Spain has 83 pellet factories, 7 less than in 2017

According to data from the Avebiom association published by Bioenergy International, our country currently has 83 pellet factories, 7 less than in 2017, although the pellet manufacturing capacity already exceeds 2,000,000 tons per year, a quarter of a million more than the previous year. The data is collected in the 2018 solid biofuels map for Spain, Portugal, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, published by Avebiom.

There are currently 35 plants with ENplus certified production, one of them new in 2018. The autonomous communities that host the most facilities are Andalusia and Castilla y León, with 11 each, followed by Castilla-La Mancha, with 10, and Galicia. , with eight. Catalonia has 6 plants, Extremadura, Valencian Community and Aragon, five each. Below five, the rest.

With the available data, the largest capacities are located in Castilla y León, where close to 370,000 tons per year could be produced; Andalusia is capable of producing around 270,000 tons; Extremadura, thanks to the project in the town of Moraleja in Cáceres, could reach 210,000 tons per year. In Galicia and Castilla-La Mancha, with factories already in operation, the manufacturing potential is between 175,000 and 200,000 tons/year.

Aragón, where a large plant is being built in Erla, would be placed at 160,000 tons. In Catalonia, medium-sized factories operate close to their capacities and can put up to 140,000 tons annually on the market. Chip and bone plants Regarding chip production plants, most of the almost 60 inventoried by AVEBIOM have productions of less than 30,000 tons per year - half of them have the capacity to produce up to 10,000 tons. Only 5 facilities produce more than 30,000 tons, and only 3, in Asturias, Girona and Valencia, are capable of exceeding 60,000 tons/year.

Olive pit producers remain year after year, both in number, around 25 facilities, and in production, generally less than 10,000 t/year, although this varies with the annual olive campaign.