Bioenergy International Internat ional No 81, 5-2015 49 held in june the 14th edition of the pellets industry forum was co-located with Intersolar Europe in Munich, Germany. Attracting around 250 participants from 27 nations, the two-day conference was focused on pellet markets, national policy frameworks and ENplus certification. As expressed in several conferences already this year, most European domestic heating appliance and heating fuel markets, including pellets, saw sales volumes stagnate or drop during the last two heating seasons. However, as speakers also concur, the long-term outlook for pellet heating is stable with growth in various European markets. In the UK the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is unquestionably the market driver. According to Nick Monether, Greenfields Consulting there were about 2 750 solid biomass installations at the time of the RHI introduction in April 2011. By end of the 1st quarter 2015 this had risen to over 21 500 installations. In Italy, over 2.2 million pellet stoves are now heating homes, with another 220 000 to 280 000 new units per year added according to figures presented by Annalisa Paniz from Associazione Italiana Energie Agroforestali (AIEL). In Austria, both the central and state governments have raised subsidies for replacing fossil heating systems with pellet heating systems – the federal subsidy alone, for example, has risen from EUR 1 400 to EUR 2 000. Inefficient efficiency labeling? Although the energy efficiency label for biomass boilers is not due to be introduced in Germany until 2017, manufacturers and experts have already expressed skepticism. The sentiment is that the label will be of little help to consumers in determining economic viability and eco-friendliness especially when trying to compare various energy sources. The reason for this is that the energy efficiency label will not be limited to individual devices but as combined system labels for complete heating systems. Pellet boiler manufacturers must therefore provide additional support to their installation partners through training and resources in the future. – Direct customer contact and advice from installers will therefore play an even more important role in the future, commented Dr. Alexander Weissinger from the German boiler manufacturer Kraft und Wärme aus Biomasse GmbH. Fuel factor objections There was a heated debate on the more stringent requirements of the second stage of the first Federal Emission Control Ordinance for Germany known as 1st BImSchV. This is not to say that wood boiler manufacturers oppose the introduction of more stringent emission limits. – Type tests have shown that emissions from high-quality wood and pellet boilers already fall below the threshold values to be introduced with the second stage, said Martin Ecker, Managing Director of German boiler manufacturer HDG Bavaria GmbH. The issue, as Ecker explained, is field measurement of emissions by third parties to demonstrate compliance. A variety of unpredictable factors such as fuel quality make it difficult to replicate the operating and measurement conditions of the type test. – Therefore it is important to ensure reliable framework conditions for practical measurements on site that will be applied consistently throughout Germany, concluded Ecker. To address variations in fuel quality, the VDI working group for measuring technology included a fuel uncertainty factor of 7 mg /m³ dust in the measuring regulations shortly before the end of 2014. An initial survey of newly installed pellet heating systems in Bavaria showed that around 93 percent of pellet heating systems complied with the dust limits when this 7 mg factor was taken into account. However, the fuel uncertainty factor has also been met with criticism. Two federal states have already objected to this approach, while others take a critical view of it and are considering not including the special provision in the regulations at state level. For chimney sweeps and the industry alike, this is a problem that the VDI committee for adopting the guidelines must now deal with. Text & photos: Alan Sherrard BI81/4938/AS – Drying represents around 45 percent of raw material costs for a pellet plant. Of this about 80 percent is the cost of thermal energy, said Gerald Kreuzhuber from Austrian dryer manufacturers, Mühlböck Holztrocknungsanlagen GmbH. According to Kreuzhuber, Mühlböck’s recently launched heat recovery system for belt-dryers can reduce thermal energy consumption for woodchip drying by 40-60 percent while cutting dust emissions. – The downside with the RHI is that it has also created a gold rush of opportunists. Compared to other countries there is a lack of experience and knowledge with pellet heating in the UK. This has resulted in a number of sub-standard “cowboy” installations that we as an industry are addressing, explained Nick Monether, Greenfields Consulting while illustrating with some “hall of shame” examples. This year, the German Pellet Institute (DEPI) organised an ENplus- Conference about the development, implementation and marketing of the ENplus certification in German-speaking countries. The certification introduced by DEPI covers the entire supply chain from manufacturing to delivery to the end customer, ensuring reliable quality and full transparency. In addition to advances in ENplus certification and current campaigns in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the conference showcased the new ENplus handbook. – The main changes concerns the switch to the limits set out in the new international quality standard for pellets (ISO 17225-2) published last year. It was also necessary to adapt the system to new business models in pellets trade, explained Jakob Bosch, specialist spokesperson at DEPI. Legal framework and market outlook Event
Bioenergy no 5 September 2015
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