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 waste.
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, and restoration ecology, bioreactors for Denitrification and as a substrate for mushroom cultivation.
Wood chip, mainly used to produce paper and other products traditionally, has also been used to produce biofuel. The global demand for wood chip is increasing as policies promote the use of biomass for renewable energy. The USA has been a major exporter of wood chip worldwide. Meanwhile, European Union (EU) demand for wood chip is expected to increase rapidly in response to its renewable energy policy.
Wood chips are typically used in fluidized-bed installations, technically also in combination i.e. Co-combustion with coal. Such facilities are present all around the world. Outside Europe, the three main destinations for international wood chip trade include: Japan, Turkey, and China.