Heating season 2011-2012

The mild weather after the first snow will not last forever, We are working hard to make sure all of the sites will be ready for the season. Most have already been fired up with the usual first fire of the season problems. There seems to be more problems with the outside furnaces probably because of the mass of the units plus the fluid drawing condensate during the summer especially a wet summer like the last one. After lubrication and turning some blowers by hand they usually come back to life,

We are looking to install a stove at the Catskill Watershed Corporation office in Margretville. This will be a new design stove that specifically list grass pellets as an approved fuel. This will be the first unit we have tested that is designed to burn fuel with higher ash content. Looking forward to seeing how this unit works on grass pellets.

More later when the unit is up and running,   

The heating season is upon us. The project has had a lot of issues this summer and especially this fall. The flood that resulted from the hurricane was devastating. We lost the furnace at Brookside Hardware. It was totally submerged and all the electrical and electronic controls were ruined. We had been looking forward to resolving an issue with this furnace and getting a full season of data from the site.

The replacement furnace for the Franklin site is now ordered. There were considerable delays as the unit we were interested in testing was delayed awaiting some outsourced components. We hope to have it up and running by early November.

 The other sites are set to fire or already running as dictated by the unusual fall weather. 

Successful Openhouse

June 4, 2011 by Delaware CCE Gerry

A very successful open house at EnviroEnergy one week in May solidified my thoughts for this post. We had good traffic all day and it was good to meet people in person who are friends in cyberspace.

This activity along with all the developments since my last post continue to convince me that bio-mass in all it’s forms will continue to increase it’s viability as a heat source. People I have been in communication with of late really seem to get the concept of a local renewable energy loop. Consumers seem to be willing to put up with the little inconveniences of handling bio-fuel to gain fossil fuel independence .I have been pleasantly surprised that I have been contacted by manufacturers who are interested in building appliances that can more efficiently handle bio mass. When our project began, we contacted many manufacturers who would not talk about bio mass fuel. Thus we were well aware that it would be an uphill climb to be successful with grass as a fuel.To date, the project has proved the concept and we are looking forward to the next generation of equipment.

I am aware of several start ups that are trying to get started. As we involved in the industry are well aware, the hurdles are not few. The two biggest obstacles are emissions regulations and capital. The emissions are a very important issue and does need addressing; however, the expense of testing for compliance can be a major issue. This brings me to the major point of this post.
This industry needs to be seen as an important,valuable and necessary component in this country’s energy strategy. We are well aware of the European stand on renewable energy, and need our governmental bodies to support this initiative. Where is the support going to begin? Sure, the industry has to push the issue; however, that in my vision is not the ultimate solution. The consumer will be the success of this change in policy. As we are seeing in the heating industry, the demands of the people actually buying the fuel force the changes. Why are appliance manufacturers embracing renewable fuels? The consumers are demanding it. Our organizations, including the sponsor of this blog, will be an important part of the change. But the biggest force to push government, industry and the banking world will be the demands of people who enjoy being warm and comfortable at a manageable expense. We need to continue to reach out to the populace and explain bio mass. They get it, but it constantly amazes me that there are so many people who are shocked to learn that grass is a viable energy source. “Come on what else is in it?” I have heard this over and over so the preaching is more important than ever.

Experiences Burning Grass Pellets

Harmon P68 Fired With Grass
Ashoken Center

There have been several requests for me to explain our experiences burning grass pellets in the appliances being used the Catskill Grass Bio-Energy project.

(Please note: any mention of brand names is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as an endorsement of a particular product.)

Our first purchases were two Quadrafire Mt. Vernon pellet stoves. One was quickly installed and the other put in storage for later installation. We also purchased two Central Boiler Maxim pellet hydronic furnaces. One was sited at the Town of Franklin NY Town Garage where the first Quadrafire was installed in the Town meeting hall in the same building. We were able to secure the services of a local plumber who completed the installation by the end of December that first year. Initial operation of these first units had a steep learning curve. The Maxim furnace burned well after the operator at that site tried many combinations of feed rates and blower settings. The manufacture nor the local dealer were of little help tailoring the settings to burn grass.Luckily the operator at the site had a lot of experience in the heating industry and had interest in making the unit work to it's potential. As the season grew colder we found that if the unit was pushed to produce maximum heat it had a tendency to melt the aeration paddle on the end of the feed auger. The original was mild steel but the replacements were made of stainless steel. They did last longer but eventually failed as well. We kept replacements on site after the third failure. Another shortcoming of this unit is the size and position of the ash drop. Ash has to be removed by scooping the ash out daily also the unit has to be shut down weekly to clean the interior of the burn area and the heat exchanger. If this is neglected the unit pushes smoke back into the hopper on top of the furnace leaving a creosote type of condensate in the hopper.Another problem with the design of this unit caused two burn backs into the top hopper. We are not sure the reason for he first but the second was the result of a power outage lasting six hours. The unit needs a supplemental power source to run a clean out cycle if high heat is experienced or a power outage is experienced.By the way the unit was burning wood pellets at the time of the power outage.

As to the Quadrafire at this site, the operator tried all season to burn grass with little success. Any of the settings on the control unit did not dump the ash fast enough and the fire was snuffed out. We purchased these stoves based upon the success of Dr. Cherny at Cornell University. We knew we needed specific tables to burn grass successfully.Dr. Cherny supplied us with he tables that the manufacture had supplied. We were unable to install the grass tables. We sought help from several Quadrafire dealers and the manufacture and were told multiple times that Quadrafire does not support burning grass pellets even though we knew grass tables existed. After that initial season we pulled the unit and replaced it with a Harman P68 which has been burning well ever since. The Harman has analog controls for feed rate and also has a unique burn system where the pellets are pushed up a burn ramp and the ash is pushed off the ramp in to a very ample and removable ash pan.

We have four Harman stoves on site at this time, Two P68 and two P45s.These units are working well burning grass pellets but like all appliances burning grass they all require frequent cleaning. Anyone wishing to burn Grass with appliances that are not specifically designed to handle grass will need the owner/operator to be conscientious about operation and cleaning.

More about the Quadrafire saga (we are using them satisfactorily) and our other appliances and installations next time.

Keep Warm!

Bio-Mass Project Assistance in NY

Technical Assistance RFP and Application

Technical Assistance for Customer-Sited Rural Biomass Energy Projects in New York State will assist private sector biomass projects in the state that have already moved past the "concept" phase, but have not been developed to the point that they can attract investment capital and finance. Selected projects will receive engineering and economic feasibility technical assistance focusing on engineering and economic issues in project design

This program is a collaborative effort of the New York Farm Viability Institute, the New York Biomass Energy Alliance, and SUNY/Cobleskill with funding provided by a U.S.D.A. Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant program.

The complete RFP is available below, as well as the application for Technical Assistance.

RFP - Technical Assistance for CSRBEP in NYS

Click here to download application

All Installations are operational

We are glad to report that all of our installations are operational.
The outside hydronic furnace at the Jewett Town Garage went on line October 19 2010.
This follows the successful fire up at Brookside Hardware that coincided with our Fall open house on Oct 9 2010. The open house included in addition to the Brookside site in Margretville, The Catskill Center in Arkville and The Andes Town Garage in Andes.

The implementation of this project was much more challenging and drawn out than anyone had expected. The biggest challenge was arranging for installation especially the outside furnaces which required various levels of plumbing complexity. The variety of locations required systems specifically tailored to the type of building and to supplement the existing heating systems that were in place. Some older buildings had hydronic gas or oil furnaces using water to air convectors. The new outside furnaces were plumbed into the existing systems. Two sites are hot air systems that required stand alone hot water to air convectors hung from the ceilings. The installation in Andes was in a newly constructed building which utilizes in floor radiant heat. At this site the outside pellet Furnace is fully integrated to supplement the new heating system.

The inside pellet stoves were much easier to install, only requiring a four inch exhaust pipe to the outside.

More on the demonstration sites can be found on the Delaware CCE web site.Click on the link below to get to the site then hover on the Agriculture and Natural Resources and slide down to the Catskill Grass Energy Project tab and you will find information on the project.

Click here

Biomass technology would bring jobs to area

Letter published in Sunday Binghamton Press

By Rance Brode • October 17, 2010, 12:00 am

Hydraulic fracturing is an unacceptable risk to our environment and way of life. We are fortunate to live in an area basically free from natural disaster threats such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and flooding. Why create our own manmade threat?

New York state and our local communities should instead focus their efforts on establishing upstate New York as the leader in biomass technologies to create our own renewable energy source. This would greatly promote the agriculture and lumber industries in producing the wide variety of vegetation that can be converted to various forms of energy and fuels.

We should promote and establish the manufacturing of biomass equipment in upstate New York, ranging from large industrial to small home use. Our high-tech companies and universities should focus on the development of this quickly evolving technology. (Lockheed Martin in Owego already is using this technology themselves and will soon be providing it to a customer.)

My vision is that all jobs related to this renewable energy source, including growing the necessary crops, manufacturing, building, operating and sustaining the necessary equipment and facilities, researching and evolving the technology, would remain in upstate New York.

The only thing that will stop our migration of shopping to the far less taxed state of Pennsylvania is when they have polluted their land and water beyond repair. I clearly hope this does not happen, but I do not believe we should assume the risk they have when there is a far more safe, prosperous and renewable way to proceed.