ENplus is the world-leading, independent certification scheme for wood pellets. From production to delivery, ENplus guarantees the quality of wood pellets and combats fraud along the supply chain.
BiomassConsult is the world leader in ENplus consultancy projects. All projects were successful.
Consultancy
Over the last several years, BiomassConsult has developed a consultancy package, that not only assists your company to pass the first ENplus, but also avoids your company from obtaining non-conformities and making mistakes in the future. There is a big difference between passing the audit only, and working accurately and efficiently.
Developing an ENplus quality management system independently “by trial and error” is not efficient. Making mistakes can cost much more than the consultancy services.
The quality management system BiomassConsult installs is practical and focusses on avoiding the production of non-conform pellets and mistakes in the storage and delivery of the pellets. It includes general procedures and declarations, employee instructions, schemes and tables for recording testing results and other aspects related to quality management. These documents are adapted to the precise situation at your company. After which a training is given to the quality manager and involved personnel.
BiomassConsult can also assist your company to comply with more strict and additional quality parameters. Implementing a sound quality management system is key to client satisfaction and avoiding reclamations.
The consultancy also includes which equipment precisely to use for testing the pellets, and where the equipment can be bought. This often reduces more costs than the consultancy services cost.
BiomassConsult prefers to visit your company to give explanations onsite and to give a training to the personnel on testing the pellets. However, it is also possible to perform the consultancy remotely, through internet communication tools.
During the audit the following aspects are inspected:
- One or several pellet samples are taken and sent to an accredited lab for testing. The pellets need to comply with the ENplus quality requirements related to the relevant quality class (normally ENplus A1);
- The quality management system at the company is inspected against the ENplus requirements. The quality management system must be sufficiently robust to ensure that the pellet quality is conform the requirements all year long. The risk of non-conform pellets being sold as certified should be low.
How long does it take?
With the assistance of BiomassConsult companies prepare better and one could say “twice as quickly”. BiomassConsult assists in planning the audit and achieving the certificate as quickly as possible. If all goes maximally quickly (with consultancy), it is in principle possible to achieve the certificate in around 6 weeks. In practice (with consultancy), it takes around 2 months to become certified.
After filling in the application forms, the audit preparations, trainings and audit (≥ 3 weeks), the auditor sends a sample to an independent accredited lab for testing (≥ 2 weeks). The last step is the finalisation of the audit report by the certifying body and the payment of the ENplus head office (≥ 1 week).
If there is reason to doubt the quality of the pellets, it can be needed to send the pellets for testing to a lab before the audit. This would make the process take longer. Luckily, this is normally not needed, or can be avoided.
The procurement of testing equipment can be a reason for delays in the certification process, but in practise this problem can normally be solved in time.
Certification process:
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Evaluating the situation at the pellet producer, trader, or service provider (e.g. independent bagging lines) by the consultant.
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Sending application forms and signing contacts with certification body (together with the consultant).
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Buying the needed testing equipment (together with the consultant).
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Adapting the consultancy package to the situation at your company (together with the consultant).
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Training of key personnel by the consultant.
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Filling in the needed tables on pellet quality and other relevant operational aspects by the interested company (this is also checked by the consultant).
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Inspecting the company by an accredited Inspection Body (if there are any non-conformances, the consultant assists in solving them).
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Testing the wood pellets by an accredited lab (sampling is done by the auditor).
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Finalising the audit report by the accredited Certification Body.
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Paying the ENplus Head Office and obtaining the ENplus certificate.
