New biomass technologies from around the world will be on display for the first time at AUSTimber.
Biomass-to-energy technologies in common use in other parts of the world will be on show at the newly created Bioenergy Precinct.
Information and technologies currently utilised in Australia’s timber industry will also be discussed.
Australia’s timber industry has long been involved in the conversion of biomass for fuel.
Mt Gambier was the site of the last wood biomass-fuelled combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Australia, which ceased producing electricity in the early 1990s.
It’s expected such power generators will soon be back online.
An AUSTimber spokesperson said: “Supplying them will provide a profitable use of forestry and timber industry wastes and residues.
“Within the same biomass-to-energy sector will be the supply of smaller volumes of chipped residues for institutions and industry, and production of pellets for household space heating.”
Europeans have been harnessing energy from biomass for decades with industry capitalising on developments associated with cleaner energy.
“For over 20 years the production of biomass harvesting and handling machinery has provided significant and growing revenues for the Scandinavian forest machinery sector, and most particularly over the period of the Global Financial Crisis,” An AUSTimber spokesperson said.
“In a country like Finland over 5 million m3 of energy wood (thinnings and harvest residues) becomes chipped fuel for small and large furnaces.
“Across the EU over 30 million tonnes a year of pellets and wood chip are currently being used and the volume is increasing sharply as countries are replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, with bioenergy the leader among these.”
The conversion of biomass to energy is big business in Europe.
The wood pellet-fuelled heaters for space heating for houses and businesses are thought to provide a cost effective option.
Many households or apartment blocks in Austria use wood pellet-fuelled heaters which are common across Northern Europe and are becoming increasingly popular in Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
Crichtons Fireside Shop in Mt Gambier will have some examples of pellet heaters on display at the Bioenergy Precinct
Chip-fuelled heating systems are cheaper to run than pellet systems and are usually found in larger buildings.
Heat output capacity for larger systems can exceed one megawatt.
In Finland chip-fuelled systems in public and industrial buildings are supplied by syndicates of forest owners or millers earning revenue from waste.
An example of the Finnish-made Veto chip-fuelled boiler is on show at AUSTimber.
The system is designed for heating larger houses, schools, hospitals or commercial premises.
Output ranges from 30-700 kW.
The system on show from the Veto range was imported by David Matuschka, well-known as the importer of Karasaws.
David has a 30 kW Veto installed in his house and said it performs ‘as competently as he has come to expect of Finnish-designed machinery’.
“I fuel it with chipped up branches that are otherwise just waste,” He said.
“It seems to cope with fairly rough material and the feed system just brings it all in with no blockages.
“It is far cheaper than using bottled LPG and a hell of a lot easier and more energy-efficient than firewood. And there is no smoke and hardly any ash.”
Across the world many companies are trying to turn wood waste into electricity.
While companies in Germany, Finland, the USA, Belgium and China are working on ‘gasifier’ prototypes, in India hundreds of gasifiers are in regular use.
A small Ankur 10 kilowatt electrical output (10 kW-e) gasifier, used in about 150 Indian villages to power mini-grids using agricultural and forestry waste, will also be on display at the Bioenergy Precinct.
Larger gasifiers being used by industries to produce heat, or heat and electricity, have outputs of up to 500 kW, enough to satisfy electricity needs for more than 500 average Australian households.
While gasification of wood is a bioenergy technology that has been around for over 100 years, what has eluded developers and manufacturers till now is how to get the produced gas clean enough to run a spark ignition motor.
If tars or abrasive ash enter the cylinders the resulting wear means only a short working life before an expensive overhaul.
Many of the modern gasifier manufacturers claim to have triumphed over this problem.
However gasification is also one way to produce the high temperatures needed for firing brick kilns or providing preheating for other high temperature industrial treatments.
A major function of the Bioenergy Precinct will be to provide information, including costs, rates of return and pay back periods for various bioenergy technologies.
Liz Hamilton, Senior Bioenergy Officer with the Victorian Department of Primary Industry, will be at the event to provide information.
Liz is also the driving force behind the Victorian Bioenergy Network, which regularly brings industry and government members together to share information and educate each other.
The VBN currently has over 500 people on its mailing list and is an established resource for information on bioenergy.
The Precinct will also feature Andrew Lang, a board member of the World Bioenergy Association.
Andrew has knowledge of global bioenergy developments and equipment used in Scandinavia for harvesting and handling biomass.
Both Liz and Andrew have benefited from Gottstein Fellowships to study bioenergy development in North America and Scandinavia respectively, and will be happy to talk about bioenergy developments in Australia and elsewhere.
