Reliable and cost efficient 900kw biomass boiler

[woodworm]

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We are considering a 900kw biomass boiler which would need to operate flat out for at least 8000 hours a year and be able to run on most wood fuels including forest residues and grade a recycled wood

I'd like feedback from actual users not dealers/sellers

I don't care which is cheapest or most expensive, just efficient and ones which don't need attention all the time.

If you can highly recommend one then I'd be interested to know more.

Thanks in advance
Woodworm

 

[f0ster]

if you are using that amount of heat you are in a good position to be able to install a biomass boiler and have an ORC fitted to be able to generate electric as well. with all of these chp it is using the heat that is the issue but if you can use that amount of heat you are in a good position to be able to generate electric from it as well. the binder is a very good boiler but the people who install them are unreliable.

 

[Still Farming]

Be prepared for a lot of work !

 

[woodworm]

Be prepared for a lot of work !

In what respect?

 

[Still Farming]

Building /installing , rhi paperwork and compliance, operation,feeding and cleaning out etc.etc.

 

[f0ster]

the installation will mostly be done by the installer as will the RHI, the boiler feed will be filling up the hopper every few weeks with a loader bucket depending on size of hopper, cleaning out the ash is usually automatic you just have to empty the container occasionally. most systems require minimal maintenance.

 

[Still Farming]

the installation will mostly be done by the installer as will the RHI, the boiler feed will be filling up the hopper every few weeks with a loader bucket depending on size of hopper, cleaning out the ash is usually automatic you just have to empty the container occasionally. most systems require minimal maintenance.

That sounds easy .

 

[turbofarming]

We just got accreditation through RHI last week after an install date of June 2016, still waiting on payments to start. We are a different setup but just another thing to take into account. We have burnt a lot of woodchip in the meantime.

 

[warksfarmer]

.

We are considering a 900kw biomass boiler which would need to operate flat out for at least 8000 hours a year and be able to run on most wood fuels including forest residues and grade a recycled wood

I'd like feedback from actual users not dealers/sellers

I don't care which is cheapest or most expensive, just efficient and ones which don't need attention all the time.

If you can highly recommend one then I'd be interested to know more.

Thanks in advance
Woodworm

We are getting on well with a 995 Linka, currently being fed with wheat straw. If you are going to basically run it 24/7 to get the 8000 hours then it will need serving 16 times a year as it should be every 500 hours to keep things running at max efficiently. You'll have to turn it off at least 24 hrs before the service so that it cools down allowing the guys to get into it to check the internals. Service will take half a day so allow for basically 3 days downtime per month at least.

Continually fed wood chip should see you get about 80% efficiency. I've spoken to loads of users now and this seems to be the max any boiler will do unless you are going to continually draw the heat which you won't with a heating system because once it's up to temp it will stop drawing it.

A grain drier will continually pull heat if its run 24/7 so you might get a bit more out of it.

I'd say you'd be hard pressed to beat that because I can't think of anything that would make the biomass boiler run constantly which is where you get max efficiency.

Lastly unless your fuel is of consistent moisture and size you will without doubt also get stops and blockages which always occur during the night so unless your going to man the thing 24/7 as well you need to knock that lost time off. Seriously when you've got bad fuel you will have to live with the boiler to keep it running.

 

[f0ster]

boiler breakdowns are a constant issue. on quite a lot of our installations we fit a GSM. most boilers have a closing contact on fault output, this closing contact is used to trigger a text message, so you get to know of a possible fault as soon as it happens instead of when everything has gone cold. a PAYG sim card lasts ages. do not use voda, if it is unused for a while they switch it off and take your money.

 

[Way out West]

We have been running an ariterm 999kw boiler for 12 months burning waste timber. We have ran the boiler as hard as we can with the usual waste timber problems which we are slowly learning to overcome and have managed 6,500 mega watts I.e. 74% efficiency. There has been blood sweat and tears to make this happen!
Could we expect to do any better in year 2?

 

[warksfarmer]

We have been running an ariterm 999kw boiler for 12 months burning waste timber. We have ran the boiler as hard as we can with the usual waste timber problems which we are slowly learning to overcome and have managed 6,500 mega watts I.e. 74% efficiency. There has been blood sweat and tears to make this happen!
Could we expect to do any better in year 2?

Wow that would be good going with a waste product as I doubt it would be uniform in size, quality and moisture. How are you feeding it into the boiler?

 

[Way out West]

Wow that would be good going with a waste product as I doubt it would be uniform in size, quality and moisture. How are you feeding it into the boiler?

The feed system has been the cause of the tears in this project. We set off feeding with a standard walking floor and auger system obviously designed for virgin woodchip. This has caused no end of problems, many we have managed to overcome and some we have had to learn to live with. The main problem has been wood bridging at auger turns, this we have overcome by chopping and realigning auger troughs. Also rams snapping on the floor is a regular occurrence, this problem we have never managed to solve, we have just got very good and changing and repairing rams. All these problems will hopefully be overcome shortly as we are about to install a new feed system of our own design and manufacture , to put it simply, we have just greatly oversized all augers and components. This is to feed 2 additional 999kw boilers. At the moment we are running all 3 boilers off the original feed system with quite a few tweaks, this has been a challenge to say the least, requiring someone on night shift and a floor that needs refilled every 4hours. Incidentally we process all our own fuel so have been able to get a fairly consistent feedstock through a high speed shredder. Moisture conte doesn't seem to vary too much even when stockpiled outside through winter, in fact the damper material in winter seems to burn just as well with less dust.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

What material are you burning? Grade A?

 

[Way out West]

What material are you burning? Grade A?

Yes it is grade A waste timber.