Green Energy
as a Rural Economic Development Tool Project
Funded by:
Wood Biomass Heating Systems
There is increasing interest in BC in biomass heating
systems especially those fuelled using wood products
like pellets and wood chips. While there are a number
of biomass heating projects currently in operation in
BC there are still a number of common misconceptions
about biomass heating systems.
How much biomass fuel is required?
Very common initial questions are:
– How much fuel do these systems require?
– Do we need a large fuel storage system?
– Will there be fuel delivery trucks arriving every second day?
The answers to these questions of course depend on
the size of the system and the fuel source (wood pellets
or wood chips). However, generally the size of the fuel
storage unit and the frequency of fuel delivery are
much smaller and less frequent than people expect.
Depending on the size of the systems, on-site storage
and season; fuel deliveries could be as infrequent as a
truckload every four months or as frequent as weekly.
The table below provides some general information
on the volume and prices of bio-mass fuels compared
to fossil fuels. So for example, the Nazko elementary
school uses less than half a rail car of pellets to heat the
entire school for a year.
Understanding Scales of Volume and Wood Biomass Heating Conversions
One power pole = 1 cubic metre of
wood
One power pole = 757 lbs or 0.344
tonnes of bone dry chips
One B train chip truck = 25 bone dry
tonnes of chips or 40 tonnes of
green chips.
One Grain Rail Car holds 95 to 100
tonnes of pellets
One tonne of pellets = 0.9 bone dry
tonnes of chips or 2 tonnes of
green chips
One tonne of pellets creates
about 19 Gigajoules of energy
(i.e. 19GJ/tonne)
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One bone dry tonne of chips creates
about 20 Gigajoules of energy
One tonne of green wood chips
(30% moisture) creates
about 14 Gigajoules of energy
A typical southern interior BC home
consumes about 100–130
Gigajoules (GJ) of Natural Gas/yr.
for heating.
A typical interior BC home would
consume about 4 to 6 tonnes of
pellets or chips/year for heating.
NAZKO School – Previously used about
8500 gallons of Propane –
approximate cost $45,000/yr. Now
completely converted to biomass
heating and uses 40 tonnes/yr. of
pellets – approximate cost $5,000/yr.
$
1 tonne of Pellets costs about $200
1 Bone dry tonne of chips costs
about $80
1 tonne of green chips costs
about $56
1 Gigajoule of Natural Gas costs about
$11 for residential customers and
$10/ GJ for commercial customers
(delivered cost).
1 Gigajoule of Heating Propane
(39.53 litres) costs about $28 for
residential customers
($0.72/litre-not delivered))
1 Gigajoule of Pellets (.052 tonne)
costs about $10.40 for residential
customers ($200/tonne)
1 Gigajoule of Green Wood Chips
(.071 tonne) costs about $4.98 for
residential customers ($56/tonne)
We don’t have a pellet plant close by
Is this biomass heating technology proven?
Many people believe that if you don’t have a pellet
plant in your community a biomass fuelled heating
system is not feasible. While BC’s pellet industry has
been expanding at a rapid rate over the past five years
and is certainly an important biomass fuel source—it
is not the only potential wood fuel source. Wood chips
are also used extensively in other jurisdictions.
In the U.S., the U.S. Forest Service created a Fuels
for Schools program in 2001 after a severe forest fire
season in the north central region. Under the program
non-commercial wood and harvesting residue from
wildfire hazard abatement treatments are chipped
and used to heat local schools. Today there are over 60
schools in Vermont, Montana, Idaho and other states
heated using wood chips.
In short—Yes. Although still relatively new in BC,
several other jurisdictions have seen forest biomass
heating systems expand rapidly. As noted above, the U.S.
Fuels for Schools program has been operating for over a
decade. As demonstrated by the graph Austria has also
seen a very rapid expansion of wood biomass heating
systems over the past decade. In 2009, approximately
500,000 primary residences in Austria were heated with
biomass fuelled individual stoves and central home
heating systems. Modern wood biomass heating systems
are now typically highly automated using sophisticated
computer controls.
But is obtaining biomass fuel readily
available and environmentally responsible?
Some have expressed concern that a rapid expansion
of large-scale biomass fuelled power plants and
heating systems will result in over-harvesting and a
“vacuuming” of the forest floor to obtain biomass fuels.
Sustainable forest management practices do need to
ensure that appropriate levels of coarse woody debris
and nutrient recycling are considered as part of forest
management and timber harvesting.
However, the majority of rural biomass heating
fuels are most likely to come from the wood “waste”
piles left after ecosystem restoration, wildfire hazard
reduction treatments and normal logging operations.
Right now these “waste” piles are typically simply
burned. A 2006 report completed by the Forest
Engineering Research Institute of Canada concluded
that in the central interior available roadside logging
residues would average approximately 60 bone dry
tonnes per hectare logged. There is also significant
wood biomass “waste” from commercial and
construction processes that is often currently chipped
and buried in our landfills. It is clear therefore that
there are very significant supplies of potential biomass
fuels available simply from our current practices.
1
Estimated Costs for Harvesting, Comminuting, and Transporting
Beetle-killed Pine in the Quesnel, Nechako area of Central BC;
FERIC ADVANTAGE REPORT VOLUME 7, NUMBER 16, 2006.
Are wood biomass heating systems clean?
Often there is a concern that wood biomass heating
systems will be dirty and could create air quality
problems. However, automated modern commercial
scale wood chip and pellet heating systems burn much
cleaner than even the most modern home wood or
pellet stove. Modern commercial scale wood biomass
heating systems produce no creosote and virtually no
smoke or odour.
Wood has lower sulphur dioxide emissions and
net greenhouse gas emissions than both oil and propane;
and biomass is considered a carbon neutral fuel when
harvested using sustainable forestry practices.
Interested in learning more about wood biomass heating?
http://www.greenheatinitiative.com
Check out
http://www.canbio.ca
these
http://www.biomasscenter.org
websites:
http://www.sibacs.com