Guidance

Optiwood means ‘the optimum use of wood’ in biomass boilers.

Led by the Brittany based agency AILE, discussion amongst the four partners confirmed that we knew of many biomass boiler systems not working as efficiently as they should be. How could we capture that knowledge, engage with clients and develop an Action Plan that could lead to significant improvements?

Optiwood is a 2-year EU project with three French Partners and one UK Partner. Between us, we have selected 12 Pilot Projects from varied sectors (7 in France, 5 in the UK). We developed a monitoring system suitable for each based on cost-effective data loggers and analysers. This allowed mainly non-invasive monitoring of parameters such as boiler flow and return temperatures, buffer tank temperatures, flue temperatures and Oxygen levels in the flue gas, heat meter readings, and wood fuel moisture content and quantity assessment. This allowed us to build up a rapid picture showing how the boiler systems were performing and what levels of efficiency they were running at.

The planned 12-month long monitoring, training and boiler tuning phase had to be adjusted and while initial results were clear for all Projects, the Action Plans have taken longer to implement and data monitoring will continue till early 2020 to assess potential improvements.