A local pulp mill tried something similar. Waste wood was chipped, not made into pellets, and fed into a boiler to produce electricity. Enough waste wood could not be found (surprise, surprise) to keep the electrical producing boiler running full time so whole tree chipping commenced so that the chips would produce more heat for a longer period of time. This was labled “green energy”. An efficiency test was performed and the result was 29% efficient. This continued for a while and was shut down without so much as a whimper. The World Forestry Expo held in Canada a few years before this was promoting this type of electricity production big time. The machinery was massive. The whole idea came out of the EU with the green energy label attached. The only pellet mill we had shut down after only a few years production. All pellet production was snapped up by the EU but the shipping costs were so high the needed retail price was prohibitive for the EU market. Meanwhile, American and western Canadian pellet production costs including shipping caused the retail price to rise having the same effect here in eastern Canada. Free Trade at its best? You betcha. You can’t fix stupid, not even with duct tape. 
