to provide heat at prices noticeably lower than heat produced by burning heating oil. They further ensured that the bio-mass burned would be harvested sustain-ably. These boilers were installed and op-erated, but, as before, they were installed open to the air to avoid constraining regulations, including the manufacturing requirement found in CSA B51. The chief boiler inspector in the prov-ince, Steven Townsend, knew that sys-tems installed open to the air would be subject to problems associated with cor-rosion, and he knew the rules forced such installation for these boilers. With the permission and support of the provincial government, in April 2012, Townsend undertook an investigation into the con-struction of low-pressure boilers built to the European Pressure Equipment Direc-tive (P.E.D.) standards. Townsend’s research included three trips to Austria. During those trips, he visited boiler manufacturers’ facilities, operating biomass boiler installations and authorized testing laboratories. Townsend gained an understanding of the P.E.D. codes and standards, expo-sure to the level of third-party inspec-tion offered by testing laboratories, and reviewed the quality control programs of specific manufacturing facilities. Townsend visited low-pressure bio-mass heating plants in Austria that oper-ated with guarded controls at pressures from 60-90 psi. He found the plants to be operated, monitored, and maintained well by factory-trained personnel. Based on his research and European experience, including first-hand exposure to fabrication, testing, and operation of European low-pressure steel biomass boil-ers, Townsend determined that pressure vessels fabricated to P.E.D. standards pro-vided an acceptable level of public safety. In his expert opinion, the boilers had a level of safety comparable to that provided by the ASME standards already in place. Because time for research was limit-ed, Townsend proposed boiler regula-tion amendments to the province that would permit the installation of welded steel hot water biomass boilers built to P.E.D. standards (EN 303-5 for boilers up to 300kW, EN 12953 for boilers greater than 300 kW output) restricting operat-ing pressures to 30 psi while experience was gained with the systems. In proposing regulatory changes for the province, Townsend considered four aspects of heating plants using European biomass heating equipment: operations and maintenance of the heating plant, the quality of the European supplied equip-ment, and the facilities’ safety. To ensure safety as the province gained a better understanding of these Europe-an-manufactured biomass-heating plants, Townsend proposed amendments to the province’s boiler regulations to allow for the installation of European boilers built to P.E.D. standards. These amendments included a training program review, car-bon monoxide detection, free standing buildings for larger systems, burn back protection, pressure rise on safety valve activation, and plant dust control. An-other amendment for non-ASME manu-factured boilers was a reduced maximum operating pressure, currently 30 psi. This is reportedly likely to increase to 60 psi soon. These proposals became law. Today a schedule in the Prince Edward Island Boiler and Pressure Vessel Regula-tions makes it lawful to install Europe-an low-pressure steel hot water boilers fabricated and tested to P.E.D. standards (EN 303-5, EN 12953) and outlines the associated regulations. The regulations give the chief boiler inspector the right to confirm proper manufacture and suitable quality control systems. In 2013, the safety of thermal storage tanks (buffer tanks) fabricated to P.E.D. standards were similarly considered for inclusion in systems with P.E.D. boilers and permitted for installation in systems not exceeding operating pressures of 30 psi. As of September 2019, P.E.I. had 23 biomass heating plants operating in the province with six more scheduled to come on line in 2020. Three of these plants sup-ply small district heating systems. Townsend is frequently asked two questions: Is P.E.D. low-pressure biomass equipment safe? And, with the addition-al installation and operational regulation requirements outlined in the Power En-gineering and Boiler Pressure Vessel Reg-ulation, is an equivalent level of safety achieved? His answer to both is an em-phatic yes. More technical details about the non-ASME schedule in the Prince Edward Island Boiler and Pressure Vessel Regula-tions can be found in a powerpoint pre-sentation Townsend prepared for WPAC’s 2019 conference and AGM, at www.pel-let.org/wpac-agm/presentations. It can also be found in the province’s boiler reg-ulations at tinyurl.com/vyv3y2h. • Harry “Dutch” Dresser is the project lead of WPAC’s Domestic Wood Pellet Heating Project. Canadian BIOMASS allied blower biomass novdec14.indd 1 23 2014-11-18 2:22 PM
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