Wood Chips for Industrial Biomass

Specifications

Where our wood chips come from: process and origin

Every log of pine or eucalyptus that goes through our sawmill in Berdoias produces, alongside sawn boards and beams, a substantial volume of off-cuts, slabs, coarse sawdust and bark. Rather than treating that material as waste, we run it through our own chipping and screening line, reducing it to controlled-size fragments and sorting it by particle size before it goes into covered storage.

The timber itself comes from local Galician forestry — pine and eucalyptus stands managed within the wider forestry tradition of the region, a sector whose regulatory and planning framework is set out by the Xunta de Galicia's Consellería do Medio Rural. Working with wood sourced nearby shortens the time between felling, sawing and chipping, which helps keep starting moisture content more predictable than chips made from timber gathered from scattered, unrelated sources.

A significant share of our chip volume also comes directly from our own sawn eucalyptus timber production, where off-cuts and slabs that would otherwise be sawmill waste are converted into chipping feedstock instead. That internal use of our own by-product is what lets us offer chips on an ongoing basis, rather than relying purely on external wood purchases for chipping. Every batch we chip is logged against its production date and the felling area the wood came from, so if a customer needs to repeat a specification we can trace it back to the original stock. Chipped material is kept under cover rather than left exposed in open stockpiles, which limits uncontrolled moisture pickup from rain between chipping and loading — a detail that matters more than it might seem once a boiler is calibrated to a particular moisture band.

Species and how the raw material behaves

Almost all of our chip production comes from two species: Galician pine and eucalyptus, and the two behave quite differently in a boiler or a process line. Pine gives a lighter chip with thin bark and a resin fraction that helps it ignite quickly; it's commonly used in medium-sized biomass boilers and in applications where clean, stable combustion is the priority.

Eucalyptus, by contrast, is a denser wood: volume for volume it packs in more woody mass, which suits plants trying to maximise the energy available per cubic metre of storage, though its lower porosity means combustion air needs managing slightly differently than with pine. In practice, many industrial plants blend both species or specify a single-species load depending on their boiler design and past operating experience.

We can also vary bark content according to end use. For combustion, a moderate proportion of bark is not a problem — it adds calorific content — but for chipboard or particleboard manufacturing, some producers prefer a cleaner chip with lower bark content, and we adjust screening to match each customer's specification. The relationship between moisture and calorific value is the same for both species: the wetter the load, the less usable energy is delivered per tonne, so any drying or air-curing carried out before loading has a direct, measurable effect on how a customer's boiler actually performs once the chips reach the firebox. For that reason, we discuss species mix and moisture target together with a customer rather than treating them as separate decisions.

Particle size, moisture and dimensional standards

Biomass chips are bought against a technical specification, not just a species name. We work with the particle-size and moisture classes set out in EN ISO 17225-4, the reference framework the sector commonly uses for untreated wood chips, and adjust our screening to align with classes such as P16, P31.5 or P45 depending on what a given installation needs. That standard isn't a certification the company holds — it's a shared sizing and quality vocabulary we use with buyers to define an order precisely.

Moisture is the other decisive variable. Supplied green, straight off the chipper, moisture typically sits in a wide range, as is normal for freshly processed wood; if a customer needs a lower, more stable moisture content, we can arrange a period of air-drying or partial drying in storage before loading, bringing the batch closer to the tighter moisture classes used by higher-efficiency boilers. Either way, final moisture is agreed contractually and can be checked at loading.

Fines content (very small chips or residual sawdust) and oversize material are controlled through screening, so the delivered load is consistent and doesn't compromise the performance of a customer's boiler feed system. On larger loads we can take representative samples at loading to record actual moisture and particle-size distribution for that batch, giving the customer a reference figure alongside the delivery rather than relying solely on a generic product description. That sampling step is optional and agreed in advance, but many industrial buyers ask for it as standard practice on recurring contracts.

Industrial applications: boilers, district heating and panel manufacturing

Our chips serve three main industrial markets. The most common is industrial biomass boilers: plants generating process heat or steam for their own operations that consume chips continuously as a solid fuel, with a silo or storage yard sized for several days of autonomy. The second is district heating networks, where a central plant supplies heat to several buildings or an industrial estate and needs a stable feedstock — consistent particle size and moisture that won't upset combustion from one day to the next.

The third is chipboard and particleboard manufacturing, where the chip isn't burned but becomes raw material for the board itself; cleanliness and size uniformity matter more here than in combustion. We also supply industrial cogeneration plants and agricultural or industrial drying operations that use chips as fuel to generate process heat.

For buyers who want a densified fuel rather than bulk chips, we also offer wood pellets for biomass heating, an alternative with higher energy density per volume and less moisture variability, better suited to smaller installations or sites with limited storage space. In some installations, chips are combined with pellets or other solid fuels as a backup source or to cover seasonal demand peaks, which calls for flexible delivery coordination on our side rather than a fixed weekly volume. We're used to working around that kind of variable schedule with industrial customers who need to smooth out winter peaks or planned maintenance windows.

Sustainability and forestry sourcing in Galicia

Chipping off-cuts, bark and low-grade wood is, by nature, a recovery exercise: we turn a sawmill by-product that would otherwise have to be managed as waste into a usable fuel or raw material. That logic of full-tree use lines up with the sustainable-forest-management principles promoted by frameworks such as FSC and PEFC, whose criteria we follow as good-practice reference points, without claiming a formal certification the company does not hold.

Galicia is one of Spain's most forestry-oriented regions, with decades of pine and eucalyptus management behind it, and we work within that local forestry base rather than importing wood from elsewhere purely to chip it. Internationally, bodies such as FAO Forestry document the growing role of forest biomass as a renewable energy source within Europe's energy transition, a context our chip production sits within quite naturally.

Cutting down transport of sawmill residue, putting bark to use instead of stockpiling it, and keeping the wood-to-chip cycle within a short radius are, for us, concrete forms of sustainability rather than a marketing line. We apply the same full-use principle to bark that isn't routed into chips, giving it a market of its own rather than letting it accumulate as sawmill residue. Treating every fraction of the log — sawn timber, chips, bark and sawdust — as a saleable product rather than waste is, in practical terms, what sustainable sourcing looks like for a sawmill our size.

Continuous supply and export logistics across Europe

Biomass chips are usually bought under a continuous supply contract rather than as a one-off order: the buyer needs certainty that their boiler or plant will keep receiving a steady volume week after week, without gaps. We size our production and storage to commit to recurring delivery schedules, adjusting volume, species and particle size to each contract rather than just the first load.

Transport is handled in bulk, typically by walking-floor or tipper truck for large volumes, and by lined or tarped shipping container for maritime export where distance justifies it. Within the EU, moving untreated wood chips doesn't usually call for the same solid-wood-packaging phytosanitary paperwork that applies to pallets and crating; for destinations outside the EU, it's worth confirming customs and phytosanitary requirements with the destination country in advance, since these vary, and we handle that coordination with the customer for each shipment.

We work on flexible delivery terms — EXW, FOB or delivered, depending on what suits the operation — and prepare transport documentation in both Spanish and English to ease customs clearance and receipt on site, for customers in Spain and across the other European markets we export to. Lead times depend on the volume requested, the distance involved and transport availability; for recurring contracts we agree a stable delivery calendar in advance, while for one-off loads the lead time is confirmed case by case when the order is placed, rather than promised as a fixed figure that might not hold for every route or season.

Why choose Maderas Caamaño for biomass wood chips

We are a sawmill first and a biomass trader second, and that's the main difference between us and many intermediaries in this market: the chips we sell come out of our own sawing process for Galician pine and eucalyptus, which gives us direct control over wood origin, species, bark content and chipping timing, rather than depending on third parties who aggregate material of mixed provenance.

That in-house, family-run origin, built on decades of forestry tradition in the Vimianzo area, translates into a responsiveness industrial buyers value: we can tailor a batch to a specific specification, maintain continuous supply under contract, and handle both large loads for biomass plants and smaller runs for panel manufacturers or drying operations.

Beyond chips, our sawmill also produces other by-products such as decorative mulch and bark, which lets us route different fractions of the tree to the right use rather than lumping everything into one undifferentiated product. If your plant needs a biomass chip supplier with traceable origin and the capacity to sustain supply over time, Maderas Caamaño can work to your contract and your delivery schedule. We handle enquiries from new customers directly, without layers of sales intermediaries, which speeds up both defining the technical specification and agreeing commercial and delivery terms. For an industrial buyer evaluating multiple suppliers, that directness usually means fewer round trips between enquiry and a workable contract.

Applications & uses

• Industrial biomass boiler feedstock
• District heating networks
• Chipboard and particleboard manufacturing
• Industrial cogeneration plants
• Agricultural and industrial drying operations
• Continuous supply contracts for biomass plants

Frequently asked questions