Providing The Complete Biomass Heating Solution….
As the cost of heating with natural gas and fuel oils continues to rise business is being pushed towards the use of biomass fuels for heat generation.
This gives the user two major tasks to undertake – sourcing of an economic, readily available biomass fuel and sourcing of the required firing equipment to burn this fuel.
HOK Engineering recognise this and offer the complete biomass solution for industry, providing the client with an economic biomass fuel and the latest in biomass fuel burning equipment.
We can undertake the complete setup process from initial proposals through complete installation to long term fuel supply contracts.
The Fuel….
Wood pellet has become one of the most economic biomass fuels the world can provide. Unlike fossil fuels, biomass fuels are a managed renewable resource.
Wood pellet is a carbon neutral fuel solution which is exempt from the Climate Change Levy and can attract financial incentives in the form of grants that can be used to mitigate initial capital investments of equipment installation and ongoing running costs.
Biomass fuels are carbon neutral as they do not add CO2 to the atmosphere because the same amount of CO2 released during the burning process is absorbed whilst growing.
Wood pellet is formed from good quality wood waste, allowing more complete and effective utilisation of the worlds forestry resource.
The wood waste is dried and pressed together in a pellet mill. The temperature produced in this process causes woods natural polymer, Lignin, to be released from the wood which binds the pellet without the need for additional binding agents.
This produces a biomass fuel that is consistent, homogenous, easy to transport, store, dose and extremely clean burning.
The pellets have a low moisture content (4 – 6%). They will not freeze in storage and can be stored outside in vertical silos. This allows for easy delivery and discharge, whilst maximising available storage space. The
pellets also have a very low ash content (typically in the region of 0.2% - 0.5%) compared to other solid fuels (coal 8 – 12%). The resultant ash (potash) can be used as a fertiliser thus eliminating waste disposal costs.
One load of wood pellet contains the same amount of energy as fifteen equivalent loads of ordinary wood waste.
The Boilers ….
In conjunction with specialist boiler manufacturers, we provide and install highly efficient, low maintenance, compact wood pellet burning boilers, ranging in single unit heat outputs of 1000Kw – 8000Kw. Other options outside of this range and multiple unit installations are also available.
The pellets are automatically fed from the silos into the large water cooled combustion chamber of the boiler by a specially designed flex auger system and intermediate storage bin positioned adjacent to the boiler from which the pellets are fed into the burner by a feed system.
The boilers have a stand alone computer control system which can be connected to external BMS or environmental control systems.
Flue gases are passed through a highly efficient cyclone before being emitted ensuring that emissions are as clean as possible and that they will meet with the most stringent of local authority standards.
Electricity Production….
Another major attraction of our biomass boiler is that it can be supplied to a specification which enables it to produce steam in the heating process – this steam can be utilised to drive steam turbines enabling electricity to
be produced for either on site requirements, sale back to the national grid or both dependant on boiler size and electrical load requirements.
CO2 Dosing….
Our biomass boilers are available with a unique option in the pellet boiler market, which enables CO2 to be extracted from the flue gases for crop dosing within the horticultural glasshouse industry.
Whilst this practice has been available with gas boilers for many years, our boiler manufacturers have pioneered this concept for the wood pellet system.
In Summary….
Since its establishment in 1969 HOK Engineering Ltd have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in the horticultural industry and associated services.
We can provide you with the complete biomass heating solution, overcoming problems of mating biomass fuels with a compatible boiler and sourcing of satisfactory quantities of fuel supply at competitive prices thus ensuring the economic future of your business in an uncertain energy cost future.