Woodchip is a ‘green’ fuel being one of the cleanest, most cost-effective and reliable ways of heating your home or business premesis.
Our comprehensive service makes wood fuel as simple to use as oil, gas or electricity. Modern fully automated systems with highly efficient Biomass boilers are low maintenance making them easy to run and maintain. As fossil fuel prices rise, installing a biomass heating system means you immediatley begin saving on your fuel expenditure.
Woopchip fuels are ‘Carbon Neutral’, meaning although burning wood releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, the same amount is absorbed by trees from the atmosphere as they grow therefore it does not contribute to Global Warming. We use timber from forests which adopt renewable and sustainable practices sourcing our supply as locally as possible.
Grants and other incentives may be available to offset the capital costs of your new biomass installation through the Governments Low Carbon Buildings Programme.
Larger-scale (100kW - 5MW) pellet and wood-chip biomass boilers and biomass heating systems for businesses and commercial properties are designed, installed and maintained by Park End Farms and Park End Electricals, take a look at our recent completed installations online.
As the demand for greener energies increases, timber potentially available for fuel has also increased. For example, the Forestry Commission has a target of 2 million tonnes of wood fuel produced from Britain’s woodlands annually. In addition, trees such as willow and poplar can be planted as short rotation coppice and cut every 2 or 3 years for fuel making wood fuels a viable and reliable long term alternative to traditional fossil fuels.
Wood and other biomass has huge advantage over other renewable energies such as wind and wave as it can be easily stored until it is needed.
The potential of wood fuel has been recognised by the government in setting up the Biomass Task Force whose report identified the potential for wood fuels to save 3.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions nationally from existing resources and be at the very least, as cost effective as other renewables. The government’s response to the task force report, published in April 2006 was to support its conclusions making commitments to foster the development of wood and other biomass as modern energy sources.
Wood chip is widely use in European countries as a fuel for heating and in combined heat and power systems, particularly in countries with a strong forestry tradition such as Scandinavia and Austria. These countries have developed their biomass systems and boiler design over decades, their wood chip boilers being available and suitable for domestic and business / industrial situations.
Advantages of wood chip:
Their disadvantages are:
The development of our wood energy industry is in turn leading to better woodland and forestry management bringing a range of benefits to our local and rural economy, including:
Wood energy crops, such as Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) or Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) have the potential to offer an important diversification opportunity for farmers, and the use of clean wood arisings for energy also offers a route for reducing waste disposal costs and for taking significant quantities of material out of the waste stream and from landfill.
Wood provides the greatest amount of renewable energy across Europe, though this is largely overlooked as most is used in small heating projects where wood chip fuel is increasingly seen as an important element in reducing our CO2 emissions.
In the UK there are clear commitments by our Government to support the sector in providing information for users. Their objectives are to establish a viable system for wood chip production at a local level providing a reliable long term local fuel source giving developers the confidence to install wood chip heating systems. Work is being supported by the Norlands Foundation, The Carbon Trust and Scottish Power’s Green Energy Trust.
Fuel quality, material, size and moisture content is important for efficient operation of a woodchip boiler. We can make all grades of chip commonly used in boilers depending on the manufacturers specification. Softwood chips are usually dried to contain 25% moisture.
Forestry chips from air dried roundwood are ideal making a high quality chip. Tops and brash may also be suitable although high bark content can cause problems with ash residues. Sawmill by-products such as slabwood imay also be suitable. At Park End Farms, fresh timber is preferred as not only does it give a higher quality trouble free fuel, by using it we benefit existing timber operations supporting local rural businesses and providing another outlet for locally produced raw materials from a sustainable, renewable source.
Consistency of chip size is critical for the reliable operation of a small boiler fuel feed system. Indeed, fuel blockages are the main cause of system failure on smaller installations and is primarily due to poor fuel quality. For small systems, chips should be no larger than 50mm whilst the finest fraction (< 2mm) should not be more than 15%. Optimum size is generally 8 to 30 mm.
For maximum efficiency it is essential that wood fuels are dried to contain the optimum amount of moisture for the boiler design. A more saturated moisture content has a detrimental effect on useful heat yield as more energy is consumed to boil off the moisture reducing optimum combustion leading to higher emissions and losses.
Biomass boilers have a range of tolerances for an acceptable moisture content to reach optimum heat production which depend largely on the type of grate or burner head. Larger boilers with moving grates can take wetter fuel. In smaller boilers, generally below 100kW output, stoker heads are typical in the design and these work best with 25% moisture but have a tolerance of up to 35%. Since freshly felled timber is 40% - 60 % moisture, we air-dry timber for long periods prior to chipping ensuring our wood chips have the most favourable qualities possible.
Please refer to specification sheet.