to read the full report - Ecolateral by Peter Jones

104
Evaluation of Opportunities for Converting Indigenous UK Wastes to Wastes and Energy
AEA/ED45551/Issue 1
Through the Balcas project several thousand homes and businesses in Ireland have converted to wood
pellet heating, also facilitated by energy grants available from Sustainable Energy Ireland.
Experience from Austria suggests that wherever pellets are introduced they result in an increased uptake
of wood heating and dominate the small boiler market.
Graded waste wood chip
Following the building of the two major power projects at Lockerbie and Wilton a market has grown to
supply waste wood in chipped form to an accepted quality standard. In both cases wood recycling
companies have set up dedicated reception and sorting centres at the power plant. In these centres the
wood is sorted to remove contaminated material, shredded and chipped to a size distribution set by the
power plant owner.
The above examples deal with virgin wood, that has not undergone any treatment. Use of waste wood is
more challenging as it will likely have been chemically treated with preservatives, and so can only be
used in WID compliant plants. We understand that E.ON have plans the build five power plant each
25MWe fuelled by waste wood. 187
The recycled wood industry is growing rapidly as pressure to remove organic material from waste streams
increases at the same time as the demand for renewable fuels. 188 Operators are becoming more
experienced and are able to supply a range of fuel specifications depending on the degree of
contamination and source. 189
7.1.5 Standards for wood based fuels
The rapid growth of biomass energy applications in Europe and the increases projected as a result of the
Renewable Energy Directive have created a need for a suite of standards for the characterisation and
analysis of wood fuels. These have been developed on an accelerated timetable by CEN Technical
Committee 355. The remit for this group to develop standards for all forms of solid biofuels in Europe,
including wood chips, wood pellets, briquettes, logs, sawdust and straw bales.
These standards allow all relevant properties of the fuel to be described, and include both normative information
that must be provided about the fuel, and informative information that can be included but is not required. As well
as the physical and chemical characteristics of the fuel as it is, CEN 335 also provides information on the source
of the material.
The Work Programme for TC 335 contains 30 Work Items, which are allocated to 5 Working Groups (WGs):
• WG 1 Terminology, descriptions and definitions
• WG 2 Fuel specifications, classes and quality assurance
• WG 3 sampling and sample preparation
• WG 4 Physical and mechanical test methods
• WG 5 Chemical test methods
All Technical Specifications for CEN 335 have now been published.
CEN 335 includes solid biofuels originating from the following sources:
• Products from agriculture and forestry;
• Vegetable waste from agriculture and forestry;
• Vegetable waste from the food processing industry;
187 http://pressreleases.eon-uk.com/blogs/eonukpressreleases/archive/2008/07/15/1257.aspx
188 Wood Recyclers Association, www.woodrecyclers.org
189 http://www.woodrecyclers.org/