Biomass
is defined as all plant and animal matter of the Earths surface.
Biomass products such as trees, crops or animal dung are harvested and processed to create bio-energy in the form of create electricity, heat, steam, and fuels-some of these are dealt with elsewhere. Unlike fossil fuels which take millions of years to create, biomass can be replaced relatively quickly without permanently depleting the Earth's natural resources.
Plant and animal matter can be processed to yield power in the form of heat, steam and fuel through burning, pyrolysis, fermentation or extraction.
Kingsmead School and the Lion Saltworks are the first two sites in Cheshire to consider the use of biomass. You might also be interested in the Royal commission on environmental Pollution.
Kingsmead
School in Northwich, is the first school in Cheshire to operate a biomass
boiler.
Talbot Heating
are the supplier of the C1-B biomass boiler. Around 60% of the heat
demand of the school will be met by the biomass boiler. The County Council
is working with EGNI to develop local suppliers of timber and on a strategy
to encourage the uptake of the technology across Cheshire. The boiler
is 80% efficient and has full modulating capacity to meet the variable
heating load of the building.
The biomass task force has recently reported to Government on the barriers to further development in the UK. The report provides very good background information and is a challenge to all sectors in the UK to grow a biomass industry. Read the report from the Energy centre.
Supplier:
Talbotts Heating
Max Biomass Boiler Output: 60 kw
Total Heating Load: 150 kw
Biomass as proportion: 40%
Total Potential Heating Energy Requirement: 35,000
kwh/yr
Storage bunker is 10m3
Total Potential Biomass Energy Proportion: 60%
Fuel supply
for the school is a large wood pellet supplied by EGNI from a new production
facility at Kronospan near Wrexham. Pellet was used to reduce the risk
of fuel supply but the system has been designed to burn wood chip. The
plan is to move from pellet use to locally sourced woodchip.
Principle sources of Biomass in producing energy:
Woody Biomass
I. Short Rotation Coppice (SRC)Short Rotation Coppice involves the cultivation of fast growing, regenerative woody species such as willow, hazel and poplar. SRC plantations are coppiced on a 3-5 year cycle and the harvested material is chipped and processed to provide material for burning or pyrolysis. SRC provides an alternative land use for farmers and typically requires less fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides than intensive food crops.
II. Products from forestry operations and woodland management
Residues and by-products from forestry & and woodland management operations such as thinning can be harvested for biomass and processed for used in a similar away to SRC.
In Cheshire, the Mersey Forest initiative has pioneered the creation of new areas of woodland and forestry which will increase the availability of timber products for the local biomass market.
III. Other sources
Other sources of woody biomass can be obtained from industrial & domestic wood waste such as tree trimmings, wooden pallets, construction and demolition wastes. Other crops grown for their energy content include: straw and miscanthus grass.
Using
Woody biomass for bio-energy :
Woody biomass can be burnt directly as a raw product, or processed into
solid fuel such as pellets or briquettes which are combusted to create
heat or steam to generate electricity. They can also be heated with
limited supplies of oxygen to produce burnable gas and oil products.
The
Lion Saltworks, Northwich
The Lion Saltworks in Northwich is the only remaining traditionally
run saltworks in Cheshire from a legacy which spans almost two thousand
years. The site proposes to combine traditional techniques with the
latest green technology through the employment of a bio-fuel combustion
system to power its extraction process.
The latest report on the potential for biomass at the Lion Saltworks:
-
Biomass - a Fuel for the Future (Word doc)
-
Appendix C (Word doc)
-
Appendix D (Word doc)
Recent examples of Biomass use in the UK include :
-
At Weobley in Heredfordshire a 350 kWt biomass boiler is used to heat a primary school and adjacent secondary school
-
The Ecotach Rural Business Centre, East Anglia is heated by a 250 kWt automatic Chip boiler
- In Northern Ireland a 100 kWe biomass CHP plant generates electricity for the national grid and heats grain drying floors
- See how many Biomass Boilers there are in the North West
- Further information on where to buy woodfuel
Vegetable Oil crops
Cellulose
and vegetable oil crops such as palm oil and rapeseed can be processed
to create liquid fuel which can be used as a diesel fuel supplement to
power cars, engines including those in diesel generators, and even industrial
operations. Ethanol (which comes from cellulose biomass such as corn)
is produced through fermentation. Biodiesel is the result of combining
alcohol (including ethanol) with oil extracted from soybeans, rapeseed,
animal fats, or other biomass. Ebony
Solution based in Cheshire provide biodiesel-a fuel based on reconstituted
cooking oil.
Further
information
The North England Wood Fuel Strategy.