maintain. These simple heating systems exist and can take up to 30 per cent of the load off the electrical systems that are currently at their limits during the peak season – winter. Kurikka recommends woodchip-fired district heating in forest-based communities – a system that can be more economical than pellets though not as efficient because chips have a higher moisture content than pellets. But chippers are common, easier to operate and don’t require a large capital investment, unlike pelletizers, and the fuel supply oppor-tunity remains in the community. The resources are plenty, research has been done to support the sustainability of producing heat and electricity from waste wood and the economic case is clear. The hurdles that remain are primarily based on public perception but with Ontario Power Generation, Resolute Forest Products and Confederation College moving forward with biomass projects, the tide is turning.• conFederatIon college buIlds a bIoenergy centre C For more on district heating, visit www.canadianbiomass-magazine.ca onfederation College is in the process of building a learning and research centre that will be able to test different wood fuels, boilers and emissions, and act as a training facility. It includes a solar wall that will preheat the intake air for the boilers to further enhance efficiency. Two 500-kilowatt Froling boilers will be heating the 400,000-square-foot main building on campus while also providing information for researchers interested in biomass heat for an institutional applica-tion, a small community or a large warehouse. A smaller 150-kilowatt unit will be dedicated for teaching, demonstration and research. It will have a stand-alone fuel system designed for hopper containers that can be sent to fetch various test fuels. The stand will be placed on load cells that can monitor how much fuel is used in real time. The building is large and roomy to accommodate students and faculty and will be used to demonstrate and train on biomass heating equipment ranging from 500-kilowatt institutional sized units to small residential housing units. The storage room will include a walking floor that will move the material up to fall into the trench where it will be fed into the boilers. At peak load, the storage room will include a three day’s supply of wood chips with a moisture content in the 35 per cent range. The chips will be supplied by an urban forestry company that chips wood from Thunder Bay trees at a local wood diversion yard. The student lab will include primary equipment to check biomass moisture content and sizing for basic tests and advanced boiler and emissions monitor-ing equipment. Rotary Dryer System Heat Energy Pellet Press Roller Biomass Pelletizing & Energy Systems Pellet Plants | Dryers | Furnaces | Steam Boilers | Thermal Oil Heaters | Cogeneration Dieffenbacher USA, Inc. 2000 McFarland 400 Blvd. | Alpahretta, GA 30004 Phone: (770) 226-6394 | [email protected] www.dieffenbacher.com 20 Canadian BIOMASS Dieffenbacher biomass june12.indd 1 January/February 2014 12-05-17 8:46 AM
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