HGCA Borders Monitor Farm Alistair Hodge Whitsome East Newton. Using Biomass to Dry Grain & Renewable Heat Incentive

Transcription

1 HGCA Borders Monitor Farm Alistair Hodge Whitsome East Newton Report on 6th Meeting held on 17 th January 2012 Using Biomass to Dry Grain & Renewable Heat Incentive FUTURE EVENTS The next Monitor Farm meeting is on Tuesday 21 st February 2012 USEFUL CONTACTS Donald Dunbar - SAC Facilitator donald.dunbar@sac.co.uk Tel: Alastair Hodge - Monitor Farmer alistairhodge@aol.com Alan Goodson - Community Group Chairman alan.goodson@virgin.net

2 Introduction... 1 Neil Harrison - SAC, Senior Consultant... 1 Renewable Heat Incentive... 2 John Seed - Woodend Farm... 3 Solar Panels... 4 Windturbine... 4 Biomas Boiler for On Floor Grain Drying... 4 Other Meeting Business... 7 Next Meeting... 7

3 Introduction The community group were welcomed along to the sixth Borders monitor farm which completes the first year of the 3 year project. The meeting focus was on renewable sources of heat and the potential to apply these on an arable farm. Guest speakers for the day were Neil Harrison from SAC who provided the technical background and local arable farmer John Seed, who is using renewable technology on Woodend farm. The morning session was followed with a visit to Woodend to view the new grain drier which is currently fuelled on straw. Top Tip A biomass boiler can deal with straw of variable moisture content (even wet straw) but uniformity of bale size and density are also important factors in achieving consistent boiler performance. Neil Harrison - SAC, Senior Consultant Currently the UK produces very little energy from renewables and even less heat energy from renewable resources. 3% of energy currently comes from renewables 1.4% of heat produced currently comes from renewables This is remarkably low when compared to other EU countries. Sweden for example are producing 63% of their heat from a renewable sources. In order to improve on these figures and help the UK towards their commitment to increase the amount of energy from renewables the UK government have introduced a support scheme called the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). This in basic terms means that the government will pay you to produce heat so long as it is from a qualifying renewable sources. The cost of oil is ever increasing and will only continue to do so in the future. At current prices there are already significant differences between the range of fuel sources. Fuel (at current prices) Oil@65p/litre 51/t 100/t Woood 220/t 60/t 4/bale Cost of heat/ Kwh 6.1p/kwh 6.7p/kwh 1.6p/kwh 3.1p/kwh 4.58p/kwh 1.57p/kwh 0.01p/kwh This shows there are huge potential savings that could be made by simply switching to a renewable source of energy. Despite this there is currently very little uptake in the UK for these systems with around 2500 commercial systems in the UK at the moment. 1

4 The UK government are also changing the rules with regards to renting properties in an attempt to encourage landlords to become more energy efficient and meet climate change targets. As of 2016 any tenant can ask the landlord for their home heating to be improved and the landlord will be legally obliged to do so. As of 2018 it will be compulsory that all rented homes have to meet a grade E on the energy scale (more details on this scale can be found at ). Renewable Heat Incentive For commercial systems the renewable heat incentive (RHI) went live on the 28 th November Domestic systems are banded separately and it is hoped a scheme will come online later in A system for house heating becomes eligible for commercial activities when you pay business rates on any part of activities within the house or if you link more than one house together on a district system or you use heat primarily for a business purpose e.g. grain drier but you link in the farmhouse as well. The scheme is designed to give around 12% rate of return on investment but can achieve much higher. The focus for this scheme is largely on biomass boilers as this can be a drop in replacement for an existing system with no need to change existing heating infrastructure such as pipes or radiators. This is because biomass boilers heat water to the same temperature as an oil boiler system. Other options eligible for the RHI are creating energy from waste and using biomethane injection. This however is difficult and expensive to do on a large scale and is more relevant to local authorities or large organisations. Biomass boilers can be built around a multitude of different supply chains with feedstocks including wood, energy crops, food waste, industrial waste and co-products. Payment for the RHI is dependant on the heat produced and used. The payment rates vary depending on the different sizes of boilers. Tariff Eligible Size Tariff Rate Tariff duration (pence/kwh) Small Biomass Less than 200kw Tier 1:7.9 20years Tier 2: 2.0 Medium Biomass 200kw and above - Tier 1: years less than 1000kw Tier 2: 2.0 Large biomass 1000kw and above Single Tier: years A full version of this table can be found at %20mix/Renewable%20energy/policy/renewableheat/1388-rhi-table-tariffs.pdf 2

5 Neil went through some of the practical opportunities that this technology and the RHI can create. Install a biomass boiler to exploit materials on farm (farm woodland and straw). With different studies done on these types of boilers the worst payback time Neil has encountered is 9 years with the best being paid back in 2.1 years. Exploit your on farm resources to meet growing demand by chipping wood from farm woodlands and selling it. Install a biomass boiler and set up supply contracts with third parties. Setting up a district heating system allows you to sell heat to your neighbours/farm cottages etc as well as still receiving RHI payment for doing so. There is also a major opportunity on an arable farm for using straw as a biomass feedstock in order to heat a grain drier. In this situation hot water has to be heated and used as the transfer method to heat air for the drier because hot air systems are not grant eligible. The system also has to be fully enclosed which may cause some issues with some types of driers however Neil is expecting that there will be some further clarification in the coming months. Despite these potential pitfalls you may not need to access the RHI in order to make savings. As shown in the first table the saving on oil alone could lead to dramatic savings especially in wet years when a large proportion of the grain has to be dried. There are many different boiler systems available on the market, but it is important that this is properly researched to make sure the boiler is the right one to meet your needs. Fuel loading can be manual or automatic but the choice requires careful consideration. Boiler emissions will become increasingly important in the future and dirty boilers will not necessarily qualify for be RHI payments. An expensive part of installing a boiler can be converting or erecting buildings in order to house the boiler and store the fuel. The main principle of the boiler works on heating hot water which can then be used as required. This often means the majority of the required space required is for a large accumulator tank for storing the water as the larger the boiler the larger the accumulator tank. John Seed - Woodend Farm John explained his background in renewable energy and his reasoning for investing in a straw burning boiler to generate heat for his new on floor batch grain drying system and some of the lessons he has learnt along the way. Woodend is a 200 Ha farm growing wheat, winter barley and rape or potatoes. He is constantly trying to respond to the challenges of increased costs and is trying to change his practices in order to improve business resilience and viability. This has led him down the route of on farm renewables. Some of the farms biggest costs come from heat, power, fuel, water and fertiliser. He recognised that these costs are only going to keep increasing in the future and he wanted to try and reduce these costs to safeguard his business against future hikes in fuel price. 3

6 The main areas he felt he could exploit in order to reduce costs were: Installing PV s Solar panels Installing a Wind Turbine Installing a biomass boiler for grain drying and house heating Solar Panels He signed up to a deal through BMR and ISIS Solar to install solar panels which would provide 300 kw of energy. Unfortunately after the reduction in the PV feed in tariff rate this has been restricted to 50 kw of field mounted solar panels. Windturbine The business is considering the investment in wind turbine energy generation. A single 55 Kw wind turbine to be installed at Woodend would be able to supply the electrical requirement of the grain drying plant (warm air fan and roof fans) as well as providing surplus electricity to possibly charge electric vehicles. Biomas Boiler for On Floor Grain Drying Grain drying in a wet season can be a huge cost to the business due to the high cost of fossil fuel. John decided to invest in a new on floor batch grain drier which would use heat produced from a straw fuelled biomass boiler. This would not only drastically reduce his fuel costs, but would also allow him to generate income by tapping into the renewable heat incentive. The details of the boiler are below: Installed 450 kw Overdahl boiler with a 50 m 3 accumulator tank Auto de-ashing door and ignition Full load batch firing Auto ignition and combustion control Heats water to 90 o C Runs at 87% efficiency Very low emissions Multi fuel- straw, wood chips, pellets, grain etc. Fuel quality and moisture content is key. John has increased the efficiency of the boiler at the design stage by routing the flue through the accumulator taken in order to recover an extra 5%. The system is designed for big bales (either round or square). It also has a multi fuel capability which allows you to burn wood chip, light grains and other material. Fuelling and de-ashing the unit is easily done with a tractor front loader or forklift. The boiler will utilise tonnes of straw annually which is around a quarter of all the straw produced annually at Woodend. The ash from the boiler will be applied as a soil conditioner which will help recover some of the P and K from the straw and help to reduce fertiliser purchases. In the 2011 season 3,000 tonnes of cereals, beans and oilseed rape were dried. 4

7 At its peak 8 bales were loaded into the boiler per day: 3 morning 2 mid day 3 night In the 2011 season 150 t of straw was burnt to dry grain. The boiler and drier can operate 24 hours per day, but at this peak time the boiler required to be cleaned every week in order to prevent build up of soot and ash. The grain drier and boiler has the capacity to dry t/ year. This year when good quality even bales of straw were used it was costing 27p/t of grain to dry. When comparing this to the cost of drying the same amount of grain using an oil system this means that this year alone a saving of 40,000 was made. If the boiler is deemed eligible for the RHI an annual payment of 34,000 could be claimed. The next stage in the plan for the boiler is to connect it to all the farm cottages and sell heat to the occupiers. They occupants have already signed up to a deal whereby heat will be sold at 90% of the cost of their last years fuel bill. John has calculated that the boiler will have a payback time of; 4 years factoring in the cost of straw if he was to buy it 2 years using only baling cost for straw 7 years when including the shed cost After lunch the group made their way to Woodend to view the boiler and grain drying facility. They were joined at Woodend by Steven Wallace of Wallace Technology, the company responsible for installing the batch drying system which incorporates a Challow drive on floor system and Harvest Installations drying equipment. Photo 1: Foreground 400kw straw boiler and 50m 3 water accumulator tank. Photo 2: The boiler has an automatic door and takes up to 3 round straw bales. 5

8 The on floor grain drying plant is housed in a new general purpose shed (36 x 30 m). The internal drying floors of the shed are constructed using a level concrete floor with a hardwood drive-on floor laid on top. Hot air is utilised using a steel main centre air duct. Photo 3: 600 tonne capacity drying floor A Harvest Maxi-Stirrer has also been added to this bulk storage dryer this ensures good mixing of the crop to ensure even drying as well as preventing over drying of the bottom layer. The stirrer also reduces the energy requirements as well as the overall drying time. Photo 4: The automated grain stirrer prevents hot spot developing and ensures even drying. 6

9 The stirrer is compatible with all combinable crops as well as wood chip. Although the floor can store 1,200 tonnes of grain the shed was designed primarily as a drying facility to dry grain for the Woodend business, but also dry grain for others. As a result the design shed has sufficient roof height to allow articulated lorries to tip. Once drying season is over and the floor cleared of grain John plans to dry woodchips. The beauty of the system is in its simplicity. With the exception of the stirrers there are no moving parts, therefore no augers to choke, no elevator to break. Modern harvest equipment means wet grain arrives rapidly in bulk to the bottle neck of the grain intake pit of other drying systems. The large on floor drier deals in bulk, the trailer tips the wet grain and is on its way back to the field, the grain is not moved again till its dry was a challenging harvest and the system and John was stress tested on several occasions with wet bales and the task of drying beans which were harvested at over 30% moisture content, but it came through will flying colours and John is confident the pressures of harvests past will become a distant memory. Other Meeting Business Supply Chain volunteers are required to monitor Group 3 wheat to provide grower feedback to the group and to Carrs Milling. Please contact Jennifer or Donald. A group visit to Carrs flour mill and a United Biscuits factory is to be arranged and it is hoped we will be able to follow the journey of a members wheat crop from farm to final product. Financial To be able to provide average crop figures from CropBench we require at least 6 members to record and upload crop data for harvest year 2011 and budget for Members are asked to confirm if they are already using CropBench or still need to register. Please contact Jennifer or Donald. A management team is being formed to assist with the planning of future meetings. To keep a geographical balance we have recruited from the Grain Challenge teams and the following have agreed to give their support. Robert Barclay Team Leet Malcolm Cowan A1 s Douglas Nisbet Born in the 80 s Clive Innes West Side Story The monitor farm will hold its first Open Day in June Date to be confirmed. Next Meeting Tuesday 21 st February, starting at 11am in the Whitsome Ark. Focus on fungicide a programme for the coming season and crop nutrient management. 7