Biomass, wood and straw

Biomass includes in principle all biological material, which in a matter of years will break down into CO2 and water. This is why biomass is regarded as a renewable energy source. Biomass includes waste products from the farming and forest industries, e.g. straw, saw dust and wood chips.

When treated correctly, these renewable energy sources can be used efficiently and with almost no pollution, in particular in large plants for district heating, industries or the power sector.
 

Whereas small boilers and stoves for firewood and straw are inefficient and can cause local environmental problems, the large district heating biomass boilers can burn the biomass very efficiently, even with efficiency up to around 110% (with flue gas condensation of wood chip in case of low return temperature) and with strong pollution control.

Ramboll has been responsible for a number of projects for efficient use of bio fuels, e.g. a 10 MW wood chip boiler plant operating with flue gas condensation at a total efficiency of more than 100%. Currently we are involved with a power only biomass plant in Lombardy and a heat only plant in Norway.

Using our multidisciplinary approach our energy and environmental specialists can ensure that the bio fuels be explored in a sustainable way and used in correctly designed combustion plants.

As bio fuels can be very difficult to handle we can benefit from our experience with waste incinerators, which treat the most difficult bio fuel of all, namely waste, in an environmentally acceptable way.