Publishable Summary for the project Safety and quality assurance along the pellets supply chain SafePellets

Transcription

1 Publishable Summary for the project Safety and quality assurance along the pellets supply chain SafePellets Reporting period Project manager Bioenergy2020+ GmbH Author Waltraud Emhofer Project consortium BE2020 Bioenergy2020+ GmbH DBFZ - Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum SLU - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SP -Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut AB DTI -Danish Technological Institute FF - Firefly AB Laxa - Laxå Pellets AB Pusch - Pusch GmbH AEBIOM - European Biomass Association PPA - propellets Austria PF - Swedish Association of Pellet Producers DH - Danske Halmleverandorer DEPV - Deutscher Energieholz- und Pellet-Verband VERDO - Verdo energy AS DTE - Dansk Traeemballage A/S

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3 1 Project description and objectives Pellets are the most advantageous solid biofuel. This is due to its higher energy density and better defined qualities compared to other solid biofuels. So far, the largest share of the production is made from virgin wood sources and chemically untreated wood residues. With the rapidly growing demand also recycled wood assortments and non wood resources will be used for pellets production. Depending on quality characteristics (wood) pellets are currently used as solid biofuel in large scale power plants, district heating facilities and single household boilers and stoves. Product standards (for wood pellets (EN )) are available in Europe ensuring a standard quality criteria of the fuel. First attempts were also undertaken to standardize pellets supply and storage and the new CEN TS provides multipart standards including separate quality assurance standards for wood pellets and non-woody pellets. Anyhow, these regulations do not include sufficient safety considerations regarding prevention from self-heating and spontaneous ignition of bulk storages and from off-gassing of toxic emissions like carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs, e.g. aldehydes and low molecular carboxylic acids). A number of incidents due to spontaneous ignition of wood pellets and accidents due to CO intoxication have been reported. Therefore, both on the CEN (e.g. CEN/TC 335) as well as on the ISO (e.g. ISO/TC 238) level activities must be launched to derive solutions to overcome these threats to industry and customers. The objectives of the SafePellets project have been derived from this need and are listed as follows: To identify the origins and quantify the phenomena (1) off-gassing of CO and VOCs and (2) self-heating and spontaneous ignition of wood pellets To derive technical solutions to prevent from self-heating and spontaneous ignition of pellets stored in bulk, to provide technical solutions for fire protection To provide technical solutions to overcome the threat from off-gassing of formed CO and VOCs in storage systems To provide best practice guidelines for quality assurance measures along the whole wood pellets production and supply chain, which shall be the basis for a Europe wide unique standard for quality and safety measures of pellets supply to industrial and private customers Five SME AGs (The European Biomass Association [AEBIOM], propellets Austria [PPA], the Swedish Association of Pellet Producers [PF], the German Wood Fuel and Pellet Association [DEPV] and the Danish organization Danske Halmleverandører [DH]), one producer of systems to protect industrial processes against fires and dust explosions (Firefly), one pellet producer (Laxå Pellets), one company providing know-how and experience for developing operational agrar-pellets heating utilities (Pusch), one large Danish energy provider (VERDO) and a manufacturer and dealer of transport packaging made from wood (DTE A/S) cooperate within the SafePellets project. RTD work is outsourced to a number of RTD institutions in different European countries: All RTD-partners involved have vast experience in the field of characterisation of biomass fuels in terms of off-gassing and self-heating properties, test methods and experimental work in laboratory as well as in field test conditions (BE2020, DBFZ, DTI, SLU and SP). Moreover, partner SP has key personnel involved in the project which are members of standardization groups on national, European and also international level. In order to meet the above-described objectives, the project work follows a step by step approach comprising information gathering and market research, characterization of off-gassing Report Page 3 of 5

4 Report and self-heating from wood pellets, method optimization, measurements and verification in field test experiments and continuous dissemination of the project results. The scientific partners contribute with their method know-how, their competences in the field of biomass chemistry and their expertise on self-heating and off-gassing properties of wood pellets. The associations and the involved industry partners will evaluate the proposed methods regarding their practical applicability and help to develop and disseminate the best practice guidelines for safe handling, storage and transportation of biomass pellets. 2 Description of the work performed Currently the project is in the 15th month of overall 36 month project duration. So far the phase of information gathering and market research has been conducted and the phase of characterization of off-gassing and self-heating from wood pellets are well on their way and very advanced. Market and risk inventory The current pellet demand in the EU as well as related import and export structures have been evaluated and actual and future production capacities and output have been determined. The location and technical specification of the production facilities of the participating countries have been collected and summarized. Furthermore, Incident reports related to self-heating and/or off-gassing of wood pellets have been collected from all partner countries with detailed information on type of the incident, time, date and location, frequency of occurrence, storage technique and degree of damage An indepth analysis of selected relevant incidents specifically related to off-gassing or self-heating has been conducted. Pellets selection and production Pellets to be investigated within the project include ten different commercially available pellets and ten pellet batches with special composition to be produced within the project duration. Among the commercially available pellets are six common woody pellets from Swedish and German pellet producers and four pellet samples made from different raw materials (e.g. straw, grape marc, eucalyptus and torrefied material). Seven commercially samples have already been delivered as well as four pellets samples manufactured at DBFZ. For detailed studies in the WPs 3, 4 and 5, further pellets will be produced in summer 2013 for further testing. Characterization of off-gassing and self-heating from wood pellets The 11 pellet samples chosen in work package 2 have been thoroughly investigated and characterised using different analytical methods to establish their off-gassing and self-heating properties in detail. Methods used included off-gassing experiments (BE2020, SLU), microcalorimetry (SP), the oxipress method (DTI) and thermal gravimetric analysis (DBFZ). From these experiments a list ranking the samples from highest to lowest reactivity for offgassing and self-heating was compiled. In the next months 5 pellets samples will be chosen, which will be used in storage experiments in the WP 4 and WP 5 in larger scale. Measures and recommendations to prevent and handle off-gassing and self-heating In the course of the project the aim is to develop guidelines and recommendations for the production of safe pellets with low self-heating and off-gassing potential, as well as for safe transportation and storage of biomass pellets. To this end a comparison of existing fuel standards, quality assurance systems and technical guidelines for production, transport and storage of wood pellets on European and national level has been compiled. In the course of the first (out of three planned) international workshop 1st International Workshop on Pellet Safety Description of the work performed Page 4 of 5

5 organised in March 2013 in Fügen, Austria, these existing documents have been evaluated for their practical relevance and implementation with regard to security relevant aspects. Furthermore, concrete problem areas not solved within existing standards and guidelines have been determined in discussion with a broad variety and large number of stakeholder of the pellet industry. The results of this workshop will be the basis for the guidelines and recommendations to be developed in the next project phase. It will also address specifically the needs and problems identified by key actors along the pellet supply chain. 3 Description of the expected final results and their potential impacts The first phase of characterization of off-gassing and self-heating from wood pellets will be finished by September 2013 by which time the development of a simplified method for determination of off-gassing potential will begin. At the same time storage experiments will be started on scales from small (one ton of capacity) to large (up to 100 tons of capacity) that will serve to verify results obtained in the laboratory experiments and which will also include the testing of measures to overcome the threats from off-gassing and self-heating. The results will be documented and prepared for standardization purposes. Besides the method development, the understanding of the off-gassing and the self-heating phenomena will be greatly increased. The pellets used in all storage experiments will be analysed in detail. This will give information on what parameters have the greatest influence on the off-gassing and self-heating properties of wood pellets. It will be reviewed in the course of the project whether the results shall be used for an up-date of the EN or whether a new standard should be proposed. The beneficiaries of this type of result from pre-normative research will be all actors along the supply chain (pellets producers and suppliers, boiler and stove manufacturers, plant manufacturers and operators, storage system manufacturers and suppliers, safety technology manufacturers and suppliers, and also final (private and industrial) customers). Moreover, it is aimed to contribute along the project lifetime and with the results achieved to the establishment of quality and safety along the pellets supply chain to the work of the ISO TC 238/WG4. It will also be aimed to provide project results for being integrated into the ENplus certification program on request of the SafePellets SME-AG participants. SafePellets aims at providing solutions to secure pellet production, logistics and consumption by preventive measures to avoid off-gassing of toxic substances in both large scale and final customer storages and by technical solutions to safely remove formed off-gasses to the benefit of customers and to the benefit of professionals having to work in these environments on demand. SafePellets herewith supports the creation of safe and healthy working environments. SafePellets also deals with the threats of self-heating and spontaneous ignition of stored pellets, mostly related to larger scale (industrial) storages. SafePellets derives preventive measures to avoid fires in storages, provides respective guidelines and develops and improves reliable fire protection systems to safely handle once formed smouldering fires in storages. By decreasing the risk for fires, the potential threats for human beings (personnel at the industry/storage and from the fire rescue services) and also the harmful emissions from uncontrolled fires are reduced which otherwise may present an acute threat for people and a long-term threat for the environment. This will also decrease the negative impact on third parties (other industries, schools, hospitals, etc.). The reduction of fires will further reduce potentially large economical losses for SMEs and possibly reduce insurance costs. Report Page 5 of 5