View article

The use of solid biofuels ie wood pellets and briquettes has increased significantly during the last 15 years. Biomass briquettes are mainly used by small scale consumer’s ie private households while biomass pellets are used both within the private sector and for commercial heat and power production in large scale, industrial plants. During the past 10 years wood pellets have become an important energy carrier to substitute coal in the Danish energy sector. Today most pellets used in Denmark are produced abroad and shipped to Denmark in large container vessels where they are used as fuel in combined heat and power plants (CHP-plants), for district heating and small scale pellet boilers. The pellet consumption in Denmark is expected to increase strongly within the next 10 years and it is therefore necessary to provide a guideline for secure handling of solid biofuels. Recently different guidelines have been published by the Association of German Engineers [1], German pellets institute [2] or the Nordic Innovation Centre [3] dealing with safe handling and storage of solid biofuels. Safety considerations of biomass handling have been picked up in several journal articles and books dealing with solid biofuels [4-11]. A number of serious incidents have been reported across Europe in connection with false handling of wood pellets. Some of them have resulted in injury or even death of the handling personnel and some resulted in great damage and financial loss for the companies handling the pellets. Table 1 provides examples of accidents in relation with handling and storage of solid biofuels during the last 10 years. Most people consider wood …