IEE/09/758/SI MixBioPells WP / D 6.4. Summary review of national workshop, VTT

Transcription

1 National workshop IEE/09/758/SI MixBioPells WP / D 6.4. Summary review of national workshop, VTT Author 1: Markku Kallio, VTT Supported by the European Commission under the EIE programme The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

2 INDRODUCTION The seminar was held at VTT in Jyväskylä The invitation to the seminar is in Appendix 1. Number of participants was 30 persons. The seminar was organized in cooperation with Finnish Pellet Association and all presentations are available on association s website. Topic of the event was presentations and discussion on the mixed or blended pellets production, non-woody pellet standards, markets and combustion. Participants represent different areas of the pellet industry, e.g. Versawood Oy, Jalasjärven Lämpö Oy, Vapo Oy, Biobotnia Oy represented pellet produces, Ariterm Oy, HT-Enerco Oy, Höyry ja Lämpö Oy and Fiskarsin Pellettikamiina represented manufacturers of heating devices and Jyväskylän Seudun Kehittämiskeskus Oy, Suomen Pellettienergiayhdistys ry, Pirkanmaan metsäkeskus (2) and Pohjois-Karjalan AMK-Liikelaitos from policy and administration. List of participants is presented in Appendix 2. NATIONAL WORSHOP Mr. Matts Kempe from Vapo Oy acted as the chairman of the seminar. The manager of Finnish pellet energy association (SPE) Mr. Hannes Tuohiniitty opened the seminar. He told that some amounts of alternative pellets are made in Europe. In Wels conference it was concluded that the real markets would open for mixed pellets within 10 years. According to the TEM (Ministry of Employment and the Economy) and the report of VTT, the use of pellets in Finland would be increased remarkably during the next few years, especially large scale use. On the other hand, the bulk density of straw or grass is so low that it will limit the use of straw or grass as a local fuel. Mr. Markku Kallio told about the MixBioPells project. Low bulk density creates difficulties not only in transport, but also in storage. Present pelletizing machines have been designed for woody raw material, so when alternative materials are used press works on the lower efficiency than it is designed. It was also discussed on the harvesting time of reed canary grass and the best time for pelletizing it. Spring is the best time, but pellets have to be storaged for main heating season, which requires space, and the quality of pellets might also decrease. Mr. Harri Honkavaara from Biobotnia Oy had a solution for low bulk density. He use a mobile unit to pelletize the raw material. Mr. Honkavaara can handle a total bale in his grinder. Difficulty in the production is the varying moisture content of bales (between 10 40w-%). Most suitable moisture content for pelletizing of straw and grass would be 10 15w-%. Mr. Aarno Alaluusua from Jalasjärven Lämpö Oy, told about the production of MDF pellets and also heating with them by using 700 kw pellet boiler. As soon as the new investment on gasification system will be ready in 2012, the use of straw and grass pellets will be increased significantly and in 2015 over 50% of the total heat production of the Jalasjärvi municipality is generated by wood chips and agropellets. Now the main fuel is peat. Mr. Pasi Sironen from Vapo Oy told about the peat and wood pellets of Vapo Oy. The Vapo s Peräseinäjoki plant produces about to tons mixed peat pellets 2

3 annually according to market needs. About 5-7% wood is used in peat pellets to decrease dusting. That blend has much better moisture durability than wood pellets. Peat pellets are used in farms, greenhouses, heating centers and in CHP plants. Priming, i.e. mixing of lower and higher heat value fuels, is used in CHP-use. Mrs. Eija Alakangas from VTT told about the European standards for non-woody pellets ( EN and 6). Classification is based on the origin and the source of the raw material and it is published for major traded forms. Solid biofuels are divided into subclasses after origin and source. Main subclasses are woody biomass, herbaceous biomass, fruit biomass, and blends and mixtures. Characteristics are presented with symbols, e.g. the symbol M10 means that the average moisture content of pellets should be 10 wt.-%. Most important characteristics are normative (mandatory) and others informative (voluntary). Normative characteristics are dimensions (D,L), moisture content (M), ash content (A), bulk density (BD), amount of fine particles (F), net calorific value (Q), mechanical durability (DU). Use of additives has to be stated. Many details of the standardization work was also presented and separate article was distributed to participants. Mr. Heikki Oravainen (VTT Expert Services Ltd.) told about an international research projects of combustion characteristics of different agrobiomass pellets. In the experiments, the reed canary grass pellets (RGG-pellets) were the best in combustion behaviour and lowest in emissions. In few characteristics the RGC-pellets were almost equal to the reference wood pellets. Raw material of RGC was harvested in the spring time. Other alternative materials were bark, rape straw and barley straw. Mr. Oravainen summarized that All emissions will be higher than those of burning of pure wood Amount of ash and the low melting temperature creates problems in heating devices These things have to be taken into account in planning of heating devices. The devices will become more complicated and more expensive than burning devices for wood Problems related to ash have to be solved Impurities have to be removed from the flue gases. Additional requirements for the boiler materials Raw materials of pellets must be available in the markets in sufficient amounts Price of the raw material will probably be low. Mr. Petteri Korpioja from Ariterm Oy asked about the burner. A moving grate burner was used in the experiments. There was also discussion on the chemicals of the alternative pellets, Cl, S, and on the materials for construction of devices. As the summary of the discussion, it was notified that mixed, alternative pellets should be used in larger boilers and wood pellets in smaller ones. All participants were interested to develop mixpellets business. Presentations were interesting; several questions were presented during each presentation and also after the presentations. There were many discussions, which all cannot be referred here. 3

4 All presentations have been loaded on the www-page of Finnish Pellet Associations. The seminar was announced on the www-pages of Finnish Pellet Associations and FINBIO. Participants of the seminary. Mr. Markku Kallio (VTT) and Mr. Heikki Oravainen (VTT Expert Services Ltd). 4

5 Mr. Aarno Alaluusua (Jalasjärven Lämpö Oy) told about MDF-pellets and Jalasjärven Lämpö Oy 5

6 Invitation of the national workshop Annex 1 6

7 List of participants of National workshop Annex 2/1 7

8 List of participants of National workshop Annex 2/2 8