Presentation given at the CLA's Woodfuel Conference at Doddington Hall on Wednesday 30 October by Gary Battell, Suffolk County Council Woodland and Woodfuel Adviser.

1. Gary Battell
Suffolk County Council
Woodland & Woodfuel Advisory Officer
gary.battell@suffolk.gov.uk
Fuelling
your boiler
Government Business Award Winner
Ashden Award Winner
Confor Oscar Award Winner

2. Lincolnshire – Woodfuel Potential
408 x 50 kW boilers

3. Lincolnshire
Woodfuel Potential

5. Three main ways to fuel your boiler
Boiler & Woodland Owner
• Typically rural estates with their own resource
supplying their own boiler/s
Woodfuel Purchaser
• Single or multiple end users purchasing wood
under a supply purchase/contract.
Heat Supply ESCo
• Energy Services Company supplies heat (and
boiler/s) to an end user via a heat meter.

6. Fuelling your boiler
• Fuel storage design is crucial – Your fuel supplier /
chipper operator should be project design partners.
• Have adequate access and avoid side slope.
• In urban areas and in retrofits pellets should be
considered to reduce number of deliveries / noise &
storage.
• Optimum size of storage = 1.5 x 2 delivery size
= 20m3 - 30m3 - 68m3 - 110m3
• Keep fuel deliveries to a minimum – they are costly!

7. • Boiler owners will go where the cheap supply is...
• but woodfuel suppliers will always have to meet the boiler
manufacturers fuel specification.

8. Cheap fuel = Big Problems (MDF, plastic, metal and stones)

10. Fuel Supply
1. Have your fuel supply in place at the design stage of the project.
2. Buy / produce CEN standard fuels.
3. Use industry standard delivery methods, fittings and pipe sizing.
4. Shop around for your fuel; the local supplier maybe be able to provide
quality fuel at a reduced price
e.g. Pellets £230 / £185 = 19.56% saving.

11. CEN Standards are useful for buyers and sellers of woodfuel
Boilers will require fuel to specific CEN standards
Methods and characteristics can be measured by:
•
•
•
•
•
Sampling
Particle size
Bulk density
Moisture content
Ash content

12. CEN/TC 335 biomass standards
About CEN/TC 335
CEN/TC 335 allows all relevant properties of the fuel to be described, and includes
both normative information that must be provided about the fuel, and informative
information that can be included but is not required.
Specifications
The fuel specifications and classes for all solid biofuels are set out in CEN/TS 14961:2005, which defines
certain parameters and property classes.
Normative specifications for wood chips:
• Origin
• Particle size (P16/P31.5/P45/P63/P100)
• Moisture content (M20/M25/M30/M40/M55/M65)
• Ash content (A0.7/A1.5/A3.0/A6.0/A10.0)
Normative specifications for chemically handled wood or used wood:
• Nitrogen (N0.5/N1.0/N3.0/N3.0+)
Informative specifications for wood chips include:
• Net energy content (lower heating value (LHV)) as MJ/kg or kWh/m3 loose
• Bulk density in kg/m3 loose
• Chlorine content (Cl0.03/Cl0.07/Cl0.10/Cl0.10+)
• Nitrogen (N0.5/N1.0/N3.0/N3.0+)
Many other properties may also be specified, including concentrations of many other elements and volatile matter and ash melting behaviour. Different specifications
are required for different fuels, and for pellets and briquettes these include mechanical durability and particle density.

13. EN 14961, structured by mass fractions
Standard
Main fraction
Fines
Coarse
fraction
P
> 80%
<5%
<1%
P16
3.15 ... 16 mm
<1 mm
> 45 mm
<85 mm
P45
3.15 ... 45 mm
<1 mm
> 63 mm
<120 mm
P63
3.15 ... 63 mm
<1 mm
> 100 mm
<350 mm
P100
3.15 ... 100 mm
<1 mm
> 200 mm
<350 mm
Extreme values

16. Woodfuel consumers can be confident if they purchase
their fuel from a supplier who is accredited under a
woodfuel assurance scheme.
Independent quality testing ensures that the producer
and the supplier know how to make or supply fuel that
will be correct for a boiler and comply to the CEN
standards.
Accreditors take a simple, practical approach to
accreditation, but they do undertake a stringent quality
evaluation regime that means woodfuel production costs
can be kept down whilst quality improves.

17. A reliable source of correctly specified
woodfuel is vital to the efficient, trouble-free
operation of a biomass boiler.
The majority of boiler problems arise from
poor quality fuel of the wrong specification.
(90% +)

18. Felling while the sap is up will mean more bark is removed – this will aid seasoning

19. Hygiene at all stages from the forest to the boiler are vital

20. Do not store wood on shady, damp and windless rides, it will never dry

21. Stack and store your wood in a dry sunny location

22. Use bearers to keep your woodfuel off the ground

23. Try and keep species, large and small diameter timber in separate stacks
(One year for most conifer species depending on spp./dia. & location)

24. Keep gaps between the rows for better air circulation

25. Date your stacks

26. It’s dangerous to stack timber too high. 2m by ROW and 3m max.

27. All the debris in high heaps gets into the lower logs and creates poor woodchip

28. Store your wood close to the chipping site and woodchip storage

29. Snow melts in this country!

30. Covering heaps is a good idea, especially when producing fuel for small boilers

32. You might have to buy or sell wood and buy woodchip

33. 5.5 %
Fresh felled timber
Chipping
Drying outside
Drying
inside
Ready for use

34. 26.9%

35. Chipping companies are offering varying services & outputs that meet client needs

36. Do not store woodchip outside and expect to see it at below 30% MC!

37. Moisture content is crucial - it should always be below 30%

38. Test the moisture content

39. Producing good quality woodfuel
1. Season your wood in a dry, sunny and windy location.
2. Put your logs on bearers.
3. Keep your heaps at least 1m apart.
4. Chip your wood in August / September.
5. Store conifer a minimum of 1 year *
6. Store hardwood a minimum of 2 years *
7. Consider splitting larger diameter logs.
8. Use the correct sieves in the chipper.
9. Use sharp blades.
10. Store the woodchip undercover.
11. Store chip in a store with good wind circulation.
•
This does vary according to species, diameter and UK location.

40. CEN standard woodchip is essential to running an efficient woodchip boiler.
It is easy to achieve

41. Store your woodchip undercover in a well ventilated store

42. Manage your woodchip heaps so that you can always get the driest fuel

43. A simple gale breaker door can provide air flow & stop rain ingress

44. This would not be an adequate woodchip store

45. This is now a highly suitable woodchip store that was achieved through partnership working

47. Chip Store - Points to consider
Direct chipping / chip delivery design
Log storage – Close to the store
Access – for chipper and delivery vehicles around the store
Hygiene – Hard standing for wood prior to chipping
From chipper to store – Make sure you can move the chip fast enough
Air flow around logs and in the store
Sealed lower joints to stop water ingress
Guttering
Access to two heaps of woodchip

48. Using existing equipment to load your fuel hopper is the cheapest option

49. Delivery with a high-lift trailer works very well

50. Blown delivery is a quick & easy. Blown delivery will limit you to fewer suppliers

51. Underground storage maybe effective on large scale biomass projects

52. Summary of current prices (Standing)
Hardwoods
• Milling oak (planking)
£165 - £250 /m3
£6-£9 /Hft
• Milling oak (beaming)
£100 - £125 /m3
£3.60-£4.50 /Hft
• Milling ash
£60 - £90 /m3
£3.60-£4.50 /Hft
• Firewood (mixed species) £12 - £20 /m3
£0.43-£0.72 /Hft
Softwoods
• Sawlogs
£18 - £24 /m3
£0.65-£0.87 /Hft
• Bars
£8 - £12 /m3
£0.29-£0.43 /Hft
• Chip
£0 - £10 /m3
£0 - £0.36 /Hft
Biomass at roadside
£20 - £24 /m3
£0.72 - £0.87 /Hft
£24 & £165

53. CW Chip
£/tonne
CW Chip
£/tonne
NCH Chip
£/tonne
NCH Chip
£/tonne
£165 / £211
£165 / £211
Equiv. £/kWh
5.5 p/kWh
Heating Oil/Gas Oil
19.28 p/litre
Equiv. £/litre
54p/litre
6.39 p/kWh
Equiv. £/kWh
5.5 p/kWh
Heating Oil/Gas Oil
£24 / £62
1.78 p/kWh
Natural Gas
£24 / £62
Natural Gas
69.37 p/litre
Equiv. £/litre
54p/litre

54. Natural Gas
CW Chip
£/tonne
£60
1.72 p/kWh
Equiv. £/kWh
Heating Oil/Gas Oil
5.5 p/kWh
18.65 p/litre
Equiv. £/litre
Natural Gas
NCH Chip
£/tonne
£74
(54 p/litre)
2.24 p/kWh
Equiv. £/kWh
5.5 p/kWh
Heating Oil/Gas Oil
24.33 p/litre
Equiv. £/litre
(54 p/litre)

55. Heating Oil/Gas Oil
£ per litre
£0.61
CW Chip
Equiv. £/tonne
£196.21
Heating Oil/Gas Oil
£ per litre
£0.61
NCH Chip
Equiv. £/tonne
£185.53

57. Good fuel and well specified boilers are giving many people
highly efficient heat

58. Gary Battell
Suffolk County Council
Woodland & Woodfuel Advisory Officer
gary.battell@suffolk.gov.uk
Fuelling
your boiler
Government Business Award Winner
Ashden Award Winner
Confor Oscar Award Winner

59. © This presentation cannot be stored or
reproduced in any form without permission in
writing to:
Gary Battell
gary.battell@suffolk.gov.uk
or
gary.battell@afiweb.net
T: 01473 264776 or M: 0750 1463832

61. Gary Battell has over thirteen years extensive practical experience within the biomass
industry. He along with the late Alan Tong and Peter Brown were the initial champions for
biomass at Suffolk County Council, who have installed twenty seven biomass boilers.
Gary worked with the late Robert Rippengal and Clarke Willis to set up Anglia Woodfuels
Ltd, a hugely successful wood chipping and woodfuel advisory cooperative that operated
throughout the East of England.
As a result of Suffolk County Council’s commitment to biomass Eastern Woodfuels,
a new Suffolk business was set up by Sarah Brown at Bentwaters Parks to supply Suffolk
County Council with woodfuel. Gary Battell advises them on the wood supply chain,
chipping, storage and woodfuel quality. Eastern Woodfuel has provided Suffolk County
Council with consistent excellent quality woodfuel and delivery.
Gary also has offered advice to numerous private individuals, businesses and charities
who have installed boilers.
Suffolk County Council employ Gary as their Woodland Officer, he is also a Director of
Small Woods, Heartwoods, RFS & Confor regional committee member, EWTP member and
steering group member. Gary also sits on the Steering & Exec. committees of Woodfuels
East and the Wild Venison Project.
Gary is also an accomplished speaker and writer on woodfuel and is the creator of the
Woodfuel Wizard.