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Frequently Asked Questions
Project Feasibility and Financing
What makes a good project?
A few things:
1. High heat demand and high fossil fuel costs. Generally, if a facility is not using at least 2,500 dekatherms/year of natural gas or spending at least $20,000 annually on heating fuel (natural gas, propane, fuel oil) they won't be likely candidates for conversion. However, there are exceptions if installing very small furnace systems.
2. Proximity to a wood fuel source can be important in that generally, the closer the supply, the cheaper the fuel. A haul distance from a forest source of 30-50 air miles (est. 50-80 road miles) can generally keep costs of wood fuel reasonable at a rate of $35-45/ton. Other biomass fuel sources can include wood pellets, sawmill residues and municipal wood waste such as clean demolition waste and urban trees which may be nearby.
3. Space available for the biomass burner, fuel storage, and access for delivery trucks.
4. It's more cost-effective to install a biomass boiler system in the new construction of a facility compared to integrating it into an existing system.
5. A simple payback on investment within 10 years is desirable.
Follow this link to the Montana Biomass Boiler Market Assessment for more information on determining the viability of a project.
How much will it cost?
Depends on a few things:
1. size of your facility and heat demand
2. ease of integration into existing infrastructure and requirements for new construction
3. chosen features of a system (i.e. fully automated vs. semi-automated fuel conveyance system, automatic ash removal system, stack installations, size and style of fuel bin, etc.)
Installation costs in Montana facilities have ranged from the lowest cost at $299,000 for a 1 million btu/hr output wood pellet system at Troy Schools to the largest system at UM Western for a 12 million btu/hr output wood chip system at $1.4 million. A number of biomass system installations in Montana have generally been in the $450,000-$650,000 range.
See the Table of Projects for project costs of additional biomass boiler installations.
How much can a facility save?
Fuel cost savings with a biomass boiler system installation will depend
on a facility's heat demand and the unit cost difference between biomass
and the fossil fuel it replaces. Because the unit cost of heat from
biomass ($/btu) is generally far lower than the fossil fuel it replaces,
the savings add up faster for larger heat users.
Of the Montana Fuels for Schools projects, fuel cost savings for those that have replaced natural gas boiler systems have averaged at 25% while facilities replacing fuel oil systems have enjoyed savings of 50-75%.
See the Table of Projects for details of annual cost savings estimated for Montana biomass boiler projects.
Is there financial assistance available for an installation? The Fuels for Schools and Beyond program is no longer awarding construction grants for biomass boiler installations, but can help to identify numerous other financing opportunities.
Click here to view various state, federal, and private funding opportunities.
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Fuel Supply
What kind of material is burned in biomass boilers?
Woody biomass fuel can include forest slash, pellets, cordwood, urban
tree waste, clean waste wood from construction demolition, pallets,
and wood waste from wood products manufacturers. A primary goal of
the Fuels for Schools and Beyond program is to promote the utilization
of wood waste from hazardous fuels reduction and other forest treatments
on local forests.
How much fuel does it take?
This depends on the square footage of your facility and your heating requirement.
As an example the smallest facility within the MT Fuels for Schools program
at Troy Public Schools (at 33,000 square ft) utilizes approximately 60
tone of wood pellets/year in a 1 million BTU/hr output boiler. The largest
Montana project, the 470,000 square foot campus at the University of
Montana-Western in Dillon, burns 3,800 tons of biomass/year in a 12 million
BTU/hr output boiler.
A conservative estimate of wood waste generated by forest thinning is about 10 green tons per acre, so 380 acres of forest treatment would generate enough fuel to heat the UM Western campus for a year.
See the Table of Projects for details of annual biomass fuel usage for other facilities.
How do you assess the local fuel supply available for a facility?
When a facility considers installing a biomass boiler, the DNRC assists in conducting a regional supply assessment of fuel available. This assessment entails a survey of the past, present and proposed forest projects across all land ownerships within a 30-50 air mile radius of the facility. To estimate the amount of biomass residues that will be, or have historically been, generated from those projects, we use a generalized estimate of 0.87 tons of biomass available for use from each MBF (1,000 board feet) harvested, unless more site-specific estimates are available. This calculation of 0.87 tons/MBF was derived by a Forest Service employee using published literature and includes the amount of biomass available for utilization/removal after considerations for the optimum amount of woody debris retained on site for nutrients, soil structure, and wildlife habitat are met.
I am a private landowner with forested acres. How can I contribute material from my property to a biomass energy facility?
Talk with the contractor working on your property and see if s/he can arrange that with a local biomass fuel supplier or user in the area.
What are "whole-tree" wood pellets? Wood pellet fuel that is manufactured of woody material from all parts of a tree including the tops, branches, needles, bark and bolewood. This differs from premium and residential-grade pellets which are generally made up solely of clean bolewood.
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Air Quality
What are the emissions associated with biomass boilers?
Like other combustion sources, wood boilers emit a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOC), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), hazardous air pollutants, and trace elements. Particulate matter emissions are minimized by maintaining efficient combustion in the system and if necessary, installing pollution control devices, especially to minimize PM-2.5 emissions. As part of the FFS&B partners' commitment to ensuring good air quality, we have sponsored stack emissions testing on a variety of systems and continue to collaborate closely with regional and national air quality managers.
Are there air permitting requirements for biomass boilers?
Consult your local, state, and national regulations as these will
vary by location and project.
Why is burning biomass for energy considered "carbon neutral"?
Burning wood is considered "carbon neutral" because, as trees grow, they pull carbon out of the atmosphere and when they die, decompose, or are burned they release that same amount of carbon. With this, there is no net gain of CO2 in the atmosphere and growing plants and trees will continue to cycle that CO2. Compare this to the burning of fossil fuels like petroleum and natural gas, which release old carbon that has been deep in the earth for millions of years, creating a carbon imbalance in the atmosphere which contributes to global warming.
