Sinclair Agricultural & Recycling Services; Woodchip Drying Solutions

Описание: In the video, see how Stronga Drying Solutions work to efficiently reduce the moisture content of saturated woodchip for Sinclair Agricultural & Recycling Services (SARS) in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Sinclair Agricultural & Recycling Services is a successful family run business who has recently ventured into the renewable energy sector. The installation of FlowDrya and Heatex Drying Solutions will help SARS gain RHI income while benefitting from the many uses of dry woodchip (biomass boiler fuel etc.).

Production of woodchips for renewable fuel is increasing as many fuel suppliers have run short of seasoned woodchip during trading though recent winters, requiring unseasoned wood to be chipped.

There is a desire from wood fuel suppliers to reduce the capital and space tied up in timber seasoning which is a lengthy passive drying process. Active woodchip drying using Stronga FlowDrya and Heatex Drying Solutions allows woodchip suppliers to be more reactive to markets whilst minimising the need to hold vast stores of drying woodchip through the passive seasoned method.

Woodchip moisture content directly affects calorific value as the water contained within wood fuel must be evaporated during combustion in biomass boilers. This energy input required to evaporate moisture from woodchip is known as the latent heat of evaporation which is provided as a cost from the overall heat output from combustion. The net calorific value of a wood fuel will therefore decrease with increasing moisture content as the latent heat required will increase but the dry matter content of the wood fuel stays the same.

Higher woodchip fuel moisture content also lowers the combustion temperature, leading to incomplete combustion and higher gaseous emissions. Smaller boilers are more susceptible to lowered efficiencies caused by high moisture content and are generally most efficient using fuel with values between 20-30%. Wood fuels with higher moisture content are also more expensive to transport as the weight to be delivered will be greater for a given volume.

Drying woodchip using Stronga FlowDrya and Heatex also has the benefit of reducing fungal spore build-up, loss of dry matter and the self-heating problems that is commonly associated with longer term storage of green woodchip.

The benefits of drying woodchips are well known; increase of fuel quality, improvement in storage capability, and reduced transport costs. On top of these benefits, customers with spare residual heat (e.g. Combined Heat and Power plants) can utilise their spare heat to dry woodchip and in doing so, enjoy the substantial financial incentives offered by the UK Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.

In conclusion, the benefits of using FlowDrya and Heatex to dry woodchip for bio energy include;
Increasing the quality of wood fuel.
Improving storage capabilities.
Reducing wood handling, storage and transport costs.
Making good use of spare residual heat throughout the year (CHP/biomass boiler capacity).
Increasing wood fuel sales and spare wood utilisation possibilities.

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