Innovative solutions for solid , gaseous and liquid biomass production and use
EUBIONET Biomass Heat Entrepreneurship in Finland
Eija Alakangas VTT Processes
CONVENTIONAL WOOD HEATING BIOMASS HEAT ENTREPRENEUR
Wood harvesting Wood harvesting Chipping
Transport Transport Chipping
Heat distribution Operation and Heat distribution management of the plant Operation and management of the plant
Service Investments Service Investments
Jyväskylä, March 2003 Contents
1. Introduction...... 4
2. Heating entrepreneurship - new business concept...... 4
3. Promoting heat enterpreneurship ...... 6
4. Different models of heat entrepreneurship ...... 7
5. Fuel harvesting and combustion technology...... 9
6. Competition promotes biomass heat entrepreneur concept ...... 13
7. Results of the competition ...... 15
8. Presentation of the winners...... 22 8.1 Winners of the year 2000 ...... 22 8.1.1 Tuupovaara Energy Co-operative...... 22 8.1.2 Heat Entrepreneur Pertti Peltomäki ...... 24 8.1.3 Perho Energy Co-operative selected as the Pro-Heat Entrepreneur ...... 26 8.2 Winners of the year 2001 ...... 29 8.2.1 Energy from forests in Kyyjärvi Municipality ...... 29 8.2.2 Farmenergi AB develops technology ...... 32 8.2.3 Inkoo makes energy from rotten wood...... 34 8.3 Winners of the year 2002 ...... 36 8.3.1 Tapani Brofeldt operating as a heat entrepreneur in Hämeenkoski municipality ...... 36 8.3.2 Askola Forest Management Association ...... 39 8.3.3 Municipality of Vöyri employing bioenergy for heating ...... 43
9. Conclusions...... 47
APPENDICES
App. A Contact information of the winners and organisers of the Competition: Biomass Heat Entrepreneur of the Year
2 Preface
EUBIONET – European Bioenergy Networks consolidates the activities of sub- networks for solid, gaseous and liquid biofuels. The major aims of the networks are knowledge and experience sharing, information dissemination, and knowledge and knowhow transfer in the bioenergy sector. Besides that, the networks also detect barriers and define strategies to overcome them and promote contacts between operators, planners and public organisations at all levels. Activities include events, publications, meetings, study tours and contacts to key bioenergy organisations in Europe.
The present report is part of the work of the national work carried out for the EUBIONET in Finland. The report is based on the Competition: Biomass Heat Entrepreneur of the Year, which was organised during 2000–2002 by Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry, Motiva and VTT (as a part of AFBnet and EUBIONET projects). The aim of the competition was to promote new business idea especially in rural areas.
The jury for the Competition was represented by following wood energy organisations: Mr Aimo Aalto, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Energy Department; Mrs Eija Alakangas, VTT (secretary); Mr Veli-Matti Alanen, Pirkanmaa Forestry Centre; Mr Tage Fredriksson, Wood Energy Association; Mr Martti Honkasalo, Satakunta Polytechnics; Mrs. Kirsti Kärkkäinen, Motiva; Mr Kalevi Luoma, Association of Finnish Municipalities; Mr Markku Paananen and Mrs. Kirsi Knuuttila, BENET- network; Mr Asko Puhakka, Northern Carelia Polytechnics; Mr Juha Rautanen (chair), Motiva Oy; and Mr Harri Solmio and Mr Seppo Tuomi, TTS Institute.
Mrs. Eija Alakangas has written this report. Mr Petri Halonen and Mr Pertti Frilander have evaluated questionnaires and made descriptions of the winners in Finnish. Mr Tage Fredriksson from Wood Energy Association has written description of Askola Forest Management Association. Mr Esa Kallio has compiled results from the questionnaires into Excel sheets. Report is available on the EUBIONET website: http://eubionet.vtt.fi
Jyväskylä, March 2003
Eija Alakangas, co-ordinator of the EUBIONET
3 1. Introduction
Finnish municipalities have long traditions in investing in wood fuel plants. In the end of 1960´s, when the major cities started to build up district heating networks and CHP plants. Main fuel was milled peat or wood fuels in inland cities and coal and natural gas in coastal area.
In the beginning of the 1990´s some municipalities started also to invest in biomass heating systems for municipal buildings like schools, old-age homes etc (output < 1
MWth). At the same time farmers established new form of rural enterprises, so called ´heat entrepreneurs´. This means that they were supplying customers with heat produced from wood fuels. The mode of operation is such that the entrepreneur mainly carries the responsibility for looking after heating of municipal real estates and wood fuel supply. The heating entrepreneur produces the fuel or buys industrial wood residues from local wood processing industry, and carries out the heating, operation and maintenance work at the heating plant. The entrepreneur is paid for services rendered on the basic of the amount of heat generated. The price of heat is usually bound to the price of light fuel oil.
This report describes the situation of the biomass heat entrepreneurship in Finland. VTT Processes has collected information as a part of the ALTENER funded projects: EUBIONET and AFBnet. This report is mainly based on the results gathered from the Competition of the Heating Entrepreneur of the Year, which was organised in co- operation with EUBIONET, Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry and Motiva Oy.
2. Heating entrepreneurship - new business concept
Heat entrepreneur/enterprise is a single entrepreneur, a co-operative, a limited liability company or an entrepreneur consortia, which sells heat. The heating enterprise typically operates locally and the main fuel is wood. The fuel comes from the entrepreneur's own forest or from local forest owners or wood processing industry. The heat entrepreneur operates the heating plant and earns an income based on the amount of produced heat.
First three plants started operation in 1992 (Fig. 1). In the end of 2002 more than 140 plants, where heat enterpreneurship (total heat output 63 MWth) is practised in Finland. Most of the plants are located in the western part of Finland. Almost 40 of these plants are district heating plants with an average output of 1.1 MWth. About 100 plants are smaller plants for heating large buildings (average output 220 kWth). It has been estimated that annual wood fuel consumption of these plants is 200 000–250 000 loose m3 (160–200 GWh). The employment effect of these plants is 140 man-years annually.
4 Every megawatt employs two persons. TTS Institute estimates that a total potential of the plants will be 900 and total output of 300 MWth in 2005. The target of the “Heat Entrepreneur Finland” project is to build 50 new plants.
600
500
400
300
200 135 106 87 100 67 50 3 6 16 24 36 0 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Figure 1. State of the biomass heat entrepreneurs in Finland in 2002 and estimation for 2007 (number of entrepreneurs). Potential is marked by red colour and target by blue colour. Source: “Heat Entrepneurship Finland”project.
Several organisations have been active in promoting heat enterpreneurship in Finland. Mainly the municipalities are in the key role in establishment of enterprises. Municipalities have public buildings, e.g. schools, old-age homes, which need heating. Municipalities can buy these services from local entrepreneurs.
From the point of view of municipalities, among the advantages connected to heat enterpreneurship based on wood fuel are the following:
• increase use of local labour and create new business opportunities
• supply of local raw material for energy and decrease of CO2 emissions
• increase energy security and supply in the municipality
• reliability of heating of municipal buildings
5 • savings in costs in energy production and protection of the environment.
Furthermore, the fact that the money previously been spent on oil now circulates locally promoting local livelihoods and also increases the amount of locally taxable incomes was considered important at the municipal level. The Heat Entrepreneur Finland (“Lämpöyrittäjä Suomi”) project estimates that about 45–55 % of the production and transportation costs will be circulated back to municipality.
The heat enterpreneurship offers extra income especially to farmers, who have otherwise
• unmerchantable timber in their woodlands;
• under-utilised timber harvesting equipment;
• experience of heating using wood chips;
• and lack of job opportunities.
However, heat enterpreneurship can seldom provide the primary livelihood. In the end of year 2002 there were some ten entrepreneurs, which provide fuel and heat for several buildings and the heat entrepreneurship was their main source of income.
3. Promoting heat enterpreneurship
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Ministry of Trade and Industry and local Employment and Economic centres are promoting heat enterpreneurship by giving funding for
• Forest improvement funds to support the harvesting of small-size trees from young stands. Wood fuel harvesting and forest transportation support is 7 €/m3 solid (about 3.5 €/MWh) and chipping support 1.7 €/loose m3 (about 2 €/MWh).
• Investment grants for wood fuel harvesting equipments and establishment of new enterprises (The Council of State’s new decision (625/2002), max 25—30% for conventional technology and for innovative technology 40%)
• Local promotion projects to establish new plants and to promote biomass heating and entrepreneurship
• Research of technology and follow-up studies of existing sites
6 • Information dissemination and training:
• production of information material, e.g brochure of how to establish co- operative, guidebooks for heat enterpreneurs and wood heating, leaflets of best practice projects.
• organising training courses and seminars
• campaigns like “Competition of the Biomass Heat Entrepreneur of the Year 2000, 2001 and 2002 organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Motiva Oy and VTT.
TTS-Institute, Satakunta Polytechnics, Northern Carelia Polytechnics and BENET network are organising training courses. BENET and Northern Carelia Polytechnics have trained wood energy advisors, who are in key role in establishing new biomass heating plants and entreprises. These advisors work in forestry centres and are giving advice to those, who are starting heat enterpreneurship. Forestry Centres and local Forest Management Associations have taken care of training of wood fuel procurement. Satakunta Polytechnics, Northern Carelia Polytechnics, BENET network, TTS-Institute and VTT have produced training material and organised seminars usually in co- operation with regional forestry centres.
TTS-Institute has carried out several follow-up studies of plants. These follow-up studies have been very important to guarantee that the plants are well implemented (feasible, proper form of enterpreneurship, quality of the fuel, etc.). The experiences of the first sites have been disseminated to new sites by site visits and articles, newsletters and seminar presentations.
Tekes, National Technology Agency started in 2002 a new research area as a part of the Wood Technology Research Programme to promote technology development of the small-scale wood fuel procurement and combustion (1 MWth). The programme, co- ordinated by VTT Processes, is also developing models for heat entrepreneurship and biomass energy service companies (ESCO).
4. Different models of heat entrepreneurship
When choosing the form of heat entrepreneurship, the factors to be taken into account include the size of the building to be heated and the required investments. The most common concept is one in which 1–3 entrepreneurs are responsible for heating local premises. In such cases the size of the heating plants is usually 50–500 kWth. Heat entrepreneurs are usually forest-owning farmers. In small plants managed by heat
7 entrepreneurs, the main fuel is usually wood chips made from small-size whole trees and delimbed smallwood, with light fuel oil as a reserve fuel.
Most of plants in Finland are managed by a single entrepreneur and the typical boiler output is 75–370 kWth. There are also entrepreneur consortia with 2–4 members. Most of the plants are school buildings and typical boiler output is 60–300 kWth. In these plants more than 50% of wood fuel was produced from own forests by own equipment.
Only in some ten plants heating is carried out by a limited liability company, which is invested in wood procurement equipment or boiler plant. Some companies provide also other services. These companies have 2–51 shareholders.
In heating co-operative, the mode of operation is such that forest owners collaborate in the procurement and delivery of the fuel to the customer´s premises. The co-operative´s members also earn revenues in the form of interest paid on the invested capital and dividends paid out by the co-operative. A heating co-operative must have at least five members. The co-operative solution is appropriate when dealing with heating entities large than single building, e.g. district heating plants. In these cases the size of the plants is between 0.5 MWth and 5 MWth. A smaller mode of operation is that of a fuelwood co-operative responsible merely for producing and delivering wood chips to the plant. There are more than 20 co-operatives in Finland. These co-operatives are responsible for district heating plants with output of 0.5–1.5 MWth.
There are several other forms of heat entrepreneurship in which the heat entrepreneur´s tasks vary according to task between procurement of the fuel raw material and heating. In cases where the entrepreneur is unable to produce enough fuelwood from his own forests, he can supplement his stock of fuelwood through purchasing standing wood and then harvesting it himself. In some cases it may be more economic to use the services of an another entrepreneur to provide the chipped wood rather than himself invest in the required equipment. Also, wood chip transportation can be contracted with another entrepreneur.
The mode of action varies depending on the harvesting and chipping equipment, and also according to the ownership of the heating equipment. Wood chip-fired heating devices are usually owned by the purchaser of the heat; usually local municipality.
8 5. Fuel harvesting and combustion technology
Usually harvesting is carried out manually in forest, chipping at the road side and chips are then transported to the plant. For mechanical harvesting of small-size trees accumulating and collecting heads can be used. Typical harvesting chain is presented in the following figures (Fig. 2–6).
Chipping Pile of small-sized delimbed or undelimbed trees near forest road Manual felling and piling of small-sized stems
Forest haulage of small-sized trees Transportation to heating plant
Heating plant
Felling-piling equipment
Figure 2. Supply chain of small-size trees for energy. VTT Processes.
9
Figure 3. Manual felling by using felling frame. Photo. TTS-Institute.
Figure 4. Storage of small-size whole trees. Photo: University of Oulu .
Figure 5. Chipping on the terminal in Kyyjärvi. Photo: VTT Processes.
10
Figure 6. Wood chips are transported to Kyyjärvi heating plant by tractors and trailers. Photo: VTT Processes.
The boiler plant usually consists of the fuel storage with automatic fuel feeding system to the boiler (Fig. 7). The boiler plant usually has stoker-burner and mechanical moving grate with automatic combustion control system. The plant is usual unmanned and heat entrepreneurs only visit the plant, when they are feeding the fuel storage or some operational disturbances occur in the plant. Plants are equipped with automatic alarm systems.
STORAGE ROOM Control device
Wood chip3 silo 10 - 50 m
Boiler Wood chip silo
Burner
Figure 7. Typical wood chips heating system under 100 kW in Finland. Source: VTT Processes.
11 Profitability of the enterprise is depending mainly on the wood fuel procurement costs and operation and maintenance costs, because investment costs are mainly paid by municipality or industry.
The average price of forest chips is 9–10 €/MWh. The average price of wood chips produced from small-size, delimbed stem wood is 13.7 €/MWh and for small-size unlimbed stem wood 10.1 €/MWh.
Average price of the total central heating systems costs was 200–400 €/kWth (from 100 kWth to 1 MWth) in 2001 (Fig. 8). Average total heating costs for wood chips was 46 €/MWh (100 kWth), 37 €/MWh (200 kWth), 29 €/MWh (500 kWth) and 26 €/MWh (1
MWth). Total heating costs included investments and all other variable costs like fuel costs, personnel, operation and management (Fig 9).
700 Sod peat 600 Wood pellet Wood chips 500 Pyrolysis oil Oil 400 Electricity 300
200 Investment costs,€/kW 100
0 20 kW 50 kW 100 kW 200 kW 500 kW 1000 kW
Figure 8. Total heat production costs (€/MWh) for heating plants (output < 1 MWth). Source: VTT Processes/Climtech Programme.
12 120 Sod peat Wood pellet 100 Wood chips Pyrolysis oil 80 Light fuel oil Electricity 60
40
Total heating costs, €/MWh 20
0 20 kW 50 kW 100 kW 200 kW 500 kW 1000 kW
Figure 9. Average total heating costs (€/MWh) of heating systems under 1 MWth. VTT Energy/Climtech Programme. 6. Competition promotes biomass heat entrepreneur concept
Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry, VTT as a part ALTENER projects (AFBnet and EUBIONET) and Motiva Oy organised a competition to promote biomass heat entrepreneurship three times in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The Competition: “Biomass Heat Entrepreneurship of the Year” is also part of the Campaign Take-Off Partnership action of the European Commission.
The aim of the heat entrepreneur competition was to promote and develop heat entrepreneur operations and to inform co-operators about possibilities of heat generation. All significant Finnish organisations that promote the energy use of wood participated in the organisation of the competition.
There were two categories in the competition: co-operatives and enterprises, and small- scale entrepreneurs. The organisers of the competition decided to award also the actors that have promoted heat entrepreneurship in Finland (Pro-Heat Entrepreneur).
13 The main criteria of awarding were as follows:
• Commercial and regional-economical feasibility
• Regional and local promotion of forestry
• Promotion of heat entrepreneurship
• Promotion of local co-operation
Figure 10. Winners of Biomass Heat Entrepreneurs of the year 2002 were awarded by Mr Juha Rautanen from Motiva Oy and Mrs Eija Alakangas from VTT.
The competition was launched first time at the Heat Entrepreneur Seminar organised by the Northern Carelia Polytechnics on 12 April, 2000, and it finished at the end of August. In 2001 and 2002 the competition was organised at the same time of the year. The questionnaire, which was the main tool in selecting the winners, was designed by VTT in co-operation with TTS-Institute, using the valuable comments given by the jury appointed for the competition. To boost the competition, a brochure was prepared and distributed through the Wood Energy Advisors, Forestry Centres, Regional Energy Agencies and the Association of Finnish Municipalities. The questionnaire was distributed into the entrepreneurs and also to municipalities.
14 7. Results of the competition
Results of the questionnaires filled in by the participants were collected in table format in order to compare the answers. To quarantee confidentiality results of the entrepreneurs are presented by using numbers. Only winners are presented more detailed in chapter 8.
Summary of the results
• 39 heat entrepreneurs; heating 56 properties, enrolled in the competition
• The total output of boilers was 26.8 MWth (80 kWth – 2000 kWth)
• Heat generation was close to 69 200 MWh, i.e. equal to heating of about 35 000 single-family houses
• All plants used forest chips as fuel and seven entrepreneurs also industrial wood residues
• Total wood fuel consumption amounted to 99 700 m3 loose/a (78 300 MWh), of which 89% was forest chips.
• Reduction in CO2 emissions was in total 20 600 tons/a
• Mean price of heat was around € 28/MWh (€12.60–54 MWh). Higher prices were for entrepreneurs, which have also invested into plant themselves.
• Fuel supply employed 228 and the plants 115 part-time workers
• Total annual turnover of the plants was € 2.15 million
More detailed analysis of the results is presented in Fig. 11 – 20.
15 The winners are presented by using the following numbers:
• No 1 – Askola Forest Management Association • No 2 – Farmenergi Ab • No 9 – Kyyjärvi Co-operative • No 11 – Perho Energy Co-operative • No 17 – Tuupovaara Energy Co-operative • No 18 – Vöyri Energy Co-operative • No 23 – Inkoo Hake ja Lämpö Ay • No 34 – Mr Pertti Peltomäki, single entrepreneur • No 38 – Mr Tapani Brofelt, single entrepreneur The questionnaire included also some questions of the economy, profitability, operation and management of the plant and participation in the promotion of heat entrepreneurship.
Based on the questionnaire two participants found that heat entrepreneurship is very profitable, 24 found it profitable and 16 participants found it satisfactory profitable. Entrepreneurship has affected remarkably to the main livelihood in 9 cases, quite remarkably for 18 cases. Only 14 informed that entrepreneurship has minor influence to their income. Entrepreneurs´s main source of income was agriculture, forestry operation contractor, machinery services or manufacture of equipment.
The heating plants are unmanned and automated. Fuel feed (17) and ash removal (16) were the main operational tasks for the entrepreneurs. Possible alarms come by phone to the person on duty in the form of SMS message. The malfuction of a boiler or conveyors were the main reason to visit the plant (13 reported this as a main reason). Chipping of wood raw material was carried out by a separate chipping contractor in 25 plants and some 20 plants have own chipper.
More than 3 500 people has annually visited the plants to familiaze themselves to heat entrepreneurship model or special technology of the plant. Most visited plant was Perho co-operative, which is a pioneer in heat entrepreneurship. The visits were organised by local wood energy advisors, research institutes and equipment manufacturers.
16 Annual turnover - co-operatives and limited liability companies, €/year
1 163000 11 126000 5 100000 7 78500 17 65700 4 51000 16 50500 12 49700 14 40000 3 40000 9 36700 2 33600 15 32900 10 24700 13 20200 6 17700 8 14000 18 12000
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000 180000
Figure 11. Turnover for co-operatives and limited liability companies participated in the competition.
Annual turnover, single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia €/year
37 117700 26 75000 23 50500 27 47400 38 40000 24 33600 39 33600 34 32400 30 26900 32 24000 36 19200 28 18600 21 16000 19 11000 35 10400 29 10400 25 10000 33 6700 31 5000 22 2600
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000
Figure 12. Turnover for single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia participated in the competition.
17 Company form
16
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Co-operative Limited liability Single Limited Entrepreneur company entrepreneur partnership consortia company
Figure 13. Company form for all participants.
Number of members in co-operatives
average 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 7 5 4 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
Figure 14. Number of members in co-operatives participated in the competition.
18 Size of the plant - co-operatives and limited liability companies kW
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0 866882613210774314158171971216111118 kW 80 120 120 120 150 200 200 200 300 300 350 350 460 500 500 500 520 600 700 990 1000 1000 1000 1250 1250 1400 1500 2
Figure 15. Plant output (kWth) for co-operatives and limited liability companies participated in the competition.
Plant size - single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia kW 1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0 38 38 20 25 35 39 24 38 19 21 26 31 36 39 30 38 28 26 27 29 34 39 23 32 37 kW 80 80 120 120 120 160 200 250 300 300 300 300 300 350 400 400 420 500 500 500 500 500 700 700 1000
Figure 16. Plant output (kWth) for single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia participated in the competition.
19 Use of wood chips - co-operatives and limited liability companies, loose m3/year
14900 18 10000 8500 11 7550 6060 16 4000 3881 17 3500 2881 8 2680 2416 15 1500 1400 2 1350 1000 13 900 645 14 400
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
Figure 17. Use of wood chips in co-operatives and limited liability companies participated in the competition.
Use of wood fuels - single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia, loose m3/year
37 4000 3200 23 3100 2000 32 2000 1948 38 1700 1400 28 1083 920 36 900 857 29 753 700 33 500 450 25 400 183 22 85
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Figure 18. Use of wood chips in single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia participated in the competition.
20 Reduction of CO2 emissions, co-operatives and limited
liability companies, tons CO2/year
1 3175 18 2131 5 1812 11 1609 7 1182 16 852 17 746 12 656 8 557 9 501 4 386 14 341 3 298 15 266 2 240 10 213 13 147 6 97
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Figure 19. Reduction of CO2 emission in co-operatives and limited liability companies participated in the competition.
Reduction of CO2 emissions - single entrepreneurs and
entrepreneur consortia, tons CO2/year
37 852 27 682 23 535 39 426 32 426 34 415 38 362 30 298 21 196 36 192 31 183 28 163 29 160 19 149 35 107 26 96 25 85 33 80 24 26 22 18
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Figure 20. Reduction of CO2 emission in single entrepreneurs and entrepreneur consortia participated in the competition.
21 8. Presentation of the winners
8.1 Winners of the year 2000
8.1.1 Tuupovaara Energy Co-operative
The jury selected The Tuupovaara Energy Co-operative as the winner of co-operative series in its meeting on 6th October 2000. The Tuupovaara Co-operative operates in Northern Carelia, and it has led the province in promoting heat entrepreneurship. Good experiences have led to the increase in the number of wood chips co-operatives in Northern Carelia, with five currently in operation. The Tuupovaara Municipality invested in a 600 kWth wood chip heating plant in 1997 (Table 1). The Energy Co- operative produces heat by procuring wood chips to the plant and by operating and maintaining the heating plant. At the end of 1999, the number of members in the co- operative was 26. The good results of the co-operative have led to the number of members increasing three-fold from the starting figure.
Figure 21. Tuupovaara Energy co-operative in eastern part of Finland.
About 3,700 cubic metres of wood chips are used, with members procuring over 2,400 cubic metres of wood chips. The wood used for wood chip is mainly wood that has no or only minimal market value otherwise. Nature tourism is important for Tuupovaara, and hence heat produced by renewable energy source and promoting employment and forestry in the area fits the image well. The co-operative employs 1.5 people full-time. The Tuupovaara Municipality, Tuupovaara Heating Plant and Tuupovaara Energy Co- operative have gained a lot of positive publicity in the media, and about 500 people
22 have visited the plant within 1998–1999 years of operation. The co-operative is very profitable.
The boiler plant and automation were delivered by the company Vaasan Kuljetuskanavat Oy. The length of the district heating network is over a kilometre. At present, the heated cubic content covered by the heating network is 34,900 m3. The total cost of the construction of the wood chips heating plant amounted to € 222 900 (+VAT). The municipality received from the Ministry of Trade and Industry a €44 700 (20%) subsidy for the construction of the plant. The total construction costs of the district heating network was €90 485 EUR (+VAT), for which a €31 100 subsidy was received from the Labour District of Northern Carelia. When planning the investment, the decision-makers of the municipality emphasised the significance of the project’s employment, silvicultural and environmental impacts. They also noted that money paid for oil goes to outsiders, but means spent on wood chips stay and benefit the locality. The employment impact of the heating plant is 1.5 man-years.
Fuel for the heating plant is delivered to the receiving silo, which holds approximately 100 m3 of wood chips at a time (Fig. 21). Wood chips are delivered to the plant approximately twice a week. The store’s roof opens hydraulically so that the building has a rather low profile in the landscape and fits the environment well. With this solution, the dumping of wood chip loads into the store is highly expedient. At the bottom of the silo there are bar dischargers, which convey the fuel to a collector screw. It transfers the chips to a screw conveyor, which conveys them to a block feeder and further to an intermediate reservoir, which functions as a balancing reservoir and helps feed fuel accurately. A stoker screw feeds the fuel to the grate, whose bars move hydraulically and convey the fuel further. At the end of the grate there is a foot grating from under which starts a cinder screw with which ash is removed from the boiler. Combustion gas is purified with a multicyclone, which separates fly ash efficiently.
The heating plant is unmanned and to a great extent automated. Fuel feed is adjusted automatically and steplessly in accordance with the capacity need. Alarms from the plant come by phone to the person on duty in the form of text messages. The plant has worked very well, and malfunctions have been extremely rare. The heating period is approximately nine months per year. To secure the system, a separate 300 kW light fuel oil plant is used during the summer shut-downs and, when necessary, to balance load peaks.
Due to the successful operation of the plant and smooth co-operation with the municipality of Tuupovaara the planning of a second wood chip plant has begun in 2000. The plant was built beside the school centre in autumn 2001.
23 Table 1. Technical data of Tuupovaara plant.
Solid fuel boiler 600 kW Fuel Wood chips Annual heat production 2400 MWh Annual wood chips consumption 3700 loose m3 Heated space of buildings 34900 m3 Length of the network 1022 m Capital costs of the heating plant €222 900 (+VAT) Capital costs of the district heating network €90 484 (+VAT) Commission year 1997
8.1.2 Heat Entrepreneur Pertti Peltomäki
The winner in the single entrepreneur or entrepreneur consortia division in 2000 was Mr Pertti Peltomäki from Ruovesi (Table 2).
Figure 21. Mr Alanen, one of the wood advisors visting the Ruovesi plant.
The municipality of Ruovesi is located in the northern part of Pirkanmaa, approximately 80 kilometres to the north of Tampere. The number of inhabitants in the municipality is 5 800, and its territory 951 square kilometres. Earlier the main livelihoods in Ruovesi were sawmill industry and carpentry, and now the main stress in economy is on the service sector.
24 In Ruovesi, heat entrepreneur Pertti Peltomäki heats with wood chips two industrial buildings and a board core drying installation. Mr Peltomäki became a heat entrepreneur in 1997. His main livelihood is agriculture, but at present, approximately third of the farm’s income comes from heat entrepreneurship. The turnover is approximately €33 600 per year, which means that heat entrepreneurship is a significant source of additional income. Part of the wood is collected by Mr Peltomäki from his own forest, but mainly it is bought from local farmers who deliver it to roadsides. Approximately 90% of the fuel is harvested from local forests. The heat entrepreneur owns jointly (with a partner) a chipper with which the energy wood is chipped. Wood chips are transported to the heating plant by tractor equipment. The transport distance is 20–30 kilometres. Peltomäki owns two 20 m3 trailers, with which the transportations to the plant are carried out. Chipping and transportation employ two persons, of whom one is responsible for chipping, the other for transportation. The entrepreneur also buys small quantities of wood chips. The municipality pays for produced heat to the entrepreneur. 50% of the price of heat is tied to the price of domestic heating oil. In September 2000, the price paid for heat was approximately 25.2 €/MWh (without VAT).
The wood chip district heating plant owned by the municipality of Ruovesi was completed in 1997. The building of the district heating plant was constructed by the municipality, and the technical equipment for the boiler plant was delivered by the company TP-Stokeri Oy. The total cost of the district heating plant amounted to €103,000 (+VAT). The municipality received from the Ministry of Trade and Industry a €12,300 (12%) subsidy for the construction of the district heating plant. The heated space is 44,330 cubic meters and heat transfer distances are short.
The nominal effect of the boiler (Laka) is 500 kW. Fuel is delivered into the plant’s silo which is equipped with a hydraulically rising roof (Fig 22). The silo holds approximately 60 m3 of wood chips at a time. At its bottom there are bar dischargers, with which fuel is discharged to a conveyor screw. It conveys the chips to another screw conveyor, which feeds the chips to the burner head in the boiler. The burner head is water-cooled. The plant works automatically, and possible alarm signals come to the heat entrepreneur’s telephone.
The heating plant operates throughout the year, because heat is needed for drying board cores in the summer as well. In the winter, the plant’s fuel silo is filled approximately once a week, in summertime at intervals of approximately three weeks. The monthly heating need is in the winter approximately 150 MWh, in the summer approximately 50–60 MWh.
In case of disturbances in wood chip combustion, a light fuel oil burner can be installed in the boiler to heat the plant for relatively short periods of time.
25 The heating plant uses delimbed and whole tree chips, sawing residue and cutter chips, whose annual consumption is 200–300 bulk cubic metres. Total annual wood consumption is nearly 2 000 bulk cubic metres. The annual heat production of the plant is approximately 1 400 MWh.
Table 2. Technical data of Ruovesi plant.
Solid fuel boiler 500 kW Fuel Wood chips, sawing residues, cutter chips Annual heat production 1400 MWh Annual wood consumption 2000 bulk m3 Heated cubic content 44,330 m3 Capital costs of the heating plant €102 260 EUR (+VAT) Introduction year 1997
8.1.3 Perho Energy Co-operative selected as the Pro-Heat Entrepreneur
Figure 23. Perho co-operative is one of pioneers in heating entrepreneurship.
The organisers of the competition decided to award also the actors that have promoted heat entrepreneurship in Finland. The jury selected the Perho Energy Co-operative as the Pro-Heat Entrepreneur for Public Relations in 2000. The awards were given to Mr Pekka Lindholm, Perho Municipality; Mr Aimo Kivelä, Perho Energy Co-operative and
26 Mr Martti Honkasalo, Satakunta Polytechnic. They have been involved in promoting in particular the co-operative model of heat entrepreneurship in Finland.
Perho was one of the first wood chip co-operatives in Finland. Perho municipality invested in a 1.4 MWth heating plant, which is the biggest among the participants in this competition. In addition to wood chips, the plant uses sawmill residue and peat. The plant has been in operation since 1994, and it has been profitable in several years. 41 members of the co-operative participate in procuring the fuel, and five in operating the plant. The plant produces over 5 100 MWh of heat annually, of which 5 000 MWh with wood fuel and the rest with peat and heavy fuel oil. The Perho Energy Co-operative, Perho Municipality and Satakunta Polytechnic have promoted heat entrepreneurship based on co-operative model by organising presentations, welcoming over 1 000 visitors and by producing brochures and publications of the plant operation also in English (Fig 22, Table 3).
The municipality of Perho is located at the eastern boundary of Keski-Pohjanmaa, by trunk road 13. The river Perhonjoki which empties into the Gulf of Bothnia, and the Kymijoki water system which flows into the Gulf of Finland have their source in the territory of the municipality. The largest wilderness areas in southern Finland are to be found in Perho. By population structure, Perho is a sparsely populated primary production municipality. The number of inhabitants is 3 200, and the territory 776 square kilometres. The population is mainly concentrated by the river Perhonjoki and the trunk road. The municipal centre is located 150 kilometres to the north-west of Jyväskylä and 300 kilometres to the south of Oulu.
The municipality of Perho started to study the practicality of wood chips as a domestic alternative for producing heat energy. As a result, the Perho Energy Co-operative was established in spring 1994. It has been a pilot project for practical testing of organisation and technologies designed within the Satakunta Polytechnic’s energy co-operative project and aimed at making converted wood chips competitive in comparison with oil. When the co-operative was established, 14 members joined it. In the end of the year 2000, the number of members has grown to 41. The members who participate in wood chip production get raw material from the members´s own forest. The district heating plant is owned by the municipality. Forest owners deliver energy wood to the roadside either themselves or through a contractor. Chipped wood is mainly refuse from silviculture and logging. In accordance with the concluded agreement, Perho Energy Co-operative is responsible for the operation of the heating plant. The members of the energy co-operative take care of the chipping and the transportation of the chips to the district heating plant independently without any outside help. Five members of the co- operative have been trained to operate the plant, and they run and control the plant for remuneration. The co-operative sells the produced heat to the municipality and pays to
27 members who deliver fuel according to the weight of dry substance. In October 2000, the municipality paid for heat € 19.2 per MWh (without VAT). The price is fixed and it is agreed upon with the municipality for each heating season separately. A central objective of the co-operative is to keep the capital costs under control so that the acquisition and transportation of chip wood is performed using the members’ own equipment and the operation of the co-operative does not require new investments in equipment. This goal has been reached in Perho Energy Co-operative well. Its direct employment impact is three man-years, in addition to which comes the indirect impact. The annual turnover of the co-operative is approximately €124 300, and its economic result has been positive for several years.
A solid fuel boiler was built in 1994 for the heating plant owned by the municipality. The boiler and constructions required for it cost the municipality € 0.6 million (+VAT). For the payment of these costs a €156 000 (25%) subsidy was received from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The company Laatukattila Oy delivered the plant’s fully automated 1.4 MWth solid fuel bevelled grate boiler. Fuel for the plant is delivered to the receiving silo whose capacity is 100 cubic metres.
Bar dischargers at the bottom of the silo transfer the wood chips to a pusher-conveyor. The pusher-conveyor takes the fuel to the feed box, from where the wood chips run into the boiler. Attendance to the boiler takes approximately ten hours per week. In the summer, there is a 1–2 week service shutdown. Wood chips, sawing residues (bark) from a sawmill located in the municipality, and sod peat are used as fuel for the boiler. Peat is only used during winter, when the boiler works to full capacity. It is mixed with wood chips before feeding into the boiler. In addition to the wood chip boiler, there are two oil boiler in the heating plant, with total capacity of 3.6 MWth. One is a 2 MWth heavy oil boiler, and the other a 1.6 MWth light oil boiler. They are used for balancing heat consumption peaks, and as reserve heat source during possible disturbances in chip combustion. Approximately 90% of the energy of the district heating plant is, however, produced using solid fuel. Fault signals from the plant come to the pager of the person on duty, informing him about the nature of the disturbance at the plant.
Heat produced by Perho district heating plant covers 46 real estates and approximately 145 500 cubic metres of heated space. The length of the municipality’s district heating network is in excess of five kilometres. The heated real estates are mainly public buildings and industrial and commercial premises. The share of residential buildings is approximately 20%, and the number of residents in them about 300.
In 1996–1999, the energy co-operative has produced on average 4 725 MWh of energy per year using wood chips and sawing residues. Over that time, the co-operative has annually consumed approximately 6 778 bulk cubic metres of wood chips and sawing
28 residues, which corresponds to approximately 490, 00 litres of light fuel oil or 411 tons of heavy fuel oil.
Table 3. Technical data of the Perho plant.
Solid fuel boiler 1.4 MW Fuels Wood chips, sawing residues, sod peat Annual heat production 5100 MWh Annual solid fuel consumption 7000 bulk m3 Heated cubic content 145 500 m3 Network length 5 300 m Capital costs €0.6 million Introduction year 1994
8.2 Winners of the year 2001
8.2.1 Energy from forests in Kyyjärvi Municipality
Kyyjärvi Municipality and Co-operative were chosen as the heat entrepreneur of the year 2001, as the heating plant applies new technology, the municipality is practically self-sufficient in heat generation, and the operations are feasible and are further developed and expanded. Co-operation of wood energy experts in the area of Kyyjärvi Municipality also operate in an exemplary manner.
Kyyjärvi Municipality commissioned the heating plant fired with wood chips in 1999. The operations have proved to be feasible, and the plant is being extended. After completing the extension, practically all logging residues can be used for heat production at the plant.
The co-operative attends to fuel supply and use. The co-operative has 23 members, who attend to fuel supply and essential heating work.
The co-operative supplies fuels from forests in the area of the municipality, within a radius of about 20 km from the heating plant. Wood chips are supplied in close co-operation with the local forestry management association. The forest owners deliver energy wood to the roadside either themselves or through an entrepreneur. One co- operative member owns a harvester, with which he carries out contract work for the local forest management association. The forest owner may chip wood himself or employ services of contractors, as two co-operative members own chippers suitable for contract work. As a rule, they also transport the chips to the plant.
29 As the plant is located in the centre of Kyyjärvi municipality, fuel is not stored or chipped at the plant. The co-operative owns a fuel terminal in the industrial area of the municipality, at the distance of about 2 km from the plant, where it is possible to produce chips quickly and easily in wintertime (Fig 5).
The co-operative buys the chips delivered at the plant. The price of the chips, paid to the forest owners, is defined on the basis of energy content, which is determined at the plant on the basis of the amount, bulk density and moisture content of the chips (Fig.24).
In practice, the wood fuel of the Kyyjärvi heating plant comprises only wood residues formed in forestry and loggings, while only small sporadic batches of wood residues from wood-processing industries are used. About 70% of the fuel consists of whole-tree chips, the rest being primarily chips made of delimbed stems. The moisture content of fuel chips is usually around 40%. The moisture content of the wettest fuel delivered to the plant has been more than 60%.
The output of the plant has been increased to 2.5 MWth and the district heat network lengthened to 3.5 km by the end of November 2002. The budget of the extension of the plant was about €185 000, and that of the district heat network about €673 000.
A local company Tulostekniikka Oy constructed the heating plant, and its designer, Mr Kai Oinonen, is a member of the energy co-operative. The step grate is preceded by a fuel drying system, and hence moist fuels can also be used. The moisture content of chips can be reduced by about 10% before combustion. In connection with the extension, another slightly larger boiler has been installed in parallel with the present boiler, and hence the total output of the boiler is increased to 2.5 MWth.
The plant operates unmanned and is highly automated. The automatic control supervises the operation in principle of fuzzy logic. In case of operation malfunction, the system employs the original settings, at which the plant operated before the malfunction, and the operation is normalised. There are always five co-operative members in on-call duty. Possible malfunction messages come to their mobile phones according to an order agreed in advance. The plant has proved to be well-operating, and malfunctions have been very rare. The old oil-fired boilers of houses are used as a back-up system.
The present building volume heated is about 35 000 m3. When the extension was completed, the number of heat customers increased significantly and the building volume was tripled to about 92 000 m3. Kyyjärvi Municipality pays for heat on the basis of a heat production contract, which is in force until further notice. The price is fixed and is agreed upon at discussions between the municipality and the co-operative for each heating season.
30 The aim of the co-operative is not to make a profit, but the profits due to operation are accounted to the members as after-payments. The active co-operative members have obtained a significant extra income in addition to their forest income (Fig.25).
Figure 24. Mr Hannu Kainu, Chairman of Kyyjärvi co-operative, measuring the moisture content and bulk density of forest chips. Figure: VTT Processes.
Figure 25. Active members of Kyyjärvi Energy Co-operative. Photo VTT Processes.
31 8.2.2 Farmenergi AB develops technology
The jury elected in 2001 Farmenergi as a Pro-Heat Entrepreneur, as it has been operating in the field since the year 1993. The company has developed technology, designed plants, trained workers in the field, and operated as a model plant for other entrepreneurs.
Messrs Hans Hällfors, Christer Mickos and Hannu Fabritius of Lapinjärvi municipality established Farmenergi Ab in 1993. Farmenergi generates heat at self-designed and constructed heating plants. Today, only a fraction of activity is due to heat generation, while the other activities include information about wood chips heating, and design and installation of heating plants. Farmenergi has delivered about 70 heating plants of
50 – 700 kWth, primarily in South Finland, during the last two years. The company owners carry out all work involved, except for electrical, heating, pumping and air installations, and building projects. Today Mr Hällfors works full-time for the company, while the other share-owners work part-time in addition to farming (Fig.26).
Mainly purchased delimbed small-size stemwood are used as fuel. The wood is supplied from the area of Lapinjärvi Municipality and delivered to the roadside. To guarantee the sufficiently high grade of the fuel, the stems are stored and dried in roadside piles on ground timber and covered with bituminised paper.
Mr Christer Mickos owns a chipper suitable for contract work on producing chips for his own use and for other customers. The chips are transported with a farm tractor in a chip trailer equipped with an interchangeable container. There are three containers in use, each 30 – 40 m3 in volume, designed and constructed by Farmenergi.
Farmenergi attends to fuel supply and heating at two heating sites, for which it made the investments required. In 1993, the company designed and constructed a chip-fuelled heating plant in the school of Kabellby for replacing an old oil-fired heating plant. The nominal capacity of the boiler is 200 kWth. The fuel is transported to an underground bin of 30 m3. The bin must be refilled at a few day intervals in wintertime.
The other heating plant was commissioned in March 2000. It is located in a residential area on a slope lot, which enabled a favourable placing of the chip bin on the lot. Hence, this boiler plant of 300 kWth nominal output merges very well to the surroundings (Fig. 27). Due to the central location of the plant, a separate cyclone for cleaning flue gases was also installed.
32 Both heating plants operate unmanned and are highly automated. Possible messages of malfunction are forwarded to the on-call duty officer. The plants have proved to operate reliably, and malfunctions have been primarily due to short-term power failures.
Figure 26. Mr Hans Hällfors in the boiler room of Kabellby school.
Figure 27. The wood chip fuelled heating plant merges well to its surroundings. The building is covered by wood panels.
33 8.2.3 Inkoo makes energy from rotten wood
The jury chose Inkoon Hake ja Lämpö Ay to be the winner of the small plant series in 2001. This heat entrepreneur has a long agreement, the operation is based on confidence, difficult but cheap rotten wood is used as fuel, the turnover is high, and the enterprise is expanding and growing. The jury also appreciated the form of enrolment filled with a sense of humour.
The vocational school of Västankvarn in Inkoo, Finland, is an Agricultural Institute for basic and advanced training. The heating plant was constructed simultaneously with a heat entrepreneur course at the school. The use of wood energy fits well the image and activities of the school. The heating plant is also a destination of study tours, which is utilised in training. The heating plant is located in a low building, which fits well to the environment.
Messrs Carl-Gustav Kvarnström, and Stefan and Bengt Öhberg have established Inkoon Hake ja Lämpö for attending to the supply of raw material for chipping, and to heating of Västankvarn school premises. The owners initiated the heat entrepreneur activity in 1997. It employs the owners part-time.
Wood chips are produced from rotten ends of spruce wood (Fig. 28) This wood is not suitable for the raw material of industrial sawn timber or pulp. An abundance of raw material unsuitable for industrial use is available from final fellings of spruce stands in the region. Part of rotten spruce wood from coastal spruce stands is sold as pulpwood to wood-processing industries, but at a clearly lower price than pine pulpwood. There is no use for the poorest logs other than for energy generation.
34
Figure 28. Rotten ends of spruce wood is not suitable for industry and it is used for energy.
It is laborious to make firewood for single-family houses from rotten spruce wood. Raw material for wood chips is bought from private forest owners within the radius of 20 – 30 km from the heating plant. The logs are stored and chipped at a buffer storage site located close to the heating plant.
The logs are chipped with a chipper owned by the heat entrepreneurs. As the logs are heavy, the chipper is installed on a two-axle chassis. There is oversupply of rotten spruce wood, but a new chips-burning plant of 15 MW will be commissioned in Tammisaari in 2002. It will burn a lot of forest chips and in all probability also rotten spruce wood. Wood unsuitable for other use has also been chipped.
35 Table 4. Presentation of winners 2001
Kyyjärvi Energy Inkoon Hake ja Lämpö Farmenergi Ab Co-operative Ay Series in competition Co-operative and joint Private entrepreneurs Pro-heat entrepreneur stock companies and entrepreneur chains Boiler size, kW 990 kW 700 200+300 Boiler supplier Tulostekniikka Oy Laatukattila Oy Thermia Oy Year of 1999 1998 1993 and 2000 commissioning Fuel Stem and whole-tree Forest chips from rotten Stem chips chips wood Heat production, GWh 1.8 2.0 0.9 Use of chips, bulk- 2 900 3 100 1 350 m3/year Consumption of chips 1.55 1.54 1.50 bulk-m3/MWh Price of heat, €/MWh 18.8 – 21.2 25.2 40 Turnover, € 37 000 50 462 33 642 Investments, € 353 250 (incl. 1 km 243 900 25 250+134 600 network) Investor Kyyjärvi Municipality BioVest Oy (entrepre- Entrepreneur neurs as shareholders)
8.3 Winners of the year 2002
8.3.1 Tapani Brofeldt operating as a heat entrepreneur in Hämeenkoski municipality
Hämeenkoski is a small municipality of about 2 100 inhabitants in Southern Finland. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in the region, while services are also an important line of business. The largest employer is a sawmill owned by Koski Timber Oy.
Mr. Tapani Brofeldt is an entrepreneur, whose company Brofta Oy is involved in many development projects of rural entrepreneurship, i.a., in the development of contract heating. The company also carries out basic surveys of heating plants, like assessments of cost-effectiveness and layouts for constructing heating plants. Mr. Brofeldt also operates on contract heating, its share being about a fourth of the turnover of the company (Fig 29).
36 Mr Brofeldt is responsible of fuel supply and heating in three heating plants (Table 5). He generates heat for his own farm and for the needs of a nearby piggery and an industrial plant. He is also a shareowner of Hämeenkoski Ekolämpö Oy, which owns a heating plant in the municipal centre of Hämeenkoski.
Figure 29. Mr Brofelt and storage of one of the heating plant.
Tapani Brofeldt produces 3200–3700 bulk-m3/year chips for his heating plants. Part of energy wood is harvested from his own forests. The major part is, however, bought from other local forest owners, who deliver the raw material to roadside landings. Logging residue, small-wood from thinnings, and rotten spruce are used as raw material. Wood waste from mechanical wood processing is also used to some extent.
Energy wood is chipped with a farm tractor powered chipper. Mr. Brofeldt has a hall for storing and drying energy wood. The dryer is dimensioned for chip batches of about 500 bulk-m3. The chips are transported to the heating plants with a farm tractor and a trailer of about 20 m3 in volume.
Säätötuli Oy commissioned the heating plants. The investment of the entrepreneur in a plant ranged €15 000–60 000. The investment costs of the heating plant of the
37 municipal centre ranged €117 000–135 000, and a joint-stock company operating this plant made this investment. All plant investments obtained a grant of 25% of the total costs through the Employment and Economic Development Centre of Finland.
Tapani Brofeldt is responsible for heat production for the piggery of Kastarin Porsas
Oy. The heating plant is equipped with a boiler of 250 kWth nominal power, which burns wood chips, light fuel oil being used as emergency fuel. Mr Brofeldt is also in charge of heating the premises of Hämeenkoski Teollisuustalo Oy (industrial buildings), which are equipped with a boiler of 80 kWth, chopped wood or electricity being used in cases of emergency. The third heating site is situated in his own farm “Mäkelä”, where the main building, machine room, machine shop, garage and grain dryer are heated. The farm has got an 80 kWth and a 4 000 kWth boilers, the second one being used for drying grain. All heating plants operate unmanned and are fully automated. Possible alarms are transferred to the on-call duty officer. The plants have proved to be reliable and are located close to each other, and hence, the responsibility of heating several sites is a fairly easy task and has proved to be a successful solution.
The total energy production of these three heating sites is about 1 150 MWh/year. The price of heat is defined according to the valid heating contract. The total annual turnover of the heat enterprise is about €40 000, and the operation is economically viable.
The heating plant of Hämeenkoski Ekolämpö Oy is responsible for heating the town hall, the old-age home, the health centre, and the child health centre/dental clinic.
Säätötuli Oy commissioned the plant of 500 kWth of nominal output. It operates unmanned and is far automated. The heat production of the plant ranges 1 100–1 200 MWh/a and 1 500–2 000 bulk-m3 chips are required for generating this energy.
Tapani Brofeldt uses in total 3 200–3 700 bulk-m3 chips in a heating season. This is equal to 290 000–300 000 litres of light fuel oil and 240–250 tons of heavy fuel oil.
Table 5. Technical data of the plants heated by Mr Tapani Brofelt.
Mäkelä Piggery Industrial Municipal heating farm buildings plant 1) Boiler fired with solid fuels, kW 80+400 250 80 500 Fuel Wood chips made of logging residue, small-wood from thinnings, and rotten wood Annual heat generation, MWh 350 600 200 1100 - 1200 Annual wood use, bulk-m3 500 900 300 1500 - 2000 Investment cost, € 60000 50000 15000 Abt. 135000 Year of commissioning 1996/2 2002 1997 2001 002 1) The plant is owned by Hämeenkosken Ekolämpö Oy, Mr Tapani Brofeldt being a shareowner.
38 8.3.2 Askola Forest Management Association
Askola, Pornainen and Pukkila are three small countryside municipalities in Eastern Uusimaa Province in Southern Finland. Agriculture is an important source of livelihood, while the distance of only some tens of kilometres to Helsinki, Capital of Finland, and to the town of Porvoo is also of great significance to the development of these municipalities. However, the favourable geographical position does not necessarily improve the profitability of traditional agroindustry, but same problems emerge in Southern Finland as elsewhere in Finland.
Population centres have since a long time been heated with oil in Finland, but the good co-operation of local entrepreneurs has enabled a flexible changeover to systems of sustainable development. In 2001, a heating plant fired with wood chips was erected in each of the three municipality centres. The local forestry management association plays an important role in the development of forestry, one example being the use of wood energy. The Forest Management Association of Askola Region is a rather small society, although it was established by uniting three forest management associations in the areas of Askola, Pornainen and Pukkila municipalities and the northern area of Porvoo Town in 1995.
The operating region of Askola Forest Management Association covers about 26 000 hectares and the number of members is about 1 100. The annual cutting plan is 130 000 m3. The annual cuttings have exceeded the plan during the busiest years, and wood sales services are operated well. Services of energy wood supply are being expanded. The total wood consumption of the three new heating plants is 18 000 bulk-m3 of wood chips.
One of the greatest problems in the forest management of this area is due to butt rot in the dominant tree species, spruce. A significant part of spruce logging outturn consists of rotten spruce, of which part is not suitable even for use as raw material in the pulp industry. The greatest economical drawback is of course that valuable spruce logs must be classified to pulp raw material, which is even cheaper than pine pulpwood. About 15% of the annual quantity of spruce wood is unsound, and about 5% of this is suitable only for combustion. The forestry companies have often left this over-rotten spruce wood at the roadside for concern of the forest owner or bought it at a price of 0.17 – 1.68 €/m3. The heat value of rotten spruce wood is not as high as that of sound spruce, although the heat value of the greater part of rotten wood mass is normal.
The idea of local use arose in the 1990s. Mr Jouni Peltoniemi, Executive Director of the Forest Management Association of Askola Region, participated in different courses on wood energy and visited units in operation. Sometimes it seemed that a leap in the dark
39 had been made in the heating plant project, but a careful acquirement of data and know- how and finding of suitable partners has lead to a good final result. Many issues have proceeded to hoped-for results with the assistance of technical staffs of municipalities.
Collection of contact data of forest owners, oil consumption data and building cubic data of real estates was initiated in the municipality centre of Pornainen and in Monninkylä village of Askola in early 1968. A local wood energy association was also established in the region in order to facilitate further work. The association operated as a tool in applying for financing for the heating network and for investment feasibility calculations and preliminary planning of the wood heating plant. The municipality of Pukkila also joined the project at this stage (Fig. 30). On the basis of the calculations, orders for plans and purchase programmes for investments were placed, and in the next phase, bids for investments were invited and compared (Table 6).
Electrowatt-Ekono was responsible for planning and assisted the municipality of
Pornainen in different phases of implementation. First, a 1.25 MWth heating plant fired with solid fuels was constructed in Pornainen, and a little later a decision was made to erect a similar heating plant in Askola. In this way, valuable design work was utilised in two cases. The customers were responsible for foundation work in all cases. Before making final decision, the decision-making bodies made several study tours to different heating plants elsewhere in Southern Finland. It should be borne in mind, that each heating plant had different owners, who made the investment decisions.
Figure 30. Pukkila Heating Plant, commissioned in 2001, was the last in the investment series of three heating plants. In front, part of the new district heating pipeline.
40 The heating plant of Pukkila is a module construction built in two stages. The boiler was delivered by Thermia Oy and is equipped with own applications and with a wood chips receiving plant, which includes a rod discharger and a scraper conveyor. There are also two light oil fired boilers at the plant.
The Laka boilers, installed in the heating plants of Askola and Pornainen are gasification-combustion boilers. There is a fuel cone on the moving grate of the furnace. Thefuel is gasified with low-oxygen combustion air. The depth of embers is more than half a meter. The gases burn in the furnace made of acid-proof steel. The purity of combustion is indicated by an insignificant amount of soot; sweeping is required only once a year. The nominal output of the plants is 1.25 MWth, and it can be well exceeded when necessary.
Figure 31. The grate comprises four separately moving, hydraulically operated elements. A microprocessor controls the movements in a ratio to the output of the boiler. Ash falls through grate holes onto a conveyor and is conveyed further to a water trough and finally onto an interchangeable container. Source: Wood Energy Association.
The Wood Heat Co-operative of Askola Region, comprising the original 21 members, attends to fuel supply to all institutions. The members represent the municipalities with heating plants. The Executive Director of Askola Forest Management Association also works as the Secretary of the Co-operative. The Co-operative informs the chipping contractor about over-rotten spruce wood received from cuttings. During the first year of activity, the wood was chipped with a Bruks chipper, installed on a forwarder, direct into a lorry container at the roadside. In autumn 2001, a new system was employed, in which the chipper is installed on the lorry and it chips the wood directly into the platform-container of the lorry. The volume of the storage bin at the Pornainen heating
41 plant is rather small with regard to consumption, 100 m3, compared to those of the Askola plant, 200 m3, and of Pukkila, 150 m3.
Spruce wood is chipped at the roadside, but there are also three intermediate landings for round wood, and a storage bin for chips, containing chips made of well-dried wood in the summer before. The intermediate landings and the bin were sited as favourably as possible with regard to transports. The chipping entrepreneur is responsible for the availability of chips in the bins. A group of 3–4 operators for each plant attends to the maintenance of the heating plant and supervises heat generation. A robot phone transfers the non-response calls to the operator next in turn.
In order to develop operations, a project on energy wood supply has been initiated. The aim is to improve the logistics of wood fuel supply and to develop energy wood supply from forests in different stages of development, especially from young forests. A significant part of the project consists of the application of a model used in Eastern Finland forests to the conditions of Eastern Uusimaa Province. To facilitate the control of wood material flows, an application of geographical information system (GIS) for storages will be created. Rotten spruce is obtained in practically all spruce loggings, and hence the management of geographical data is a challenge without good tools of data management system.
The project also involves information service, and it supports the present wood supply system based practically only on the use of rotten spruce wood. The reliability of deliveries is improved by diversifying the wood supply. The amount of rotten wood may vary from year to year, depending on the structure of wood stands marked for cutting, total logging amounts, and varying quality requirements of timber buyers.
42 Table 6. Technical data of the Pornainen, Askola and Pukkila plants.
Pornainen Askola Pukkila 1.25 1.25 0.7 Boiler output, MWth Boiler commissioner Laatukattila -LAKA Laatukattila-LAKA Nakkilan Konepaja Start-up 29 January 2001 3 April 2001 7 November 2001 Fuel Rotten spruce wood Rotten spruce wood Rotten spruce wood Chips consumption 1.6 1.6 1.6 bulk m3/MWh Heat generation 3500 MWh from wood, 3 500 MWh from wood 2 500 MWh from wood percentage of oil being 10 – 15% of the total energy requirement Space heated 80 000 m3 80 000 m3 55.500 m3 Turnover Investment with € 1 million € 1 million € 0.84 million networks (VAT 0%)
Length of DH network 2 km 2 km 2,5 km Shareholders of Municipality of Pornainen Municipality of Askola, Municipality of Pukkila company/heating Porvoon Energia Oy, plant Porvoo Region Training Corporate
8.3.3 Municipality of Vöyri employing bioenergy for heating
Vöyri is a small municipality of about 3 600 inhabitants at the coast of Southern Ostrobothnia, about 36 km to the northeast of the City of Vaasa. The majority of inhabitants work in agriculture, beef cattle being the main line of production.
Vöyri is also known of its pellet factory. Ab Vörå Finncambi Oy started pellet production in a former precast concrete element factory, and its present annual production is 20 000–25000 tons. Nearly the whole production is exported to Denmark and Sweden.
The project on wood energy, called Wood Energy Forum, is implemented in the Province of Ostrobothnia. Its aim is to promote the production, handling and use of bioenergy fuels. The Forum organises information events and training, produces information and training material and consults in issues of heat entrepreneurship and wood heating. The project employs two full-time workers, Mr Patrik Majabacka, Project Manager, in Vöyri, and Mr Anders Wikberg, Energy Adviser, in Vaasa.
The Wood Energy Forum, and preceding development projects Bioenergy-Syd and Wood Energy, have largely contributed to the present state of things, i.e. about 95% of
43 the houses in Vöyri municipality are today heated with bioenergy, wood chips or wood pellets. At two heating sites, the entrepreneurs are in charge of heating (Table 7).
Tallmo old-aged home was built in the 1950s, and its heated volume is around 12 000 m3 (Fig. 32). In mid-1990s, the heating system was changed to wood chips. The investment cost of the new heating equipment was about €28 500. Jorma Loukola Ky commissioned the equipment, and Vöyri Municipality defrayed the investment. The nominal output of the boiler is 300 kW. An entrepreneur group of Messrs Harald Svens, Kenneth Pålas and Torolf Ahlnäs have attended to the heating of the home since the year 1993.
Figure 32. Vöyri district heating plant.
The heating plant is operated around the year, and about 600 MWh/year is generated. Each member of the heating group attends to the fuel supply and the heating work of the plant in three-week terms. The annual requirement of wood fuel is 900–1 000 bulk-m3, which is produced mainly from the forests of the three entrepreneurs. Sawmill residues are also burnt in the plant, as one of the entrepreneurs, Mr Torolf Ahlnäs, owns a sawmill. The volume of the storage bin is only about 15 m3, i.e. wood chips are transported to the plant every other day. The heating plant has to be inspected daily, as there is no robot-phone alarm system at the plant.
The municipality of Vöyri pays for the heat in accordance with the heat generation contract in force. The period of contract validity is five years. The price of heat is 31.5 €/MWh (excl. VAT) in 2002, and it is bound to the price of district heat in the
44 municipal centre of Vöyri. The turnover of the entrepreneur group is annually about €16 000, and the operation is economically viable.
The amount of wood chips used for heating Tallmo old-aged home annually is equal to about 68 000 litres of light fuel oil and about 57 tons of heavy fuel oil. If a same amount of energy were produced by light fuel oil, the carbon dioxide emissions would be about 200 tons.
The new district heating plant of Vöyri heated with wood chips replaces an old heavy fuel fired plant (Fig. 33). The plant was commissioned recently by Tulostekniikka Oy. The construction costs of the heating plant amounted to about €400 000, of which about 20% was obtained through the Employment and Economic Development Centre of Finland. A co-operative of eight members, established in 2001, is in charge of operating the plant. Wood fuel is bought from the forests of co-operative members and nearby forest owners.
Figure 33. Boiler of the Vöyri district heating plant.
45 The heating plant is technically equal to that of Kyyjärvi municipality (see 8.2.1). The fuel is fed into a receiving bin of about 150 m3. The boiler, commissioned by Thermia Oy, is a totally automated step grate of 1.5 MW. The plant operates unmanned and far automated. Control automatics supervise the operation in principle of fuzzy logic. In case of malfunction the system re-employs the original settings prior to the malfunction in its data memory, and the operation is normalised. Possible malfunction messages are transferred to the phone of the on-call duty member of the co-operative. The old heavy fuel oil fired plant serves as emergency system.
The district heating network of Vöyri municipality includes municipal buildings located in the municipal centre and about 150 private households. There are not yet any operation experiences available, but the plant should generate about 6 000 MWh/year. The generation of this energy amount is estimated to require about 10 000 bulk-m3 of wood chips, which is equal to about 750 000 litres of light fuel oil and more than 630 tons of heavy fuel oil. If this energy had been generated from light fuel oil, the carbon dioxide emissions would be about 2 131 tons.
The forest owners are paid on the basis of the energy content of wood chips sales. The energy content is determined at the plant on the basis of the amount, volume weight and moisture content of chips. Both the heating plant of the Tallmo old people’s home and the district heating plant of Vöyri burn mainly whole-tree chips. The same production chain of wood fuels delivers wood chips to both plants. The small heating plant of the old people’s home is more sensitive to the quality of the fuel, which is considered in choosing screens for chipping.
Energy wood is stored at roadside landings, and chipped with a drum chipper pulled by a large farm tractor. Farm tractors and trailers with hooked detachable containers are employed for long-distance transports. Detachable containers of about 30 m3 can be hauled with a combination of this kind. Both the chipper and transport entrepreneurs are members of Vöyri energy co-operative.
Table 7. Technical data of the plants in Vöyri
Tallmo old people’s home Vöyri district heating plant Boiler fired with solid fuels 300 kW 1.5 MW Fuel Primarily whole-tree chips Heat generation/year 600 6 000 Volume of buildings heated 12 300 m3 - Investments, € 28 500 400 000 Year of commission 1 995 2002
46 9. Conclusions
Heat entrepreneurship is a new form of self-employment, promoting the use of local biofuels for heating large real estates. About 150 heat entrepreneurs are so far operating in Finland, heating municipal or industrial buildings with local wood fuels. This form of entrepreneurship has been promoted since 1992 by various means: seminars, manuals, follow-up studies, and training. VTT, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Motiva Oy organized the first heat entrepreneur competition in 2000.. In 2000, the competition was also reported for registration in the Partnership Section of Campaign Take-Off, organized by the European Union through three years.
These entrepreneur activities have developed from part-time jobs in farming to full-time entrepreneurship during the recent ten years. The participants in the competition in 2002 were either full-time heat entrepreneurs or operated some supporting business for heat entrepreneurs, like planning, equipment manufacture, tourism, or fuel sales.
When the entrepreneur runs the fuel service, operation and maintenance of several heating stations, the turnover is sufficient for full-time entrepreneurship. The feasibility of operation is also dependent on the quality of fuel and on the efficiency of stations. Drying and storage can improve the quality of fuel. Many entrepreneurs own a chipper and fuel storage, or have networked with some other entrepreneur owning a chipper. The cost-effectiveness of all competitors was good or very good.
The aim of the project, called Heat Entrepreneur Finland, is to increase the number of heat entrepreneurs by 50 stations a year. The estimated potential is 900 stations and the total capacity 300 MWth in 2005. These activities support the aims of the Action Plan of Renewable Energy Sources in Finland, as regards heating of real estates. The aim of the
Action Plan is to increase the use of wood energy at small-scale sites (under 1 MWth) by 45% by the year 2010. Current use of wood fuels in small-scale is 49 PJ and target for 2010 is 72 PJ.
Biomass heat entrepreneurship model has been promoted also to other European countries through ALTENER projects.
47 References
Alakangas, E. Renewable Energy Sources in Finland 2002. OPET Report 9. Jyväskylä 2002.51 p. + app. 20 p. Alakangas, E. Small-scale heat entrepreneurship in Finland, AFB-net IV – Community Biomass Heating Systems. VTT, January 1999. p. 13 p. + app. 11 p. Alakangas, E. & Halonen, P. Winners of Heat Entrepreneur Competition in 2001.PuuEnergia 4/01 p. 26–29 (in Finnish) Alakangas, E. & Halonen, P. Winners of Heat Entrepreneur Competition in 2002.PuuEnergia 4/02. p. 26–29 (in Finnish) Flyktman, M. Competitity of biomass fuels in heating. VTT Energy, Seminar: New Bioenergy Technology, 27–28 October 1998, Finland, p. 105-108. Honkasalo, M. & Poukka, E. Heating co-operative - energy from wood chips-training manual, Satakunta Polytechnics. 1995 (in Finnish) Ihonen, H. Development of the procurement of wood chip for heating entrepreneurs. TTS Research Notes 2/2001 (85). p 41 p. (in Finnish) Jylhä, A.-P. Heat entrepreneurhip in municipalies´point of view. TTS Research Notes 5/1998 (65) 66 p. (in Finnish). Kiukaanniemi, E., Kurvinen, T.: A local heating system using wood fuel from farms. Working Paper 13/1998. Research and Development Centre of Kajaani, University of Oulu, Thule-institute. Kajaani 1998. 24 p. Pekkanen, J. Wood chip-based heating entrepreneur project of Central Finland, TTS -Institute, Forest newsletter 14/1999 (612). TTS-Institute, 4 p. (in Finnish). Solmio, H., Development of heat entrepreneurship in Finland. TTS Research Notes 9/2000 (83) 67 p. (in Finnish). Solmio, H. Follow up study of heat entreneurship in Finland, TTS Research Notes 9/1998 (63) 47 p. (in Finnish). Solmio, H., Present situation of heat entrepreneurship in Finland. TTS -Institute, Forest newsletter 6/1997 (574). TTS-Institute, 4 p. (in Finnish). Solmio, H., Heat-energy entrepreneurs´ step up their activities. Teho 1/1998. p. 25 - 27. In Finnish. Solmio, H. Heat entrepreneurship and profitability of it. TTS Research Notes 1/1996 (43) 34 p. (in Finnish). Solmio, H. The heating entrepreneurship in 10 plants. TTS-Institute, Research Reports 10/1998 (63). 47 p. Helsinki 1998.(in Finnish). Tuomi, S. Practical experiences of small-scale heat enterpreneurship in Finland, TTS-Institute, IEA Bioenergy, Meeting in Finland in 1996. 7 p. Tuomi, S. Procurement and production of biofuels - a Finnish example of private entepreneurship. Nordic Bioenergy Conference. 7–8 October 1997. Oslo, Norway. Bioenergy 97 Conference Report, p. 131-140. Guidebook for heat entrepreneurs, TTS-Institute 346. In Finnish.
48
App. A. Contact information of organisers and winners of the Biomass Heat Entrepreneur Competition of the Year
Organisers Mr Pertti Peltomäki EUBIONET -The European Bionergy Pihlajalahdentie 1314, FIN-34600 Ruovesi Networks Tel. +358-3-4720432, Mrs Eija Alakangas, Mobile +358-40-5879731 VTT Processes P.O.Box 1603, FIN-40101 Jyväskylä Municipality of Ruovesi Tel. +358-14-672 550 Mr Jorma Vierula Email: [email protected] Ruovedentie 30, FIN-34600 Ruovesi http://eubionet.vtt.fi Tel. +358-3486111
Motiva Oy Askola Forest Management Association Ms Irmeli Mikkonen Mr Jouni Peltoniemi Mr Juha Rautanen P.O.Box 1, FIN-07231 Monninkylä P.O. Box 489, FIN-00101 Helsinki Tel. +358-19-643322, +358-400-157 777 Tel. +358-9-8565 3110 Fax +358-19-643160 Email: [email protected] www.mmm.fi/askola www.motiva.fi Kyyjärvi Energy Co-operative Ministry of Trade and Industry Mr Hannu Kainu Ms Nina Broadstreet Kaunistontie 66, FIN-43700 Kyyjärvi Mr Aimo Aalto Tel. +358-40-540 1227 P.O. Box 32, FIN-00023 VALTIONEUVOSTO Fax. +358-14-471 600 Tel. +358-9-16001 (switch board) Email: hannu.kainu@kyyjarvi Fax. + 358-9-160 3666 Email:[email protected] Farmenergi Ab www.ktm.fi Mr Hans Hällfors Luutnantintie 6, FIN-07800 Lapinjärvi Mobile. +358-40-508 6614 Winners Fax. +358-295 75110 Email: [email protected] Tuupovaara Energy Co-operative Mr Pekka K. Vatanen Brofta Oy Huosiovaarantie 71, FIN-82730 Tuupovaara Mr Tapani Brofeldt Tel. +358-40-5444272 Kaunkorventie 501, FIN-16800 Hämeenkoski Municipality of Tuupovaara Tel. +358–44-0512512, Mr Heimo Lyhykäinen Fax +358-3-751 5544, Virastotie 23, FIN-82730 Tuupovaara Email:[email protected] Tel. +358-13-6892301 Puuenergiafoorumi Perho Energy Co-operative Mr Patrik Majabacka Mr Aimo Kivelä P.O.Box 5 / Vöyrintie 18, FIN-66600 Vöyri Suurensuontie 695, FIN-69980 Möttönen Tel. +358 6 382 0292 Tel. +358-14-8632115, Fax +358 6 382 0300 Mobile +358-400-767466 Email: [email protected] www.puuenergiafoorumi.net Municipality of Perho Mr Pasi Rannila Keskustie 2,FIN-69950 Perho Tel. +358-6-8630111 Fax +358-6-8630200
49