Port of Helsingborg Magazine Winter/Spring 2006 - Helsingborgs ...

Peak season for clean heatingat VästhamnsverketVästhamnsverket’s peak season is from December to March.Öresundskraft’s, the local energy company, biofuel plantuses about 1,000 tonnes of pellets a day, with shiploads ofthese compact little pieces coming from Sweden, the Balticcountries and North America. In one year, production ofdistrict heating here amounts to the equivalent of the annualconsumption of 40,000 ordinary private houses.The pellets warehouse seen from crane 18It is an intensive period at Västhamnsverket.The operational seasonstretches from mid-October until themiddle of May, but production is at itsheight during the coldest months. Sincethe turn of the year, coal is no longerburned and only biofuel in the form ofwood pellets is transformed into heatand electricity. Efforts to reduce theamount of coal used have been goingon for many years, and the fi gures telltheir own story. Before, the use of coalresulted in emissions of 310 tonnes ofnitrogen oxides, 160 tonnes of sulphurand 330,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.Now, the fi gures are 90 tonnes of nitrogenoxides, 5 tonnes of sulphur and,most importantly, no carbon dioxideat all. ‘This is a major environmentalinitiative and, last summer, we investedSEK 60 million so that we could stopusing coal,’ says Christer Olsson, CEOof Öresundskraft Produktion AB.Conifers transformed to heatSince testing of biofuel started atthe beginning of the Nineties, manytypes of this kind of fuel have beentested at the company : grain, olivestones, coconuts, peas, beans - evenshredded tyres. But the pellets arrivingat the port today are products of theforestry industry. Pine and spruce aremost common, but deciduous trees arealso used. The demand for pellets hasincreased dramatically. Sweden hasbeen a leading country in this area and,3