Maine Energy Systems

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Maine Energy Systems (MESys) was founded in summer 2008 by Les Otten, Dutch Dresser, and others to aid in the transition to alternative energy in the northeastern United States. The company delivers wood pellets in bulk and sells fully automated wood pellet boilers for hydronic heating. [1] MESys has been involved in numerous academic studies, work with political groups concerned with the environmental and economic aspects of residential and light commercial heating, and works with American regulatory bodies concerned with the safety of heating appliances.

Contents

Viable alternative energy sources in Maine

80% of Maine residences are heated with fuel oil. [2] In 2008 during a period of extraordinarily high oil prices former Maine Governor John Baldacci formed The Governor's Wood to Energy Task Force in order to determine the viability of biomass, and wood pellets in particular, as a fuel source for heating in Maine.

The Governor's Wood to Energy Task Force in 2008 published clear estimates by the Maine Forest Service that the forests of Maine are under-utilized and 5.8 million green tons per year could be sustainably harvested in Maine in addition to the 18.6 million tons per year currently harvested. [3] The Maine Forest Service findings went on to report that an additional 3.8 million green tons per year could be harvested sustainably from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. [3] If 10% of Maine's residences were converted to wood pellet fuel, it would require ~650,000 tons of green wood per year [3] making large scale wood pellet heating a possibility in Maine. It is MESys's goal to make wood pellet fuel a primary heat source for a large number of residences in Maine. [4]

Calculations on the economic impact of foreign oil on the Maine economy made by Co-Director and economist Dr. William "Bill" Strauss have been published. Bill Strauss' work "How to Cure Maine’s Addiction to Heating Oil" suggests that too much money is leaving the region as a result of foreign heating oil and that keeping some or all of the heating fuel revenues in the region through the use of wood pellet fuel would remedy this drain on the economy. [5]

Work with regulatory agencies

Much of Maine Energy Systems work to make wood pellet heating more prevalent in the Northeast has been with regulatory agencies. At the time MESys was founded very few regulations existed which directly referred to Wood Pellet boilers in Maine and the surrounding regions. As a result, rules and regulations created to regulate the installation and use of cordwood and coal stoker boilers were frequently applied to pellet boilers. Co-Owner Dr. Harry "Dutch" Dresser Jr. has been instrumental in helping to achieve parity in heating regulations between wood pellet heating appliances and conventional liquid and gaseous fuel appliances in some jurisdictions. Regulations which directly address wood pellet heat have existed for decades in various countries in Europe; the majority of new construction in Upper Austria is heated with wood pellet boilers. [6] As wood pellet boilers gain use in the United States it is necessary that regulations be devised which directly address appropriate wood pellet boiler use. Currently the lack of wood pellet fuel based appliance regulations requires regulatory agencies to hold wood pellet boilers to standards established for a different solid fuel source, such as cordwood, even though the manually fed operation of a cordwood boiler bears no resemblance to the operation of an automatic wood pellet boiler. [7] Regulatory changes that have been made to directly address wood pellet boilers through Maine Energy Systems involvement include the following:

The Maine DEP has found that some wood pellet boilers are suitable for EPA Phase II certification based on conversion of European test results achieved under EN 303-5 test standards. [8] Vermont DEC certification is nearing completion as well at the time of this writing (August 2011) on the same basis . [9] Use of these test results is forward looking, as US agencies are frequently reluctant to use non-US test standards. The testing considered for these certifications focuses primarily on particulate emissions for boilers installed in unoccupied buildings. The boilers issued certification have particulate emissions values nearly ten times lower than the US EPA requirements. [10]

The Maine Fuels Board has spent nearly a year considering many of its solid fuel-related installation codes with the help of pellet boiler practitioners. The Board has recognized the actual attributes of modern pellet-fired boiler systems and is proposing modifications to its installation regulations [11] that will bring virtual parity between the rules for automatic pellet fueled boilers and conventional liquid and gaseous fuel boilers.

Work with academia

The carbon neutrality of wood pellet fuel has been the focus of academic discussions recently. A study by the Manomet group proposed a model on the effects of biomass energy on atmospheric carbon levels. With this model a carbon debt occurs at the time of harvest and a carbon dividend occurs as new trees replace the harvested ones. [12] This model describes wood pellet heat as a less than carbon neutral energy source. MESys co-director and economist Bill Strauss has written a rebuttal to this study which was published in the July 2011 edition of Biomass Power & Thermal Magazine, [13] claiming that there are other methods of modeling biomass energy and that they were not well enough explored in the Manomet study. Strauss claims that the chosen Manomet model ignores the carbon dividend accumulated prior to harvest by the trees being harvested. [14]

MESys sponsored a Worcester Polytechnic Institute student Major Qualifying Project to find and design the best method for automated ash removal for a wood pellet boiler. [15] The project used Axiomatic design as well as conventional design methods to fully explore the functions required of an ash removal system. Two systems were prototyped and tested; a screw conveyor system and a novel cyclonic separator and vacuum system.

Globalism

Maine Energy Systems' involvement in the transition to wood pellet heat has required the development of global relationships with European businesses that have successful experience in the wood pellet heat industry. This year Maine Energy Systems directors Dutch Dresser and Bill Strauss were keynote speakers at The 2011 World Sustainable Energy Days Conference in Wels, Upper Austria. [16]

MESys relations with Austrian business Tropper allowed the first fully pneumatic bulk pellet delivery truck in the United States to be built and used in Maine. [17]

Contractor training

Since 2008 Maine Energy Systems has offered free training to properly licensed technicians who wish to install and service wood pellet boilers. [18] Training currently focuses on the Austrian OkoFEN AutoPellet pellet boiler and the Auto-Pellet Air hot air furnace, [19] although in the past contractors were trained on the Swedish Janfire NH wood pellet burner.

Related Research Articles

Gasification Form of energy conversion

Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is achieved by reacting the feedstock material at high temperatures (typically >700 °C), without combustion, via controlling the amount of oxygen and/or steam present in the reaction. The resulting gas mixture is called syngas (from synthesis gas) or producer gas and is itself a fuel due to the flammability of the H2 and CO of which the gas is largely composed. Power can be derived from the subsequent combustion of the resultant gas, and is considered to be a source of renewable energy if the gasified compounds were obtained from biomass feedstock.

Drax Power Station Biomass power station in North Yorkshire

Drax power station is a large biomass power station in North Yorkshire, England, capable of co-firing petcoke. It has a 2.6 GW capacity for biomass and 1.29 GW capacity for coal. Its name comes from the nearby village of Drax. It is situated on the River Ouse between Selby and Goole. Its generating capacity of 3,906 megawatts (MW) is the highest of any power station in the United Kingdom, providing about 6% of the United Kingdom's electricity supply.

BedZED

Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is an environmentally friendly housing development in Hackbridge, London, England. It is in the London Borough of Sutton, 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town of Sutton itself. Designed to create zero carbon emissions, it was the first large scale community to do so.

Wood fuel Wood used as fuel for combustion

Wood fuel is a fuel such as firewood, charcoal, chips, sheets, pellets, and sawdust. The particular form used depends upon factors such as source, quantity, quality and application. In many areas, wood is the most easily available form of fuel, requiring no tools in the case of picking up dead wood, or few tools, although as in any industry, specialized tools, such as skidders and hydraulic wood splitters, have been developed to mechanize production. Sawmill waste and construction industry by-products also include various forms of lumber tailings.

Cogeneration Simultaneous generation of electricity, and/or heating, or cooling, or industrial chemicals

Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.

<i>Panicum virgatum</i> Species of plant

Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season bunchgrass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55°N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico. Switchgrass is one of the dominant species of the central North American tallgrass prairie and can be found in remnant prairies, in native grass pastures, and naturalized along roadsides. It is used primarily for soil conservation, forage production, game cover, as an ornamental grass, in phytoremediation projects, fiber, electricity, heat production, for biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and more recently as a biomass crop for ethanol and butanol.

Pellet fuel

Pellet fuels are biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and untreated lumber. Wood pellets are the most common type of pellet fuel and are generally made from compacted sawdust and related industrial wastes from the milling of lumber, manufacture of wood products and furniture, and construction. Other industrial waste sources include empty fruit bunches, palm kernel shells, coconut shells, and tree tops and branches discarded during logging operations. So-called "black pellets" are made of biomass, refined to resemble hard coal and were developed to be used in existing coal-fired power plants. Pellets are categorized by their heating value, moisture and ash content, and dimensions. They can be used as fuels for power generation, commercial or residential heating, and cooking. Pellets are extremely dense and can be produced with a low moisture content that allows them to be burned with a very high combustion efficiency.

Pellet stove

A pellet stove is a stove that burns compressed wood or biomass pellets to create a source of heat for residential and sometimes industrial spaces. By steadily feeding fuel from a storage container (hopper) into a burn pot area, it produces a constant flame that requires little to no physical adjustments. Today's central heating systems operated with wood pellets as a renewable energy source can reach an efficiency factor of more than 90%.

Renewable heat is an application of renewable energy referring to the generation of heat from renewable sources; for example, feeding radiators with water warmed by focused solar radiation rather than by a fossil fuel boiler. Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels, solar heating, geothermal heating, heat pumps and heat exchangers. Insulation is almost always an important factor in how renewable heating is implemented.

Pelletizing is the process of compressing or molding a material into the shape of a pellet. A wide range of different materials are pelletized including chemicals, iron ore, animal compound feed, plastics, and more.

Biomass Biological material used as a renewable energy source

Biomass is plant-based material used as fuel to produce heat or electricity. Examples are wood and wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms and households. Since biomass can be used as a fuel directly, some people use the words biomass and biofuel interchangeably. Others subsume one term under the other. Government authorities in the US and the EU define biofuel as a liquid or gaseous fuel, used for transportation. The European Union's Joint Research Centre use the concept solid biofuel and define it as raw or processed organic matter of biological origin used for energy, for instance firewood, wood chips and wood pellets.

Biomass heating system

Biomass heating systems generate heat from biomass.
The systems fall under the categories of:

Woodchips Small pieces of wood made when shredding larger pieces of wood

Woodchips are small- to medium-sized pieces of wood formed by cutting or chipping larger pieces of wood such as trees, branches, logging residues, stumps, roots, and wood waste.

Wood-burning stove

A wood-burning stove is a heating or cooking appliance capable of burning wood fuel and wood-derived biomass fuel, such as sawdust bricks. Generally the appliance consists of a solid metal closed firebox, often lined by fire brick, and one or more air controls. The first wood-burning stove was patented in Strasbourg in 1557, two centuries before the Industrial Revolution, which would make iron an inexpensive and common material, so such stoves were high end consumer items and only gradually spread in use.

Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) is a North American trade organization that represents manufacturers, retailers and distributors of wood pellet fuel supplies and appliances. The PFI was formed in 1985 as the Fiber Fuels Institute.

Greenwood Clean Energy

Greenwood Clean Energy, Inc. is a privately held company located in Redmond, Washington that manufactures wood and biomass central heating systems. In 2009, a team of entrepreneurs and industry veterans developed and distributed woody-biomass-fueled heating appliances for home and light commercial use.

Biomass Thermal Energy Council

The Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC) is a nonprofit organization in the United States focused on advancing the use of biomass for heat and other thermal energy applications.

Avedøre Power Station

The Avedøre Power Station is a combined heat and power station, located in Avedøre, Denmark, just south of Copenhagen, and is owned by Ørsted A/S. Avedøre Power Plant is a high-technology facility and one of the world's most efficient of its kind, being able to utilize as much as 94% of the energy in the fuel and convert 49% of the fuel energy into electricity. Apart from using coal, petroleum (oil) and natural gas, the plant runs on a wide variety of biomass fuels such as straw and wood pellets. The plant consists of two units with a total capacity of 793 MW of electricity and 918 MW of heat. The combination of producing electricity and heat for district heating at the same time is widely used in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, due to the need of domestic heating together with the Danish energy companies putting a big effort into optimising the energy plants.

Renewable energy in New Zealand

Approximately 40% of primary energy is from renewable energy sources in New Zealand. Approximately 80% of electricity comes from renewable energy, primarily hydropower and geothermal power.

Denmark is a leading country in wind energy production and wind turbine production. Wind power alone produced 47% of Denmark's electricity consumption in 2017, and is expected to increase its production by nearly 80% in the years to 2024.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ U.S. Energy Information Administration, 10-7-2010
  3. 1 2 3 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 16, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ "The Pellet Market from Different Perspectives - Biomassmagazine.com". biomassmagazine.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  5. ↑ "FutureMetrics" (PDF). www.futuremetrics.net. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  6. ↑ Egger et al., Biomass Heating in Upper Austria: Green Energy, Green Jobs. O.O. Energiesparverband, 2011
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved August 3, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ↑ "Bethel pellet boiler business benefits from DEP certification - Lewiston Sun Journal". sunjournal.com. August 25, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Maine DEP accepts EU emission standards for pellet boilers - Biomassmagazine.com". biomassmagazine.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  10. ↑ http://www.blt.bmlfuw.gv.at/pruefber/g2004153_E.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  11. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 16, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ↑ "Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study: Full Report - Manomet" (PDF). www.manomet.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  13. ↑ "How Manomet Got It Backwards: Challenging the 'Debt-Then-Dividend' Axiom - Biomassmagazine.com". biomassmagazine.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  14. ↑ "FutureMetrics" (PDF). www.futuremetrics.net. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Title page for E-project-042811-093620". www.wpi.edu. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Speakers 2011". www.wsed.at. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  17. ↑ "First fully pneumatic bulk pellet delivery truck". canadianbiomassmagazine.ca. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  18. ↑ SitNews. "SitNews: LOCAL TECHINICIANS ATTEND PELLET TRAINING CLASS IN MAINE". www.sitnews.us. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  19. ↑ GmbH, ÖkoFEN Heiztechnik. "OkoFEN Wood Pellet Boilers". www.okofen.co.uk. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
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