What is Biomass?

Wood Chippings Biomass is organic matter used for fuel. The most common sources of biomass are:

Wood crops: forested timber
Waste wood: industrial and consumer wood sent for recycling or landfill
Energy crops: specially grown woods and grasses such as miscanthus and willow
Food crops: oats, maize, wheat, sugar beet
Animal and food waste
Municipal and industrial solid waste
Sewage waste

PureGlo uses wood sourced from the first two categories in this list as the source of its biomass.

North Yorkshire has an abundance of woods and forests including large areas controlled by the National Trust as well as by private land-owners. Some of the timber produced is used for traditional industrial and commercial purposes such as the manufacture of planking for the building and home improvement industries. However, much of the timber grown in the region is unsuitable for commercial use and currently goes to waste. This is usually known as 'brash' - the smaller and irregularly shaped logs - and is a great source of environmentally friendly biomass energy.

How is biomass from wood used?

Stacked Logs There are three main forms of wood fuel biomass: logs, wood chips and wood pellets. Most people will be familiar with an open log fire, the most basic form of biomass. Modern log stoves greatly increase the efficiency of log burning. Processing timber into wood chip and pellets further increases efficiency and makes the fuel more convenient to transport, store and burn.

All three types of wood fuel have faced quality control issues in the past due to variation of the raw material. Suppliers and end users have become more competent at specifying the quality required. New European standards have been introduced to support the trading and use of fuels. In addition, the industry is producing a wood fuel certification scheme - to provide confidence in the quality of fuel for end users.

Can I make both heat and electricity from biomass?

For small and medium scale installations up to 10mW biomass is normally used to provide heat only. Combined heat and power (CHP) is not viable with current technology and given the health and safety issues involved, except for larger scale commercial plants. However, we are aware that this situation is changing rapidly with new technologies coming on stream.

Biomass heat is normally delivered in the form of hot water, just as with traditional gas or oil powered boilers. Depending on the size of the boiler, the heat can be used to provide central heating and hot water for an individual building or distributed through a network of pipes - a District or Community Heating System (DHS) - to a number of buildings. Depending on the specific needs of a DHS scheme, properties can be individually metered and charged.

Is it really a low carbon fuel source?

Burning biomass wood fuel gives off carbon emissions, just as burning anything does. The difference between burning biomass and fossil fuels such as coal, gas or oil is that the burnt wood absorbed the CO2 given off when it grew in the last 25 or so years. With fossil fuels carbon being released into the atmosphere now was absorbed and trapped many millions of years ago. So biomass, unlike fossil fuel, is not upsetting the delicate balance in the atmosphere today.

Is biomass leading to global food shortages and higher prices?

It is very important to understand the difference between biomass and bio-fuels. Bio-fuels are created by growing maize and corn and converting these by an industrial process similar to oil refining into liquid fuel to power vehicles. It is suggested that the rush to create bio-fuels is resulting in global food shortages and higher prices. Biomass wood fuel does not use food crops and does not take land from food crop production so it has no bearing on the supply or price of food.

Is it competitive?

The last 10 years has seen the emergence of modern, highly efficient, highly controllable boilers using wood fuel. The technology mainly comes from outside the UK, notably Scandinavia, Austria and Italy. As prices for fossil fuels have increased - by an average of 70% for natural gas and more than double for heating oil over the period 2007-9 - biomass has become competitive over a much wider section of the market.

Is the UK govt supporting biomass?

Grants are available to offset the differential in cost between fossil fuel burning and biomass installations.