≤ 10	ISO 16968
Mercury, Hg	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤ 0,1	≤ 0,1	ISO 16994
Nickel, Ni	Dry Basis, mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤10	≤10	ISO 16968
Zinc, Zn	mg/kg	Not applicable	Not applicable	≤100	≤100	ISO 16968

^a Excluding class 1.1.1.3 Short rotation coppice, if reason to suspect contamination of land or if planting has been used for the sequestration of chemicals or growing trees have fertilized by sewage sludge (issued from waste water treatment or chemical process).

^b Excluding classes 1.1.5 Stumps/roots and 1.1.6 Bark

^c Actual property class for moisture content to be stated. Moisture class M10 is for artificial dried wood chips. Minimum value of moisture content to be stated.

^d Actual property class for Bulk density to be stated. The bulk density is lower for coniferous than for broadleaf wood, see informative Annex A.

General guidelines for bulk density of graded wood chips

*The bulk density range is given for two general classes of tree species: broadleaf and coniferous species.

- Coniferous species contain most of the softwood species (e.g. pine, spruce, fir) as well as the light broadleaf species like poplar and willow. As a basis for the calculation a basic density of 400 kg dry matter/m3 is assumed. Basic density is the ratio of the mass on dry basis and the solid volume on green basis (ISO 16559).
- Broadleaf species comprise most of the hardwood species like oak, beech, maple, birch. For the broadleaf species a basic density of 550 kg dry matter/m3 is assumed.

In the table, a range of bulk densities is given, which depend on the moisture content of the chip.

Moisture content on wet basis	w-%	8 to 18	18 to 25	25 to 35	35 to 45
Bulk density for coniferous species	kg/m³ loose volume	160 to 180	180 to 200	200 to 225	225 to 270
Bulk density for coniferous species	Property class	BD150	BD150	BD200	BD200
Bulk density for broadleaf species	kg/m³ loose volume	225 to 250	250 to 280	280 to 320	320 to 380
Bulk density for broadleaf species	Property class	BD200	BD250	BD250	BD300