I suspect wood burning power plants ARE large scale pyrolizers.
The wood pellets are made largely from wood waste, not whole trees, think scrap, sawdust, pecan shells, husks, etc.
The pyrolizing process generates heat, wood gas and biochar, which is the toasty carbon-rich leftover component after the pyrolizing process is finished.
The heat might be used to generate steam for turbines, the extra wood gas is also combusted, also to spin the turbines.
Biochar is quite possibly the most important alternative to fertilizer around, and if we don't start making use of it pretty soon, no one will give a damn about produce anymore, because the produce won't have any nutritional value.
That's the problem with natural gas fertilizer processes, which wind up sucking everything of value out of the soil without putting anything back.
Gordon West, aka "Logtroll" of Gila Wood:
Biochar project has potential to boost area soils | Silver City Daily Press
The thing is, we're pretty lousy about capturing the wood gas. If we did a good job of it, the wood gas could also offset a helluva lot of natgas.
Of course then you'd run head first into a moron like Scott Pruitt, who happens to be very protective of the natural gas industry.
But even a moron like Pruitt has some inkling of the process, it's just that he thinks in terms of "BURNING WOOD", because that is as far as his understanding of it goes.
What does one expect from an oil and gas guy?
Disclaimer: Gordon's a friend of mine, and he could probably explain this a whole lot better.