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«Biomass Energy»: Belarus Replaces Fossil Fuels for Renewable Energy

There's no need to highlight once again the importance of the project on the use of firewood and wood waste for generating heat and electric energy for Belarus, a country which has scarce fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal) and depends on imported energy inputs. The UNDP Project "Biomass Energy for Heating and Hot Water Supply in Belarus" was developed with the involvement of the Committee on Energy Efficiency of Belarus' Council of Ministers and the UN European Economic Commission which initiated the project. The four–year project launched in September 2003 is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF investments will total above US$ 3 million.

— Forests covering 36% of the country's territory is a major natural resource of Belarus, — says Project Manager Vladimir Voitekhovich, Assistance Professor in technical science. — Annual growth of timber makes up 25 million m3 and the annual logging volume totals up to 10 million m³ and will continue to increase in the next years. Given the increased logging, the volume of wood waste generated in the process of cutting and timber processing will also increase. As a rule wood waste is burnt because the forest cutting companies should clear up wood–cutting area for subsequent planting of trees. Therefore, it is very importantto find a way of wood waste utilization, for example as fuel (the estimated 6 million m3) thus allowing to replace imported gas and mazut.

As for the consumers of such fuel, Vladimir Voitekhovich believes that about 2000 boiler–houses in Belarus with the capacity ranging from 0.5 to 10 megawatt using fossil fuels can be converted to biomass. It should be noted that the project rules out any possibility of using wood waste from the regions contaminated by radionuclides after the Chernobyl disaster: all demonstration sites of the project are located far from the contaminated areas. Five boiler–houses have been selected as the project sites and the specific technology of firewood incineration will be demonstrated at each of them. The sixth demonstration site — Open Joint Stock Company «Molodechnoles» — will employ an advanced technology of collection and processing of logging waste envisaging that collected wood waste stays in the forest for some time to get rid of fir–needles; after that the special mobile machine makes wood chips directly on site and then the wood chips are transported to a boiler–house.

The principal objective of the Biomass Energy Project is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the country through replacement of fossil fuels for renewable energy including firewood, particularly within the heating network for residential, industrial and administrative buildings. According to the data available to the project experts, currently about 10 000 boiler–houses in Belarus generating energy for heating and hot water supply use mazut, diesel fuel, natural gas and coal. The vast majority of them have outdated and inefficient facilities which have been in operation for more than 20–30 years and produce sizeable emissions of harmful substances including greenhouse gases.

Important tasks of the project can be summarized as follows: enhancement of organizational capacity for supporting bio–energy projects; elimination of negative stereotypes with regard to bio–energy; building up positive experience of investing in sustainable bio–energy projects; capacity building for bio–fuel supply and distribution. Within the project framework it is also expected to provide training in modern technologies of bio–fuel utilization to the professionals at different levels and in different sectors. Training will be based on the extensive international experience and the knowledge gained in the process of working at the demonstration sites.

The first demonstration site of the Biomass Energy Project — the boiler–house of the timber processing company "Volat–1" using wood waste — was launched on 16 September.

"Volat–1' is located in the town of Usda of the Minsk region and employs 210 people. Its key products are energy–efficient windows, doors, saw–timber and others. New boiler–house was co–financed by UNDP/GEF, Energy Saving Innovation Fund of the Ministry of Energy and the owner of the boiler–house. The boiler–house using wood waste is a modern fully automated facility fueled by wood chips and sawdust with humidity up to 45 %. The boiler–house has two automated boilers with the capacity of 1 megawatt each. Major equipment was produced by the Belarusian enterprise "Belkotlomash". The boiler–house of such type allows to achieve annual savings of about 1000–1500 t.u.t. depending on the equipment loading. Emissions of greenhouse gases will decrease by about 2000 tons a year.

Vladimir Iodo against the background of the boiler-house

The boiler–house of the "Radon" Sanatorium located in the Dyatlovsky district of the Grodno region is one of the demonstration sites of the project. According to Vladimir Iodo, Chief Doctor of the Sanatorium, three timber processing enterprises are located 10–12 km away from the boiler–house and they have to bring out wood waste. «After reconstruction of the boiler–house supplying heat to "Radon" they will easily get rid of wood chips and we will save fuel. At present we consume about 1.5 thousand tons of natural gas a year and the price of one ton is US$80. Of course, we are not going to fully eliminate gas component, it will be our reserve fuel. However, the reliability of the system will considerably increase», — stressed Vladimir Iodo.

Aleksander Vakhrushev against a background of sawdust pile Plywood production unit

History of the Open Joint Stock Company «Mostovdrev» dates back to 1927, when the Konopatsky brothers built an aviation veneer factory in the village of Mosty. At that time the factory employed not more than 100 people. Today «Mostovdrev» is a powerful town–forming enterprise which is one of the largest in the sector. Broad range of timber materials and products are supplied to 19 foreign and CIS countries.

— Nearly each household in Mosty has a family–member working at the factory, — says Aleksander Vakhrushev, general manager of the factory boiler–house. By the way, the capacity of the boiler–house which has been selected as a demonstration site of the UNDP project is sufficient to meet both the needs of the factory and to cover 85% of the town heating needs. — It is very promising that the Belarusian Government and international organizations have paid attention to the wood waste problem. «Mostovdrev» alone generates about 60 thousand m3 of waste a year and through burning it in the upgraded boiler–house we can get rid of wastes and make our contribution to environmental improvements.

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