Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation The following video was produced by the Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation. It demonstrates how waste wood from forest thinning operations can be used to generate power. This video features the Boulder County District Heating Project, but the technology can be used to heat a wide variety of buildings. For additional information, please refer to the accompanying handout or contact the Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation. Cashing in the Chips: The Boulder County Parks and Open Space Biomass Heating Project (Therese Glowacki, Resource Management Manager, Boulder County Parks and Open Space): The reason why we started looking at a wood-fired heating system for our campus here is because our perspective as Parks and Open Space is we manage the natural resources, and we're out in the forest, doing forest thinning, to reduce the chance of wildland fire and to improve forest health; but in the Front Range we don't have an outlet for the biomass that comes off those forests. (Randy Coombs, Resource Management Project Specialist, Boulder County Parks and Open Space): In the past our thinning materials would have either been put into slash piles, or locked and scattered, or could have been chipped and put back onto the ground, or some of the products would have been used for posted poles or firewood; but what makes it different now is we just turn all of that into chips, the needles, the branches, the main pole of the tree, all turned into chips, and that's processed into the materials we use for the biomass plant. (Return to Therese): So, we were looking for an outlet for all the product coming off of our forest thinning projects. At the same time we heard about new technologies out there using biomass for energy, and the value of that it's a renewable resource, so we have that renewable resource at our disposal in our forests here in Colorado; and we thought what a perfect match, we were just in the process of establishing this new campus with five buildings, and we could use this excess product that we're taking off the forest to generate energy to provide the heat for these buildings. Feasibility After we heard about the potential of using forest products to generate energy for a heating system for our complex here, we decided to find out if it really was something we could do here in our County, and our first step in that process was sending our facilities staff, who actually run our heating and air conditioning systems, out to look at a similar system. So, we sent them to the East Coast, where there were systems that have been in place for 15 or 20 years, and they looked at the technical side of it, and they came back and said this is a proven technology, it's simple and straightforward, it's not something that is going to add to our workload substantially. So, they said we're on board, we like this technology we would support if you pursue it. Then our next step was having a feasibility study done. We contracted with McNeal Technologies to conduct a feasibility study. What they found out, in a nutshell, is that we needed about 65 acres of our forest to supply heat for this complex of five buildings. They found out that the initial costs certainly were higher than putting in a natural gas system. The feasibility study found that, in a worst case scenario, where natural gas prices are low, and we're paying for the total cost of our forest thinning, the payback period was expected to be about 20 years; and this system's lifespan is at least 20 years, possibly more. Now, in the best-case scenario, with natural gas prices rising, and taking into account the fact that we are thinning our forests anyway, the payback period was seven years. (Return to Randy): We incur additional costs from the standpoint that we have to have the transportation in order to get this material down here, so it takes the fuel in the truck, it takes the person that's going to drive the truck, to get those materials down here, so that would be some additional costs, but, other than that, everything else is done in house. Just on Boulder County Parks and Open Space, we project that we have about eight years, at least, that we can get chips off of our property, and these are areas that are accessible to us, that we can use, but beyond that we have areas that we will be able to reenter within the next five or ten years that were thinned maybe five or ten years ago, so we have reentry, so it being a renewable resource allows us to be able to go back in and look at these areas and continue to produce these materials; however, we do have other areas, working with the U.S. Forest Service, working with the Colorado State Forest Service, the municipalities in Boulder County, are all areas we have not tapped into yet, where they have programs where they are generating wood material that we can tap into, and then one other area we have is working with private home owners, and land areas up in the mountains where we have homeowner groups that can get together and they can chip into these containers and these containers can be brought to our facility, so there's really lots of other areas so there's quite a bit of stuff out there that we can tap into. Installation (Keith Bentzen, Project Manager, Boulder County Parks and Open Space): Messersmith Manufacturing Company, out of Michigan, was our vendor for our wood-fired system, and that includes the delivery system that takes the chips out of the bin and runs them into the boiler (the firebox, the wood boiler), and the controls for that, and all the other, the back up boiler, the pumps, the underground piping, was done through another contract. Contractually, Messersmith provided all of the training for this system for our key personnel, and it was not rocket science, it did not take more than a couple of 20-minute sessions and people were off and running. (Return to Therese): One key component to installing the biomass heating system was really having all the players on board, from the County's perspective. We had to have the facilities, managers, and the facilities employees that are actually going to run the system, we had to have our foresters on board so that the forest products being taken from the forests are handled properly and transported efficiently, and then we also had to have all the decision makers on board as well, including the County Commissioners with their financial support and the Parks and Open Space staff who were going to be helping operate it and living with the system here on site, and the transportation who we'll also share the site with, because we'll use their expertise a lot in helping to design the system and in the transportation and storage of the materials. So, a key component is really having all the players involved, sit down, talk regularly, really have a good vision, jointly, about how the system can operate effectively for the site. Daily Operations (Return to Keith): Every morning the operator for the biomass heating system comes in and one of the first things he does is he checks the level of the chips in the bin, and if it is getting low and needs to be recharged he calls the forestry representative who is responsible for getting the chips down from the forest and unloaded into the bin. The bin capacity, depending upon how much heat is needed, is somewhere in the week-and-a-half to two-week vicinity, so the bins are not being filled every day, its like every week-and-a-half or two-weeks they are being filled. (Alan Prentis, HVAC Technician, Boulder County Parks and Open Space): When I do the start-up procedure, I'll first open the main box, make sure that all the ash is cleaned out, all of the grates are clear, then I'll close the main door, and get a piece of cardboard and roll it up and slide it in the upper side door, and just take my torch and fire the thing up, and it pretty much goes on from there. We usually start the system up at the first of the season and let it run all wintertime. Unless we have any major failures we don't have to do a cold start. (Return to Keith): As soon as the boiler calls for heat, there is a traveling auger in the bottom of the bin that is part of the delivery system. It travels the whole long length of the bin and it basically augers on demand, augers chips out the bottom, so it's always taking the oldest chips and getting rid of them, takes them out the bottom and they go onto a conveyor belt which goes and basically dumps into a hopper which, when the hopper is full, shuts off the conveyor system and the auger system, so it doesn't bring any more chips. And then from that hopper it's augered into a metering auger which then feeds the boiler, the firebox, and the firebox is fed with the chips and it has a safety water system so that is a fire tries to back up and go back toward the chip bin it will extinguish it. The object of the wood firebox is to heat the water flowing through the boiler which is mounted on top of it, and that is then circulated through the pipe distribution system throughout our campus, which has a supply and a return line in each one of the buildings. (Return to Therese): The way the biomass boiler works is that it heats the water and then we have insulated piping that goes underground for those five buildings. (Return to Keith): When the water temperature in the system reaches 180 degrees, basically the wood boiler throttles back and just maintains whatever it needs to to keep the 180-degree water temperature. When it can no longer keep the 180-degree temperature, and the water temperature in fact falls to 150 degrees, the natural gas boiler that is sitting in the same room recognizes that the wood boiler needs some help and kicks in and heats the water back up to the temperature that is needed for as long as it's needed. It's under local automatic control, however there are phone lines that can query it; our vendor, who is in Michigan and in many other places putting in systems, can get on the phone and call and determine what the error codes are in our system from wherever. The wood boiler heating system has been completely integrated into our Boulder County system. (Return to Alan): We clean out the ash about once a week. I like to do it on Thursdays so that I've got a clean box for the weekends, but on the colder days it can be twice a week. (Return to Keith): The ash is not harmful. Basically it is a good compost; my understanding is it helps in gardens, it's help for that, it's also been considered to be used on some of our streets in the wintertime for slick roads instead of salt or mag chloride. However, the first study that we did was we didn't produce enough of that to be able to do much for the County. It's still under study, they are still determining what they are going to do with this ash, but it is not perceived as a big problem. Chip Supply (Return to Therese): One of our bigger challenges in installing the heating system is really handling the wood in the forests. We had to change the way we actually handle the wood because in the past we would pile them into slash piles and burn them. There was not a lot of emphasis on quality control. Now, what we have to do in the forest is, as we are thinning, that we have to handle the wood, make sure it gets chipped and not contaminated; it's an extra step for our foresters in the field to make sure that we are getting the quality product that we need. (Return to Randy): Well, we have a process where we try to keep the chips as clean as possible, and so in the forest we have a system to where, whether it's the contractors or foresters in house, when we do whole-tree chipping, we run that through a chipper and try to get it where we put all those chips into a container, a roll-off container that's about 30 cubic yards, and that way it keeps it clean, we don't worry about rocks and miscellaneous other materials getting in there. (Return to Therese): And the transportation issue, it's complex, because we're basically thinning our forests in the summer and we need the chips in the winter. So we have to make sure that we're storing the chips in an area that's going to be accessible in the middle of the winter. And there isn't a set-up transportation system where we can count on someone else to get the product to the plant on time when we need it. That's our biggest challenge internally, is making sure that we have the chips accessible, transported down and in our chip facility, ready to burn when we have the highest demand for the heat. (Return to Keith): The first thing about a chip is that it needs to be of fairly uniform size, and it's best described to me in the past as a large book of matches is about the size a chip should be. It shouldn't be a skinny long snag or, you know, it should be a succinct size chip that will move through the augers easier and move on the conveyor belts. (Return to Randy): I really see this as being good for the forest because when we thin like this the number of stems per acre that are on the properties are really quite high, and when we reduce those numbers, it increases the health of those trees and reduces the catastrophic wildfire that can occur in these forests thereby causing it to where we can have areas that are burned so severely that it takes them a long time to come back. Challenges (Return to Therese): One of the big challenges for installing the biomass system at our current site is that we're adjacent to an airport, and there were definitely concerns about whether burning the biomass to provide heat for our complex was going to have a negative impact on the airport. So, once we did the feasibility study and we showed what types of emissions would be expected from this plant, all of those fears were laid to rest. We went through the Colorado State Air Quality Standards, and also the FAA, and they approved the construction and installation of this biomass site adjacent to the airport. So, with all of our research in advance, it was approved to be installed next to the airport. (Return to Keith): An initial problem we had with our wood chips and the quality of them was the rocks that were getting scooped up when they were scooping up the chips that were stored on the floor of the forests for the first chips that we got, and basically these rocks have a hard time going through the augers, have a hard time going through places on the conveyor belts, in fact we had one conveyor belt we got a little rip in because one rock got stuck in it. But, I would like to say that we have made complete adjustments and have gotten rid of all of our rock problems by chipping directly into a container, dumping that container directly into a chip storage bin, so there's no opportunity for any kind of extra-terraneous debris to get in the chips at all. (Return to Randy): It's kind of a two-way way of looking at this, there are some people that are skeptical about this because they look at the cost effectiveness and they look at the fact that natural gas is certainly fairly cheap compared to lots of other types of energy, it's fairly clean, that type of thing, but once people come out and see the bioplant, and they see how clean it burns, how easy it is to maintain and operate, I think a lot of those people start thinking a lot differently. It's all automated, it's fairly easy to take care of, we're doing a service out in the forest by getting rid of the materials, not having to burn those extra slash piles or having wildland fire, is saving the County thousands of dollars; just to fight a wildland fire can run into the millions very rapidly. So when people start to look at that side of the issue, the fact that we're not emitting as much smoke, the smoke that we do emit is a lot cleaner than if we were doing it in a burn situation. But here with this kind of a situation, we are starting to create markets now for these chips, and as other people come on board and see advantages of this it causes entrepreneurial type people to want to get into this business and start hauling chips and being in the contract business. So, I think there's a lot of positive that's coming out of that, and a lot of people are on one side of the fence or the other, I've had both of them, but I certainly feel like there's a lot more positive than there are negative when it comes to this. (Return to Keith): My level of satisfaction for this project is getting it done, and my charge was to keep it simple, which I believe we've done, and every time I turned around it seemed like somebody was trying to make it more complicated. But, we tried to keep it simple and straightforward, and I feel very confident that what we've put together here is a no frills, basic, hot-water heating system for five buildings for the County that'll pay for itself in a hurry, and makes great economic and environmental sense. (Return to Therese): I feel very pleased with the installation of the biomass heating system on our new facility. I think it was a great opportunity since we were just building this new facility. I think overall it's been a great experience, I think we're all very proud that we are currently the only plant operating in Colorado, and we hope that we can be an example for others of how they can use a sustainable resource coming off our forests to provide energy for people in the Front Range. Getting Started (Narrator): If you are interested in a biomass heating system for your facility, here are some considerations. Implementing a biomass heating system requires three primary steps: planning, which includes an analysis and feasibility study; installation; and operation and maintenance. In the planning stage, the feasibility study should include: an analysis of long-term biomass supply and availability - who are the potential wood-fuel suppliers? - what is their source? - what is the sustainability of the biomass supply? - what is the expected fuel cost?; an analysis of system sizing, what size system will provide the necessary BTU output for your facility? - determine the appropriate size of the wood system, - determine the appropriate size for a back-up system such as natural gas; determine the wood-chip requirements - estimate your short-term needs needs, 3 to 7 days, which determines the fuel bunker sizing, estimate your long-term needs, 4 to 6 weeks, for chips stored on-site or nearby, and estimate annual fuel use as part of an overall economic analysis; estimate equipment and construction costs; determine building modifications necessary to accommodate new boilers and fuel handling equipment; compare the cost of a biomass system versus a fossil-fuels system in terms of capital and construction costs, fuel costs, and operations and maintenance costs; and conduct an analysis of expected emissions from the wood-fired system, do they conform to applicable federal, state, and local regulations? The feasibility study can be conducted by in-house personnel, but an engineering firm with some experience in biomass heating systems can be consulted to advise in economic analysis, resource availability, permitting, and other issues. If the feasibility study indicates that the system economics are acceptable, there is a reasonable and sustainable wood supply, and there are no technical reasons why the system cannot be installed, then the next step is to request quotations from manufacturers and vendors. If there are any emissions limitations, they should be specified along with any other special requirements. Fuel planning - you will also need to specify fuel specifications and fuel supply agreements. It is very important to have a fuel collection and transport plan that keeps the wood chips as clean as possible to be specified in any fuel supply contracts. Fuel moisture contents strongly affects heating value, therefore, the fuel price should be scaled based on moisture content. Develop appropriate fuel inspection procedures to determine moisture content, quality, and cleanliness. It is also important to ensure that fuel receiving doors are big enough, easily accessible, and are easily compatible with the delivery vehicles. It may be useful to have available vehicles such as a front-end loader or bobcat, a chipper, if receiving whole logs instead of chips, or a screen for chip sorting. Installation - Installation and operator training is usually provided by the equipment manufacturer or vendor. The biomass heating equipment might be tied into the general building alarm notification systems. The manufacturer will perform initial testing to make sure the system is working properly. If additional emissions testing is required by the State regulatory agency, this should be performed as part of the commissioning process. Operation and Maintenance - Equipment operation includes system start-up and shut-down, which might only need to be done once or twice per year. Equipment maintenance includes: daily checking of the fuel level, which means the regular supply of chips and checking belts and augers for proper operation; weekly maintenance of ash removal which is normally done once or twice per week, and oiling rotating components in the system if necessary; and, on an annual basis, major maintenance is generally performed during a summer shutdown, and consists of cleaning out the boiler tubes, inspecting all components, and lubricating wear points. For more information, please see the accompanying handout, or see the Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation at www.state.co.us/oemc This has been a presentation of The Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation Ed Lewis Angela Crooks Craig Jones Megan Castle Produced by Randy Hunsberger Video production services by Mark Herlinger Productions Technical Advisor - Scott Haase Special thanks to Boulder County Parks and Open Space Therese Glowacki Scott Golden Keith Bentzen Nick Stremel Randy Coombs Zach Price Alan Prentiss 7/21/2008 1