Newsletters

Summer 2009 Newsletter

Latest News
Forest Fuels Fleet Grows
Payments for operators of biomass boilers
Devon County Hall Biomass boiler
Woodfuel Solutions tips: flues
Restormel Manor case study

Latest News

New contracts

Biomass heat for Somerset Care Home
To improve the environmental sustainability of a new care home the St Monica Trust have chosen to install a 120kW Gilles wood chip boiler installed by Broag-Remeha at their newly built Sandford Station retirement care community in Somerset.  Forest Fuels Ltd delivers G50, W35 wood chip by tipping lorry in to their underground store every two to four weeks. Once contracted Woodfuel Solutions, a division of Forest Fuels Ltd provided detailed guidance during the design, installation and commissioning phase to the St Monica Trust on their fuel store and its suitability. Sam Whatmore’s involvement goes back some time since first discussing the idea with the project designers in 2007.  The ongoing supply under a long-term contract will provide the Trust with assurance of continuity of supply, quality and price.

Forest Fuels helps Duchy of Cornwall commit to wood chip heating.
Restormel Manor, Lostwithiel owned by the Duchy of Cornwall has installed a 300kW wood chip boiler heating the main house, a number of holiday cottages and a swimming pool. (case study below). Woodfuel Solutions advised on the fuel store design and now deliver G50, W35 wood chip in an 8 wheel tipping lorry to this immensely environmentally friendly collection of properties.

Greenhouse heating
Forest Fuels Ltd stepped in at short notice to supply a small wood chip boiler being used to heat greenhouses for a Weymouth Garden Centre owned by the district council. During the 2008/09 heating season Forest Fuels Ltd provided an onsite chipping service as this was the only serviceable option to deliver fuel to a difficult to access, above ground fuel store. However, starting in Autumn 2009 Forest Fuels Ltd will be able to deliver wood chip with the company’s blowing lorry, speeding up the fuel delivery process and minimising customer inconvenience. (see below for more details)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynch Lane nursery and overground wood chip store.

Devon County Hall Heating
Devon County Council commissioned their new 840kW BINDER woodchip boiler installed by Wood Energy Limited in April and it ran reliably for one month heating the county hall offices before being switched off for the summer. The boiler, which will reduce carbon emissions from heating by 60% and save upwards of £20,000 a year, replaces the original 40 year old boilers which produced 269 tonnes of CO2 a year and cost £55,300 to run. Woodfuel Solutions were engaged by Devon County Council’s own property consultants NPS South West Limited to provide expert advice on the fuel store design and delivery protocols and Forest Fuels ltd subsequently won the fuel supply tender to provide woodchip on a long-term basis. 

Leading the way for schools in Dorset
St Osmunds School in Dorchester (650 pupils) has moved to biomass heating with a 300kW Heizomatt wood chip boiler providing the heating for the whole school. The installation is now fully functioning and ready for Autumn 2009. The wood chip is delivered by Forest Fuels Ltd to an underground store across the road from the boiler. The wood chip is then conveyed to the boiler by a long screw conveyor to the stoker auger – this separation of fuelstore and boiler house presented a difficult design challenge for Woodfuel Solutions however the final design permits the retrofitting of biomass to the school site. The new boiler replaces two old gas boilers due for renewal. The relative simplicity of replacement projects provide an ideal opportunity to look at biomass especially where the new boiler drops into the existing system, providing immediate carbon and fuel cost savings. The school will also be exploiting the educational potential of the project and looking at climate change issues.      

Treliske Hospital
Forest Fuels Ltd have been awarded the supply contract for Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske. A 700kW Froehling boiler has been installed by Econergy Limited to run 24/7 throughout the year supplying a base load for heat and hot water, by preheating the water prior to the main site’s gas boilers.  Specially adapted roll-on roll-off bins of the type used by waste companies are used for delivering the fuel and it is expected Forest Fuels Ltd will be delivering one 27 cubic metre bin per day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Forest Fuels fleet grows.

Forest Fuels Ltd have made a bold investment that is critical in securing the wood fuel supply chain and providing the end user with confidence in the long term security, suitability and flexibility of supply.  For two years now Forest Fuels Ltd has been planning, designing and procuring specialist wood chip blowing and chipping equipment to increase their capacity and potential to meet the growing demand for biomass fuel in the South West.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest Fuels wood chipper on hookloader lorry

New delivery option for wood chip customers
We can now deliver large quantities of wood chip into over ground stores or hard-to-access fuel stores as are often fitted in retro-fit boiler installations, with our new hook loader lorry of the type used for moving waste skips. Forest Fuels Ltd now runs an 8 wheel MAN hookloader lorry which has spent two months in the workshops of Priden Engineering in Cambridgeshire. Priden have developed a specialist blower fitted to the lorry PTO that works with a modified roll-on roll-off bin to deliver up to 36 cubic metres (approx 8 tonnes) of wood chip into an over-ground store in less than an hour. The delivery pipes can be extended to deliver the wood chip up to a height of five metres and over a ten metre distance from the lorry.

Our new wood chip blower, the only one of its kind in South West England, is opening up the possibility of wood chip supply where only the more expensive option of wood pellets was previously considered as pneumatic delivery of pellets to hard-to-access or above-ground stores was the only possible option. Some existing Forest Fuels Ltd customers dependant on on-site wood chipping are already benefiting with much reduced delivery times and more simple logistics without the noise and mess that occur when chipping close to a house or office, or when timber is delivered.

The blowing pipes connect to a very simple coupling that can be fitted to most types of fuel stores. G30 or G50 wood chip can be delivered using the blowing method.

If you think you have an existing or potential biomass boiler site that could benefit from blown deliveries please contact the Forest Fuels team to discuss deliveries or the optimum design of the fuel store for this type of delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wood chip blower and bin undertaking delivery

 

High volume mobile chipper

Our new high volume crane fed chipper has been engineered to sit on a roll-on roll-off skid frame with attached timber crane and 380hp engine powering it. The chipper has the ability to chip tree stems of 24 inches diameter with a capacity of up to 200-250 tonnes per day.

Chipping can now be carried out where no tractor is available and the daily output is three times higher.

The quality and efficiency of wood chipping operations are improved by this piece of machinery, and it offers the potential to reduce processing costs. Forest Fuels Ltd is supremely self sufficient in its supply operations, no longer having to rely on tractors to power the chipper and tripling the daily output of a chipping operation.

Local councils with tree stations and customers that are chipping their own timber will be able to contract hire the chipper with its professional operator. Please call the Forest Fuels office to discuss a quote.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Forest Fuels Ltd would like to acknowledge the support of SW Woodland Renaissance for their investment in these projects.)

The 'Renewable Heat Incentive' may mean regular payments to operators of biomass boilers.

The Energy Act 2008 includes the setting up of a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The Government's aim is to make the RHI as accessible, flexible and user-friendly as possible to potential investors in renewable heat on all scales. Under this scheme a 300kW biomass plant heating a hospital or similar building could receive annual payments in the region of £10,000.

Almost half of the final energy consumed in the UK (40%) is in the form of heat, the generation of which accounts for around 47% of UK CO2 emissions. At present the amount of renewable heat in the UK is low at (0.6%) of heat demand.

To meet the UK Government's 2020 15% renewable energy target, new financial assistance is planned for April 2011 to make renewable heat more affordable to a wider range of people and reduce payback times.

Details of the scheme have not yet been finalised and an initial consultation is taking place this summer. The potential features are as follows:

• It is expected that the incentive will apply to generation of renewable heat on all scales, whether it is in households, communities or on an industrial scale.
• The incentive should cover a wide range of technologies including biomass, solar hot water, air and ground-source heat pumps, biomass CHP, biogas produced from anaerobic digestion, and biomethane injected into the gas grid.
• The Incentive will be available across Great Britain.
• The RHI will be banded for example by size or technology.
• On smaller scales e.g. domestic households, lump sum payments are currently being considered
• The incentive payments will be funded by a levy on suppliers of fossil fuels for heat. These are mainly licensed gas suppliers – but could also include suppliers of coal, heating oil, LPG etc.

In practice the Renewable Heat Incentive could work in a similar way to the ‘feed in tariffs’ employed in Europe and expected to be introduced in the UK in April 2010. Currently an incentive rate of 1 pence per kWh is being talked about. This would mean approximate payments of £1000-£1500 per year for a large house operating a 50kW boiler or annual payments in the region of £10,000 for a 300kW biomass plant heating a hospital or similar building.

Forest Fuels Ltd expects this development to result in a significant increase in the number of biomass boilers installed and lower net running costs.

Devon County Council install a biomass boiler at County Hall - the importance of site design.

Sam Whatmore of Woodfuel Solutions has provided design and operational guidance to Devon County Council since it first considered biomass heating for its County Hall offices in 2006.

County Hall had been heated by two aging gas boilers that had reached the end of their life.

The move to wood chip heating compliments the Council’s Carbon Management programme, and improves their energy efficiency considerably.

The 840kW Binder boiler, installed by Wood Energy Ltd, was tested in the spring to heat the main County Hall buildings. The new boiler also has the potential to heat other offices on site, which currently use old electric heaters.

Installation of the boiler was managed by Devon County Council’s property advisors, NPS South West Ltd.

Sam Whatmore, of Woodfuel Solutions provided expert advice and worked with NPS to ensure the design of the fuel store and delivery area was optimised.

The location for the boiler was limited to the space created by the removal of a redundant gas boiler. An existing open subterraneous courtyard service area next to the boiler house was used for the fuel store.

However the fuel store presented a number of challenges including that fact that County Hall is a listed building, which precluded any significant changes to the fabric of the building.

The void also required space for pumps and venting as well as a raised floor to allow it to still act as a drain. The combination of these factors resulted in a fuel store with an effective volume of only 39 cubic metres.

The design input provided by Woodfuel Solutions was paramount to establish the most effective solution given the site constraints.

Project Manager, Richard England, found the advice given by Sam Whatmore very useful throughout the design process. Richard was in regular contact with the Forest Fuels office to ensure the details of the fuel store were correct, as it is often the small details such as height of the safety grill or overhang distance that make the difference between an efficient tidy wood chip delivery and a delivery with spillages and potential equipment damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commissioning delivery to Devon County Hall

Woodfuel solutions tip:
Flue Heights and flue design

A number of working biomass boiler installations have experienced problems with the height or position of the flue. Even though nearly all modern wood chip boilers have been tested to meet the very demanding emission requirements of the UK and Europe, they can still at times produce smoke, for example when starting up from cold, in certain wind conditions and if running at a low load/in slumber mode for example in the summer.

In a number of cases smoke from the flue has been blown or sucked up by air conditioning units into nearby offices or in one case an operating theatre. These incidences have of course at the very least caused discomfort to the occupants of the buildings and damaged the reputation of the biomass boiler as a clean renewable heat solution. At the worst fire alarms have gone off, fire engines have turned up and the biomass boiler shut down until the flue is rerouted.

Woodfuel Solutions would therefore urge that you check with your boiler installer/project manager that the correct height and position of flue is specified and all risk factors in relation to flue emissions have been identified and eliminated or reduced. 

How Restormel Manor learned from other biomass heating systems.

Forest Fuels Ltd is working with Duchy of Cornwall woodlands to ensure a sustainable supply of woodchip to Restormel Manor, one of the most historic and cherished houses owned by the Duchy of Cornwall which sits within the heart of the Duchy’s estate 1 mile from Lostwithiel in South East Cornwall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biomass heating proved the ideal option for Restormel Manor as it is almost Carbon Neutral and the fuel could be sourced very locally, particularly as the Duchy itself owns and manages nearly 900 hectares of woodland in Cornwall. A significant cost saving over the life time of the boiler was also demonstrated due to the lower cost of the fuel compared to fossil fuels.

Restormel Manor is 500 years old and sits on the site of the Holy Trinity Chapel. The Manor has been extensively refurbished and great care has been taken to retain the character of the property and its historic features. The Manor will be available for lettings from July 2009.

The Manor was originally heated by a single large oil fired boiler and when the plans were drawn up to develop 9 of the surrounding agricultural buildings into holiday accommodation and install a swimming pool, the Duchy wanted an efficient district heating system that met the high environmental credentials of the Duchy of Cornwall Estate. Wood chip heating met these criteria and there were a number of installed biomass heating systems in Cornwall that the Duchy could learn from.

The Duchy of Cornwall’s design and selection process for a district heating system and fuel type included a visit to and advice from Trelowarren Estate who have been running a similar biomass boiler and district heating system for the last three years. Sam Whatmore through Woodfuel Solutions also provided critical advice on the design of the fuel store and the delivery area. The Heating and hot water are now supplied from a wood chip boiler and the electricity is provided from a renewable source.

The design and building phase of the project went well, during which James Scott of the Duchy of Cornwall learnt a lot from the biomass boilers and district heating systems already installed in Cornwall in addition to support from the Forest Fuels ltd office.

The 300kW Gilles Boiler was commissioned by Broag in February of this year, since that time it has been running well with Wood Chip delivered from the Forest Fuels wood chip depot in Luxulyan which primarily serves the Eden project. The swimming pool is being filled up at the beginning of July and from mid-July the manor house and nine cottages are fully booked. The boiler has the capacity to provide the heating for all the houses and swimming pool throughout the year as well as the potential to heat a further nine units when they are converted to holiday accommodation or offices.

Forest Fuels are working with Gerraint Richards, Duchy of Cornwall’s Head Forester, on an ongoing basis to source a sustainable local supply of chip wood for Restormel Manor and many other biomass boilers in Cornwall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Woodchip store at Restormel Manor.