Free IT tool improves heating plant operations 

Operation managers at wood-fired and straw-fired heating plants can find it difficult to determine which fuel or which boiler offers the best value. But now a new, calculation tool is available on the Internet which enables operation managers to analyse energy and environmental conditions and operational economics for both existing and new biomass plants.

The calculation tool eases the process of purchasing fuel, improves operations and assesses the costs involved when purchasing new boilers - ultimately resulting in cheaper heating for the end-user.

Better overview

"The quality and price of fuel can vary significantly. Heating plants usually try to find the cheapest fuel, but to effectively compare different prices you must calculate the total operating costs per unit of energy produced. The calculation program gives operation managers a better overview for optimising heat production," explains COWI project manager Jens Dall Bentzen.

COWI’s Energy Division developed the calculation tool for the Danish District Heating Association using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES), which COWI has used extensively to optimise company energy systems.

Evaluation of tenders

The idea came about when COWI encountered difficulties in comparing the various tenders received in connection with the installation of a new wood-chip boiler at the disctrict heating plant at Høng, Denmark. The tenders were difficult to compare, as each supplier was using home-made IT tools which entailed different methods of calculation.
With the new tool, operation managers can simply enter a set of key figures for fuel volume, moisture and ash percentages, etc. together with financial data such as the prices of fuel, power and storage/dumping of ash. The IT tool then calculates energy efficiency, price per unit of heat produced and a range of other key figures.

Wood chips have gained favour

Jens Dall Bentzen hopes that the calculation tool will further encourage interest in biomass fuel: "More and more biomass plants are using biomass such as straw, wood chips and wood pellets. Wood chips, in particular, have gained favour in recent years, as the price has remained stable and low and the technology for incinerating fuel with a high humidity content has improved."

The calculation program has been developed with support from the Danish District Heating Association’s research and development fund.

By: Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.dk
Published: 25.05.2004