Virgin Planet is..

an international group with branches in Korea, Dubai, Hongkong, and Montenegro, which began operations in 2014.

Virgin Planet Branch Korea supplies lumber and wood pellets mainly to East Asia (Korea, China, Japan).

The wood, which pellets' raw materials, are sourced from Northern territories with the highest calorific value spices of trees.

Virgin Planet directly conducts logging, processing, and international trade, and delivers high-quality pellets from the Northern Arctic forest to customers' home at the lowest price.

■What is the wood pellet (forest biomass)?

It is a clean wood-based bio-raw material that is processed by logging and grinding forestry waste or felled timber into sawdust and then compressing it into a cylindrical shape with a length of about 2-4cm and a thickness of less than 1cm. It was originally developed in the U.S. after the oil shock in the 1970s. Then As oil prices fell, consumption declined. But after the Kyoto Protocol came into force in the 1990s, its became popular in Europe.

The amount of wood pellets obtained from 1㎥ of wood is about 450kg, which is similar to the thermal efficiency of burning 225L of diesel. In Korea, 2M. ㎥ of forest resources are not used every year, and if they are made into pellets, 450k. tons of crude oil can be saved, reducing about 1.37M. tons of carbon dioxide every year.

■ What is the forest biomass?

Biomass is a biological term that combines bio + mass. Forest biomass refers to the stem roots and leaves of trees from the forest. If we use unused biomass to replace fossil fuels, it could be another main resource for people on Earth.

If forest biomass is made into pellets and used as fuel, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced compared to using fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide when they grow, and if they are processed into pellets, they release only the absorbed carbon again, so carbon does not increase but just becomes a circulating process. Therefore, the use of wood fuels can reduce the net increase of carbon in the air compared to fossil fuels. This is why biomass has recently been in the spotlight as a new and renewable energy resource.

■ Advantages of Wood pellet fuel
1) Convenience

-Wood pellets are compressed to a high density and can be loaded, transported, and stored more than 3 times as much as wood.

-They are uniformly manufactured and can be automatically refueled.

-They are manufactured in a consistent quality and can reliably supply heat (4,300~4,500Kcal/kg).

2) Economics

-1 ton of wood pellets replace about 500L of kerosene or diesel.

-Wood pellets have great advantages as alternatives to heating and power generation oil.

	Wood pellet	Diesel	Kerosene	Gas
Price	₩500/kg	₩1,494/L	₩1,573/L	₩1,029/N㎡
calorific value	4.5Mcal	9Mcal/L	9Mcal/L	10.5Mcal/N㎡
Price per calorific value	₩111/Mcal	₩166/Mcal	₩175/Mcal	₩98/Mcal

(* as of June 2023. Comparison for simple heat generation, does not consider boiler efficiency.)

3) Eco-friendliness

-Wood pellets are eco-friendly fuels that have been recognized by the Convention on Climate Change as not emitting greenhouse gases. (Reduce CO₂by 1.37t using 1t of wood pellet)

-Wood pellets are clean fuels that emit less air pollutants. (Wood pellets are pure wood, so they rarely emit sulfur oxides (Sox) or nitrogen oxides (Nox) that cause acid rain.)

(measure:ppm)

Measurement	Standard of Ministry of Environment	Wood pellets	Diesel
SOx	100	1	22
NOx	100	10	135

■ Advantages of Wood pellet as Pet litter
1) Cleanliness

-Unlike sand (bentonite), wood pellets don't have desertification, so can be kept clean without sand flying around the house.

-These are less dusty than other pet litter materials, so you can maintain a clean indoor environment.

2) Economical (excellent absorption)

Wood pellets are compressed to a high density, so they are much more absorbent in the same volume of other pet litter materials.

In particular, trees grown in cold climates such as Siberia have better absorption due to their density.

3) Deodorizing

-Wood pellets are processed from natural wood, so they not only absorb the odors, but also spread the soft scent of wood throughout the home.

4) Eco-friendliness

-Wood pellets are eco-friendly, since they are from clean wood without any chemicals added.