The problem with most agricultural residue is that it is mostly air. Loose rice husk has a bulk density of around 100 kilograms a cubic metre, sawdust and shavings not much more, and a truckload of either carries a few tonnes. Pressed into a pellet of six to eight millimetres, the same material has a bulk density of 600 to 700 kilograms a cubic metre, a moisture content held under 10%, and a heating value of about 17 megajoules a kilogram. It can be stored, shipped and fed to a boiler by screw, like coal.
Compiled in September 2026 from the releases of the time, with the revisions the agencies have published since. Nothing here is a forecast.
What the plant does
Drying, grinding, pressing and cooling. The press forces the ground material through a die under enough pressure that the lignin in it softens and binds the pellet; no additive is needed for wood, and a small one for husk or straw. The energy cost of the process is mostly the drying, which is why a pellet plant sits next to the residue and, ideally, next to a source of waste heat.
Who buys pellets
Two markets. Power stations in Japan and Korea co-fire wood pellets with coal under their renewable support schemes and buy them by the shipload, mostly from Vietnam, Indonesia and North America. Industrial boilers in the region buy them by the truckload to replace coal or fuel oil where local residue is not available. The first market wants wood; the second will take husk or shell pellets if the boiler can handle the ash.
The Philippine position
The country has the residue and the ports and very little pellet capacity. The plants that exist serve local boilers and small exports. The case for a plant is strongest at a wood processor, a coconut processor or a rice-milling cluster with a residue it cannot use on site, within reach of a port or a fleet of boilers that burn something dearer.
What it means for a boiler owner
A plant that cannot get residue at the gate can still burn residue, delivered as pellets, in a boiler designed for them. The fuel costs more than loose husk and less than fuel oil, and it arrives on a contract with a specification. For a site in a city, that is the realistic biomass option.
The manufacturing and boilers page sets out what a pellet-fired steam supply involves.
If your site runs a fuel-fired boiler or produces an organic residue, an energy and waste audit puts your own numbers against this. Tell us about your site and an engineer replies with the data we need. The figures behind each quarter are in the quarterly market brief.
The next step
If you have organic waste or a boiler and want to know what it is actually worth, tell us what the site produces and what it costs you today. An engineer replies with the first step.
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