100kW Biomass District Heating - Holy Cross Abbey
Client information
Located near Whitland in West Wales, Holy Cross Abbey consists of five main buildings comprising residential and guest accomodation, Church and Scriptorium. The site is located on a 100 acres site with planted woodland.
Client requirements
The rising costs of heating fuel and the costs of maintaining seven individual oil boilers led the client to consider a more suistainable source of heating.
Sustainable Energy's services
Sustainable Energy undertook an assessment of heating loads and profiles across the site and the suitability for district heating. The assesment results were in line with client objectives and Sustainable Energy was contracted to provide full project management for the delivery of a biomass district heating scheme. The services provided included tendering for the boiler, system design and fossil fuel boiler integration; in addition, a control and monitoring system was specified with SMS alarm service to contact the off-site maintenance provider with a report of system alarms.
Sustainable Energy's solution
The biomass plant comprises a 100kW wood chip boiler and 6000litre thermal store to cater for high peaks in thermal demand, also a 100kW oil boiler is configured to supply heat as a standby. The fuel store consists of a rotary extractor at floor level, within a chip store that can hold up to 50tonnes of fuel. The boiler house was designed and constructed such that roundwood could be stacked adjacent to the fuel store, enabling a local contractor to chip the wood fuel directly to store. The heat distribution main is a pre-insulated PEX pipe which runs underground and enters each property to connect with the existing heating and hot water distribution system.
Benefits to the client
Subsequent heat monitoring and data acquisition from the running system has proved that good design of thermal store, distribution network and optimised control have all resulted in a heating system with high seasonal efficiency, which has reduced the reliance of the site on fossil fuel.
Please e-mail info@sustainable-energy.co.uk with your enquiry.
